Kandinsky and Expressionist Painting Before World War I December 18, 2009

The work of Post-Impressionists, such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, Henri Matisse and the Fauves, and the Cubists in Paris, all informed the development of Expressionist art in the years immediately preceding World War I. The practitioners of this style, largely working and exhibiting in Germany, crossed paths via various associations and were also deeply influenced by their encounters with Japanese and African art, as well as Germanic folk art. From Vasily Kandinsky to Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, artists who came to be associated with Expressionism sought to convey the communicative force of color through vibrantly hued canvases and bold forms