Art History: The Impressionists

Art has always been a medium of expression for the people, by the people.  When institutions attempt to commoditize it, its beauty becomes distorted.  As a gallery, we understand the need to find balance between creativity and commerce.  But when the voice of the people becomes suppressed to serve a bureaucratic agenda, the resulting art becomes a force of revolution by the people. 

In the late 70s, Hip-Hop became that revolutionary force in music due to the radio’s suppression of the budding art form.  However, this cyclical “changing of the guards” gained widespread attention with the emergence of the 19th century art-movement known as Impressionism. 

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The French artists, Claude Monet, Camille Pissaro, Paul Cezanne, Edouard Manet, and several others led the movement away from Realism—the dominant art form of the time—to Impressionism.  Realism was seen as a way to serve the vanity of the upper class by creating accurate depictions of people and places.  Impressionism was used as a way of depicting the possibilities.  Initially the Impressionists were shut out of the art world so they decided to create their own galleries and exhibits.  Eventually, their genius caught on and now people see that art wasn’t created to have limitations.  

Here are some inspiring works from the Impressionists: