Expressionism as a general term refers to art in which the image of reality is more or less heavily distorted in form and colour. In the common language of art this is "in order to make it expressive of the inner feelings or ideas about it". In expressionist art brushwork is free and paint application can to be generous and highly textured. Expressionist art is emotional and sometimes mystical. It can be seen as an extension of Romanticism.

Expressionism and the 19th Century

1. "Nature" remained as the subject matter of Expressionist art.
2. Employment of matt finishes by Ernst Paul Kirchner is the technique used by the Impressionist painter Claude-Oscar Monet (1840-1926) for Beach at Trouville.
3. In its modern form it may be said to start with Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890), who worked with pigments such as chrome yellow so as to achieve a highly intense and non-naturalistic effect. Van Gogh painted The Night Café with saturated green, red and yellow tones to create greater dissonance than is the case with earlier Impressionist works.

Expressionist Timeline

• June 1905 - Die Brücke group of artists formed in Dresden.
• Summer 1907 - After encountering French Impressionism on a trip to Paris, August Macke began to paint in this manner; in autumn of that year he went to Berlin to join the studio of the German painter Lovis Corinth. Macke returned to Paris in 1912, accompanied by his friend Franz Marc.
• 18 December 1911 - Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc and Gabriele Munter exhibited at the Thannhauser Gallery, Munich as the Editors of The Blue Rider Der Blaue Reiter.
• May 1912 - Der Blaue Reiter (the almanac) published by Piper-Verlag of Munich, and edited by Kandinsky and Marc. The cover featured a drawing by Kandinsky of a blue horseman.
• 17 February 17 to 15 March 1913: The Armory Show "Exhibition of Independent Artists" was held at the 291 Gallery in New York City.
• May 1913 - Printed announcement of the breakup to passive members of The Bridge group of artists. This was consequent to the publication of Kirchner's Chronik der Brücke ( a history of the group and its aims).
• 6 April 1914 - August Macke, Paul Klee and Louis Moilliet departed from the port of Marseilles for Tunis, arriving on 7 April.
• "The harbour and city... were behind us," Klee noted in his journal, "slightly hidden. First, we passed down a long canal. On shore, very close, our first Arabs. The sun has a dark power. The colourful clarity on shore full of promise. Macke too feels it. We both know that we shall work well here."
• 14 April 1914 - The three painters took the train first to Hammamet and from there to Kairouan. Klee was so overwhelmed by the intense light there that he wrote:
  • "Colour has taken possession of me; no longer do I have to chase after it, I know that it has hold of me forever. That is the significance of this blessed moment. Colour and I are one. I am a painter."
• 12 April 1919 - Bauhaus school of design opened in Weimer by Walter Gropius.
• January 1920 - Premier of Das Kabinett des Doktor Caligari directed by Robert Wiene.
• 1930 - Publication of the Piet Mondrian article titled L'Art Realiste et l'Art Superrealiste.
• 1985 - Ran. Film by Akira Kurosawa set in feudal Japan.