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Expressionist Portrait Photography

EXPRESSIONIST STYLE

While “expressionist” is used to describe any art that avoids naturalism and instead employs a bold use of flattened forms and intense brushwork, Expressionist art formally describes early-20th-century work from Europe that drew on Symbolism and confronted issues such as urbanization and capitalism. Expressionist artists experimented in paintings and prints with skewed perspectives, abstraction and unconventional, bright colors to portray how isolating and anxious the world felt rather than how it appeared. 

Between 1905 and 1920, Austrian and German artists, in particular, were inspired by Postimpressionists such as Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh in their efforts to strive for a new authenticity in their work. In its geometric patterns and decorative details, Expressionist art was also marked by eclectic sources like German and Russian folk art as well as tribal art from Africa and Oceania, which the movement’s practitioners witnessed at museums and world’s fairs.

Groups of artists came together to share and promote the themes now associated with Expressionism, such as Die Brücke (The Bridge) in Dresden, which included Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff and investigated alienation and the dissolution of society in vivid color. In Munich, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), a group led by Wassily Kandinsky and Franz Marc, instilled Expressionism with a search for spiritual truths. In his iconic painting The Scream, prolific Norwegian painter Edvard Munch conveyed emotional turmoil through his depiction of environmental elements, such as the threatening sky.

Expressionism shifted around the outbreak of World War I, with artists using more elements of the grotesque in reaction to the escalation of unrest and violence. Printmaking was especially popular, as it allowed artists to widely disseminate works that grappled with social and political issues amid this time of upheaval. Although the art movement ended with the rise of Nazi Germany, where Expressionist creators were labeled “degenerate,” the radical ideas of these artists would influence Neo-Expressionism that emerged in the late 1970s with painters like Jean-Michel Basquiat and Francesco Clemente.

​​Find a collection of authentic Expressionist paintings, sculptures, prints and more art on 1stDibs.

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Style: Expressionist
"No Title" Still Searching For The Title Two, Giclee Print, Color Photography
Located in Brooklyn, NY
Still Searching For The Title / No Title 2 / Photograph Creator: Hatice Besun Creation year: 2022 Dimension: 19 x 13 External Dimension( with white border) Height:19.8 inch Width:13...
Category

2010s Expressionist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Pigment, Archival Paper, Archival Ink, Giclée

Eros or Something Other Than Eros, Silver Print by Daido Moriyama Edition 5/5
Located in Hong Kong, HK
Artist: Daido Moriyama b.1938 Artwork: Eros or Something Other Than Eros Medium: Silkscreen print on canvas Edition 5 5 Size: 120 .2 × 80 cm. 47 3/8 × 31 1/2 in.( 1 25 × 85 cm. 49 1/...
Category

2010s Expressionist Portrait Photography

Materials

Silver Gelatin

Contemporary abstract expressionist vivid acrylic portrait on paper "True self"
Located in VÉNISSIEUX, FR
This contemporary expressionist, figurative abstract portrait was created by French artist Natalya Mougenot as part of her ongoing series devoted to the human face—not just as a like...
Category

2010s Expressionist Portrait Photography

Materials

Paper, Acrylic

Skid Row Bowery Street Portrait - The Streets of New York - Photojournalism
Located in Miami, FL
Street Photographer Mitchell Funk breaks with tradition and shoots street photography in color. Today in 2022, this does not seem like a big deal. But 52 years ago, in 1970, it was q...
Category

1970s Expressionist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Peacock displaying in Magenta and Yellow Birds
Located in Miami, FL
The reality is that this is an eye-witness account of a male peacock displaying for the attention of a female peahen. It turns out that humans are equally...
Category

2010s Expressionist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Archival Pigment

Untitled #21 (from Unfocused Series)
Located in Kansas City, MO
Anne K Smith Title: Untitled #21 (from Unfocused Series) Medium: Archival Inkjet Print on Museo Silver Rag Size: 16 x 10.5 inches Available in sets of 3 (mix and match) Entire "Unfo...
Category

2010s Expressionist Portrait Photography

Materials

Archival Ink, Archival Paper, Inkjet

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Antonio Segui 38 x 46 cm Distraido Oil on Canvas Signed and Dated on the back Antonio Segui Biography Born in Córdoba, Argentina in 1934, Antonio Seguí currently lives and works in Paris. He studied at the San Fernando Academy in Madrid, Spain as well as the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris, France. His first solo exhibition was in Argentina at age 23. Antonio Seguí is one of the most internationally renowned Argentinian artists. He began his artistic endeavors at a young age after leaving Argentina to travel the world and study art. His journeys through Latin America, Europe and Africa exposed him to new ideas and encouraged his culturally diverse approach to art. Influenced by artists like Fernand Leger and Diego Rivera, Seguí’s work is generally satirical, critiquing society and human nature. In a pre-computer age, the artist created a vocabulary that is now being explored by a new generation of artists through comics and Manga, yet his visual language and social commentaries remain poignant, both symbolically and literally. Throughout his career, Seguí has developed a fascination for urban life, creating in his work the idea of the “everyman.” The city movement, the fast pace at which life happens and the people who live in these urban spaces are some of the elements that constitute the world depicted in his paintings. It is a prototypical realm inhabited by speedy automatons that take immutable routes leading nowhere. Up close, each figure is an individual, walking down dark alleys, pointing, waving and emerging from potholes. But from a distance, the individuals morph into complex patterns swallowed up in a labyrinth of buildings and cookie-cutter trees. Utilizing cubist techniques, Seguí’s repeated elements give shape to the cities causing planes to vibrate between line and color. Numerous perspectives unfold with each vibration and reflect the many angles of life of the urban man. Always in action, the little figures trample, tip-toe, dodge and advance through Seguí’s imaginary metropolis of life. His work is representated on a series of narratives and criticisms reflected on paintings that show many little men, dressed in 20's style clothes. He uses his own recourse based on comic strip characters, texts, arrows and various signs, juxtaposed onto the figures that resemble comic strip style language. Seguí’s work is collected and exhibited worldwide in places such as the MoMA, New York; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C.; Frissiras Museum, Athens, Greece; Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museum der Moderne Salzburg, Austria; Museum of Modern Art Dubrovnik, Croatia; and Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico. The Musée National d´Art Moderne, Paris organized a retrospective of his works on paper in 2005. A monograph on the artist by Daniel Abadie was published in 2010 by Hazan. Antonio Segui Resumé 1995 Art Miami '95, USA. S. Zannettacci, Geneva, Switzerland Marwan Hoss, Paris, France Gallerie du Cirque Divers, Belgium Le Moulin du Roc, France Fundacao C. Gulbenkaian, Portugal Gallerie J. Rubeiz, Beirut, Liban 1994 F. Santos, Portugal E. Franck Gallery, Belgium 1993 Galleria San Carlo, Milan, Italy Galería I. Vega, Puerto Rico Winance-Sabbe, Belgium FIAC, Paris, France 1992 Casa Rosada, Buenos Aires, Argentina Espace Julio Gonzales...
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On the Sofa at the Real Dolls Factory, San Diego, 19 February 2015
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Linda Hutton in the attic tub, Southampton, August 1974
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Expressionist portrait photography for sale on 1stDibs.

Find a wide variety of authentic Expressionist portrait photography available for sale on 1stDibs. Not every interior allows for large Expressionist portrait photography, so small editions measuring 10.5 inches across are also available. Prices for portrait photography made by famous or emerging artists can differ depending on medium, time period and other attributes. On 1stDibs, the price for these items starts at $1,125 and tops out at $7,000, while the average work sells for $5,000.

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