IMPRESSIONISM Markku Leino, dap01s Manet: Music in Tuillerien park

Topics Brief History What is Impressionism Impressionism in today’s media

BRIEF HISTORY

In 1860’s The Academy of France dictates what is to be considered as “fine art”: who will get his/her works displayed in the Salon and how the work is then received. If one wanted to be a successful artist, one had to get positive feedback from Salon’s jury. The paintings were supposed to be about historical, mythological or biblical events or at least contain some moral story. A good painting was to have very fine details and continuous colors; one shouldn’t be able to detect the difference between two brush strokes for example where the color changes gradually.

In 1860’s and 70’s An group of artists challenge the Academy with their painting subjects and techniques. In 1863 there is a separate exhibition for the vast amount of art rejected by the jury. The Academy’s domination starts to crumble. The paintings in the new style could be just about anything. No real rules were set for the subject. –Mostly about landscapes and people doing common, everyday things. –A nice looking play between light and shadow could easily be a reason for a painting. –A characteristic of many of these paintings is the aim to capture the moment. The colors were painted as rays of light – even shadows. –The colors were considered as single rays of light that hit the eye.

Manet: Olympia

In 1870’s and 80’s The first Impressionist exhibition in The movement started to fade away in the 1880’s: some of the impressionists thought they had got what they wanted from the style and started to look for new ideas. One of the art movements that followed Impressionism is Neo-Impressionism. It was developed by a few former Impressionists. The other name for Neo-Impressionism is Pointillism.

WHAT IS IMPRESSIONISM?

“…a mere impression of a sunrise...!” -Louis Leroy

Painting themes Much like Realism: Commoners, landscapes, people doing normal everyday things. –No classical posturing in uncomfortable positions: “Be normal!” Capturing the moment. –Camera was instrumental in developing this theme. People half out of the picture in the Impressionist paintings were so because they were seen thus before in photographs. No strict rules. Paint what you see and like. Painting at the scene (no airy landscape paintings done inside buildings in artificial light).

Painting techniques Capture the moment – paint fast! What you see is not reality, which is nice. Paint it. –What is not important is not shown. –People are sometimes deformed – especially in later works. –Sometimes the colors in Impressionist paintings look very weird. Bending of the rules –Using the camera –Not painting outside even when painting landscapes. –Coming back to the same spot at the same time the next day. Painting style evolved into Pointillism…

Pointillism The Impressionists painted the colors as rays of light. The style requires more from a spectator: the painting is to be watched from a distance where the brain does the work of mixing the colors. The technique was inspired by Eugenè Chevreul’s scientific studies of colours and their use. Depending on the source, either Camille Pisarro or Georges Seurat and Paul Signac refined this technique from brush strokes to even sized dots of pure color.

Monet: Parliament Painting fast to capture the moment The use of different color strokes

Degas: A dancer on the stage Ordinary people. Show only what is important Degas: Absinth

Monet: Pond Colors are not necessary lifelike

Pointillism Seurat: La Maria

IMPRESSIONISM IN TODAY’S MEDIA

Techniques Pointillism –raster image: TV, Computer screen, Led screens (for example the huge screens in rock festivals and sport events), Printing… What you see is important. –Blurred background / foreground for example in movies and photographs. Impressionism became extremely popular, although during the movement’s lifetime it wasn’t appreciated. –Some of the cool effects you make into your pictures, for example in Adobe Photoshop (Filter/Pixelate/Pointillize…) are Impressionistic.

Themes Did Impressionism affect the content in media? –What if there hadn’t been Impressionism? –Would Realism have done the trick? –Impressionists did break the Academy’s domination over what was considered as fine art. The ordinary things are the themes. –In photographs and movies are often about “ordinary” things. –Example: NYPD Blue’s camera sweeps are impressions of the scene. –Were there theatre plays or novels where the hero was the underdog (just about any Bruce Willis’s character) instead of some religious figure or a noble (like in Hamlet)? Did the politics of 20’th century get affected by some art movements’ ideals?

Questions… …wait until the opponent has said his piece!

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