Expressionism emphasizes the communication of emotion through distortions of color, surface, and form. Artists painting in this style moved further away from trying to paint objects as they existed in nature, and toward manipulating aspects like color for visual and emotional impact. Marsden Hartley worked in multiple modernist styles, but his greatest affinity was for expressionism, and it came to the fore in his series of “Recollections” of the landscape of New Mexico, where Hartley lived for 18 months in 1918-19. Hartley’s landscapes suggest a brooding spirit. By contrast, Birger Sandzén’s views of the West, filled with brilliant color and lavish brushwork, practically burst with pure joy.
Expressionism
