In England, Marinetti's fiery eloquence enlisted for a time a small following, which included C. R. W. Nevinson, who adapted with great skill the futurist formula for a series of remarkable war paintings.
Vorticism.—The chief English contribution to post-impres sionism was, however, the work of the short-lived group of "Vorticists" who, led by Wyndham Lewis, adopted a modified method of cubism, and included among their number William Roberts, Edward Wadsworth, and F. Etchells. In England, as in most countries, these innovators were regarded as incompetent cranks and charlatans, until their employment in connection with the Canadian war memorials and the Imperial War Museum brought them official recognition and public fame.
Expressionism.—In Germany the post-impressionist move ment took root and spread with surprising rapidity. Its most abstract form is to be found in the art of the Russian-born W. Kandinsky, who has explained his outlook in a book entitled The Art of Spiritual Harmony. Pechstein, Marc, Nolde, Kokoschka and Corinth are the most prominent figures among the German expressionists, among whom must also be counted Marc Chagall, notwithstanding his Russian birth.
Certainly it would seem that the German activities which cor respond to those of the post-impressionist painters in other Euro pean countries should be accorded some distinguishing title of their own. The term "expressionism," therefore, serves the purpose as well as any other, unless one were found which denotes a com bination of truth, bestiality, creation and destruction—all ex pressed in a manner in which a snarling brutality obscures many finer feelings. At the same time it must be admitted that the artist to whom the expressionists owe so much, the Swiss, Ferdinand Hodler, cannot very well be held responsible for the excesses committed by his imitators or contemporaries.
Man and his relation to the world which contains him have been subjected by Hodler to every thought-process of which his clear brain is capable, and the resulting statements are models of simplicity, precision and originality. Hodler does not attempt to put the unreasoning at ease by being intimate with them, but compels them, rather by an almost holy power, to use their own imagination. Another artist, who with Hodler, Cezanne and van Gogh, left his mark upon the evolution of German expressionism, was the Norwegian, Edward Munch, whose achievement in paint ing leads from the subjective naturalism of the late 19th century to the post-impressionist tendencies of the present day.
In America the new art-gospel of post-impressionism or expres sionism was popularized mainly by the activity of Jules Pascin (1885-193o), a Bulgarian by birth, who had been working from 1905 onwards for Simplicissimus and living in France until when the World War made him seek for a new home in the United States. He is equally distinguished as an illustrator and as a painter, and his work, though always maintaining a very personal note, shows in turn the influence of Daumier, Cezanne, Degas, Renoir and Picasso. He resorted extensively to distortion for the
definite purpose of forceful emphasis, and is in this respect re lated to the German expressionists.
Effect on Other Arts.—Post-impressionism, in its attempts at synthesis, drew on the past to as great an extent as any other movement, but, ignoring the representational tricks discovered by succeeding generations, adopted only the basic, elementary facts of the unsophisticated and consequently more sincere primitive races. Exploration has brought to light comparatively modern work, in the form of sculpture, pottery, and mat designs, by peoples who, throughout the ages, have known no art teaching or influences save those, possibly, of a conquering but equally primi tive tribe. From the Congo, Bakota, Benin and other districts of lesser-known Africa, masks and figures have found their way to Europe, there to reveal to eager searchers for a means of express ing much without complication, wonders of form and rhythm which were bound to receive the investigation of serious artists. In the same way that Gauguin found stimulation in the vibrant colours of the Polynesian mat-makers, so Jacob Epstein, and to a lesser degree, Ossip Tadkine, have been helped to fuller expres sion by deep study of negro sculpture.
In almost everything—buildings, furniture, dress, design in the home or theatre, and especially, perhaps, in that powerful modern factor, advertising—the effect of post-impressionism and its more successful descendants is very marked, whilst the benefits accru ing to sculpture and the minor arts—woodcuts, engravings, posters, wallpapers and others—have already altered the trend of public thought, and freed it to such extent as slow and inartistic official dom will allow, from the morass of insincerity and vulgarity which had all but swallowed it up. (See IMPRESSIONISM, PAINTING.) BrBLIOGRAPHY.—J. Meier-Graefe, Modern Art (i908) ; C. J. Holmes, Notes on the Post-Impressionist Painters (two) ; F. T. Marinetti, Le Futurisme (Paris, 1911) ; Roger Fry, Form and Design, Prefaces to Catalogues of 1st and and Post-Impressionist Exhibitions, Grafton Galleries, 1911 and 1912 ; Boccioni, Pittura Scultura Futuriste (Milan, 1914) ; G. Coquiot, Cubistes, Futuristes, Passeistes (Paris, 1914) ; W. Kandinsky, The Art of Spiritual Harmony (1914) ; A. J. Eddy, Cubism and Post-Impressionism (1915) ; W. H. Wright, Modern P inting (1916) ; Hermann Bahr, Expressionismus (Munich, 192o) ; F. Lehel, Notre Art Dement (Paris, 1926) ; F. Rutter, Evolution in Modern Art (1926) ; R. H. Wilenski, The Modern Movement in Art (1927) ; Jan Gordon, Modern French Painters; A. Gleizes and Jean Metzinger, Cubism. (P. G. K.)