Art Movement
Art Deco
A 1920s style characterized by setbacks, zigzag forms, and the use of chrome and plastic ornamentation. New York's Chrysler Building is an architectural example of the style.
Expressionism
A 20th-century European art movement that stresses the expression of emotion and the inner vision of the artist rather than the exact representation of nature. Distorted lines and shapes and exaggerated colors are used for emotional impact. Vincent Van Gogh is regarded as the precursor of this movement.
Rococo
A French style of interior decoration developed during the reign of Louis XV consisting mainly of asymmetrical arrangements of curves in paneling, porcelain, and gold and silver objects. The characteristics of ornate curves, prettiness, and gaiety can also be found in the painting and sculpture of the period.
Realism
A development in mid-19th-century France lead by Gustave Courbet. Its aim was to depict the customs, ideas, and appearances of the time using scenes from everyday life
Classicism
A form of art derived from the study of Greek and Roman styles characterized by harmony, balance, and serenity. In contrast, the Romantic Movement gave free rein to the artist's imagination and to the love of the exotic.
Constructivism
A form of sculpture using wood, metal, glass, and modern industrial materials expressing the technological society. The mobiles of Alexander Calder are examples of the movement.
Surrealism
A further development of Collage, Cubism, and Dada, this 20th-century movement stresses the weird, the fantastic, and the dreamworld of the subconscious.
Ashcan School
A group of New York realist artists at the beginning of the twentieth century who rejected the formal subject matter of the academy and focused on gritty urban scenes and ordinary, even ugly, aspects of life.
Mannerism
A mid-16th-century movement, Italian in origin, although El Greco was a major practitioner of the style. The human figure, distorted and elongated, was the most frequent subject.
Dada
A product of the turbulent and cynical post-World War I period, this anti-art movement extolled the irrational, the absurd, the nihilistic, and the nonsensical. The reproduction of Mona Lisa adorned with a mustache is a famous example. The movement is regarded as a precursor of Surrealism. Some critics regard HAPPENINGS as a recent development of Dada. This movement incorporates environment and spectators as active and important ingredients in the production of random events.
Renaissance
A term meaning "rebirth", and appropriately describes the revival of the Classical arts. Both individual expression and worldly achievements influenced the movements.
Abstract Expressionism
American art movement of the 1940s that emphasized form and color within a nonrepresentational framework. Jackson Pollock initiated the revolutionary technique of splattering the paint directly on canvas to achieve the subconscious interpretation of the artist's inner vision of reality.
Art Nouveau
An 1890s style in architecture, graphic arts, and interior decoration characterized by writhing forms, curving lines, and asymmetrical organization. Some critics regard the style as the first stage of modern architecture.
Neoclassicism
An 18th-century reaction to the excesses of Baroque and Rococo, this European art movement tried to recreate the art of Greece and Rome by imitating the ancient classics both in style and subject matter.
Mannerism
Andrea del Sarto Jacopo da Pontormo Correggio
Symbolism
As part of a general European movement in the latter part of the 19th century, it was closely allied with Symbolism in literature. It marked a turning away from painting by observation to transforming fact into a symbol of inner experience. Gauguin was an early practitioner.
Cubist
Beginning in Paris, this movement had artists such as Pablo Picasso at its forefront. The style rejected long-time tradition by fragmenting and redefining a subject, encouraging a "new" representation and viewpoint.
Impressionism
Breaking away from the traditional painting style of Europe, Impressionism favored bold short strokes and the science of color to indicate tones and shades. The idea was to see the image as if you caught a glimpse of it. Several smaller movements involved within this movement.
Op Art
Bridget Riley Heinz Mack Victor Vasarely
Impressionism
Claude Monet Camille Pissarro Edgar Degas Pierre-Auguste Renoir Mary Cassatt Eduoard Manet
Cubism
Early 20th-century French movement marked by a revolutionary departure from representational art. Pablo Picasso and Georges Bracque penetrated the surface of objects, stressing basic abstract geometric forms that presented the object from many angles simultaneously.
Expressionism artists
Edvard Munch Ernst Ludwig Kirchner Franz Marc El Greco Wassily Kandinsky
Baroque
European art and architecture of the 17th and 18th centuries. Giovanni Bernini, a major exponent of the style, believed in the union of the arts of architecture, painting, and sculpture to overwhelm the spectator with ornate and highly dramatized themes. Although the style originated in Rome as the instrument of the Church, it spread throughout Europe in such monumental creations as the Palace of Versailles.
Baroque & Rococo
Following the Late Renaissance movement in Europe, this style proved to be more realistic and emotionally charged. It also produced many spiritual works of art. The 1th century ushered in this more elegant style
Rococo artists
Francois Boucher William Hogarth Giovanni Battista Tiepolo Angelica Kauffmann Giovanni Antonio Canaletto
Cubism
Georges Braque Pablo Picasso Paul Cézanne Jean Metzinger Albert Gleizes
Futurism
Giacomo Balla Umberto Boccioni Natalia Goncharova El Lissitzky Giovanni Segantini
Realism
Gustave Courbet Jean-Francois Millet Honore Daumier Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot J A MacNeil Whistler John Singer Sargeant
Symbolism
Gustave Moreau Odilon Redon Gustav Klimt
Fauvism artists
Henri Matisse Henri Rousseau Charles Camoin Jean Metzinger André Derain
Pop Art
In this return to representational art, the artist returns to the world of tangible objects in a reaction against abstraction. Materials are drawn from the everyday world of popular culture—comic strips, canned goods, and science fiction.
Abstract Expressionism
Jackson Pollock Willem de Kooning Arshile Gorky Hans Hofmann Mark Rothko
Neoclassicism
Jacques-Louis David Sir Henry Raeburn Sir Joshua Reynolds Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres Thomas Gainsborough Antonio Canova Arnold Bocklin
Impressionism
Late 19th-century French school dedicated to defining transitory visual impressions painted directly from nature, with light and color of primary importance. If the atmosphere changed, a totally different picture would emerge. It was not the object or event that counted but the visual impression as caught at a certain time of day under a certain light. Claude Monet and Camille Pissarro were leaders of the movement.
Surrealism
Marcel Duchamp Georgia O'Keeffe Max Ernst Sir Henry Moore Rene Magritte Joan Miro Salvador Dali Pablo Picasso Man Ray Dorothea Tanning MC Escher
Dada
Marcel Duchamp Hannah Höch Pablo Picasso Erik Satie Jean Crotti
Constructivism
Mayakovsky John Ernest Hermann Glöckner Richard Paul Lohse Anton Stankowski
Classicism
Michelangelo Raphael Correggio Mantegna Anton Raffael Mengs Johan Joachim Winckelman
Baroque artists
Rembrandt van Rijn Caravaggio Giovanni Bernini Peter Paul Rubens Diego Velázquez
Pop art
Richard Hamilton Roy Lichtenstein Robert Rauschenberg Andy Warhol David Hockney Jeff Koons Claes Oldenburg Tom Wesselmann
Abstract Expressionism
Sometimes referred to as the Golden Age of Art, this movement often used large canvases to display powerful emotions through brush strokes, color and texture.
Post-Impressionism
Still using the brilliant colors of impressionism and the expression of light and tone, these painters, who often began as impressionists, embraced a more personal self-expression in their art and moved away from the naturalist approach.
Art Deco
Tamara de Lempicka Joseph Csaky Antoine Bourdelle John Wagner Gheorghe Leonida
Op Art
The 1960s movement known as Optical Painting is characterized by geometrical forms that create an optical illusion in which the eye is required to blend the colors at a certain distance.
Fauvism
The name "wild beasts" was given to the group of early 20th-century French painters because their work was characterized by distortion and violent colors. Henri Matisse and Georges Rouault were leaders of this group.
Art Nouveau
This art was characterized by its use of asymmetrical lines. Flowers, vines, and leaves were commonly characterized with this style, as these forms took advantage of the sinuous curves.
Futurism
This early 20th-century movement originating in Italy glorified the machine age and attempted to represent machines and figures in motion. The aesthetics of Futurism affirmed the beauty of technological society.
Romanticism
This movement departed from Neoclassicalism by incorporating an interest in nature, imagination, and emotion. Considered an intellectual movement, it rebelled against social rules and celebrated nature.
Surrealism
This movement in art took from the imagination of dreams and the subconscious rather than a conscious formality.
Realism
This period also broke away from the Neoclassic style by painting figures and scenes as they were in everyday life. It generally displayed a moral message.
Neoclassical
This period focused on a French art style whose purpose was to revive Greek and Roman ideals in art. Its classical imagery reflected bravery and love of country.
Pointillism
This was a form of Post-Impressionism using small dots of color, that when juxtaposed, optically blended to create new colors, tones, and hues.
Fauvism
This was known for its use of intensely vibrant color and simplistic forms. These colors were often not natural in choice, and the style encouraged distortion of images or perspective.
Ashcan School
Thomas Pollock Anshutz Robert Henri Everett Shinn John French Sloan Edward Hopper
Art Nouveau
Théophile Steinlen Aubrey Beardsley Alphonse Mucha Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Jules Cheret