出国留学网GRE栏目的小编给大家带来“GRE阅读常考艺术类背景知识分享”，以下是详细内容，希望对同学们备考GRE有所帮助!
艺术，特别是当代艺术，是GRE阅读部分中的常考主题：黑人音乐、女性雕塑家、表现主义、超现实主义……这些主题都在以往的考试中出现过。从今天开始，我们将为大家介绍一些常考艺术类背景知识，简要了解这些知识，可以帮助我们减少考试时的陌生感，从而加快解题速度。首先，我们就来了解当代艺术中著名的表现主义。
先看一段GRE阅读文本：
Is this a fault, or are the writers working out of, or trying to forge, a distinct kind of aesthetic? In addition, the style of some Black novels, like Jean Toomer’s Cane, verges on expressionism or surrealism; does this technique gives a counterpoint to the popular theme that depicts the fate against which Black heroes are pitted, a theme generally transmitted by more naturalistic modes of expression? 【有道学堂GRE阅读300篇20204】
这段文本中提到了一些黑人小说中体现出的表现主义、超现实主义，首先我们来问大家解读作为现代重要艺术流派的表现主义。表现主义首先形成于绘画一书中，进而影响文学、电影、音乐……要理解表现主义，就要先从绘画说起。文中提及的surrealism——超现实主义，我们将在下次艺术类背景知识中介绍。
Expressionism | 表现主义
【关键词】
within the artist | criticism | distortion | strong colors | anxiety
【历史背景】
兴盛于1905-1920年的欧洲，源于人们对真实性，和精神世界缺失的焦虑。
Expressionism emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a widespread anxiety about humanity's increasingly discordant relationship with the world and accompanying lost feelings of authenticity and spirituality. In part a reaction against Impressionism and academic art, Expressionism was inspired most heavily by the Symbolist currents in late nineteenth-century art. Vincent van Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging the distortion of form and the deployment of strong colors to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings. The classic phase of the Expressionist movement lasted from approximately 1905 to 1920 and spread throughout Europe.
simultaneously adv. 同时地: happening at the same time
discordant adj. 不和谐的: not in harmony
authenticity n. 真实性，来自形容词authentic: real, true and accurate
Impressionism n.印象派：1870-1900年在法国发展，画家多以瞬间的印象作画，追求描绘光线和色彩的变化。印象派的大师包括莫奈、塞尚等。
symbolist n. 象征主义者。象征派在艺术上强调主观、个性，他们不再把一时所见真实的表现出来，而通过特定形象的综合来表达自己的观念和内在的精神世界。
distortion n. 变形、失真
yearning n. 渴望、向往
【主要观点】
艺术来源于艺术家内心，否认现实世界的客观性。
The arrival of Expressionism announced new standards in the creation and judgment of art. Art was now meant to come forth from within the artist, rather than from a depiction of the external visual world, and the standard for assessing the quality of a work of art became the character of the artist's feelings rather than an analysis of the composition.
come forth = emerge, 出现、涌现; come forth from within the artist: 从艺术家内部涌现——源于内心。
表现主义绘画传达了艺术家对当代社会的焦虑。
Expressionist artists often employed swirling, swaying, and exaggeratedly executed brushstrokes in the depiction of their subjects. These techniques were meant to convey the turgid emotional state of the artist reacting to the anxieties of the modern world.
employ v. 使用: to use something for a particular purpo
seswirling: 漩涡;swaying: 摇摆;brushstrokes: 绘画技巧
turgid adj. 难懂的：very complicated and difficult to understand
表现主义艺术家发展出了一种对资本主义社会的有力批判。
Through their confrontation with the urban world of the early twentieth century, Expressionist artists developed a powerful mode of social criticism in their serpentine figural renderings and bold colors. Their representations of the modern city included alienated individuals - a psychological by-product of recent urbanization - as well as prostitutes, who were used to comment on capitalism's role in the emotional distancing of individuals within cities.
serpentine adj. 弯弯曲曲的: having many bends and turns
rendering n. 描写、刻画: represent by artistic or verbal means
alienated adj. 被疏远的、受冷落的
【代表作品】
The Scream (1893)
Artist: Edvard Munch
Throughout his artistic career, Munch focused on scenes of death, agony, and anxiety in distorted and emotionally charged portraits, all themes and styles that would be adopted by the Expressionists. Here, in Munch's most famous painting, he depicts the battle between the individual and society. The Scream evokes the jolting emotion of the encounter and exhibits a general anxiety toward the tangible world. The representation of the artist's emotional response to a scene would form the basis of the Expressionists' artistic interpretations. The theme of individual alienation, as represented in this image would persist throughout the twentieth century, captivating Expressionist artists as a central feature of modern life.
agony n. 极大的痛苦，对于这个单词有一种记忆方法叫做：爱过你是一种极大的痛苦
jolting n. 颠簸、波动、震惊
tangible adj. 清晰明确的文本中提到的
表现主义文学 | 卡夫卡
表现主义文学是20世纪初期以德国为中心兴起的一场国际性文学运动。表现主义文学是表现主义艺术在文学领域的体现，涉及到文学的各个领域，其中尤以戏剧和诗歌的成就最为突出。表现主义文学流露出一种普遍的抽象化倾向，作品往往具有浓郁深厚的象征意蕴，通过主观幻觉、梦境和错觉，以及扭曲变形等手法来表现生活。卡夫卡可以说是成就最高的表现主义小说家。
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