FAUVISM Fauvism /ˈfoʊvɪzm̩/ is the style of les Fauves, a group of early 20th-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1904 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only a few years, 1905–1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were André Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Henri Matisse. Artists and style • Besides Matisse and Derain, other artists included Robert Deborne, Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Louis Valtat, Jean Puy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Manguin, Raoul Dufy, Othon Friesz, Georges Rouault, Jean Metzinger, Kees van Dongen and Georges Braque (subsequently Picasso's partner in Cubism). • The paintings of the Fauves were characterized by seemingly wild brush work and strident colors, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction. Fauvism can be classified as an extreme development of Van Gogh's Post-Impressionism fused with the pointillism of Seurat and other NeoImpressionist painters, in particular Paul Signac. Other key influences were Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin, whose employment of areas of saturated color—notably in paintings from Tahiti—strongly influenced Derain's work at Collioure in 1905. In 1888 Gauguin had said to Paul Sérusier: "How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Put in vermilion." Fauvism has been compared to Expressionism, both in its use of pure color and unconstrained brushwork. Some of the Fauves were among the first avant-garde artists to collect and study African and Oceanic art, alongside other forms of non-Western and folk art, leading several Fauves toward the development of Cubism. Examples of Fauvism Art Jeanne au rocher (Cavalière) (1906) by Henri Manguin Still Life with Apples (1916) by Henri Matisse Dadaism An early-20th-century international movement in art, literature, music, and film, repudiating and mocking artistic and social conventions and emphasizing the illogical and absurd. Dadaism • To understand the Dadaism definition is to understand the effect World War I had on Europe. The unprecedented war ravaged the continent and almost wiped out an entire generation of men. • This in and of itself was devastating, but what was more was that to many, the war was almost entirely pointless and avoidable. • Anyone who has studied just a little about the first World War knows that its beginnings are muddled. Its official inception was with the assassination of Austro-Hungarian Archduke Franz Ferdinand by a Serbian. • But how did this result in a war which involved nearly every major power in Europe? Convoluted alliances, archaic imperial mindsets, and age-old ethnic tensions. Unlike World War II, which was fundamentally a battle to defeat fascism, there was no moral cause to explain why WWI was happening. • The battles wrought by out-of-touch aristocrats and royalty resulted in anger and disillusionment amongst many onlookers. Two of these onlookers were Hugo Ball and Emmy Hemmings, artists who had fled to neutral Switzerland to avoid the war. • The two wanted to create art that reflected the meaninglessness of the mass violence they saw around them. And, thus, they founded Cabaret Voltaire, what would become known as the birthplace of the Dadaism movement. • Dadaist poet Tristan Tzara described Dada’s inception as not coming from art, but from “disgust.” Hugo Ball, Cabaret Voltaire, 1916 Marcel Duchamp, Bicycle Wheel, 1913 Raoul Hausmann, Mechanical Head (The Spirit of our Time), 1920
