Expressionist art tried to convey emotion and meaning rather than reality. Each artist had their own unique way of “expressing” their emotions in their art. In order to express emotion, the subjects are often distorted or exaggerated. At the same time colors are often vivid and shocking.

Expressionism, artistic style in which the artist seeks to depict not objective reality but rather the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse within a person.

Expressionist artists sought to express the meaning of “being alive” and emotional experience rather than physical reality. The Expressionist stress on the individual perspective was also a reaction to positivism and other artistic movements such as naturalism and impressionism.

Expressionism first emerged in 1905, when a group of four German students guided by Ernst Ludwig Kirchner founded the Die Brücke (the Bridge) group in the city of Dresden. A few years later, in 1911, a like-minded group of young artists formed Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich.

As the National Socialists gained power in Germany , Expressionism was rejected and condemned, and many of the works produced in the style of the movement were burned and destroyed.

One of the most influential figures of the Post-Impressionism movement in France, Vincent Van Gogh is also seen as a seminal pioneer of 20th century Expressionism. His use of colour, rough brushwork and primitivist composition, anticipated Fauvism (1905) as well as German Expressionism (1905-13).

German expressionism came to an end in 1923 with political barriers and forced ban, it was named that expressionism was degenerated art for film making in Germany. It is considered that the main reason for the fade away of Expressionism was the gradual disinterest in the topic.

The main characteristic of abstract art is that it has no recognizable subject. Some Abstract Artists had theories on the emotions that were caused by certain colors and shapes. They planned out their seemingly random paintings to the last detail.

After World War II, the focus of much of the art world shifted to New York City. Abstract Expressionism, which is mainly a movement of painters, is characterized by a focus on abstraction as a means to express personal feelings and emotions. …

After the intensity of Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art favoured irony and impersonal techniques in the creation of art works, as well as a return to figurative painting.

Pollock’s greatness lies in developing one of the most radical abstract styles in the history of modern art, detaching line from color, redefining the categories of drawing and painting, and finding new means to describe pictorial space.

By 1914, and with the beginning of the First World War, Art Nouveau was largely exhausted. In the 1920s, it was replaced as the dominant architectural and decorative art style by Art Deco and then Modernism.