Lesson 4- Feelings Expressed in Artwork

Modern artists use their own experiences to ventilate their feelings through their artworks. Some of them focus on common problems, issues, and concerns of the society where they belong. As a medium, they use expressionism to communicate strong or intense feelings. They also reflect in their works a society on the brink of socio-political conflicts. A Filipino-Chinese painter, Ang Kiukok, likes to dwell on subject matters showing the harsh, disturbing, morbid realities affecting people in the Philippines. He expresses anger and frustration in his paintings.

Vincent Van Gogh in his “Starry Night” expressed a special feeling. His painting displayed stars swirling together and he used bold jagged strokes. Rough movements were also shown. He used gloomy colors like blue or black and sad colors to convey scary or strange feelings. The swirling brush strokes, the lines, colors and shapes tell something about the scene in his painting.