Fauvism, Expressionism and Cubism! Oh My! Part 1: The Fauves

FAUVISM (1905-1908, or 1901 to 1907)

Back in the olden days when war was fun, God was in his heaven and seeing a woman's ankle was a thing to tell your friends over a pint, a group of French artists decided, out of genius or just laziness, to create paintings that were actually paintings. Up until then, paintings were mirrors of reality, and where expected to look realistic. These blokes decided to screw the institute and created paintings that were brightly coloured and had raw brush strokes. The critics called them "Fauves," because they where French and Fauves means wild beasts. The painters excepted this as there name and so there you go.

FATATA TE MITI,

Paul Gauguin

Paul Gauguin was a pretty cool guy who dropped out of society to paint half-naked women in Tahiti. He was originally a symbolist due to the realistic subject matter of his paintings, this separated him from the impressionists who painted to capture quick moments. Gauguin was praised for painting realistic depictions of the lives of peasants and the natives of Tahiti.


THE RED STUDIO,

Henri Matisse

Matisse ignored all rules of perspective in his work, which is why this doesn't look realistic. He also used a lot of bright colours, which is why his picture has all the red. He also used simplified shapes to make it look even less realistic. There was also no shading. So basically, this isn't a very realistic studio. For all we care it wasn't even red. It may not surprise you to know that Matisse was the foremost spokesman of the Fauvists.

Starry Night,
Vincent Van Gogh
The painting shows an influence from Japanese wood-blocks with it's thick outline. It reflected what the artist felt internally. Van Gogh's wild and visible brushstrokes force you to look at as a two-dimensional painting. The people are also portrayed as as small and insignificant. As you all should know, Vincent Van Gogh was a crazy person who cut his ear of and ate his own paint, neither of which is suggested.

HEAD OF CHRIST
GEORGE ROUALT

Sorry, couldn't find a painting. But it's of Jesus' head, because Roualt was a devout Catholic. It's not really realistic, but hey nothing here will be. If you could see it you'd also notice a stained glass type influence which is because of Roualt's interest in medieval life. Roualt even worked in stain glass in his early years. He also used the thick, raised paint system. Roualt is actually more similar to the Expressionists then the Fauves, which leads us to our next guys.