Reflection Essay 7: Chapter 34 Part 2

Question 1:

The unification of Germany in 1871 was characterized by the formation of an alliance with neighboring Austria-Hungary and Italy which made Germany even stronger. The unification was stimulated by the experience of Germans in the Napoleonic period, common language that served as the basis of a nation, the improved transportation through the region, and most importantly, the development of German cultural and artistic identity. The unification of German resulted in a shift in the power balance in Europe. German already had the most powerful army in the region. The modernization and rise of Japan shifted the power balance to Asia, weakening Europe as a powerful region.

Question 2:

Expressionism is a term that originated in visual arts and then applied to other types of arts including music and poetry. During the 19th century, expressionism had a major influence in art and music, with artists getting involved in the creation of vivid pictures, distorting colors and shapes to make unrealistic images that expressed strong emotions. Based on this, expressionist composers often poured intense emotional expression into their music and explored the subconscious mind. Both art and music were highly influenced by expressionism but in different ways. For example, expressionism changed the nature of painting due to the adoption of new artistic processes which enabled artists to develop new techniques in applying paint in art which include moving the canvas from the easel to the floor as well as working on unstretched and unprimed canvas, artistic processes that revolutionized artisanry. With the adoption of new artistic processes, expressionism greatly influenced arts in the 19th century. Music, on the other hand, featured high levels of dissonance, constant changing of textures, extreme contrasts of dynamics as well as distorted melodies and harmonies, which were incorporated to evoke mood or ideas as a way of creating an emotional effect. Major themes depicted by the expressionist artists and musicians include fear, horror, and grotesque emotions.

Question 3:

There are many expressionism artists both in music and art who played a crucial role in using expressionism to influence music and art. Among the expressionism artists, one of my favorites and whom I like the most is Vincent Van Gogh. One of the major things that made me like him is that he was a pioneer of expressionism, with most of his work being exceptional to an extent that other artists and painters emulated his use of pure, bright colors, empathetic brushwork as well as contrasting color combinations. In his paintings, Van Gogh used rough brushwork to spread the contrasting colors in a manner that can be described as primitivist composition. Apart from his artistic process, most of his paintings were expressive, in that he used an impulsive, gestural application of paint and symbolic colors evoking subjective emotions. For example, his “Starry Night” painting is expressive of melancholy, despair, hope, and gloom. In challenging the traditional arts, I don’t think that Van Gogh went too far in innovating the popular culture in that he just tried to be expressive, conveying how he was feeling in a painting, and thus, there was nothing dangerous in the paintings that he was producing.