Cloisonnism 1888–1900

Cloisonnisme (compartmentalism, compartmental division) is a pictorial technique that consists of encompassing chromatic plaques within the net boundary of a contour, with no chiaroscuro effects, thus creating compact color shapes its formal quality and its paintings have no depth or shadows It needs some decorative effect

Cloisonnism is a style of post-Impressionist painting with bold and flat forms separated by dark contours The term was coined by critic Edouard Dujardin on the occasion of the Salon des Indépendants, in March 1888 Artists Émile Bernard, Louis Anquetin, Paul Gauguin, Paul Sérusier, and others started painting in this style in the late 19th century The name evokes the technique of cloisonné, where wires (cloisons or "compartments") are soldered to the body of the piece, filled with powdered glass, and then fired Many of the same painters also described their works as Synthetism, a closely related movement

In The Yellow Christ (1889), often cited as a quintessential cloisonnist work, Gauguin reduced the image to areas of single colors separated by heavy black outlines In such works he paid little attention to classical perspective and boldly eliminated subtle gradations of color — two of the most characteristic principles of post-Renaissance painting

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The cloisonnist separation of colors reflects an appreciation for discontinuity that is characteristic of Modernism

The term, first used by art critic Édouard Dujardin, evokes the techniques of building the windows where the contours of the figures form cloisons that surround the individual pieces of colored glass; A similar effect is obtained by the metal enamel technique, where each space is reserved for a space that is filled with glass powder, the artifact is then subjected to high temperatures that blend the glass, forming compact and devoid colors Of chiaroscuro effects Dujardin wrote that

"These paintings give the impression of a decorative painting, an outline, a violent color and a jet, inevitably invoke imagery and japaxerie Then, under the hysterical tone of design and color, a surprising truth emerges from the romance of passion, and above all, little by little, our analysis is recalled on intentional, rational, intellectual and systematic construction ] The painter will draw the drawing with closed lines within which will put several tones, the overlapping of which will give the sensation of the desired general coloration, as color and design interact with each other The work of this painter is something like painting for compartments similar to cloisonné, and its technique will be a kind of cloisonnisme »

The cloisonnisme was elaborated by the painters Émile Bernard and Louis Anquetin in 1887 as a reaction to the luministic naturalism of Impressionism, the tendency to take creative inspiration no longer on the sensation but on the idea and vision focused on flat areas of intense color and was Resumed by Paul Gauguin in his famous Vision after the sermon and the Pont-Aven school There was a strong controversy between Gauguin and Bernard, for the latter thought he had been overtaken and shadowed even though he was the creator of the technique

To this day, the technique of cloisonismo is inseparably associated with comics and cartoons Contemporary artists such as Valerio Adami and Pierre Alechinsky use this painting technique
https://hisour.com/art-movements/cloisonnism-1888-1900/