Skip to main content
Glite Dictionary
🎨 Art shows feelings 🗣️ Words show feelings ⚖️ Morals show feelings
expressivism

expressivism

9.8
A style of art that shows the artist's feelings and inner life
  • noun
  • /ɪkˈsprɛsɪvɪzəm/
  • Literature
: expresivismo
  • The philosophy of expressivism emphasizes that genuine art reflects the personal experiences and emotions of its creator.

But yes, it will be as expressive as the word expressivism suggests.

Examples

  • That is, the debate pivots on expressivism: the personal turn recasts the aim of criticism as the emotive expression of the critic rather than as a dispassionate, quasi-social scientific investigation, and those opposing it deny the legitimacy of expression.

    Academic text (1999)

  • From expressivism, which values originality and views writing as self-discovery, students become used to writing freely, then reflecting on what they have written and receiving feedback from their readers.

    Academic text (1995)

  • The hard edges of doctrine are rounded off into expressivism and meeting "felt needs."

    Academic text (2000)

  • Once one comes to grips with 'creeping minimalism', one sees that there's nothing more to expressivism than the view that to believe that something is good is to be a fan of it, or something like that.

    Blog text (18)

  • This echoes Lindbeck's assertion that the private and inward religion of liberal "experimental expressivism" fosters one which leads to relativism.

    Academic text (1991)

  • The theory of expressivism posits that art is a means for the artist to communicate their deepest emotions.

  • According to expressivism, a painting can convey the artist's inner feelings more powerfully than words.

Antonyms

objectivism
1 7.9

A way of thinking that bases beliefs and actions on facts and reason rather than feelings

Surface Forms

expressivism singular
expressivisms plural

Morphology

expressivism = expressive (transparent) = express + ive + ism

Formed by adding the doctrinal suffix '-ism' to the adjective 'expressive', yielding a theory/doctrine relating to expression.

Etymology

Expressivism comes from express meaning 'to show or say' and the ending -ism meaning 'a belief'. In art, expressivism is the idea that a painting or sculpture mainly 'shows' the artist's feelings or inner life.