neo impressionism

A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Georges Seurat.

Impressionism, French Impressionnisme, a major movement, first in painting and later in music, that developed chiefly in France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Impressionist painting comprises the work produced between about 1867 and 1886 by a group of artists who shared a set of related approaches and techniques. The most conspicuous characteristic of Impressionism in painting was an attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and colour. In music, it was to convey an idea or affect through a wash of sound rather than a strict formal structure.

 Seurat’s greatest masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it first made its appearance at an exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants in Paris. During the emergence of neo-impressionism, Seurat and his followers strived to refine the impulsive and intuitive artistic mannerisms of impressionism.Neo-impressionists used disciplined networks of dots in their desire to instill a sense of organization and permanence. In further defining the movement, Seurat incorporated the recent explanation of optic and color perceptions.

The development of color theory in the late nineteenth century played a pivotal role in shaping the neo-impressionist style. Ogden Rood’s book, Modern Chromatics, with Applications to Art and Industry, acknowledged the different behaviors exhibited by colored light and colored pigment.While the mixture of the former created a white or gray color, that of the latter produced a dark, murky color. As painters, neo-impressionists had to deal with colored pigments.To avoid the dullness, they devised a system of pure-color juxtaposition. Mixing of colors was not necessary. The effective utilization of pointillism facilitated in eliciting a distinct luminous effect, and from a distance, the dots came together as a whole displaying maximum brilliance and conformity to actual light conditions.

What Are the Key Characteristic of Neo-Impressionism?
Tiny dots of local color.
Clean, clear contours around the forms.
Luminescent surfaces.
A stylized deliberateness that emphasizes a decorative design.
An artificial lifelessness in the figures and landscapes.
Painted in the studio, instead of outdoors like the Impressionists.
Carefully ordered and not spontaneous in its technique and intention.
Subjects about contemporary life and landscapes.

Best Known Artists:
Georges Seurat
Paul Signac
Camille Pissarro
Henry Edmond Cross
George Lemmen
Théo van Rysselberghe
Jan Toorop
Maximilen Luce
Albert Dubois-Pillet



http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/284143/Impressionism
http://arthistory.about.com/od/modernarthistory/a/Neo-Impressionism-Art-History-101-Basics.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neo-impressionism
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/408661/Neo-Impressionism