you have surely seen some of these paintings  and you've surely heard some of the names  

associated with them vincent van gogh paul  gogan paul suzanne all of these masterpieces  

represent the art movement that radically  transformed the world and greatly influence  

the art that you love to this very day  it's called post-impressionism in this  

episode from curious muse we will find out more  about this famous pivotal period in art history  

if you'd like to see more art episodes  be sure to give us a like and tell us  

which topics you want to learn about next art  has always been about expression and creativity  

but there was a time centuries ago when it was  very rigid and set in its ways the impressionist  

era revolved around finite realistic depictions of  the world beautiful classic but maybe a bit boring  

that's what several up-and-coming artists  thought vince van gogh paul gogan george serra  

paul suzanna these revolutionaries all carried  one common belief they thought art was supposed  

to make people feel things it was supposed to  portray the world around them as well as real  

tangible emotions through abstract techniques  and forms they didn't know it but they were  

creating a fresh artistic movement that  would shake up the world host impressionism

so these artists didn't really  see themselves as a unified group  

and they actually became known as the  post-impressionists after their lives had  

already ended so the term post-impressionism  was coined by the english art critic called  

roger frye who used it to name an exhibition  monet and the post-impressionists in 1910

post-impressionists used daring vivid colors  and abstract shapes to create astonishing visual  

effects this was the stark difference in the  ways the world was viewed and portrayed before  

let's take a look at the four best known artists  to ever do it first we have vincent van gogh  

a man so famous that his name is synonymous  with modern art the dutch painter truly needs  

little to no introduction during his prolific  career van gogh created many masterpieces  

using his signature expressive brushstrokes and  brilliant colors by using these revolutionary  

techniques van gogh showed us parts of his inner  world rich with emotions that were sometimes  

tortured by his inner demons when we observe  his iconic self-portrait with a bandaged year  

we witness an artist and a fragile mental state  we cannot hear van gogh and yet this work speaks  

for him and creates a universal and relatable  pain that is downright palpable while so much  

art before post-impressionism was about beautiful  vistas and landscapes this style of art invited  

observers to see the landscape of the soul  van gogh knew just how radical his work was  

and how challenging too he even wrote to his  brother theo and told him people say and i'm  

quite willing to believe it that it's difficult  to know oneself but it's not easy to paint oneself  

either george serra preferred a more scientific  approach to painting that's why he focused on  

theories related to optics and color so syrah's  best known artwork is called a sunday afternoon  

on the island of legranjat the theme of the  painting seems very impressionistic showing  

members of parisian society enjoying their day  out on the river but the way in which this work  

was painted was different and new he mastered a  radical technique that became known as pointillism  

based on that name you won't be surprised to  hear that pointillism consists of an artist using  

tiny dots of pure colors like violet blue green  yellow orange and red the colors weren't mixed on  

a palette as they typically are instead they were  placed next to each other directly onto the canvas  

the idea was to achieve a kind of optical mixture  when looking at the artwork next up is paul gogan  

gogong crafted his post-impressionist artworks  using brilliant vivid colors and simple forms  

during his life gogan traveled extensively and  went all around the world in hopes of locating  

inspiration he went to brittany then arl's  where he shared a house with van gogh for two  

turbulent and troubled months now an accomplished  world traveler gogan then visited martinique  

panama and lived in tahiti for the  majority of the last 12 years of his life  

it was there that he made some of his best-known  works but he led quite a problematic lifestyle  

he was known to engage in sexual relationships  with tahitian teenage girls for many years  

gogan's work shows how many experts critics and  historians have to view art as a product that is  

both independent of its creator but also heavily  influenced by him too does art exist without the  

artist can you judge art without approving of the  person behind it gogon remains a challenging but  

undeniably accomplished figure in the world of art  history paul suzanna was all about excellence a  

perfectionist in so many ways this famous painter  liked to slave over his work for long hours  

focusing on each and every detail meticulously and  never settling for anything short of flawlessness  

his wife marie horton spent countless hours  posing for susanna and was known to complain  

about having to sit still for so long in  one position therefore painting still lives  

was ideal for the french artist because there  wasn't anyone who could get bored with posing  

in his post-impressionist paintings of  various fruits laid out on the table  

suzanna abandoned a traditional perspective and  played with portraying objects from multiple sides  

he was fundamentally changing how  artists portrayed the real world  

and because of that was also fundamentally  changing how art fans saw the world  

post-impressionism changed the world major art  movements like favism cubism and expressionism  

all would not have been possible without what was  started by van gogh and others their explorations  

of abstract forms paved the way for scores of  artists in the 20th century and beyond hey muses  

so what do you think of this game-changing style  of art what is the most surprising thing you  

learned about the artist that created it do you  have a favorite piece of post-impressionism and do  

you see how it influenced the art you loved today  give us your thoughts about post impressionism  

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