Art 101 Week 5

ART 101

Painting Styles

Lynda Sweat

Artistic periods do not always have clear lines of demarcation. However, occasionally an artist or a painting will make a breakthrough thereby bridging styles. Such is the case of the three artistic periods portrayed here: Neoclassicism represented by Jacque-Louis David’s “The Emperor Napoleon in His Study at Tuileries”, Impressionism as seen in August Renoir’s “Luncheon of the Boating Party” and Abstract Expressionism done by Jason Pollock in his “Autumn Rhythm” (Number 30). It was almost as if their expression of art was rebelling against the cultural norm of current society preference.

The Neoclassics wanted to return to the classics with symmetry and clean lines rather than ornamentation. The colors were in opposition as the neoclassic artists used sharp colors rather than pastels. David (along with other neoclassic painters) was finding the current Rococo period to be too asymmetrical and a bit gaudy.

Following the period of the Neoclassics, the Impressionists turned away from the clean lines and distinct academic depictions of the Neoclassics, blurring their subjects with implied details.

Following the Impressionist period came the Abstract Expressionists who, while not exactly rejecting the Impressionists, took the Impressionist ideas further into the emotions rather than painting impressions of visions.

The rebelliousness of these new artists were not always well received, but could not be denied.

Not only were the artistic periods changing with these three new forms, but the same time frames also reflected social and historical changes. For example, as the Neoclassics rejected the overdone and complicated style of Rococo art, so were the French rejecting the increasing showiness and flamboyance of the French aristocracy. As the Impressionists sought to represent live as lighthearted, so did society feel the need to escape the heavy years of the French Revolution and the dreary years of poverty....