Global examples of Expressionism in different countries: real artists, real stories

If you’re hunting for the best examples of Expressionism, Germany is the loud, dramatic starting point. This is where the style gets its name and its attitude.

Expressionism in Germany is usually split into two major artist groups: Die Brücke (The Bridge) in Dresden/Berlin and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider) in Munich.

Die Brücke – raw, urban, and a little unhinged
Artists like Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Karl Schmidt‑Rottluff, and Emil Nolde painted city life like it was a fever dream. Kirchner’s Street, Berlin (1913) is a classic example of Expressionism in Germany: sharp angles, neon‑ish colors, and figures that look glamorous and alienated at the same time. The city isn’t just a place; it’s a psychological battlefield.

Other real examples include:

• Kirchner’s Self‑Portrait as a Soldier (1915), where he paints himself with a missing hand to show his emotional damage during World War I, not his literal body.
• Nolde’s The Last Supper (1909), with its glowing, almost toxic colors, turning a religious scene into something mystical and slightly terrifying.

Der Blaue Reiter – spiritual and abstract‑leaning
In Munich, Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, and friends pushed Expressionism toward abstraction. Kandinsky’s Improvisation 28 (second version) (1912) is an example of Expressionism dissolving into color storms and symbolic shapes. Marc’s The Large Blue Horses (1911) turns animals into emotional symbols, painted in bold blues and reds.

These German examples of Expressionism in different countries became the reference point for later movements worldwide—especially after many artists fled Nazi Germany in the 1930s, scattering their ideas across Europe and the United States.

Austrian and Norwegian examples of Expressionism: anxiety, death, and frozen screams

The stereotype is that Expressionism is always German, but some of the most haunting examples of examples of Expressionism in different countries come from Austria and Norway.

Austria: Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka

In Vienna, Egon Schiele and Oskar Kokoschka pushed Expressionism into darker psychological territory.

• Schiele’s Self‑Portrait with Physalis (1912) and Seated Male Nude (Self‑Portrait) (1910) are raw, almost uncomfortable. Limbs are distorted, skin looks sickly, and poses feel tense. These paintings are less about beauty and more about anxiety, sexuality, and mortality.
• Kokoschka’s The Bride of the Wind (The Tempest) (1913–1914) shows him and his lover Alma Mahler in a swirling emotional storm. The distorted bodies and turbulent brushwork are textbook examples of Expressionism applied to romantic obsession.

If you’re looking for a powerful example of Expressionism in portraiture, Schiele’s and Kokoschka’s work is Exhibit A.

Norway: Edvard Munch’s long shadow

Norwegian painter Edvard Munch is technically earlier than the main Expressionist wave, but his art is like the prologue to the whole movement.

• The Scream (various versions, 1893–1910) is probably the single most famous example of Expressionist feeling, even if it predates the formal label. The landscape bends like it’s screaming along with the figure.
• Anxiety (1894) and The Dance of Life (1899–1900) show the same warped skies, mask‑like faces, and emotional dread.

Norway’s role shows that when we talk about examples of Expressionism in different countries, we’re not just talking about a style spreading outward from Germany; we’re talking about parallel emotional revolutions.

Russian and Eastern European examples: Expressionism meets revolution

Russia and Eastern Europe gave Expressionism a political and spiritual twist.

Russia: Kandinsky before and after Germany

Before Kandinsky became a star in Germany, he was already experimenting in Russia. Later, after the Russian Revolution, his work and ideas influenced early Soviet art schools like Vkhutemas (kind of a cousin to the Bauhaus in Germany).

Paintings like Kandinsky’s Composition VII (1913) are often filed under abstraction, but they still operate like Expressionism—using color and form to express inner states instead of copying reality. This is a strong example of Expressionism moving toward non‑representational art.

Poland, Czech lands, and beyond

Expressionist tendencies also showed up in Central and Eastern Europe:

• Poland: Artists like Tadeusz Makowski and Witkacy (Stanisław Ignacy Witkiewicz) used distorted figures and theatrical color to explore identity, madness, and social change.
• Czech lands: Bohumil Kubišta and others blended Expressionism with Cubism—often called Cubo‑Expressionism—in works like St. Sebastian (1912), where fragmentation and emotional drama collide.

These are real examples of Expressionism adapting to local politics, nationalism, and religious traditions, rather than just copying the German version.

American examples of Expressionism: from early adopters to Abstract Expressionism

Across the Atlantic, the best examples of Expressionism in the United States show up in waves: early 20th‑century adopters, then the big Abstract Expressionist boom after World War II.

Early American Expressionists

Artists like Marsden Hartley and Max Weber absorbed European Expressionism and made it feel American.

• Hartley’s Portrait of a German Officer (1914) uses harsh color, military symbols, and flat shapes to mourn his lover killed in World War I. It’s an example of Expressionism as coded grief.
• Weber’s works from the 1910s mix Cubist structure with Expressionist intensity, turning New York and modern life into fractured, emotional spaces.

Abstract Expressionism: the American remix

By the 1940s–50s, Expressionism in the U.S. had mutated into Abstract Expressionism—bigger canvases, more abstraction, same emotional punch.

• Jackson Pollock’s drip paintings, like No. 5, 1948, are examples of Expressionist energy turned into gesture and rhythm instead of figures.
• Mark Rothko’s color field paintings, such as the panels in the Rothko Chapel in Houston, are insanely simple at first glance—just big floating rectangles—but they’re designed to trigger deep emotional states.
• Willem de Kooning’s Woman I (1950–52) takes the Expressionist tradition of distorted figures and cranks it up into violent brushwork and chaotic forms.

Museums like the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C. provide accessible background on these movements and artists (si.edu, nga.gov).

These American examples of Expressionism in different countries show how a European style could be re‑engineered into something that felt distinctly postwar American—loud, large‑scale, and psychologically intense.

Mexican and Latin American examples: Expressionism meets muralism and identity

If you want Expressionism with political teeth, head to Mexico and broader Latin America.

Mexico: murals as emotional megaphones

Artists like David Alfaro Siqueiros and José Clemente Orozco blended Expressionist distortion with large‑scale public murals.

• Orozco’s murals at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire and at the Hospicio Cabañas in Guadalajara twist human bodies into dramatic, contorted shapes, using fiery color to talk about revolution, oppression, and modernization.
• Siqueiros experimented with wild perspectives and aggressive compositions, making viewers feel physically caught inside the scene.

These works are powerful examples of Expressionism in different countries where the style escapes the gallery and invades public walls, mixing art with activism.

Wider Latin America

Expressionist elements also appear in artists like Oswaldo Guayasamín (Ecuador), whose paintings of suffering, elongated figures address dictatorship, poverty, and human rights.

This is where Expressionism stops being a European export and becomes a tool for telling local stories about injustice and resilience.

Japanese and other Asian examples of Expressionism: imported style, local flavor

Expressionist ideas reached Japan and other parts of Asia through exhibitions, reproductions, and artists who studied abroad.

Japan’s modern painters

Japanese painters such as Ryusei Kishida and later Tetsuya Ishida used distortion and psychological intensity in ways that echo Expressionism, even when they’re not labeled strictly Expressionist.

• Kishida’s portraits often exaggerate facial features and skin textures, creating an eerie, hyper‑aware emotional presence.
• Ishida’s late 20th‑century and early 21st‑century paintings, where office workers merge with machines or desks, feel like contemporary Expressionist nightmares about alienation and overwork.

Korea, China, and beyond

In South Korea, some postwar painters combined Expressionist color and brushwork with memories of war and rapid industrialization. In China, artists in the late 20th century sometimes used Expressionist exaggeration to comment on social upheaval, censorship, and shifting identities.

These are quieter but important examples of Expressionism in different countries, showing how the style’s emotional toolkit can plug into very different cultural contexts.

Contemporary examples of Expressionism worldwide (2024–2025)

Expressionism never really died; it just keeps shapeshifting. Some of the best examples of Expressionism today live in:

• Neo‑Expressionism: Artists like Anselm Kiefer (Germany) and Jean‑Michel Basquiat (U.S., 1960–1988) revived raw, expressive painting in the late 20th century, mixing history, text, and graffiti‑like marks. Their work still dominates major museum shows and auction headlines in 2024.
• Global figurative painting: Many contemporary painters—across Africa, Latin America, and Asia—use distorted figures, saturated color, and expressive brushwork to talk about race, gender, climate anxiety, and migration. Even when they’re not branded as Expressionists, the DNA is obvious.
• Digital and AI‑assisted art: Artists now use glitch effects, warped 3D renders, and digital painting tools to create Expressionist moods on screens instead of canvas. The emotional exaggeration is the same; the medium just moved from turpentine to tablets.

Major institutions like the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the Tate continue to organize shows that trace Expressionist threads into the present, often updating wall texts and catalogs through 2024 to reflect new scholarship and global perspectives (moma.org, tate.org.uk).

So when you’re looking for modern examples of examples of Expressionism in different countries, you’re not stuck in 1910; you’re looking at a living, mutating language of emotion.

How to spot Expressionism, no matter the country

After all these examples of Expressionism in different countries, some patterns start to emerge. Whether you’re in Berlin, Mexico City, Tokyo, or New York, Expressionist‑leaning works often share a few traits:

• Distortion over realism: Bodies, faces, and buildings get stretched, twisted, or flattened to show how they feel, not how they look.
• Bold, often unnatural color: Sickly greens for fear, glowing reds for anger or passion, icy blues for isolation.
• Visible brushwork or gesture: You can almost feel the artist’s hand moving—scratching, smearing, attacking the surface.
• Emotional or psychological themes: Anxiety, war trauma, spiritual searching, social injustice, identity crises.

These features connect all the real examples of Expressionism we’ve walked through, from Munch’s scream to Pollock’s drips to Orozco’s murals.

If you want to go deeper into art history research methods, university sites like Harvard Art Museums and other academic collections often share essays, timelines, and digital collections that help place Expressionism within larger modern art narratives (harvardartmuseums.org).

FAQ: examples of Expressionism across the map

Q: What are some classic examples of Expressionism in different countries?
A: In Germany, Kirchner’s Street, Berlin and Kandinsky’s Improvisation 28 are core examples. In Austria, Schiele’s self‑portraits and Kokoschka’s The Bride of the Wind stand out. Norway gives us Munch’s The Scream. In the U.S., Abstract Expressionists like Pollock, Rothko, and de Kooning provide a later wave of Expressionist energy. Mexico’s Orozco and Siqueiros show how Expressionism can merge with political muralism.

Q: Can you give an example of modern Expressionism?
A: Yes. Neo‑Expressionist works by Anselm Kiefer or Basquiat are modern examples. Many contemporary figurative painters also use Expressionist strategies—distortion, intense color, and raw brushwork—to talk about identity, politics, and mental health in the 21st century.

Q: Are all distorted or emotional paintings examples of Expressionism?
A: Not automatically. Distortion and emotion appear in many styles, from Symbolism to Surrealism. Expressionism is usually tied to early 20th‑century modernism and its later echoes, with a focus on personal or collective inner states over realistic representation.

Q: How do I tell Expressionism from Impressionism?
A: Impressionism tries to capture light and momentary visual impressions—think soft colors, outdoor scenes, and shimmering brushwork. Expressionism pushes emotion first, often with harsher color, more violent brushwork, and distorted forms. If the painting feels like a mood swing rather than a sunny afternoon, you’re probably closer to Expressionism.

Q: Why are there so many different national versions of Expressionism?
A: Because Expressionism is more of an emotional toolkit than a single recipe. The same basic idea—express inner reality through distortion and color—got adapted to local histories: war in Germany, spiritual crisis in Austria, revolution in Mexico, postwar anxiety in the U.S., and rapid modernization in parts of Asia. That’s why the best examples of Expressionism in different countries look related, but never identical.