The Appearance And Development Of Expressionism Painting In Germany In The Early 20th Century

The Movement of Expressionism originated from the North Europe in the early 20th century which exhibited in many art forms, including painting, literature, theatre, film, architecture and music. The tendency of Expressionism was reflected in the politics, economy and culture and social activities of the specific period, and its profound effect on the aesthetics idea and artistic expression lasted for a long time that the artists from Germany and other western countries were strongly attracted even after the decline of the movement originated by the expressionist group. As one of the most important genres at the early stage of the development of Modern Art, Expressionism assessed itself mostly in Germany and strived to express the personal feelings and subjective emotion by sharp contrast, distortion and exaggeration, which had complex historical origin with the medieval art forms. Moreover, some theories of the German Philosophers and aestheticians at the end of the 19 century also contributed to the Movement of Expressionism.In the western culture, Expressionism is the representation of personal, egocentric, radical and critical perspectives; thus during the creation, subjective emotion would be expressed intensively to represent the self-struggle, scream for fear, and as well as self-identity. Expressionism indicates the searching for emotional world and psychological state of human beings, and also the suspicion, protest and reflection of the external world. Therefore, Expressionist Painting to some extent can be regarded as the expression of human beings that expect to free from the conflicts of their inner world.This dissertation tries to present the inevitability of the appearance of Expressionism in Germany by analyzing the characteristics of nation, environment and different times of Germany. Moreover, the development of the Expressionist Group and German Expressionist Painting will be demonstrated.This dissertation can be divided into six parts. In the first part, the concept and origin of the Expressionism as well as the German Expressionist Painting will be introduced. And then, the relationship between painting, national character, environment and the characteristics of different times of Germany will be discussed firstly in the second part, through which the inevitability of the appearance of Expressionism in Germany will be presented. The third part is the core of this dissertation in which the innovative features, representative artists and the development of expressionist group as well as their paintings will be demonstrated. The fourth part will analyze the change of painting style from the respect of the ideology, and the philosophy theories which influence the German Expressionist Painting will also be presented. And the influence of the Europe art genres on the German expressionism will be presented in the fifth part. The sixth part is the conclusion of the whole dissertation and the profound effect on Chinese oil painting creation by German Expressionism will.be presented there.