Georges Seurat andPaul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching fromImpressionism. The term "Pointillism" was coined byart critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists, but is now used without its earlier pejorative connotation.[2] The movement Seurat began with this technique is known asNeo-impressionism. TheDivisionists used a similar technique of patterns to form images, though with larger cube-like brushstrokes.[3]
The technique relies on the ability of the eye and mind of the viewer to blend the color spots into a fuller range of tones. It is related toDivisionism, a more technical variant of the method. Divisionism is concerned withcolor theory, whereas pointillism is more focused on the specific style of brushwork used to apply the paint.[2] It is a technique with few serious practitioners today and is notably seen in the works ofSeurat,Signac, andCross.
From 1905 to 1907,Robert Delaunay andJean Metzinger painted in a Divisionist style with large squares or 'cubes' of color: the size and direction of each gave a sense of rhythm to the painting, yet color varied independently of size and placement.[4] This form of Divisionism was a significant step beyond the preoccupations of Signac and Cross. In 1906, the art critic Louis Chassevent recognized the difference and, as art historianDaniel Robbins pointed out, used the word "cube" which would later be taken up byLouis Vauxcelles to baptizeCubism. Chassevent writes:
M. Metzinger is a mosaicist like M. Signac but he brings more precision to the cutting of his cubes of color which appear to have been made mechanically [...].[5][6][7][8]
The practice of Pointillism is in sharp contrast to the traditional methods of blending pigments on apalette. Pointillism is analogous to the four-colorCMYK printing process used by some color printers and large presses that place dots ofcyan,magenta, yellow, and key (black). Televisions and computer monitors use a similar technique to represent image colors usingred, green and blue (RGB) colors.[9]
If red, blue, and green light (theadditive primaries) are mixed, the result is something close to white light (seePrism (optics)). Painting is inherentlysubtractive, but Pointillist colors often seem brighter than typical mixed subtractive colors. This may be partly because subtractive mixing of the pigments is avoided, and because some of the white canvas may be showing between the applied dots.[9]
The painting technique used for Pointillist color mixing is at the expense of the traditional brushwork used to delineatetexture.[9]
The majority of Pointillism is done in oil paint. Anything may be used in its place, but oils are preferred for their thickness and tendency not to run or bleed.[10]
Pointillism also refers to a style of 20th-century music composition. Different musical notes are made in seclusion, rather than in a linear sequence, giving a sound texture similar to the painting version of Pointillism. This type of music is also known aspunctualism orklangfarbenmelodie.
^Ruhrberg, Karl. "Seurat and the Neo-Impressionists".Art of the 20th Century, Vol. 2. Koln: BenediktTaschen Verlag, 1998.ISBN3-8228-4089-0.
^Jean Metzinger, ca. 1907, quoted in Georges Desvallières,La Grande Revue, vol. 124, 1907, as cited in Robert L. Herbert, 1968, Neo-Impressionism, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
^Robert L. Herbert, 1968,Neo-Impressionism, The Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, New York
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