The Industrial Revolution In The Plastic Arts

The Industrial Revolution in the Plastic Arts

The industrial revolution had destroyed the chores of the different artisans since their work was replaced by machines. William Morris was very critical of the machinery since the products made lacked essence and quality. I dreamed with a return to medieval societies, while in Europe the artists were looking for a pictorial style but free of any impregnation of the past. Under this premise there were many revolts in the field of art.

In 1874 a group of artists joined an exhibition proposed by the French photographer swim. Among the different works, one highlighted the look of the public: "Impression, the rising sun" by Claude Monet. A critic of that exhibition classified the entire group of artists of impressionists. In the beginning it was taken as a burlesque, although it would quickly be the name of a great artistic movement. The characteristics of these impressionist paintings were:

• Use of pure colors, generating great contrasts between cold and warm.
• The gestaltic brushstrokes (not giving a totally defined way to what they drew but was recognizable by who saw it).
• The luminous and colorful shadows.
• Artists were looking for everyday situations to rely on their paintings.

"I paint what I see, and not what others want to see" Claude Monet. Given this phrase, we can understand that Monet did not give space for the second interpretations.

The truth was the one that was drawn on the canvas. But as happens many times, also in architecture, the user sees certain aspects that perhaps the author did not take them into account or simply did not notice them. Therefore, in the field of arts we often find some subjectivism, whether by cultural factors or by a certain context.

We must mention that photography helped these impressionist works charged great strength, since, long ago, painters were dedicated to making portraits and pictures of people, which with the camera this was done in a much faster way. Not only that, but also photography served for artists to have other aspects in their works. Some Japanese art techniques were also used in this movement.

I want to emphasize how technological advances (as is in this case photography), are important to help the evolution of art and painting. Beyond the fact that the most conservative sectors showed their position against this industrial society, the machine shows us that it is impossible to abstract from it. We may not agree on all aspects of it, but we must recognize that their advances helped (and continue to help today) to societies to progress.

We were commenting that impressionism sought in his works to highlight natural light, but at the expense of it neglected other aspects. With this a new movement called postimpressionism by the hand of Paul Cézanne, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, who had made an exhibition in London in 1890. These painters sought to give more expression and sense to their paintings, maintaining the bright and intense colors of this movement. We must also highlight how some authors portrayed the lowest classes showing their essence and their way of living day to day (for example, Honoré Daumier, who painted a scene in which a group of workers travel by train).

Of the first 3 artists mentioned, each under the order of postimpressionism dedicated themselves to painting different situations:

Paul Cézanne: His work tried to show nature in the most successful way possible, showing what he painted from what he saw. Flat and static surfaces, and the arbitrary use of colors characterized their paintings. Later, he would separate from this current from postimpressionism and his works would seek as much synthesis as possible, so he began using geometric shapes to represent the elements of his works. This would lead to the movement of Cubism.

Vincent Van Gogh: His main works were based on the illustration of landscapes with strong colors. I was looking for his paintings to express what he felt when painting them.

Paul Gauguin: It was an important figure of symbolism and synthesis in the paintings. He used colors that did not correspond to the real ones to highlight certain aspects in his works;He resorted to the simplification of forms and also emphasized great figures. He also incorporated the technique of Japanese paintings to contour the different figures in black.

Gauguin and Van Gogh’s art was based on something more instinctive and "decontracted" while Cézanne raised a return to the essential principles of geometry.

Under this movement a group of French artists called the "Nabis" emerged who had Gaugin as a teacher. The characteristics of the works of this group were:

• The synthesism in his works.
• Flat colors and the use of the Japanese black contour technique.
• Do not abandon the figurative.
• The beginning of posters creation.
• They were avocado to exotic art, especially the oriental.

A technique that was born in this period was that of Puntillismo, which walked a lot from what postimpressionism proposed, being that its forms were conceived in a much more pure way, which gave rise to a clearer drawing. Here we can see the difference with postimpressionism that sought as much synthesis as possible. Its technique was based on the use of points to create the different colors and situations in a painting, different from how they had been doing (brushstrokes on the fabric). When we get away from the canvas these points make up the perfect form. French chemist Michel Eugéne Chevreul was very important in this movement since his color techniques were widely used by various artists.

But the artists, tired of so much "realism" resort to anti-naturalist paintings. Here the symbolism in the field of art is born. Two key exponents of this movement were the French painters Odilon Redon and Gustave Moreau. What highlighted these paintings was the search for the subjective, of surrealist elements. The artists stopped showing situations in the world and began to represent their dreams and fantasies through art. The colors that were used were intense, although sometimes they opted for pastel colors. The symbolism had a strong impact on what would later be the art-ouveau.

Bibliography

• The history of art – Ernst Gombrich (1950), chapters 25 and 26.