Fauvism

フォーヴィスム / 1904–1908 / Style / Avant-garde

A short-lived movement that severed colour from the depiction of its subject, slamming pure hues onto the canvas as flat planes. The brushstroke itself carries the contour, and adjacent complementaries make the surface vibrate. It became the starting point for every later design that uses colour as a device of emotion.

Fauvism — Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Henri Matisse, Open Window, Collioure, 1905 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Fauvism — Henri Matisse, Landscape at Collioure, 1905 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Henri Matisse, Landscape at Collioure, 1905 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

Fauvism — Henri Matisse, André Derain, 1905 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain — Henri Matisse, André Derain, 1905 — Wikimedia Commons / Public domain

At a glance

Visual cues

Pure colour straight from the tube
Complementaries set directly side by side
Bare white ground left unpainted
Rough brushstrokes doubling as contours

Best used for

Announcing a festival or event with no photography, letting saturated colour carry it
Painting outdoor walls or banners so the lift of the colour carries from a distance

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Dictionary entry

Type: Brush lettered forms, nothing geometric, read by complementary against the ground
Composition: No drawn contour, form set only where colours meet, bare ground left breathing
Material: Unmixed saturated pigment, vermilion, viridian and cobalt, laid thick on untouched white
Caution: Covering the whole surface with strong colour stops the vibration between neighbours and leaves noise. Always keep the bare white ground that lets the clash register.
Further study: The 'wild beasts' review at the 1905 Salon d'Automne / The relationship between colour and emotion / The development toward decorative flatness

Related entries

Expressionism (表現主義)Same Avant-garde lineage.Compare Fauvism and Expressionism
Cloisonnism (クロワゾニスム)Editorially linked for a useful contrast.Compare Fauvism and Cloisonnism

Often confused with

Expressionism (表現主義)compare

Cite this entry

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Link: https://indexstyle.org/styles/fauvism
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