The Impressionist Surface

Dr Paul Smith reviews influential theories of Impressionism. Clement Greenberg's Modernist criticism argued that Impressionism was a critical stage in the movement toward flatness and abstraction. In contrast TJ Clark saw flatness in Impressionism as carrying meaning about the nature of modern life and as signifying modernity itself. Paul Smith rejects both explanations as over-simplified. Flatness, the use of individual brush strokes, was a way of rendering `sensations'. Pissarro and Monet used scientific color theories to achieve greater impact and immediacy in their work. Cézanne's work also showed that the world depicted depended on the surface depicting it. His work testifies to a struggle to hold colors and surface in balance. Degas' depiction of realistic social and sexual life depends on the artifical or factitious technique of representing it. These artists wanted to convey the sensations provoked by nature, not just a notion of `flatness'.

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