Expressionism

The movement came to prominence during World War I and developed in reaction to the naturalism of the Impressionists. Although the term is mainly applied to the art of Austria and Germany, specifically the work of the Blaue Reiter group of Munich, styles such as Fauvism, which originated in France, are also considered to be Expressionist. The aim was to express pictorially the artist's state of mind and emotions, particularly by a distorting use of colour and shape which were employed for their emotive values rather than for realist representation.