Design Blog Journal: Art Movement

Art movement is an artistic style or tendency that can be seen or observed through the artworks of a number of artists, when there are similarities among the techniques, goals or philosophies they have embraced. Art movements have each thrived for a limited time, which can be measured in the terms of months, years or decades. Until now, there are many art movements that have been developed.

Among all types of art movements, my favourite art movement is modern impressionism. Impressionism is the style of painting developed in France at the end of the 19th century. In the year 1874, many artists contributed to the first exhibition of impressionist painting. The examples of artists involved are:
- Claude Monet (1840-1926)

Waterlilies and Japanese Bridge (1899)

- Pierre Auguste Renoir (1841-1919)

Fruits of The Midi (1881)

The characteristics of impressionist paintings:
1.) Relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes.
2.) Open composition
3.) Emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating the effects of the passage of time)
4.) Ordinary subject matter
5.) Inclusion of movement as a crucial element of human perception and experience
6.) Unusual visual angles

Impressionism is all about the way of life lived in bursts of brief encounters in the city. For example clouds that moving quickly, sunshine that reflected on the water surface and so on. Therefore, it also can be concluded that impressionism is also about modernity. The artists who immediately jot down the instances of this modern life were thenn called "Impressionists" and their paintings were later known as "Impressionism".

Impressionism created a new way of visuality, which also means that a new way of seeing this world. It is also a record of the way of the artists perceive towards the city or even the countryside as morrors of modernization. Hence, modernity has became their subject matter.

I chose modern impressionism as my favourite art movement simply because among all the other art movements, it stands out and attracts me at my first sight of seeing it. I feel a sense of comfortability and calmness whenever I look at a modern impressionism painting. I love the way of the modern impressionists express their perception towards the simple things around them through their paintings. Besides that, the colours usage applied in modern impressionism paintings impressed me. I love the colours and techniques used in painting the modern impressionism artworks. If I am given a choice, I will also choose to learn this style of painting and art movement.

MODERN IMPRESSIONISM PAINTINGS