In order to simulate light, the late nineteenth-century painting method known as divisionism used tiny neighbouring dabs of primary colour.
The method was influenced by optical theory and was popularised by Georges Seurat and other neo-impressionist artists. One of the most important aesthetic movements of the 19th century was divisionism. It is essentially a way of painting a picture in which the colours are not initially combined but are instead positioned next to one another on the surface so that they will subsequently mix "in the eye." It originated in the Post-Impressionist movement. Georges Seurat, the same artist who two years later would create the aesthetic movement known as Pointillism, first came up with the concept in 1884. Since its name so obviously alludes to the style—pictures made of countless tiny circles, or points—Pointillism is more widely known. Divisionism and Pointillism are related to one another. The primary distinction is that Pointillism is only a method in which the image is comprised of dots rather than fluid brushstrokes and is not always dependent on the mixing of colours in the eye. By viewing a Pointillist image from a distance, the image becomes increasingly readable to the eyes as the dots converge.
The similar idea is at work in a Divisionist painting, except that as the viewer gets further away, the colours also start to merge together in addition to the forms and figures. Divisionism questioned the very nature of colour and if it actually existed as a tangible entity or if it is only a product of our perception and imagination. For a number of reasons, the movement had a significant impact on the growth of abstraction in late 19th- and early 20th-century Europe. First of all, it blatantly gave plastic components like colour precedence over content. It also raised the issue of subjectivity in art.
The idea that viewers "complete" Divisionist paintings in their imaginations served as the inspiration for the idea that spectators should have the freedom to interpret works of art, particularly abstract works of art, anyway they see fit. Lastly, Seurat pioneered a method of creating art that explicitly incorporated scientific inquiry. Generations of conceptual and abstract painters have been influenced by his interest in the science of colour and perception, and his influence is still felt today.
Divisionism, also known as chromoluminarism, is the idea of Neo-Impressionism, a modern art movement that entailed dividing colours into discrete dots or patches that, once on the canvas, interacted optically in the viewer's sight. Instead of physically mixing colour pigments on a palette before applying them to the canvas, Divisionists believed they could achieve the greatest luminosity by advocating the application of small touches of pure colour onto the canvas (thereby making the viewer's eye "mix" the different colours optically). Georges Seurat (1859–91), a meticulous master of drawing whose family wealth allowed him to experiment with chromoluminarism and other scientific theories of colour advanced by scientists like Michel Eugene Chevreul, Charles Blanc, David Sutter, Hermann von Helmholtz, and Ogden Rood, was the first artist to systematically develop the theory of Divisionism. The Divisionist movement gave rise to the Pointillism art movement, which is distinguished by the use of painted dots and is named for the French word for dot, "point." The paintings A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884–86, oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago) and Bathers at Asnieres are the two most well-known examples of French Divisionism (1884, National Gallery, London).
A scientific method of painting known as divisionism was developed in the 19th century and was based on recent advances in the science of optics. These successes are tied to the distinctive characteristics of the main colours and how they interact with one another in an image without the use of previously mixed pigments. This notion was the foundation for many painting techniques that developed following neo-impressionism and is still in use today in experimental paintings
Scientists like Michel Eugène Chevreul, James Clerk Maxwell, Ogden Rood, and Charles Blanc are among those whose discoveries helped develop the divisionist method. This theory focuses on the procedures that an observer's eyes go through when viewing a picture. As a result of their theory, scientists and later painters argued that a painted composition with properly placed complimentary hues might convey to the viewer the properties of colours and shades that did not exist separately on the canvas. Hence, while the canvas itself would serve as the foundation for the optical mixing, the process of blending colours and tonal nuances would actually take place in the sight of the observer. The founders of pointillism, Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, highly valued Charles Blanc's Grammaire des arts du dessin. The foundation of the pointillism painting technique or aesthetic perspective is the divisionist notion of the light potential of colours that are applied in distinctly small dots. The Principles of Harmony and Contrast of Colors and Their Applications to the Arts by Michel Eugène Chevreul was one of the books that helped divisionism spread.
In order to develop the new function of colour in painting, Georges Seurat also examined the works of the well-known painter Eugène Delacroix. Seurat was likely the first to transform this experience into a new method known as Chromoluminarism, even if the Impressionists had previously used colour in a similar fashion. Chromoluminarism and the term "divisionism" are frequently used interchangeably because Seurat was a pioneer in this subject. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, which simultaneously epitomises chromoluminarism, neo-impressionism, and pointillism, is unquestionably this artist's most well-known piece (1884-86).
This well-known picture demonstrates the capabilities of a divisional experiment that holds true for all of the painting's components, not just the colour. The pointillist method of divisionism gives particular attention to form, shape, space, and line. The painted surfaces' vivid relationships give the impression of movement in the picture. It's also crucial to remember that in order to examine this image properly, the observer had to decide how far away he should stand.
The light potential of the colours used in divisionist painting on canvas is another unique feature. The divisionist artists, like their impressionist forebears, placed a high value on the function of light in their works. The methods used by previous impressionist painters and neo-impressionists to achieve the illumination of the scene, however, were entirely different. Neo-impressionist artists frequently painted in their studios, guided by the scientific method of the colour organisation on canvas, while the impressionists, in pursuit of the genuine natural quality of light, walked outside and supported Plein air painting. The conflict that developed between the representatives of these two painting schools can be traced back to this disagreement.
The divisionists were criticised by artists who were inclined to the impressionist tradition for their sterile, artificial approach, which lacked the authenticity of a direct encounter with the natural world.
One of the most significant changes in the evolution of painting throughout the history of contemporary art is the experimentation with divisionism in painting. Both the artists who produced work immediately following the neo-impressionists and the artistic movements that existed a century later show the influence of this concept. After the divisionist paintings of Georges Seurat, Paul Signac, Henri Edmond Cross, and Maximilien Luce, the concept of colour could never be the same. These concepts had an impact on the most well-known post-impressionist painters, including Paul Cezzane, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Emile Bernard.
Members of Futurism seized the divisional images' vibrant nature and the appearance of movement. This avant-garde group embraced the notion of development, modernism in all its forms, technical advancement, and an artistic revolution that should defy accepted norms. A new futuristic visuality that valued speed, mobility, and metamorphosis had its origins in the scientific aspect of divisionism. Works by Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carra, or Gino Severini are examples of this.
Members of the painting movement known as "Fauvism" have transformed how colour is used in paintings in new ways. Painters headed by Henri Matisse and André Derain were able to free colour from its conventionally imitative function by drawing on divisionist experience.
The Cubist movement, which was led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, also used a divisionist approach to colour. This method continues to be used in both the analytical and the synthetic phases, which experiment with highlighting the image's true two-dimensionality. The analytical phase splits the scene in search of various points of view.
The growth of abstract art has had a significant effect on modern and contemporary art history. Several artists have used divisionist concepts of complimentary hues in their work from the late 19th century to the present. The lack of figurality or its triumph in a wholly abstract painting draws attention to the relationship between painted surfaces. Wassily Kandinsky, Piet Mondrian, Joan Miro, Mark Rothko, Gerhard Richter, and Jackson Pollock are among the most significant figurative painting.
Pop Art's creators shaped societal criticism in a way that was likeable by utilising divisionist breakthroughs in painting. Popular themes, things, things, or people combined with the juxtaposition of complementary hues have shown to be a very effective way to ironically popularise subversive messages. The most well-known members of this movement are Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol, and Richard Hamilton.
Op Art is a style of art that used divisionist principles as the foundation of its theory. Divisionists, Cubists, Constructivists, Dadaists, and other art groups' experiences have been incorporated, and Op artists have produced a genuine synthesis of earlier work in the study of the essence of painting that has given it a new depth. Op artists switched to colour and vibrancy, conveying movement and flashing with divisionist techniques, after first focusing mostly on black-and-white contrasting areas. Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Vera Molnar, Bridget Riley, Omar Rayo, and Edna Andrade are some of this movement's most well-known artists.