The Verismo (meaning "realism", from Italian ''vero'', meaning "true") refers to a 19th-century Italian

painting style In the visual arts, style is a "...distinctive manner which permits the grouping of works into related categories" or "...any distinctive, and therefore recognizable, way in which an act is performed or an artifact made or ought to be performed a ...

. This style was practiced most characteristically by the "

Macchiaioli The Macchiaioli () were a group of Italian painters active in Tuscany in the second half of the nineteenth century. They strayed from antiquated conventions taught by the Italian art academies, and did much of their painting outdoors in order to ...

" group of painters, who were forerunners of the French

Impressionists Impressionism was a 19th-century art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open Composition (visual arts), composition, emphasis on accurate depiction of light in its changing qualities (often accentuating ...

. In this regard, the Wikipedia article on " American verismo" is germane because it contains a long discussion of an instance of American verismo (Jerry Ross) in American painting. However, there is an extremely rich reservoir of American examples that include techniques for loose brushwork alongside social commentary such as in "The Ashcan School" and the work of John Singer Sargent and the bold city and landscapes of George Bellows. The link pin between European verismo in painting and the States could be considered to be the work of John Singer Sargent, in regard to technique, but not in comments on the working classes. As mentioned above, the Ashcan School played the social critical role in regard to thinking and ideas in painting. The situation in Italy is more complex, especially during and after WWII, with in the work of partisan artists (the museum in Dormadosella) as well as the exhibits of Gutoso and Giacometti, mixing in more abstraction while retaining the social critical edge and, in the case of Giacometti, the existential element.

References

Italian art movements {{italy-art-stub

See also

References