What Modern Art Styles Did Gauguin Influence?

Art|Modern Art

Modern art styles that have been influenced by the work of Paul Gauguin include cubism, abstract expressionism, fauvism, and color field painting. Gauguin was a French Post-Impressionist painter who is best known for his Synthetist style, a combination of different artistic elements including bold colors, thick black outlines and flat shapes. His works were often characterized by their bright colors and exaggerated forms.

Gauguin’s influence on modern art can be seen in the cubist works of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque. Cubism is an art movement that seeks to represent 3D forms in 2D planes.

It uses abstract shapes and planes to create a new kind of perspective. Gauguin’s use of flat shapes and bold outlines was highly influential on Picasso and Braque’s development of cubism.

Abstract expressionism is another art style that has been heavily influenced by Gauguin’s work. This movement emerged in the 1940s with artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and Barnett Newman creating large-scale paintings that were characterized by their emotional intensity. These artists were inspired by Gauguin’s use of expressive brushstrokes and vivid colors to convey emotion.

Gauguin was also an important figure in the development of fauvism, which emerged in the early 1900s as an offshoot of impressionism. Fauvists sought to portray their subjects with vivid colors rather than naturalistic tones, something that Gauguin had introduced in his works several years before the movement began. The Fauvists were also influenced by his use of bold outlines to create more expressive compositions.

Color field painting was another modern art style that drew inspiration from Gauguin’s work. Color field painting uses large blocks or fields of color to create abstract compositions with strong visual impact.

Artists like Mark Rothko and Clyfford Still used these techniques to convey emotion through their works, which was something they had learned from Gauguin’s vibrant paintings.

Conclusion: Paul Gauguin played an important role in the development of modern art styles such as cubism, abstract expressionism, fauvism, and color field painting. His use of bold colors, expressive brushstrokes and flat shapes had a profound impact on these movements as well as on many succeeding generations of artists.