Fauvism

The name Fauvism was applied to the work produced by a group of artists, of which included Henri Matisse and André Derain, from around 1905 to 1910. Characterized by strong colors and fierce brushwork, the name les fauves (“the wild beasts”) was coined by the critic Louis Vauxcelles when he saw the work of Matisse and Derain in an exhibition in 1905. The paintings they exhibited were the result of a summer spent working together in Collioure in the South of France and were made using bold, non-naturalistic colors, and wild loose dabs of paint. By simplifying the forms of subjects like the landscape , their work appeared quite abstract with color existing as an independent element, having a huge influence on the careers of the likes of Georges Braque and Raoul Dufy. Color could project a mood, the emotion of the artist and establish a structure within the work of art without having to be true to the natural world. By rejecting three-dimensional space and using flat areas and patches of color (often complementary colors) to create a new pictorial space. That space is being filled with the likes of  Antonino Puliafico and Eleanor Quellien, who continue to echo the expressive emotion of Fauvism.