🦁 FAUVISM: WILD BEASTS
PAGE 1 OF 5 — COLOUR GOES WILD
FAUVISM
PAINT MOOD, NOT JUST REALITY!
In the early 1900s, a group of French painters shocked the art world with colour that exploded off the canvas. They were called the Fauves, a French word meaning wild beasts. Fauvists used bright, non-natural colour to express feeling instead of copying what they saw. A face might glow green. A sky might blaze red. Trees could turn purple if it felt right. They learned from Post-Impressionists like Van Gogh but pushed even further into freedom. From about 1905 to 1910, Fauvism burned bright and brief, but its bold spirit changed modern art forever. These artists proved that colour could shout emotion louder than any realistic detail.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Art critic Louis Vauxcelles called the artists fauves, or wild beasts, after seeing their shocking colours at the Salon d'Automne in Paris in 1905.
WILD!
NON-NATURAL COLOUR
🟢 Fauves picked colours for mood and energy, not to match real life exactly.
🔴 A red sky or green face could show joy, anger or excitement on the canvas.
🔴 A red sky or green face could show joy, anger or excitement on the canvas.
FREEDOM FROM RULES
🖌️ Fauves broke free from realistic colour rules that had governed art for centuries.
🎨 They trusted their feelings and let paint express pure visual excitement.
🎨 They trusted their feelings and let paint express pure visual excitement.