A modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century.

Its typical trait was to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas. Expressionist artists sought to express meaning or emotional experience rather than physical reality.

Expressionism was developed as an avant-garde style before WWI. It remained popular during the Weimar Republic, particularly in Berlin, and extended to a wide range of the arts, including painting, literature, theatre, dance, film, architecture and music.

The Expressionist emphasis on individual perspective has been characterised as a reaction to Positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism.

Leading Expressionist visual artists include Georges Rouault, George Grosz, Franz Marc, Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky, Marc Chagall, Paul Klee, Amedeo Modigliani, Francis Bacon, Lucian Freud, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell.