Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork
About
In Western painting, the use of thick, expressive brushstrokes emerged largely in the late-19th and early-20th centuries; the tendency is visible in many of Post-Impressionist Paul Cézanne's landscapes, still lifes, and group portraits, as well as in Henri Matisse's vivid Fauvist paintings. With the development of abstract painting in the 20th-century, such brushwork became more and more prevalent to the extent that it often overshadowed literal representation, as seen in the works of Willem de Kooning, Helen Frankenthaler, Franz Kline, and Robert Motherwell. After a move away from such expressive painting (thanks in part to the rise of Minimalism), in the 1980s, loose Neo-Expressionist brushwork became a central characteristic of works by Jean Michel-Basquiat, Georg Baselitz, and Julian Schnabel. The technique continues to be used by some of the most influential painters working today, including Cecily Brown and Jenny Saville.
