Avant-Garde – Towards Abstraction
Synthetism and Paul Gaugin's Painting 'The Yellow Christ'
Aug 9, 2009
Art in the last decades of the nineteenth century was concerned with its internal processes rather than with the wider social issues. Synthetism, a progressive movement of this period, challenged the authority of the Academy rather than that of the state.
Yellow Christ
Yellow Christ was painted in 1889, at a time when the connection between radical art and radical politics was becoming increasingly weaker.
The painting depicts a cross with the crucified Christ dominating the whole composition. Surrounding the cross are three women dressed in traditional peasant costumes of the French rural women of the period. The background is formed by the rural landscape stretching behind the cross and filling almost all the rest of the picture, with a strip of the sky along the upper edge.
Purification of Forms
In contrast to the history painting, the official genre of the period, Gaugin's pictorial space is considerably shallower and the treatment of the components is schematic and simplified by using strong outlines.
Gaugin creates here a sense of immediacy by cutting off of the dominant compositional elements. The top of the cross and the women's figures are cropped by the painting's edges.
Surface Effects
Sharp contouring does not allow for the modulation of the volumes, and as a result the figures and objects appear to be flat and unreal. There is no suggestion of spatial illusion or volumes.The flatness and unnaturalness is further reinforced by the use of strong bright colours producing pattern-like effect. Gaugin's technique suggests his concentration on the surface effect rather than on representing reality.
Although The Yellow Christ represents identifiable forms, the painting is a significant mark in the history of art because it testifies to the fundamental shift within avant-garde. It signifies a move towards the abstraction of natural forms. Gaugin's Synthetism introduces artistically radical language for the purpose of generating radically progressive art for art's sake, not art concerned with social issues.
Synthetism Versus Impressionism
Within the contemporary art scene, Synthetism revolted against naturalism. While Impressionism was concerned with the material aspects of urban modernity and the external qualities of natural Impressions, Synthetism attempted to divert the focus from the artificiality of modern urban life to the simple ways of countrylife.
Searching for True Feelings
Gaugin associated rural life with authenticity he sought to express in his art. In The Yellow Christ the women wearing traditional costumes stand in strong contrast to the fashionably dressed women in Impressionist paintings. Gaugin's choice of theme of religious piety was opposed to the Impressionist representation of urban leisurely pursuits.The sought-after simplicity and authenticity of rural life is reflected in the simplification of forms and objects.
Subjective Expression
While Realism aimed to exert influence on social system while suppressing artist's individual creative motives in order to benefit the society, the role of Synthetism was to create absolute art that would reveal profound inner truths. This was to be done by an individual's effort of turning inwards and draw on one's subjective response to nature. The emphasis shifted towards individualism and subjectivity, and expressing of the artist's feelings through radical techniques of representation. This process would eventually lead to purity in art.
Predecessor of Abstract Art
The importance of Gaugin's work is in that he based his avant-gardism on the idea of purity of forms in artistic expression which would later develop into abstract art. He focuses on the formal properties of the painting whereby the surface itself carries decorative qualities. The interest in surfaces and abstraction would later culminate in the work of Pollock and Rothko.
Source:
- Wood, Paul: The Challenge of the Avant-Garde, Yale University Press
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