Expressionism/Cognitivism

Expressionism is essentially a theory of art that tells us that an artist, who is inspired by his or her emotional experiences, uses their skill, in whatever medium they prefer, to express that emotion in such a way that it is supposed to evoke the same emotion in the viewer or viewers.

Cognitivism however, while being similar to Expressionism, creates knowledge of the things around us in ways unique to artistic expression that would otherwise be overlooked by the casual observer; essentially it is new ways of knowing the world around us. However, that form of knowing is subjective to the viewer’s experiences, and what may be seen as fresh and new to one, could easily be seen as shallow and escapist to someone else.
The difference between the two is that Expressionism uses the emotions of the artist to create a powerful and emotive artwork and Cognitivism uses emotion as simply a component in better understanding the world, events and subjects around us.

Tolstoy’s basic outlook on art was that for it to be truly expressive, it had to physically impart the emotion conveyed to the person viewing, reading or listening to it. If the piece was meant to inspire joy, the viewer should experience actual, physical Joy, and if the resulting message was one of rage, then the viewer should become enraged. Collingwood believes that artistic expression is collaboration between the artist and the viewer, the artist captures the emotions they wish to convey in a way that is able to be shared and in doing so knows themselves better, the viewer then uses their own imagination to recreate the emotions they feel are being portrayed by the artist, creating a truly cerebral and unique experience for each person that participates and in doing so come to know themselves better.

Louise Bourgois used many images to convey certain feelings and emotion, the use of red and of separating chambers to create spaces that felt like one was being voyeuristic and looking into portions of her own life experiences, and in a way they are. Her choices of image, color and how it is displayed has been seen as both insight into a trauma filled, sexually bewildering childhood and blood, sin, violence and sexuality. Although some critics have conveyed that they feel some of her imagery tells of the creative process, flesh and light and life.

Kiki Smith uses many ways to create metaphors in her work, the use of bodily fluids to impart both personal and socio-political impact within her works, and the exploration of the body as a whole to show weakness and frailty. She uses birds to represent souls, and the heavens or heavenly bodies to show interdependence between nature and man. These cover some of the areas in which both these artists play with metaphors.

After serious contemplation I settled on Nancy Blum, and while she doesn't represent the geometric elements as often, her attention to coloration, and details is something I appreciate and the flowing organic feel is something I often attribute to large portions of my own work.