French for ‘The Wild Beasts’ was a short-lived and loose grouping of early 20th century modern artists whose works emphasised painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only three years, 1905-07, [...]
French for ‘The Wild Beasts’ was a short-lived and loose grouping of early 20th century modern artists whose works emphasised painterly qualities and strong colour over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1900 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only three years, 1905-07, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain. The work of the Fauves wase characterised by seemingly wild brush work and strident colours, while their subject matter had a high degree of simplification and abstraction. Fauvism can be classified as an extreme development of Vincent Van Gogh‘s Post-Impressionism fused with the pointillism of Georges Seurat and other Neo-Impressionist painters, in particular Paul Signac. Other key influences were Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin.