Technique of employing a point, or small dot, of colour to create the maximum colour intensity in a Neo-Impressionist canvas. While Neo-impressionism suggests both the style created by Georges Seurat and the ensuing movement that flourished between 1886 and 1906, Pointillism denotes only the technique. Seurat favoured the term ‘chromo-luminarism’, which conveys his dual interest in intensifying the effect of colour and light. Seurat’s chief disciple, Paul Signac, in his book D’Eugène Delacroix au Néo-Impressionnisme (Paris, 1899), offered an alternative term to Pointillism or chromo-luminarism: Divisionism. Divisionism refers to the separation of colour into individual strokes of pigment, in accord with colour theories, rather than to the points themselves.
Jane Block
From Grove Art Online
© 2009 Oxford University Press
