Divisionism shaped modern painting, influencing famous figures such as Georges Seurat and Henri Matisse. Artists discovered the bold use of color and light in revolutionary art.
Divisionalism is an artistic technique based on the construction of images from small brush strokes of primary color, which should blend in the viewer's perception into a beautiful whole picture.
Colorful and bold, these paintings offered a radically different way of perceiving art. Popular from the 1880s through the first decade of the 20th century, Divisionism was hated by most art critics but still loved by progressive radical artists.
The scientific roots of divisionism
Divisionalism was a neo-Impressionist painting technique that relied heavily on studies of optics and light. This movement in art was a direct successor to the Impressionist movement, which combined these studies with the subjective impression of a fleeting moment.
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In 1839, French chemist Michel-Eugene Chevreul published a scientific paper examining the "Law of Simultaneous Contrast of Colors." In it, he investigated how adjacent colors affect each other and their perception by the human eye. In addition to chemical experiments, Chevreul earned a living by restoring old tapestries. This occupation gave him enough material for scientific research.
Another influential work in color theory was the book Modern Chromatics, written by American physicist
Ogden Rood. Rood established the principles of color contrast and harmony, as well as the visual and emotional effects of color combinations. Nineteenth-century optical researchers believed that the
human brain combines complex colors from small dots of primary color.
French artists were the first to translate these theories into artistic practice. Artists such as Kamille Pissarro, Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, and others began to create mosaic compositions of unblended primary colors. Placed close together, these fragments were transformed into complex and detailed images.
Like the Impressionists, the Divisionists were concerned with the effect of light, both natural and artificial, on space and color. They believed that by placing primary colors close together, greater brightness and more nuanced tones could be achieved.
One of the most radical proponents of divisionism in painting was the French publicist, art critic, and noted anarchist Felix Feneon. Feneon was a controversial figure of his time, beloved by avant-garde artists but despised by a conservative public.
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Feneon patronized and supported the young Henri Matisse and Georges Seurat at a time when they were completely unknown and unappreciated. He regarded traditional museums as graveyards that would kill bury and forever stop the development of modern art, and funded exhibitions and publications to bring progressive works of art, including works by the Divisionists, to a wider public.
For him, radical politics and radical art were one and the same, contributing to each other and developing hand in hand. Because of his support for art, Feneon became the protagonist of one of the most famous divisionalist paintings, a portrait of Paul Signac painted in 1890.
Italian Divisionism
The further development of the movement can be traced back to Italy at the time of the difficult and long reunification. Until the 1860s, Italy was a cluster of city-states and kingdoms with constant conflicts with neighbors, endless territorial claims, and a deep sense of cultural superiority, despite the poor state of the economy and infrastructure. After a long and bloody unification of the country, there was a need to forge a common cultural identity for different regions and cultures.
Building a cultural identity based on the art of a shared Italian past was a dangerous decision, as each region had its own nuanced preferences. In addition, the newly unified country needed a push into the future, and an obsession with the remains of the past could stall progress, turning the country into a decaying open-air museum. Beginning in the 1880s, Italian artists began to search for a modern language of painting and readily embraced Divisionism as a suitable option.
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However, Divisionist painting offered a technique rather than a full-fledged artistic movement rich in style and subject matter. Thus, although Italian painters of the last decades of the nineteenth century drew on an avant-garde look, their subject matter remained deeply rooted in the Renaissance past. Early Italian Divisionists often painted religious scenes, sometimes in the form of triptychs similar to altarpieces.
This choice represented a radical contrast to the French Divisionists, who, like the Impressionists before them, focused mainly on urban scenes and contemporary social settings.
Some artists, such as the famous Italian painter Giovanni Segantini, applied the technique of divisionism to Symbolist themes, creating dramatic landscapes, tender images of motherhood, and terrible punishments for evil femme fatales.
Despite its apparent simplicity, Divisionism came as a shock to the Western crowd of professionals and art lovers. It represented a radically different way of interacting with images and an alternative way of encoding reality in the figurative form of painting.
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Critics' reactions were mostly negative, especially from the conservative Italian press. In addition to an apparent fear of innovation, critics expressed concern that Italian artists were learning from their French counterparts. Fear of cultural and aesthetic homogenization prevented an appreciation of the local achievements and unique qualities that distinguished French and Italian contemporary artists.
Critics called the work of the Divisionists "painted measles" and compared it to embroidery, but not in a good way. In France, great artists such as
Claude Monet and
Pierre Auguste Renoir refused to exhibit their work in the same venue as the Divisionists.
From Divisionism to Futurism
A decisive turn occurred when technique was adopted by one of the most radical and provocative groups of young artists of the twentieth century. The Futurists proclaimed a complete rejection of everything associated with old times and old culture and called for the radical modernization of Italy.
Modernity became the new religion, and heavy machines and roaring mechanisms replaced the traditional aesthetic categories of art and music. Divisionism was the first logical step taken by those who sought to rid themselves of the legacy of past centuries.
Politically, Divisionism was a more intellectually accessible art form that did not require additional knowledge of symbols, iconography, and tradition; it dealt mainly with modernity and used technical, non-allegorical language.
For the Futurists, who saw their goal as getting rid of traditional forms, symbols, and ideas about art, the bright and dynamic look of Divisionist art was the first step in the search for fresh solutions.
One of the leading Futurists, Giacomo Balla began his career by painting brightly colored Divisionist canvases depicting streetlights and city balconies. The play of light reflected in short, colorful strokes showed the complexity of artificial lighting, which eventually became widespread.
Pointillism
Pointillism, often confused with Divisionism, was another artistic technique that sprang from it. Whereas in the art of Divisionism, paint was applied in small strokes, Pointillist paintings consisted of tiny adjacent dots. Pointillism did not rely as heavily on color theory as Divisionism. However, it was developed and practiced by the same artists, Paul Signac and Georges Seurat.
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Pointillism was short-lived and less universal than Divisionism. Pointillist canvases emphasized technique, while Divisionism offered greater stylistic and political diversity.
The legacy of divisionism
What was initially seen by critics as "painted measles" soon became popular enough to become the norm, at least in the works of progressive avant-garde artists. Vincent van Gogh's unique style
Vincent van Gogh had elements of divisionist painting, where small individual strokes were combined into a complex whole.
In his technique Van Gogh relied heavily on impasto-factual layering (a technical method of densely covering any material) thick strokes of paint, giving compositions additional expressive potential and volume.
In addition to France and Italy, Divisionism became popular in the Netherlands. Famous abstractionist
Piet Mondrian adopted a similar technique, which later evolved into his signature geometric abstraction consisting of small multicolored blocks. For a time, such great artists as
Pablo Picasso and
Gino Severini also worked in the technique of divisionism.
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In general, divisionism lasted for a rather short time, its theoretical claims were soon disproved by practice. However, art historians believe that this movement served as a decisive step in the development of a radically new approach to modern painting.
Divisionism offered a new way of constructing an artificial painted reality, creating an image from small strokes of paint rather than lines that mimicked nature. It also made contemporary artists less afraid of pure bold color, which soon manifested itself in abstract art.