Cloisonnism is a style ofpost-Impressionist painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours. The term was coined by criticÉdouard Dujardin on the occasion of theSalon des Indépendants, in March 1888.[1] ArtistsÉmile Bernard,Louis Anquetin,Paul Gauguin,Paul Sérusier, and others started painting in this style in the late 19th century. The name evokes the technique ofcloisonné, where wires (cloisons or "compartments") are soldered to the body of the piece, filled with powdered glass, and thenfired. Many of the same painters also described their works asSynthetism, a closely related movement.
InThe Yellow Christ (1889), often cited as a quintessential cloisonnist work[by whom?], Gauguin reduced the image to areas of single colors separated by heavy black outlines. In such works he paid little attention to classicalperspective and eliminated subtle gradations of color—two of the most characteristic principles of post-Renaissance painting.
The cloisonnist separation of colors reflects an appreciation for discontinuity that is characteristic ofModernism.[2]
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