In a period that admired the painterly subtleties of color gradation, the "wild beasts" of Fauvism revolted against Academy art by tossing out their palettes and applying color straight from the tube. Instead of finely blended shades and detail-rendering hues, the... [more]

In a period that admired the painterly subtleties of color gradation, the "wild beasts" of Fauvism revolted against Academy art by tossing out their palettes and applying color straight from the tube. Instead of finely blended shades and detail-rendering hues, the Fauves favored bright, raw paint applied with aggressive brushstrokes. Influenced by the Post-Impressionists, artists such as Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault, and Andre Derain adapted the energetic brushstrokes of Van Gogh and the flat space of Gauguin to create the first avant-garde style of the twentieth century. The Fauves' first public show was the 1905 Autumn Salon at the Gallery VII in Paris. Henri Matisse, a trail-blazer of Fauvism, caused a furor with his "Woman with the Hat" - everything about it was audacious, from the application of paint in broad smears to the garish colors and the heavy outlining of form. While the content of the painting is recognizable and figurative, the execution leaves the woman distorted and (gasp!) not very pretty. Like the Impressionists, the Fauves turned to nature for their subjects, but rendered them with a different immediacy and clarity. The vitality of their heightened colors and their sense of composition, which was based on simplistic natural shapes rather than traditional perspective, bespoke their penchant for emotionalism. Their liberation of space and color paved the way for Abstract Expressionism and provided a negative springboard for the theoretical concerns of Cubism. [show less]