Expressionism. The rebellion against modernity. It started in 1905 and ended in 1933. Expressionism is "the action of making known one's thoughts and feelings." This movement came to light when artists stopped worrying about creating a photo-realistic painting and more about expressing their emotions and concerns about an occurrence or object. The goal of expressionism was to evoke the subjective responses of artists to objects and/or events. 

Just like in Cubism, there were two phases in Expressionism. Der Blaue Reiter and Die Brücke. In Die Brücke, the artist chose the colours they wanted to use according to how they felt. These artists worked with aggressive & intuitive brush strokes. Their inspiration? Primitive culture. Even though some of their works were deformed - and sometimes aggressively so - they still painted how they felt. De Blaue Reiter means "the Blue Rider". Blue horses became the symbol/image of power. (The Art Story, n.d.)

There are many artists influenced by both these phases. For example, Vassily Kadinsky, Egon Schiele, Kathé Kollowitz, Francis Bacon and many more. Expressionists wanted to move away from idealising bodies and move towards the essence of being human. Feelings. Emotions.

This painting is an example of Die Brücke art. Kirscner heightened the colours of this street, depicting figures with mask-like faces and vacant eyes, in order to show the way that modernity as changed peoples lives. They've become so accustomed to modernity that it alienated them from themselves. On the reverse of this painting, Kirschner painted a nude woman, bathing in nature's landscape. Such a juxtaposition to the city scene it mirrors. 

In this painting by The Original Artist, one can clearly see the angst and emotion they felt while painting it. They didn't focus on what the piece could be, but rather what they felt at that moment. This is expressionism. Embracing being human and having feelings.