Impressionism and Post Impressionism - Essay Example

The essay "Impressionism and Post Impressionism" analyzes two periods, Impressionism and Post-impressionism, their similarities, and differences. Impressionism and post-impressionism refer to powerful artistic movements arising in the end of the nineteenth century. Impressionists rejected the structure of state-controlled salons and academies in favor of autonomous exhibitions. During this time, artists painted sights of contemporary life and modern landscapes especially recreation and the bourgeois leisure.

The new paintings were different from the previous pieces of art that were mythological and historical narrative for their motivation. Efland observes that impressionists focused on capturing the transitory moments; they utilized the fleeting effects of movement, light and atmosphere. Further, impressionists also emphasized the smear on the facade of the work of art and bold cropped viewpoints with persuades of Japanese smears. Besides, they stressed squashing the sagacity of perspective by being deficient in tonal representation.

Impressionists did not paint in the building like realists, but they did it in the open using a palette of untainted colors. Impressionism describes a team of painters who lived in Paris in the period from 1860-1900. Trade and commerce had developed well during this period, and the living standards of people were rising remarkably. People started to admire the luxurious life of the bourgeois, and the paintings that depicted the same style of living were favorable. Impressionism style focused on the demonstration of stuff in the authentic sense and color.

This was the source of motivation to the post-impressionists. Q2. Post Impressionism Efland (2002) asserts that Post impressionism describes the reaction against impressionism in the 1880s. Paul Gauguin and Georges Seurat among others led this movement; they threw out the impressionism emphasis with naturalist and spontaneous rendering of color and light. Post-impressionists preferred an emphasis on formal order and structure, and more symbolic content. Although they were similar to impressionism, they differed because post-impressionism emphasized the dishonesty of the portrait.

To post-impressionists, color could be autonomous from composition and form as an aesthetic and emotional carrier of meaning. A combination of impressionism and post-impressionism- brought about a collection striking pieces of art that are still famous today. An example of these collections is the Monet Water-lilies. During the period of post-impressionism, there was an emphasis on formal social structure, abstract thinking and symbolic representation of social phenomena. This motivated the painters to create pieces of art that were in line with the modern circumstances (Lewis, 2007). Q3. Similarities Both post-impressionism and impressionism are French powerful artistic movements that arose in the nineteenth century.

They both gave birth to the modern techniques and styles of painting that have continued to take the top positions in art exhibitions and galleries. Further, both impressionism and post impressionism painted modern life scenes and modern landscapes. Lastly, the two movements liberated art from state control to bring modern autonomy of exhibitions in the field of art (Efland, 2002). Differences Impressionism style focused on the demonstration of stuff in the authentic sense and color. On the contrary, post-impressionism originated from impressionism, and its paintings were only an improvement of what impressionism