Pointillism |
| Mar 06 2012 |
| {Articles >> Art History - Periods} |
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| (Detail) Georges Seurat, A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886. Oil on canvas. |
In art, pointillism is the practice of using seperate dots or strokes of color, instead of blending the paint. The concept behind Pointillism, devised by French artist Georges Seurat in the 19th century, is that color could be separated into its components on the canvas, and would merge when viewed at a distance. In a simplified example, a painter would arrange yellow and blue dots, which would then appear green from a distance. You can see an example of pointillism in the detail of Seurat's A Sunday on La Grande Jatte, 1884-1886.
Although both the Impressionists and Georges Seurat were concerned with color and color theory, Pointillism was a departure from the spontenaity and interest in immediate sensation that we see in Impressionist works. In the 19th century, color theory became a scientific area of study, and scientific understanding grew about the interaction of the eye and the brain in response to color. Georges Seurat was influenced by these new theories in color.
Georges Seurat is the best known Pointillist painter. For others, read Pointillism Artists. Van Gogh's work too, shows experimentation with divided dots and strokes of color; however, his use of color has more to do with expressiveness and emotional assocations with color than it does with scientific color theory.
Pointillism is sometimes called "divisionism."
Tags: Pointillism