In the next couple of posts we will write about the Museums we saw in Paris. Therefore, I decided make this post about the main artistic styles we saw. Note that the description below is based on how I see each style (T-). Feel free to disagree with me and call me crazy.
Impressionism – Started in the 19th Century in France and the name comes from the Monet painting – “Impression, Sunrise” (which is quite nice). The style is characterized by short brush strokes. They play a lot with light and the paintings that appealed to me most were the ones with a nice landscape and a relaxing feel – pretty paintings.
Expressionism – Started in the 20th Century in Germany. The work was to represent emotions and feelings instead of reality. This was accomplished by distorting images and by the use of harsh outlines and intense colors. It seems that the darker examples are more well-known ones as the famous “The Scream” by Munch. It is OK, but not my favorite style.
Cubism – Started in 20th Century with Picasso as one of the pioneers. Supposedly, the goal of the artist is to not be restricted to only one perspective of the subject, therefore the objects appear broken up since many points of view all appear on the same canvas. The result is normally an image that I have a hard time putting together and it always seems to be missing a piece. One example of this style is the “Woman with a Guitar” from Braque. I confess that at the Museum Pompidou I got to see some work for Picasso from a period when he broke from Cubism and I quite like it, but fortunately for some and sadly for others, he got tired of representing reality and went back to Cubism shortly after.
Abstraction – Started also in the 20th Century and it is characterized by paintings that have colors and geometric forms and nothing else that you can recognized. It is great in the lobby of business buildings 😉 A good example is Mondrian Composition #10.
Surrealism – Started on the 1920s with strong influences from France. Two well-known artists from this style are Dali and Breton. The paintings are normally colorful and bring images that resemble crazy dreams, it has a lot of juxtapositions and psychoanalytic elements. It is from the same time as Sigmund Freud. Some paintings are quite interesting, but I would not hang on my wall – it is worth reading about the style and Dali’s conflicts with his father too. One example of this style is the “Swans reflecting elephants” by Dali.
Contemporary – From 1960s to nowadays, it is for me a hard sell. The explanation of the works has a tendency to: 1. confuse the hell out of me or 2. make my stomach hurt because all the nonsense is so hilarious. The prices make me wonder why should I work as an engineer. I should just collect some work from 5 years old in primary schools and them invite some friends for drinks. Before they leave drunk each should write something philosophical on a piece of paper. On the next day I could have some fun matching the sentences to the “artwork”. Below just one example from “Ghost and Brother”, 1996.
Dreaming 
