From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
 |
| Sunday Afternoon on the Island La Grande Jatte |
| Georges Seurat, 1884–1886 |
| oil on canvas |
| 207.6 × 308 cm, 81.7 × 121.3 inches |
| Art Institute of Chicago |
Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by the French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1887[1] to characterise the late-19th century art movement led by Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, who first exhibited their work in 1884 at the exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris. Fénéon's term pointed to the roots of this recent development in the visual arts in Impressionism, but offered at the same time a fresh reading of artistic means like colour and line based on the practise of Seurat and Signac, and its theoretical background in the writings of Chevreul and Charles Blanc. It is helpful to keep in mind that Fénéon supplied a view from this historical (meta-)level on the work of his friends.
[edit] Chevreul and Charles Blanc
[edit] Signac's "Divisionism"
 |
Portrait of Félix Fénéon
(in front of an enamel of a rhythmic background
of measures and angels, shades and colors) |
| Paul Signac, 1890 |
| oil on canvas |
| 73.5 × 92.5 cm, 28.9 × 36.4 inches |
| Museum of Modern Art |
[edit] Review
The definition Seurat and Signac provided for their way to analyse - vulgo, to see - and to reproduce reality is consistent. Troubles were only produced by critics unwilling to share or consider its point of depart: Pointillism was never more than a term to humilate the artists working in this way and to distract from their original aims; a century later, this term is only relevant for the evaluation of former critical positions.
The only other place where the term Pointillism may make sense, is beyond the original movement of Neo-Impressionism, on the ranges of its followers, imitators in the late 19th and early 20th century - or its revisors supported by other media, in the late 20th century.
[edit] Concise gallery of Neo-Impressionists
[edit] Resources
- ^ Félix Fénéon: Les Impressionistes en 1886, Revue indépendante
[edit] References
- Rewald, John: Post-Impressionism
- Herbert, R. L.: Neo-Impressionism
- Lee, Ellen Wardwell: The Aura of Neo-Impressionisme: The T. W. Holliday Collection, Indianapolis Museum of Art, 1983; expanded Dutch edition: Neo-impressionisten: Seurat tot Struycken, Waanders, Zwolle 1988 ISBN 90-6630-132-5
- Budde, Rainer (ed.): Pointillisme. Sur les traces de Seurat, Prestel-Verlag, Munich & New York 1998 ISBN 2-940191-01-8
[edit] See also
