Synthetism and Cloisonnism | Articles on Modern Art Movements

Synthetism and Cloisonnism article uploaded by Edgeworth Johnstone.
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Synthetism was developed during 1886 and 1888 by Paul Gauguin, along with Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin, and other artists also working with him during the summers at Pont-Aven and Le Pouldu, Brittany in France. It was to later influence the work of Van Gogh, and the Nabis (a group of French artists also influenced by the Japanese wood block prints being introduced to western art at that time). There are many obvious visual similarities between the older Japanese wood block prints and Synthetist and Cloisonnist paintings produced by Gaugin and his colleagues. Exactly who, between Gaugin, Bernard and Anquetin should be given most credit for the development of Synthetism and Cloisonnism is debated.
Gaugin hoped the term Synthetism would help distance his work from the Impressionists, with whom he had exhibited until 1886. He considered their preoccupation with light and disregard for line and form differed from his own work. Synthetism synthesised the form with the idea of the subject and its world, rather than being primarily concerned with reflecting nature, and lights reflections off of nature. Synthetism was the mental visual and emotional picture synthesised with the actual visual image. It would include flat patterns with no shading that would not occur naturally, and so not be found in Impressionist art. The following aspects of an image were being synthesised: The visual appearance, the feeling about the subject, and the purely aesthetic considerations in making the image. Synthetism would simplify an image further than Impressionism, to the point of appearing two-dimensional. It would omit anything from a scene that memory would forget due to its irrelevance to the subject, and therefore minimise distraction from the purpose of the painting.
Gaugins 'Vision After the Sermon' from the National Gallery in Edinburgh, Scotland is perhaps the most notable example of Synthetist art. It shows Gaugin merging an imagined world with the physical world, distorted perspective and colours apparently chosen for aesthetic reasons rather than in concern for reflecting the physical world.
Before creating Synthetism, the term Cloisonnism had been invented by art writer, Édouard Dujardin in an 1888 essay, referring to the striking outlines and flat separated colours. This was due to it reminding Dujardin of an old cloisonné enamelling technique from medieval times where wire separates blocks of colour similar to how stained glass windows are made. Gaugin saw how this way of painting, like his, allowed an expression of feeling about the subject that allowed the artist to not be restricted to visual painting, not only with regards to shading and choice of colour, but also proportion, perspective and using only basic drawing technique. Paul Serusier is another artist that used this method. Synthetism was a development and expansion of Cloisonnism, but they are so closely related to each other, they are often considered to be referring to the same works and approach to painting.
Gaugin could be said to have mirrored his search for primitive life with a search for the primitive in art, and that Synthetism and Cloisonnism were examples of this. He carried these ideas forward in his future work, as can be seen in many of his Tahiti paintings. These went on to influence much of modern art since then. Particularly Fauvism, Expressionism and even it is thought Picasso's Blue Period, after Picasso saw Gaugins paintings when visiting a friends house.

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