Art is often a means for artists to express emotion and feeling. Some artworks are particularly powerful at conveying intense human experiences and evoking strong reactions from viewers. In considering what makes an artwork expressive, there are several key factors to examine such as the artist’s techniques, the subject matter depicted, the historical and cultural context, and the ways the artwork engages the viewer’s senses, thoughts, and emotions. Looking at examples of famously expressive art throughout different eras can illustrate how artists have used their creativity to give form to inner states.
Historical Expressive Artworks
Many early examples of highly evocative art come from periods of great change, conflict, or suffering when artists were moved to depict intense human experiences.
Religious art has often aimed to inspire strong faith and convey spiritual ecstasy. One prime example is Michelangelo’s frescoes on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, painted from 1508-1512. The dramatic biblical scenes of Creation, the Fall, Flood and Prophets are imbued with a sense of divine power and pathos. Michelangelo’s exaggerated musculature and emotional gestures give the figures a superhuman quality. The scale and grandeur of the work overwhelms viewers, transporting them into Michelangelo’s visionary world.
Baroque paintings of the 17th century frequently evoked scenes of psychological and physical torment. An iconic example is Caravaggio’s The Conversion on the Road to Damascus from 1601, depicting the Bible story of Saul struck down by a vision of God on his way to persecute Christians. The light radiating from above bisects the composition at an extreme diagonal, throwing the figures into tense, twisted poses reflecting spiritual crisis. Caravaggio pioneered chiaroscuro, the dramatic contrast of light and dark, along with a realistic depiction of human suffering that gave his work an unprecedented expressive power.
19th Century Expressive Breakthroughs
The 19th century saw artists make radical breaks with traditional aesthetics to find new ways to unlock emotion in their art. Romantic painters conveyed awe in the face of nature’s sublime power. One of the most iconic examples is Caspar David Friedrich’s Wanderer above the Sea Fog from 1818. A lone figure stands on a precipice enveloped by mist and mountains. Friedrich amplifies the epic grandeur of the landscape while evoking his hero’s introspection and longing.
Later realist and impressionist painters strove to capture the full intensity of human life through vivid color and thick paint. Eugène Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People vividly evokes the fervor of revolutionaries marching forward under the goddess of Liberty. Vincent van Gogh took expressiveness to new heights in works like The Starry Night. Van Gogh’s swirling brushwork suggests inner turmoil, while the ecstatic color and rhythmic energy convey his euphoric vision of nature’s cosmic forces.
Modernist Pioneers of Expression
In the early 20th century, modern art movements made emotion central to their aesthetic. Fauvism used non-naturalistic color to produce powerful feelings. German Expressionism conveyed angst and alienation through distortion and garish color. Artists associated with Der Blaue Reiter like Kandinsky and Marc created fantastical, spiritually-infused works inspired by music, folk art and personal symbolism.
Pioneers of abstraction sought to channel raw subjectivity. Kandinsky’s improvisations and protean forms grew from his belief in the emotional properties of color and line. Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings submerged recognizable imagery in favor of unmeditated expression born from the artist’s subconscious. The gestural brushwork and thick paint capture the physical act of working spontaneously.
Postwar Expressive Currents
In the postwar period, various movements continued the expressive trajectory of modernism. The figurative work of Francis Bacon became known for its explosive emotion. Bacon contorted his subjects’ bodies in existentially disturbing ways. His wet, messy application of paint itself evokes visceral sensations.
Jean-Michel Basquiat, an iconic Neo-Expressionist, channeled intense feeling into graffiti-influenced canvases. Marks evoking violence, cryptic words, caricatured faces, and mask-like self-portraits constitute an emotional outpouring compacted into complex symbology. Basquiat embraced raw intensity over laid-back minimalism in rebuttal to his era’s predominant styles.
Feminist artists tapped into powerful emotions relating to gender roles and identity. Tracey Emin’s confessional works give raw visual form to her traumatic personal experiences. Emin treats her own life with radical rawness, disclosing painful events through objects, text and rough drawing. The work urgently communicates without restraint or concealment.
Immersive Environments
Contemporary artists have created full-scale environments that physically surround viewers, evoking visceral reactions and new states of consciousness and feeling. Light and Space artists like James Turrell work with ephemeral materials to craft intensified sensory experiences. Turrell’s luminous installations provoke meditative states, wonder and disorientation through pure light.
Installation art often requires physical engagement from the viewer, breaking down barriers between art and audience. Artists affiliated with Relational Aesthetics like Felix Gonzalez-Torres or Marina Abramovic produce participatory situations causing interpersonal tension and catharsis. Yayoi Kusama’s Infinity Mirror Rooms confuse visual perception through mirrored spaces and pulsing colored lights, conjuring fantastical transcendent experiences.
Connecting to Universal Experiences
What makes a work deeply expressive often comes down to how effectively it taps into universally relatable human experiences. Artists channel emotion through subject matter that resonates across cultures. Themes of love, loss, death, spirituality and inner conflict speak to the core of human existence. Expressive artworks capture ephemeral moments, impressions and inner truths through the artist’s unique personal vision. They distill the essence of lived experience into symbolic form.
Art That Awakens Our Own Feeling
Great art expresses feeling not by passively describing emotion, but by actively evoking it. Expressive artists deploy their formal techniques in ways that engage the viewer viscerally. Compelling compositions draw us in. Dynamic brushwork and color qualities mirror interior states. Evocative motifs resonate symbolically. Most importantly, expressive art awakens our own emotions. We feel the wrenching sorrow of Picasso’s Blue Period beggars. We share in Frida Kahlo’s self-revelation and resilience. Great art lives, breathes and seethes with the feelings of humanity.
Conclusion
Throughout history, artists have developed strategies to imbue art with intense expressiveness using subject matter, context and formal elements. From Michelangelo’s ecstatic religious scenes to Pollock’s cathartic abstractions, expressive pioneers found ways to channel emotion through their media. Their work taps into the viewer’s own feelings through compelling aesthetics and universally relatable subject matter. At its best, expressive art offers a profound encounter with the animating forces of human existence. The most resonant works continue to pierce our consciousness, awakening our own rich inner world.
| Time Period | Art Movement | Expressive Artists | Style Characteristics |
|---|---|---|---|
| Renaissance | N/A | Michelangelo | Heroic figures, divine imagery, large scale, exaggerated poses and anatomy |
| Baroque | N/A | Caravaggio | Dramatic chiaroscuro, emotional intensity, realistic physical suffering |
| 19th Century | Romanticism | Caspar David Friedrich | Sublime landscapes, solitary figures, introspection |
| 19th Century | Realism | Courbet, Millet | Depictions of peasant life, social criticism |
| 19th Century | Impressionism | Van Gogh | Vibrant color, thick paint, gestural brushwork |
| Early 20th Century | Expressionism | Schiele, Kirchner | Garish color, distortion of form, psychological intensity |
| Early 20th Century | Fauvism | Matisse | Non-naturalistic color, energy |
| Early 20th Century | Cubism | Picasso | Fragmented planes, emotional resonance |
| Postwar | Abstract Expressionism | Pollock | Spontaneous gesture, subconscious content |
| Postwar | Neo-Expressionism | Basquiat | Raw intensity, words, symbols, masks |
| Contemporary | Relational Aesthetics | Abramovic | Participatory audience engagement |