Art Movement: Impressionism

Impressionism

 

Impressionism is one of the movements I will be looking at. Impressionism is a 19th-century art movement that began with a group of Paris-based artists. Their independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s, in spite of harsh opposition from the conventional art community in France.

 I quite like impressionism art works as the artists don't sit around in their houses or desks trying to create art but instead they go out and capture what  is happening around them, events or memories that can't be captured with a camera. It makes the work even more beautiful. For example the piece on the left of a dog shaking the water off captures the movement of the dog and how the water would look like in slow motion, the drops flying out in every direction while the dog's skin and fur move around. This art piece is called 'Shakin' off the blues by Iris Scott'

 

 

'The cliffs at Etretat by Claude Monet' shows the beauty of the cliff and sea landscape combines, instead of re creating this effect on any paper, the artist has gone out and seen something like this and captured it, the oil work on the canvas gives the cliffs, sky and sea a rougher and natural look.

'Starry night by Vincent Van Gogh' This is one of my favourite pieces of art work from Van Gogh, the loose brush strokes gives off a one motion feel to his work, as if it wasn't just paint in his work. The way the sky, stars and moon work together in the sky is recreated in a different way but still looks stunning. The village below doesn't capture the eye at first glance but brings the viewer in once they've looked at the starry night. (This is Post Impressionism) 

'Sunday afternoon on the island of La Grande-Jatte by Georges Seurat' This is also a art work I like from the Impressionism genre. I had learnt about this art work when I was in primary school and couldn't believe that this was created with tiny dots of paint. This kind of skill created something amazing, this artist was able to be outside in the environment and create this art work which then inspired other artists, although they could never reach this unique skill, they went on to create works of art. I like this art work because the way the artist has captured the shade and where the sun is, it shows that this wasn't recreated in an office type of environment.