Post-impressionism

[Sarah]

In the broadest sense, the theory or practice of any of severalgroups of recent painters, or of these groups taken collectively,whose work and theories have in common a tendency to reaction againstthe scientific and naturalistic character of impressionism and neo-impressionism. In a strict sense the term post-impressionism is usedto denote the effort at self-expression, rather than representation,shown in the work of Cézanne, Matisse, etc.; but it is more broadlyused to include cubism, the theory or practice of a movement in bothpainting and sculpture which lays stress upon volume as theimportant attribute of objects and attempts its expression by the useof geometrical figures or solids only; and futurism, a theory orpractice which attempts to place the observer within the picture andto represent simultaneously a number of consecutive movements andimpressions. In practice these theories and methods of the post-impressionists change with great rapidity and shade into one another,so that a picture may be both cubist and futurist in character. Theytend to, and sometimes reach, a condition in which bothrepresentation and traditional decoration are entirely abolished anda work of art becomes a purely subjective expression in an arbitraryand personal language.