For those who love the classic works of Monet, Degas, and Matisse, it might seem impossible to find modern painters who offer the same style and vision when creating works of art. There is a new impressionist movement, however, and it is gaining popularity every year. While there are some slight differences between the former Impressionist style and today’s new Impressionist art, the feeling and the essence of these paintings are primarily the same.
If you have only become aware of the new impressionist movement and are starting a collection, you might be worried about what will happen to this form of art. It can be concerning to invest in a wide array of new Impressionist paintings if you are not sure about the future value of this art or its relevance in the art world. After all, there was already a post-impressionist movement that has come to a close, so it might seem that the new Impressionism that is so popular will also end abruptly one day as a painting style.
The Legacy of Impressionist Art
One of the key things that Impressionist painters made possible for modern artists was an emphasis on feeling, movement, and color. For many generations, painting had been largely concerned with portrait-making and still-life pieces. This was a limiting and constrictive kind of art expression that was all about detail, sharply contrasting colors, and harsh shadows.
When Impressionism burst onto the scene, it was concerned with daily activities, everyday people, and the movement and color of a scene. This led to pieces that seem to leap off the canvas as if they are in motion, as well as works that offer beautiful color and the chance to tell a story that is captured on canvas. Without the Impressionist movement, it is not likely that this kind of painting would have been popularized, and so much of the art that is most beloved today would never have been created.
With the birth of the Impressionist movement, new painting styles and brushstrokes also became common, and many modern Impressionist painters used both the painting techniques and the sense of motion and color that are central to the Impressionist movement. You will see all of the same elements that made Impressionism popular for the first time in modern works in the same genre despite the small changes that have been made to the overall painting style in the modern era.
What the Future Will Bring for Impressionist Art
There are already many notable painters who are creating new Impressionist works that are quite popular. These pieces use the legacy of color, movement, and a sense of time that the original Impressionist movement made famous. There is a three-dimensional nature to the works that are the most popular, but that does not mean that new Impressionism requires that this is the way that the subject is created.
The most important aspect of modern Impressionism is still the sense of timing and the light that matches the timing. Impressionist works communicate sunrise, afternoon, evening, and every other part of the day in between. The play of light on surfaces and landscapes can offer a rich experience that is at the heart of this painting style, and you will still see this affinity for light in modern works in this genre.
Not all modern Impressionist pieces are landscapes, but this is still a common topic for this kind of work. Some modern Impressionist painters still indulge in one of the most classic kinds of creation for this kind of art as well by creating a series of paintings that show the same scene at different times of the day. This is one of the most beautiful and effective uses of this kind of art style, and it continues to move art lovers even today.
While it might seem like Impressionism is just in a third cycle of the same kind of work, this is not the case. There are differences between the classic movement and the modern one. New painters are working in this style who use daubs of thick paint just as in the classic style but who also use brighter colors and shadows that would not normally be included in classic paintings of this style. Blending different kinds of brush stroke styles and compositions with familiar Impressionist techniques makes for an entirely new vision that is still Impressionist in nature.
Those who are investing in new Impressionist art need to be aware that even the original movement was not done by a cohesive effort on the part of artists creating in this style. There were varying techniques that were used by the original Impressionist painters, and they did not always agree on what the movement should stand for. Painters like George Seurat used Pointillism instead of the daubing brush strokes that were more common in pieces done by Monet. Van Gogh is more correctly labeled as a Realist or a Symbolist, but he is often lumped into the Impressionist painting movement.
No painting style is used with perfect adherence or loyalty by painters, and you can expect that the new Impressionist movement will offer some different kinds of painting techniques and opinions about the nature of the movement. This does not impact the value of the paintings that you are collecting or diminish their beauty. Art is intended to be somewhat personal, and pieces that are made with the painter’s unique viewpoint in place are almost always worth more than pieces that are made with a more generalized and less unique perspective.
Even if you invest in Impressionist art today that is later recategorized into another grouping, this does not mean that the art that you have purchased is less valuable. Art exists within a spectrum, and this means that there will necessarily be some changes to the way that Impressionist works that are being created today are viewed in the future. The changes that take place to the way that art is viewed add to the richness of the story behind individual pieces, and these changes in viewpoint can also add to the value of specific painting styles over time as well.
New Impressionism is One of the Most Popular Current Painting Styles
Due to the beauty of the light and color in new Impressionist works, it is one of the most popular and well-known current painting styles. You can invest in all kinds of lovely works that are done in this style by painters who are becoming well-known for their adherence to the sense of light and motion that made the first Impressionist movement very popular even early in its existence. Impressionism continues to be very popular with collectors and art enthusiasts for a good reason. There is something emotional and moving about this kind of art, and your new Impressionist art investments should maintain a stable value well into the future.
If you have been looking for a really good investment that will offer you the chance to put up beautiful pieces of art in your office or your home, Impressionist works are always a great choice to make.