The Impressionists dissolved forms. They painted blurry "impressions" of objects modified by changing light and atmospheric condit...ions--drifts of fog, shimmering forest shadows, the glow of gas lamps on rainy streets. Cubists cracked the mirror of art. In their paintings objects open into surrounding space and none has an uninterrupted outline. Parts are broken off, colors bleed into neighboring objects, and translucent facets of space with multiple light sources cut shadows across bounding surfaces. They removed sections of faces and reassembled what remained to create grotesque open forms in defiance of natural appearance.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
The impressionists made common cause with the realists against the artificialities of academic classicism and against all emotiona...l and anecdotal romanticism. But behind this common front their artistic aims remained divergent. The world of impressionism consists of light and reflected or refracted colors. These colors are juxtaposed or contrasted directly, with none of the dark shadows used by the realists. Shadows are broken into spots and flecks of reflected color, which seem to spill over from the objects into every surrounding shade or neutral area.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »