SINCE 1828
ex·pres·sion·ism
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Definition of expressionism
: a theory or practice in art of seeking to depict the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist
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Other Words from expressionism
expressionist
\ ik-ˈspre-shə-nist
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noun or adjective,
often capitalized
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noun or adjective,
often capitalized
expressionistic
\ ik-ˌspre-shə-ˈni-stik
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adjective
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adjective
expressionistically
\ ik-ˌspre-shə-ˈni-sti-k(ə-)lē
\
adverb
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adverb
Examples of expressionism in a Sentence
Recent Examples on the Web
The most beguiling Azilal recall a palette of modern expressionism. — Carmen Rosy Hall, Vogue, "How to Buy, and Style, a Vintage Moroccan Rug," 22 June 2018 Malcolm Morley, a painter who helped foster photorealism in the 1960s and neo-expressionism in the late 1970s, died June 2 in Bellport, N.Y. — Matt Campbell, kansascity, "In memoriam through June 9: Three KC fashion and art icons and a beloved chef," 9 June 2018 His use of color was as well known among painters as his mercurial and erratic personality, and scholars, including Wolanin, increasingly see his late work as a major augury of abstraction expressionism. — Stephan Salisbury, Philly.com, "Woodmere acquires vast trove of Arthur Carles' art," 5 June 2018 Schoenberg’s heroes were Brahms and Wagner, and his style of expressionism grows straight out of Romanticism. — Jesse Hamlin, San Francisco Chronicle, "Cellist’s piece on gut strings a first at Valley of the Moon Music Festival," 29 May 2018 Goldsmith’s delicate brand of modernism, so different from the muscular structural expressionism associated with Chicago, was perfectly suited to its small-town setting. — Blair Kamin, chicagotribune.com, "Former newspaper building in Indiana, a modernist icon shaped in Chicago, will house architecture school," 4 May 2018 Avant-garde developments on the European continent — in particular, the atonal expressionism of Arnold Schoenberg and, especially, Schoenberg’s student Alban Berg — had made the young Britten eager to explore similar chromaticism in his own work. — Matthew Guerrieri, BostonGlobe.com, "A gift from Benjamin Britten’s teacher," 29 Mar. 2018 Their 2009 release, Cyrillic (482 Music), reveals their high-energy rapport in a bruising yet agile set of interactive movements and terse melodic exchanges, their lilting postbop routinely exploding into furious expressionism. — Peter Margasak, Chicago Reader, "The saxophonist and percussionist come together for their first local duo concert in more than two years," 12 Jan. 2018 With some ensembles, the angular expressionism of the Bartok Fourth (1929) pushes the music into ugliness. — John Von Rhein, chicagotribune.com, "Arditti Quartet launches Ligeti series with wondrous, strange sounds," 21 Oct. 2017These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'expressionism.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
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