Dance Around the Golden Calf (1910) by Emil Nolde.

Dance around the Golden Calf is one of the most important religious
works of the German expressionist painter Emil Nolde (1867-1956). It
was finished in 1910 and it is considered an eclectic piece of art, as the
viewer can distinguish two distinct perspectives on art: expressionism and
formalism.
The central symbol of the work Is the golden calf, which represents
decadence and choice of the wrong path. Even though religion was a
previously exploited theme, Emil Nolde uses biblical motifs in a modem
way, making use of his personal perspective
Typical for an expressionist piece of art, the accent is put on the feelings
of the human beings presented in the painting. Therefore, we can easily
spot another characteristic of the expressionist trend: the exaggeration of
the feelings and facial expression. Consequently to that, the general
atmosphere is dominated by a general state of joy and, somehow,
madness, provoked by the loss of the real faith.
The importance of the calf can be seen from the way in which the spatial
dimension is used. On the top of the painting we recognize the golden calf
above everybody’s heads. Metaphorically speaking, the calf had become
their supreme god, choosing to believe in him out of desperation. The
painting depicts the way in which we, the people, feel overwhelmed by
the difficulties of life and as a result of that, we sometimes follow wrong
paths, which might lead to disaster.
From a formalistic point of view, Nolde shows interested for curves and
round shapes. The colours that he uses are complementary or variants and
tones of them. We can easily distinguish the pairs formed by yellow and
purple, blue and orange, we can also observe the uses of red and tones
derived from it, but green is absent, so the chromatism is imperfect. The
composition can be considered as being dynamic, which is one typical
aspect for modern art: The Interest for the Beauty of Movement. We can
also observe influences from the African art, as the dance itself is
definitely a symbol of pagan rituals and the calf could be taken as a totem.
The Internal harmony of the work is determined by the placement of the
dance in the middle of the painting. The dancers are illustrated as standing
in a circle, which is the symbol of perfection. Also, the painting was
conceived as a perfectly symmetric one, which accentuates the feeling of
Harmony.
Consequently to those I have stated above, I do consider Nolde’s work a
magnificent piece of art, as he combines expressionism’s features with
formalism for revealing his feelings in the most refined way