Just before the beginning of World War I, there were a series of shifts in the art world, as artists moved away from both Impressionism and the classic styles before it. Alongside such new movements as Fauvism and Symbolism, there came a new style called Expressionism.

Although most of the new art styles at that time were emerging in France, Expressionism found its roots in Germany and Austria. Artists drew inspiration from the likes of Vincent van Gogh and the newly appreciated motifs in African art. The most prominent group of Expressionists in Germany was Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), led by Wassily Kandinsky in 1912, although they followed after a similar group--called Die Brücke--whose key influence was an interest in the wild lines and colors of African art and tribal masks. Their abstract style would spread to other parts of Europe and to the United States.

American Expressionism did not truly begin until after World War II, when New York museums began hosting an influx of established European artists. This inspired a generation of artists during the 1950s, giving rise to Abstract Expressionism. It was this era that would see a boom in abstract paintings and sculptures from the likes of Jackson Pollack and Jasper Johns. Their work would match the vitality of the postwar world and go on to inspire the Pop Artists and Conceptualists of the Sixties and Seventies.

An Expressionist did not paint with any resemblance to the objective physical world. For these artists, it was more important to express the underlying emotion of a scene and to evoke such emotion in the audience. This is most evident in works like Edvard Munch's The Scream or Fritz Lang's Metropolis, where rigid lines give way to a fluid structure. Emotion overcomes any sense of objectivity, leaving the viewer with an appreciation of the artist's underlying feeling.

While the group Der Blaue Reiterdid not stay together very long, one of its most prominent members was a German painter named August Macke. After visiting Paris and being taken with the Impressionists and Post-Impressionists, Macke joined Kandinsky and others in Der Blaue Reiter, with the common goal of expressing spiritual truth through art. Though he died during the First World War, Macke is best known for paintings like Lady in a Green Jacket. Painted in 1913, the fluid scene depicts a young woman in a vibrant green jacket, standing alone among two other couples. Despite the cheerful colors, the woman's downturned face and stark jacket suggests that she is anything but. Lines and colors merge together, evoking a feeling of loss and confusion. While each couple in the background can speak amongst themselves, this young lady in the foreground is adrift.

Like the Post-Impressionists who came before them and the Pop Art crowd that followed, the Expressionists were drawn away from any sense of formalism or objectivity in their artworks. They helped to create the common image of the passionate artist, using pure emotion to form a new bridge between artists and audiences.

Image by zeze57 on Flickr