Expressionism is an artistic movement that developed in the early twentieth century, whose antecedents in the paintings of Vincent Van Gogh, Edward James Ensor and Munich, among others. While all historical periods there were artists who valued the expression of emotions and feelings, as Lucas Cranach and Mathias Grünewald in the fifteenth century and Francisco Goya in the eighteenth century was in 1905 when it emerged in Germany Die pictorial group Brücke (bridge), which initiated the current expressionist. It was formed by painters Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, Max Pechstein and Emil Nolde, who put the emphasis on conflict of man. In his dramatic works dominated the attitude of the characters, the interaction of pure colors and the violence of the stroke. Another Expressionist group emerged in Munich, Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), composed of artists August Macke, Franz Marc, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky, among others, who were characterized by creating abstract images of his contemporaries.
In the field of literature were similar to characteristics of the plastic. The movement started with the playwright Frank Wedekind (Germany) and August Strindberg (Sweden), who put the emphasis on the emotions of the situations and characters.
In music, expressionist compositions used complex and dissonant harmonies, and melodies unrecognizable, with the aim of accentuating the feelings and anxieties of man. The highlights Béla Bartok (Hungary), Paul Hindemith (Germany) and Sergei Prokofiev (Russia), among other important authors.