POINTILLISM

In 1886, what the art world knew of painting, which

was basically classical painting up to that point, was

challenged when Georges Seurat, a French painter,
decided to step outside the box. Instead of using
fluid movements and sweeps of the paintbrush,
Seurat began creating images from hundreds and
thousands of dots.

Pointillism and pointillists were seen as jokes in

the upper-crust world of art at the time.

The term itself was used to ridicule the artwork, as

well as the artists, but when it began to catch on

amongst the masses, the name stuck.

 Other terms for pointillism are Neoimpressionism

(pointillism is based on impressionism), and

Divisionism / Chromoluminarism (upon which
impressionism is based; namely, the separation of
colors into dots.)

The classical pointillists used pure primary colors,

unmixed on a palate; thus, pointillist works are

often vibrant and colorful.
In the classical form, tiny dots of primary colors

are arranged close together, which then generate

secondary colors. The human eye interprets and
blends these to give a full picture.

One easy way to picture this is to think of the

pixellation of images
I suppose you could also picture a dot or pixel as

something to an atom.

Atoms make up our bodies and every object that we

see, but we see most things as solid images and solid

objects. Pixilation and Pointillism use the same idea
to trick us into seeing what's not really there.

"Un dimanche la Grande Jatte" ("A Sunday on La Grande

Jatte")

"La Seine la Jatte Grand, Printemps" ("The Seine to the Grand Jatte, Spring")

"Palais des Papes Avignon" ("The Papal Palace, Avignon")

Paul

" G R E A T T H IN GS A R E D O N E BY
A S E RI E S O F S M A L L T H IN GS
B R O U GH T T O GET H E R . " -V I N C EN T V A N GO GH