Expressionisms

Expressionisms refers to a family of modernist movements and styles that prioritize subjective emotional experience over realistic depiction. Emerging in the early 20th century in German-speaking Europe, it spread to other countries and media, including painting, literature, theatre, film, and music. Characteristic features include the amplification of emotion through distorted forms, exaggerated gestures, bold or non-naturalistic color, and stark contrasts of light and shadow, all used to convey inner states such as anxiety, alienation, or spiritual crisis.

The movement includes several regional strains: German Expressionism (notably Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter) with painters like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Emil Nolde; Austrian Expressionism with figures such as Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka; and various Czech, Scandinavian, and American expressions that developed later. In cinema, German Expressionist films created stylized sets and dramatic lighting to externalize psychological tension (for example, The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari and Nosferatu). In literature and theatre, writers and playwrights employed fragmentation and heightened language, while in music Expressionism linked to atonality and the Sprechstimme of composers such as Arnold Schoenberg, Alban Berg, and Anton Webern.

Legacy and reception: Expressionisms influenced later movements such as Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, as well as contemporary graphic design and urban culture. It faced political suppression during the Nazi era as degenerate art, but its experiments are regarded today as a key phase in the modernization of modern art.