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WHAT IS FAUVISM? (1900-1920)

The term “Les Fauves” is French for nothing less than “The Wild Beasts.” Fauvists strongly believe in the power of color as an emotional force.
Fauvism is defined as a short-lived movement of early Modernist art which emphasized use of bright, bold and unnatural colors.
Some of the leading Fauvisra were Henri Matisse, André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck.

Source: http://www.artinthepicture.com/styles/Fauvism/  

Henri Matisse (1869-1954) Henri Matisse was the most important French painter of the 20th century, rivaling Picasso in his influence. Matisse studied under Bouguereau and Gustave Moreau and experimented with Pointillism, which he found rigidly confining. Later, building on the work of Cézanne and Gauguin, he and Andre Derain developed Fauvism, a much freer and more expressive style of painting which became a forerunner of Expressionism. Source: http://www.artcyclopedia.com/artists/matisse_henri.html	André Derain (1880-1954) André Derain was a French painter who was a leader in several avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century. Derain's works show the typical fauvist characteristics of raw color, which was often squeezed onto the canvas directly from the tube, choppy brushstrokes, frenzied composition, and lack of perspective or the realities of a scene. Source: http://www.metmuseum.org/explore/Degas/html/index1.html