This is one “ism” I really dislike. I get that they brought color out a new way by abandoning the small blocks of color but they also abandoned any real structure. And if I have to be subjected to one more piece of Matisse’s work I might choke so I won’t add to all of the images that are sure to pop up over the next few days. However this quote probably defines the movement the best:
” Fauvism is a movement in French painting that revolutionized the concept of color in modern art. Fauves earned their name (“les fauves”-wild beasts) by shocking exhibit visitors on their first public appearance, in 1905.
At the end of the nineteenth century, neo Impressionist painters were already using pure colors, but they applied those colors to their canvases in small strokes. The fauves rejected the impressionist palette of soft, shimmering tones in favor of radical new style, full of violent color and bold distortions.
These painters never formed a movement in the strict sense of the word, but for years they would nurse a shared ambition, before each went his separate and more personal way.”
UWP Art History 343 
I understand that you don’t like a certain artist and the movement he/she was connected to. Trust me, I really do.I thoroughly despise Warhols art works. I think he was a hack. He was merely in the right place at the right time. Anyone who knows anything about color theory and psychology, even at the lowest level, could figure out that red stands for love and passion and white is for purity. He took those two colors and slapped them together to create a soup label. Which, by the way, is one of his most famous works. Yuck! I feel like he failed in carrying out the process of designing the can based on good design principles. But that’s probably because I’m a graphic designer myself. Even though I despise his artwork, I can still appreciate the fact that he was willing to break social norms and boundaries to challenge peoples ideal of “art”. Where would art be if artists never challenged the neo-classical ways of making art work? The world never would have experienced so many radical changes in artwork. What I’m trying to say is, even though you may hate the artist and his/her works, try to view it objectively. For every negative there is a positive.
Eric C.
I do agree that this was yet another example of artists thinking out side of the box and it is a valid stepping stone for the cubism movement that followed. I suppose my extreme dislike comes from the continued examples of Matisse that run rampant in the kitsch culture of today. Just like the Mona Lisa, Matisse’s paintings have been so overused the paintings themselves lose the impact they were intended to have.