Expressionism
Born at the start of XX century, Expressionism was a broad spectrum movement, coming from different cities in Germany and soon spreading in Europe. Its main focus was to shift the idea of art from pure depiction of visual objects or a reflection of reality to the expression of the artist’s feelings and his / her perception of reality. This, combined with the general anxieties of society in these first years, led Expressionism to recur often to bold and contrasting colours, decisive brush strokes and shapes that retained an implied sense of motion, such as swirls or trajectories. Under the same Expressionist name were included artists such as Kirchner, Kandinsky, Klee, Klimt, Kokoschka, Schiele. Within the Expressionist movement other groups were formed, from Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke later, and the impact of the movement was such to generate a second wave as Neo-Expressionism during the ‘80s. Many other movements in different ways related to Expressionism, even the Neue Sachlichkeit or New Objectivity, which represented a direct reaction to it, or the Abstract Expressionism, which picked up from it the same sense of spirituality and the value of non-representational art.