Unlike the French impressionists, who were primarily concerned with artistic technique to create a different effect, Expressionism is not primarily driven by technique, but a desire to express emotion. Expressionism is the tendency of an artist to distort reality for an emotional effect; it is a subjective art form. Also, unlike Impressionism, which was limited primarily to painting, Expressionism spread to many art forms, including not only painting, but literature, film, architecture and music.
Today, it is recommended that hand positioning should be 9 and 3 or 8 and 4. Before the days of powering steering, gripping the top of the wheel provided more leverage to turn. Additionally, holding the wheel in a lower position can keep your hands and arms out of the way if the airbag deploys on impact.
To specify the sense of rotation we use a convention called the right-hand rule. If the fingers of your right hand are curling to indicate which way the wheel is turning, then the thumb of you right hand is pointing in the direction of the axis of rotation. This is the direction of the angular velocity.