Expressionism

Bryleigh Pierce
Jan 11
3 min read

Updated: Jan 18

Amid Europe’s meteoric technological revolution in the early twentieth century, and the profound urban expansion and social upheaval brought along with it, Expressionism made a final break from Neoclassical and Enlightenment traditions started by the Impressionists half a century earlier. Instead of prioritising visual accuracy and harmonious beauty, Expressionist artists sought to convey a subjective experience through their deliberately intensified visual language of distorted, abstract marks, heightened colour liberated from mere descriptive function and compositions bent to emotional emphasis.

Paula Modersohn-Becker, Reclining Mother with Child II (1906). Oil and tempera on canvas, 82.5 x 124.7 cm. Paula Modersohn-Becker Museum, Germany.

Unlike other movements defined by a single manifesto or uniform aesthetic, such as Surrealism and Impressionism, Expressionism functioned as a broad artistic attitude that encompassed diverse approaches across painting, printmaking, literature, theatre and film, particularly in German and Nordic spheres of influence. While groups such as Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter helped articulate its early ambitions, the movement was never limited to collective identity and its only defining feature was a conviction that art should express the emotional and psychological condition of modern life rather than replicate its surface appearances.

Central to Expressionism was the rejection of naturalistic representation. Vivid blues, acidic yellows or raw reds often functioned symbolically, intensifying the overall emotional impact of an artwork rather than describing the affects of light or atmosphere. Line, too, became expressive with jagged, heavy or simplified contours that conveyed to the viewer a moment of tension or calm. This approach reflected a broader philosophical shift toward subjectivity, influenced by contemporary developments in psychology and existential thought.

Helene Schjerfbeck, Girl with Blonde Hair (1916). Oil on canvas, 56.5 x 44.5 cm. Städel Museum, Germany.

Many Expressionists believed that their emotional authenticity was a form of resistance to what they perceived as the alienation and moral emptiness of modern society that had been exacerbated by the First World War. Whether addressing urban anxiety, spiritual longing or the relationship between humanity and nature, Expressionist works often confront the viewer directly, bypassing narrative clarity in favour of visceral impact. The resulting images can appear unsettling or raw, yet their intensity is precisely what grants them enduring power.

While German Expressionism is often foregrounded in historical accounts, Nordic Expressionism played a crucial role in shaping the movement’s broader character. Artists in Finland, Denmark and Norway frequently fused Expressionist strategies with local traditions of introspective self-portraits and landscape painting, the latter being a mechanism by which emotional states were projected onto nature itself, transforming forests, coastlines and rural interiors into psychological spaces.

Gabriele Münter, Portrait of Marianne von Werefkin (1909). Oil on cardboard, 81.2 x 55.2 cm. Städtische Galerie, Germany.

Self-portraiture, in particular, became an ideal site for this psychological exploration with artists stripping their faces of ornamental detail, emphasising the eyes, contours of the nose and structural planes of the cheeks to convey their own vulnerability or existential unease. This powerful Expressionist genre allowed artists to interrogate their perceived and assumed identity with unflinching honesty for posterity to remember them by.

By the 1930s, Expressionism began to fragment as artists responded to political upheaval, post-war difficulties, economic collapse and changing cultural climates. Some absorbed Expressionist principles into the emerging Abstraction movement, shaping later developments from Abstract Expressionism to contemporary Figurative painting, resulting in its emphasis on the role of the artist as a mediator between personal experience and shared human emotion being a cornerstone of Modern artistic practice.

Expressionist women