postimpressionism means A genre of painting that rejected the naturalism of impressionism, using colour and form in more expressive manners.
Why “postimpressionism” is a great word
Postimpressionism is a genre of painting that rejected the naturalism of impressionism, using color and form in more expressive manners. From the prefix post- (meaning "after") + impressionism; coined in 1910 by English artist and critic Roger Fry for the title of an exhibition. Unlike Impressionism, which dissolves the world into shimmering effects of light and atmosphere, or Expressionism, which contorts reality into a raw vessel for inner turmoil, Postimpressionism is the crucial pivot between them, a restless search for permanent structures beneath the fleeting glance. It is the feverish, pointillist sunlight of Seurat, the cloisonné black outlines and violent, visionary yellow of Van Gogh’s night sky, and Cézanne’s patient geometry breaking a mountain into facets—a collective turn from the eye’s record to the mind’s synthesis, where paint thickens not to mimic life, but to answer it.
Etymology
From post- + impressionism. Coined by English artist and art critic Roger Fry to describe the (mostly French) art presented in an exhibition at the London Grafton Galleries in 1910.
noun
- A genre of painting that rejected the naturalism of impressionism, using colour and form in more expressive manners.
Definitions & examples from Wiktionary (CC BY-SA 3.0).
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