The World As We See It

A lot of artistic isms sprouted in the early twentieth century—Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Primitivism, Fauvism, to name a few.  They varied aesthetically and theoretically, but they had one thing in common: their adherents were no longer interested in representing the world as we see it.  Indeed many believed the very notion of representing the world "as we see it" was confused or illegitimate.  This was an abrupt about-face from Impressionism, which had revolutionized the art world just 30 years prior.

Edouard Manet, Boating, 1874

Disillusioned with the stale and limiting (as they saw them) conventions of the art academies, Impressionists had moved their canvasses outdoors to paint objects as they appeared in nature.  Manet and his clan were particularly interested in the effects of light and air on the visual experience, and they developed new techniques to capture these effects with greater immediacy and accuracy than ever before.  Representing the world "as we see it" was the goal, and some of these revolutionaries eventually claimed they could paint the visual experience with "scientific accuracy."

Vincent van Gogh, Fishing Boats on the Beach, 1888

But Cezanne, van Gogh, and Gauguin wanted more from their canvasses than Impressionist ideals and techniques could yield.  And there was no going back to the art of the academies.  Each began painting something other than what he saw, sacrificing a measure of lifelikeness to greater artistic ends (and in the case of van Gogh, with gorgeous results).  Each inspired future artists to do likewise.  And each posthumously inspired one of the isms mentioned above (stay tuned for more on that).  This was the beginning of Modern art.