Studies Of Expressionism In German And French Experimental Animation

As a significant cultural movement at the end of the 19 th and the beginning of the20 th century,Expressionism originated in painting and then gradually penetrated into the fields of literature,poetry,drama and music,and it generally refers to an artistic style in which the artists pay attention to the expression of inner subjective emotions but neglect to reproduce the external objective reality.In terms of aesthetic theory,it was founded by the Italian philosopher Benedetto Croce(1866-1952)and developed into a representative of Western aesthetics from the middle and late 19 th to the early20 th century;and its core proposition is “intuition is expression”.Originated in Germany and influenced by the painting style of “Fauvism” in France at that time,Expressionism is characterized by the opposition to realism and naturalism,the emphasis on the expression of artists’ subjective and self feelings,and the exaggerated,deformed as well as even grotesque treatment of the objective form.Characterized by artistry and pioneering spirit,German and French experimental animation is the presentation of artists’ experimental spirit and free personality.And its theme connotation and artistic style are often based on the expression of creators’ extremely strong “spirituality”,which coincides with the subjectivity of artistic expression emphasized by Expressionism.With the purpose of analyzing Expressionism’s artistic characteristics and connotation in experimental animation,taking Germany and France which have unique regional and national characteristics as examples,and guided by the concept of Expressionism,this paper starts from the theme connotation,art style of experimental animation as well as its interaction of nationality,and then conducts a comprehensively empirical study of Expressionism in German and French experimental animation,so as to offer more angles and methods for the creation of experimental animation as well as the expression of aesthetic consciousness in China.