ELI5: Explain Like I'm 5

Synthetism

Synthetism is like making a picture using little pieces of other pictures. Imagine you have a big pile of colorful blocks, and you want to make a picture of a bird. You could take some blue blocks and put them together to make the sky, then some green blocks to make the grass, and then some red and yellow blocks to make the bird. That's what synthetism is like!

But instead of blocks, artists use colors and shapes to create a picture. In the late 1800s, some artists in France wanted to try something new. They wanted to make pictures that looked like they were made of simple shapes and bright colors, like a puzzle.

So, they started mixing and blending colors to create new colors, and they used simple shapes like circles, triangles, and squares to create the picture. It was like a jigsaw puzzle, but with colors and shapes instead of pieces.

Synthetism is a way for artists to express their imagination and create something new using a different style than traditional painting. It helps them put together different elements to create something original and unique.