expressionism
Feeling over accuracy
A broad approach in art, literature, music, and drama that emphasizes subjective emotional experience over realistic representation.
The artist distorts or exaggerates reality to express inner feelings rather than depict outward appearances.
The term applies loosely to any work prioritizing emotional intensity: The painting had a raw expressionism that unsettled viewers. (Capitalized Expressionism refers to the specific early 20th-century movement.)
Deep unfocused worry
- anguishIntense mental suffering
- alienationState of being isolated
- despairTotal absence of hope
- anxietyPersistent apprehensive distress
torment · psyche · pathos · melancholy · dread · isolation · suffering · ecstasy
Intensely clear and bright
- rawIn original state
- gesturalRelating to body movements
- spontaneousArising without external cause
- jaggedSharply uneven, notched
angst
Deep unfocused worry
- anguishIntense mental suffering
- alienationState of being isolated
- despairTotal absence of hope
anxiety · torment · psyche · pathos · melancholy · dread · isolation · suffering · ecstasy · fervor
vivid
Intensely clear and bright
- rawIn original state
- gesturalRelating to body movements
- spontaneousArising without external cause
jagged · angular · primitive · caricature
exaggeration
Overstating beyond reality
dissonant · fractured · twisted · abstracted · elongated · misshapen · harsh · stark · crude
- -ismsatomism, postmodernism, feminism, Marxism, Darwinism
- German ArtMax Ernst, Der Blaue Reiter, Gothic art, Renaissance art, Kurt Schwitters
- modernismPicasso, Matisse, Duchamp, Braque, Kandinsky
- Art & Culturepainting, sculpture, music, dance, theater
- art formspainting, drawing, sculpture, photography, music
- architectureEiffel Tower, buildings, architects, design, thatching
expressionismphotorealism
Art imitating camera accuracy
realism · naturalism · hyperrealism · trompe l'oeil · illusionism
expressionismclassicism
Adherence to ancient artistic principles
rationalism · neoclassicism · formalism · minimalism · conceptualism
- Abstract ExpressionismGestural, nonrepresentational American painting movement
- German ExpressionismDistorted, emotionally intense art movement
- abstract expressionistPostwar American avant-garde artist