Early 20th Century Art Movements: Fauvism, Cubism, and Abstraction

The Fauves and Henri Matisse

The Fauves were a group of painters who gained recognition at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905. Characterized by friendly relations among members, their work is defined by the use of pure color patches derived from a distinct Fauvist aesthetic. The movement itself was relatively short-lived, developing in three main phases:

1. The Proto-Fauve period (1904).
2. The first phase (1905), when Matisse and Derain painted landscapes and portraits in the south of France.
3. The second phase (1906–1907), characterized by paintings executed with intense, dazzling color planes.

The central figure of Fauvism is Henri Matisse, whose personal work continued to evolve after the movement's dissolution. Some of his most important works are Odalisque in Red, Portrait with Green Stripe, and The Dance.

Cubism: Deconstructing Form

Cubism was the main cutting-edge movement at the beginning of the 20th century, focusing on the decomposition of form. The artists produced geometric abstraction, which means their works lacked traditional perspective and featured the disappearance of recognizable forms. The goal was for the viewer to actively interpret the work.

Cubism is generally divided into two types:

• Analytic Cubism (1909–1911)
• Synthetic Cubism (starting 1911)

Its best-known representatives are Pablo Picasso (with Les Demoiselles d'Avignon) and Georges Braque (with The Portuguese).

Expressionism: Pessimism and the Subconscious

Expressionism is an artistic movement that finds its starting point in the work of Van Gogh. It sought to display the artist's pessimism through their canvases. The common themes addressed in these paintings include:

• The loneliness of man
• War
• The subconscious
• The absurd

Expressionism is often categorized into three generations:

1. First Generation (1910–1912): Featuring artists like Edvard Munch (The Scream) and James Ensor.
2. Second Generation (1912–1913): Including Wassily Kandinsky, focusing on "Geometric Abstraction" and the final decomposition of form.
3. Third Generation (1913–1914): Represented by George Grosz (Funeral of the Poet).

Abstraction and Kandinsky: The Non-Figurative Language

Abstraction is a non-figurative language. It abstracts the secondary elements, focusing only on the essential. Wassily Kandinsky is considered the initiator of abstraction, a central trend in the second wave of Vanguards.

In his works created between 1910 and 1914, there remains some memory of natural forms (mountain ranges, trees, or the sun's rays), whose silhouettes have been streamlined to the extreme. Through this approach, Kandinsky sought a harmony similar to music, where colors and lines act as notes and tones, capable of evoking a lyric emotion that cannot be expressed through the simple reproduction of visible reality.