Jeanie Tomanek On Sale
2010s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Oil
2010s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Oil, Canvas
2010s Expressionist Figurative Paintings
Oil
People Also Browsed
21st Century and Contemporary Contemporary Landscape Paintings
Oil, Wood Panel
1890s Landscape Prints
Paper
Late 20th Century Still-life Prints
Color
Late 20th Century American Impressionist Landscape Prints
Lithograph
2010s Abstract Animal Paintings
Gold Leaf
1970s Prints and Multiples
Offset
21st Century and Contemporary Realist Still-life Paintings
Oil, Canvas
1990s Outsider Art Abstract Paintings
Paint, Mixed Media, Cardboard
1960s Landscape Prints
Color
1870s Realist Interior Paintings
Oil, Panel
1930s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Board, Oil
1950s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Board, Oil
1870s Tonalist Landscape Paintings
Oil, Canvas
Artist Comments
"It is not difficult to find a treasure in the tropics," says artist Andres Lopez. Painted with vibrant painterly strokes, Andres offers a close-up view of a tr...
21st Century and Contemporary Abstract Expressionist More Art
Oil
1980s American Modern Landscape Paintings
Oil
Early 1900s American Impressionist Landscape Paintings
Oil, Panel
A Close Look at Expressionist Art
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.
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Finding the Right figurative-paintings for You
Figurative art, as opposed to abstract art, retains features from the observable world in its representational depictions of subject matter. Most commonly, figurative paintings reference and explore the human body, but they can also include landscapes, architecture, plants and animals — all portrayed with realism.
While the oldest figurative art dates back tens of thousands of years to cave wall paintings, figurative works made from observation became especially prominent in the early Renaissance. Artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and other Renaissance masters created naturalistic representations of their subjects.
Pablo Picasso is lauded for laying the foundation for modern figurative art in the 1920s. Although abstracted, this work held a strong connection to representing people and other subjects. Other famous figurative artists include Francis Bacon and Lucian Freud. Figurative art in the 20th century would span such diverse genres as Expressionism, Pop art and Surrealism.
Today, a number of figural artists — such as Sedrick Huckaby, Daisy Patton and Eileen Cooper — are making art that uses the human body as its subject.
Because figurative art represents subjects from the real world, natural colors are common in these paintings. A piece of figurative art can be an exciting starting point for setting a tone and creating a color palette in a room.
Browse an extensive collection of figurative paintings on 1stDibs.