Moving Image Arts AS: Expressionism, abstract expressionism and German expressionism

Expressionism started after cameras were invented, because with a camera you could take a picture of the object in interest. But before cameras artist used to paint pictures exactly how the object looked, this became uninteresting. Artists then started to paint pictures how they thought the object looked to them, how the light shone and what relation the place/object was to them. This then started the other art movement, abstract expressionism, which is where artists painted pictures using shapes and lines, the paintings weren't of actual objects but just a bit different, which is what expressionism is, the actual focus of abstract expressionism was to express feelings and emotions, things that couldn't be drawn in a realistic way. German expressionism in films was very dark, gothic and influenced film directors today - Tim Burton. An early German expressionism film was Cabinet of Doctor Caligari. German expressionistic films uses mis en scene to create a mood, backgrounds were also derived from abstract expressionism. The directors used warped sets to create a surreal atmosphere. German Expressionist films plots were often about political happenings at the time, for example Metropolis.

A Kandinsky painting (abstract expressionism)