Post-Impressionism

Movements in Modern Art

by THOMSON BELINDA

One of a series introducing major movements in modern art to general readers, students and gallery visitors, this text looks at the Post-Impressionists. Hard on the heels of the Impressionists came artists with a different agenda. Dissatisfied with the essentially short-term effects Impressionism had mastered, they strove in their different ways for an art of a more permanent, structured and expressive kind. By refining and codifying, or dismantling and reassembling, the procedures of Impressionism, artists such as Seurat, Cezanne, Gauguin and Van Gogh and their associates rewrote the rules for representational painting at the turn of the 20th century. The arbitrary colour, exaggerated forms and abstraction of their works marked a new distance between artist and nature, and prepared the public for the freedoms of the next generation of innovators. This book focuses on the artists responsible for these influential stylistic changes, and sets them in their intellectual and historical contexts.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction

80 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

Reviews

[Diana Jaques · Rating 4 out of 5]

Post-Impressionism (Movements in Modern Art) by Belinda Thomson takes back to the beginning of the Post-Impressionism, breaking down the term, how it came to be, and what it means now.

Split into three sections; The 1880s, The 1890s and After 1900, we see the evolution of Post- Impressionism and how it has come to be. While not everyone was on board with Modernism itself, Post- Impressionism had a large following which over time began to spread from it's early years in France to the UK, USA and other European countries.

Alongside the information within this book, there are coloured images of the paintings in which the text refers to. All of the paintings are numbered, so when referred to you can easily locate the pieces and take in its imagery as you come to understand the history and happenings of the movement.

I think for someone looking to discover more about Post -Impressionism or just art in general, this is a good book that gives you an overall basis of the movement in a way which provides you with multiple routes to explore as you go forward with your research.
For example, Thomson briefly mentions the turbulent nine weeks that artists Van Gough and Gauguin spent together, this is most definitely something you can follow up on in future research with other texts and sources of information.

Overall from start to finish, we see the cascading inspiration that is Post -Impressionism where students fled to artists to learn more of the style and techniques and the way this inspiration trickles from one artist to another as they take on elements and share views throughout their works.

I highly recommend this book to anyone looking to learn more about Post-Impressionism, or art in general. I feel after reading this book you can branch off into many directions with a foundation if knowledge which will leave you familiarized with the movement and its artists.

[Wilde Sky · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book describes and artist movement.

The text was very dry / academic. Some of the pictures were striking even though they were small.

[Elizabeth · Rating 3 out of 5]

Too much time on artists' relationships, not enough time on the actual art.