Release the beasts! This week I've devoted my independent study project 'Art Embodied' to the Fauvist and Expressionist movements, with particular attention to Fauvism since it originated in France.
Fauvism was spearheaded by french artists Henri Matisse and Andre Derain around 1904 on the Mediterranean Coast in the South of France. The duo had dabbled in post-impresssion, but were ready to forge new territory in the art world. Their pioneering vision expanded into the first avant-garde wave of the 20th century. Though poignant, the movement was shortlived, and lasted only until about 1908 when many of it's member artists changed allegiances to cubism. Cubism's logic-driven territory held appeal for artists who quickly grew tired of Fauvism's brilliant colors and emotionalism.
In French, 'Fauve' literally translates to 'wild beasts'. Art critis Louis Vauxcelles first applied the term in a positive review on Matisse and Derain's most recent colorful works — and the name stuck. Fauvist works depict the artist's subjective response to the subject matter, and the result is often a spontaneous, brilliantly-colored work rendered with levity and speed. Fauvist works are not naturalistic, but are rather governed by an abstract logic created by the artist. Completed pieces are not faithful representations of reality, but autonomous artworks that bridge reality and imagination.
These founding principles strongly effect how the human figure is depicted in Fauvist works. Rather than concerning themselves with sub-surface anatomy Fauvists are concerned with the outward appearance of the body. Furthermore, the body's potential for gesture and color take precedence over accurate representation.
The Fauvist focus on gesture and simplification of the human figure is exemplified by works such as the one below painted by Matisse in 1904, 'Luxe, Calme et Volupte.' I viewed this piece in the d'Orsay this week when I went to check out Fauvist works in person to get a better sense of the style. The female forms are delineated with color and playful contours. The body is reduced to a combination fo color fragments, which interact to form a unified form. Anatomy is of little concern, as evidenced by the lounging woman wiht the red hair in the lower lefthand corner. Her left arm, which rests on her hip, resembles a paw or boomerang more than a realistic limb. Anatomical features, such as wide hips and sweeping waist lines, are reduced to an assembly of graceful curves. Matisse doesn't concern himself with detail, but instead applies lyrical lines to capture of the essence of the womens' gestures.
The first Fauvist exhibition was criticized as an 'orgy of pure colors,' a pointed stab at the Fauvist's use of brilliant hues applied directly from the tube. Indeed, color was how Fauvists structured their paintings. The human figure is reduced to a series of color planes. There is little effort among Fauvists to create the perception of depth. Instead, they rejected three dimensional space, and flattened the human figure to a 2-dimensional structure.
Fauvists works also boast rhythmic brushwork that makes to effort to make itself unnoticed. Paint is boldly applied, often resulting in the simplification of the human form to only a few strokes. In terms of color and fearless application of paint, Fauvism and German Expressionism are closely tied. German expressionism also features bright colors and rapid brushwork, yet these artists were generally more interested in the emotional punch of their artwork, while the Fauvists were more intrigued by the construction of pictoral space via planes of color.
"When I put a green, it is not grass. When I put a blue, it is not the sky," said Matisse. For this artist, all subject matter — grass, sky, or indeed human figure — was reduced to mere paint on the two-dimensional universe of the canvas.
Inspired by Matisse, I spent an afternoon sketching at the Musee d'Orsday in the Fauvist style. First I planted myself in front of this sculpture in the main hall of the museum.
Next I further reduced the human form, trying to provide only enough information to give the spectator a sense of the figure. I also attempted to use color to define the planes of the two female forms, opting for a simple two-toned scheme.
Reducing a smooth human figure to a series of planes proved to be a worthwhile exercise:
I found I really enjoyed translating three-dimensional human figures, such as the woman in the sculpture below, to two-dimensional, simplified forms structured by planes of color. Below you can find the model, as well as my sketch.
I switched over to colored pencils to get a slightly more complex rendering of the human form in the next sculpture. Despite this more agile medium, I stayed true to the Fauvist principles of simplification, and bright pre-fabricated color.
And with that, my d'Orsay sketching session came to a close. To summarize, this week I have witnessed human anatomy recede further from the consciousness of the artist. I have learned about how the process of creation itself began to draw attention at the turn of the 20th century. Based on my studies, Fauvism marks the ragged border between the old style of pictoral illusion and a new modernist occupation of the 1900s that would turn the artist's focus to the process of painting itself. Tune in next week as we get comfy with the cubists!
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