The Neo-Impressionists had their roots in Impressionism but shifted their focus away from the latter’s fascination with light towards line and colour.

Like Italy’s Divisionist movement, the Neo-Impressionists invented a technique that used tiny dots of pure colour to create an image that could only be perceived by standing back from the work. Signac famously compared the ethos to the music produced by an orchestra: ‘’In order to listen to a symphony, you don’t sit in the middle of the orchestra, but in the position where the sounds from the various instruments mingle, creating the harmony desired by the composer,'’ he wrote. ‘’Similarly, faced by a ‘divided’ painting, it is best to first stand at a sufficient distance in order to absorb the whole, before moving closer to study the chromatic effects up close'’. Seurat and Signac first exhibited works in this new style at an 1884 exhibition in Paris but the term Neo-Impressionism was only coined by an art critic three years later. Rather than painting outdoors and capturing the sense of a moment in time as the Impressionist did, the Neo-Impressionists generally worked indoors and produced slow, thoughtful and careful pieces.

The movement attracted most followers in France and Belgium, reflected in the balance of work on display, with paintings by Albert Dubois-Pillet, Henry van de Velde, Willy Finch, Johannes Theodorus Toorop, Theo van Rysselberghe’ George Morren, Maximilian Luce, Constantin Meunier, Georges Lenunen and Louis Hayet, among others.

However, there are also works by Italian artists Giacomo Balla, Luigi Russolo and Gaetano Previati, who were part of the parallel Divisionist movement that flourished in the years before Futurism.

The exhibition runs in Milan until January 25.

Divisionists arrive in London

National Gallery show includes works by Boccioni and Balla

(ANSA) - London, July 3 - Divisionism, the 19th-century art movement that gave birth to Futurism, is the focus of a new exhibition in the National Gallery in London.

‘Radical Light - Italy’s Divisionist Painters’ features around 80 paintings, bringing the work of the Divisionists to the UK, where it is still little known. The movement had a short life, running from 1891 until 1910, when it split into Symbolism and Futurism, but included artists who would later gain international renown, such as Giacomo Balla and Umberto Boccioni.

The Divisionists were mainly active in Italy’s industrial heart, Milan, and were strongly influenced by the scientific and technological progress of the time. This fascination with technology resulted in their most characteristic technique: the use of pure, unmixed threads of colour, which imbued their work with an intense luminosity. They were also known for their commitment to Socialist ideals, leading many to focus on the harsher side of life: the poor, labourers, factory workers and field hands.

The Orator of the Strike (1890-91) by Emilio Longoni is one such piece, while another is Giuseppe Pellizza da Volpedo’s famous The Fourth Estate (1895), which shows a mass of workers ‘’marching'’ towards the viewer.

Boccioni’s The City Rises (1910) follows the same revolutionary theme but is entirely different in conception, depicting a swirling mass of vivid colour. However, there are also a number of works on display that seem to share little common ground outside the painting technique, producing vastly different canvases on an array of subject matters. Some show daily life, others quiet landscapes, while a few tackle supernatural or moral themes. A number of works highlight the rural path taken by Plinio Nomellini, Pellizza and Vittore Grubicy de Dragon, such as the latter’s striking dawn piece, Morning (1897). Other painters, such as Gaetano Previati focused on symbolism, while Angelo Morbelli’s series of elderly subjects, painted between 1902 and 1903, examine a darker side of everyday life. The launch of Futurism in 1909, with the publication of the movement’s manifesto, lured many Divisionists onto a new path, which is explored at the end of the exhibition. The show includes Balla’s 1911 masterpiece, Streetlight, which contrasts the brilliant luminescence of an electric lamp with the pale glow of the moon.

These crossover works may be more accessible to visitors but the exhibit shows how most had their roots firmly planted in Divisionism. The exhibit runs in the National Gallery until September 7, after which it travels to Zurich, Switzerland.