The Unity of Divisionism
Sarah Khan
Artwork is one of the things which can be expressed in a multitude of ways. Whichever way it is conveyed, the artwork radiates a message or story often with an emotional quality. Over the years, several types of art styles have been developed in various areas either to describe the time period or to indicate general change from the previous eras. The different types of styles or techniques developed in various regions corroborate that ideas and values differ in other lands.
An example of such a style would be divisionism. It sounds a bit daunting, but we must divulge its history to know what developed to create such a diverse art form. Divisionism, also known as Chromoluminarism, is based upon the theory behind Neo-Impressionism --a style of modern art which consists of the separation of colors into dots or patches. Divisionists believed they were able to maintain maximum luminosity or light this way. The first to develop this theory was Georges Seurat in the mid to late 1800's. It was first pioneered by Impressionist painters --those who sought to capture visual impression rather than objective characteristics of a painting. The idea of smaller dots on a canvas than blended colors seemed to create a greater effect and reflected sunlight in the most beautiful manner. This quickly became the vogue in French painting and was continuously promoted by new artists generation by generation.
Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884)
Art Institute of Chicago
Created by Georges Seurat
Bathers at Asneieres (1884)
National Gallery, London
Created by Georges Seurat
Magnification of an excellent example of Divisionism
Divisionism, despite its name, truly unites simplistic dost or patches to become a work of art. Divisionism was quite an influential art technique and inspired many other new concepts and techniques such as Futurism, Intimism, and Fauvism. It also paved the way for Cubism and other abstract art movements. There are a multitude of famous works based on the idea of Divisionism and they are still relevant today. Divisionism is undoubtedly the founder of intimate and abstract artistic concepts.
Sources:
http://www.visual-arts-cork.com/history-of-art/divisionism.htm#history
http://playeatgrow.com/2016/02/georgesseurat.html/
