Art movements: Top 10 important details that you should know;
1. The names of Art Movements often have the same ending of …isms (e.g. Impressionism & Surrealism) but not always
(e.g. Rococo & Pop Art). An “ism” is a suffix (an ending of a word) that usually refers to a belief, attitude and style.
2. Art movements are defined by a number of artists, often for various decades throughout history, who shared a
creative style and ethos during the same period; for example, Cubism (1097-1930s), represented seeing forms from
several angles at once - led by the artists, Picasso and Braque.
3. More often than not, art movements evolved out of the artists’ responses to the circumstances of what was
happening at that time, in terms of society, culture and politics; for example - Dadaism, (1916) which was a dramatic
artistic reaction to the causes and effects of the First World War.
4. Art movements were usually responses that included all of the Fine Arts, in general, such as Literature and Music; for
example, Romanticism in the 19th Century (1800-1850) included the artist, Caspar David Friedrich; poet, William
Wordsworth; author, Victor Hugo; musicians, Beethoven and Mozart. Incidentally, Fine Art usually refers to creations
that are designed for aesthetic (beauty) purpose. Fine Arts are mainly non-functional, as opposed to the Applied Arts
(application of design/decoration) where the purpose is the designing and making of things, such as car design.
5. In the period of the 14th to the 17th Centuries, the Renaissance (re-birth or revival) which was one of the most
important times in history, included probably the most well-known art movements and artists; Botticelli, Raphael,
Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci.
6. Those art movements ending with “isms” mainly relate from the early
20th Century and predominantly in the “Western World” and are due to
Modernism (“out with the old & in with the new!”) – A time of great
change with the growth of the Industrial Age.
7. Avant-garde (innovative & experimental) is a term that is associated
with those artists who are seen to push the boundaries of what has
come before, particularly in cultural acceptance.
Therefore,
such artists aim to challenge shock and provoke. This is demonstrated
by the artists such as
Damien Hirst and his shark in formaldehyde.
8. Although most of the art research that relates to Art Movements is
predominantly connected with “Western World” countries, specific
periods of Art are identified in many countries/cultures throughout the
world.
9. Although historically, most art movements are categorized by artworks that are produced in the major media,
including drawing, painting, print-making and sculpture. More recently, new and emerging media are often
mixed together, such as collage, animation, video and installation
10. Art movements are often sequential; in that they are
derived from what has come before and they go on to affect
the art movements that follow afterwards.
JR street artist
Rain room at MOMA
Jeff Koons
Renaissance (1495 - 1520) : Da Vinci, Michelangelo, Botticelli...
Renaissance means “rebirth”. It was a time when individual expression and worldly experience became two of the
main themes of Renaissance art. The movement owed a lot to the increasing sophistication of society,
characterised by political stability, economic growth and cosmopolitanism. Education blossomed at this time, with
libraries and academies allowing more thorough research to be conducted into the culture of the antique world.
To make paintings and sculptural reliefs look three dimensional. Renaissance artists worked out the mathematical
laws of perspective. Many of these artists came from Florence and it remained an important centre for the
Renaissance into the 16th century eventually to be overtaken by Rome and Venice.
Rococo (1715 -1760): Watteau
Rococo is Baroque art in excess.
This was an art favored by kings, princes and
prelates who had too much money to spend.
The ornamental quality of Rococo painting,
relief, sculpture, and architecture is often more
important than the subject matter.
Baroque art: is a highly ornate and often
extravagant style of architecture, art and music
that flourished in Europe from the early 17th
until the late 18th century. The baroque style
used contrast, movement, exuberant detail,
grandeur and surprise to achieve a sense of
awe. Such as the palace de Versailles.
Romanticism (late 1700s - early 1800s) : Delacroix
Romanticism occurred during the
American, French, and Industrial
revolutions.
They chose their style of art usually to
convey a political and/or spiritual
message.
Romantic artists shunned the Industrial
Revolution, attacked the excesses of
kings, and championed the rights of
the individual. Some took refuge in
nature; others sought and invigorating
mixture of fear and awe in sublime
landscapes and seascapes.
IMPRESSIONISM (1869 - 1880s): Cezanne, Monet, Gauguin...
Impressionism can be considered the first distinctly modern movement in
painting.
Its originators were artists who rejected the official,
government-sanctioned exhibitions and were consequently shunned by
powerful academic art institutions. In turning away from the fine finish
and detail to which most artists of their day aspired to, the Impressionists
aimed to capture the momentary, sensory effect of a scene - the
impression objects made on the eye in a fleeting instant. To achieve this
effect, many Impressionist artists moved from the studio to the streets and
countryside, painting en plein air, painting everyday life in natural light.
Their brushwork loosened and their palettes lightened to include pure,
intense colors. They abandoned traditional linear perspective and
avoided the clarity of form that had previously served to distinguish the
more important elements of a picture from the lesser ones. For this reason,
many critics faulted Impressionist paintings for their unfinished
appearance and seemingly amateurish quality.
Fauvism (1905 - 1908)
The Fauves ("wild beasts") were a loosely
allied group of French painters with shared
interests. Matisse emerged as the leader of
the group, whose members shared the use of
intense color as a vehicle for describing light
and space, and who redefined pure color
and form as means of communicating the
artist's emotional state. In these regards,
Fauvism proved to be an important precursor
to Cubism and Expressionism as well as a
touchstone for future modes of abstraction.
Fauvism pushed art in the direction of
abstraction by simplifying or distorting form
and by using expressive rather than
naturalistic colors.
CUBISM (1908 - 1920) : Braque, Picasso...
In Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and
reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting objects
from a single viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a
multitude of viewpoints to represent the subject in a greater
context.
George Braque and Pablo Picasso invented cubism so people
could observe all views of a person or an object at once, from
any angle.
Cubism has been considered to be among the most influential art
movements of the 20th century.
Dadaism (1916 - 1922)
It is an artistic movement in modern art that started around World War I. Its purpose was to ridicule the
meaninglessness of the modern world. It influenced surrealism, pop art, and punk rock. It favored going
against the standards of society. Followers of Dadaism included Antonin Artaud, Max Ernst, and
Salvador Dali. A later version, called Neo-Dada, arose in the 1960s.
Surrealism (1924 - 1940s) : Dali, Magritte...
The Surrealists sought to channel the unconscious
as a means to unlock the power of the
imagination.
They hoped that the psyche had the power to
reveal the contradictions in the everyday world
and spur on revolution. Their emphasis on the
power of personal imagination puts them in the
tradition of Romanticism, but unlike the romantics,
they believed that revelations could be found on
the street and in everyday life.
They painted their dreams and mixed up the
rational order of life in their art, by juxtaposing
objects that don’t normally fit together: a melting
clock hanging from a dead tree branch.
Expressionism
Pop art (1960): Andy Warhol...
Pop art started with the New York artists Andy Warhol,
Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and Claes
Oldenburg, all of whom drew on popular imagery and
were actually part of an international phenomenon.
Following the popularity of the Abstract Expressionists,
Pop's reintroduction of identifiable imagery (drawn
from mass media and popular culture) was a major
shift for the direction of modernism. The subject matter
became far from traditional "high art" themes of
morality, mythology, and classic history; rather, Pop
artists celebrated commonplace objects and people
of everyday life, in this way seeking to elevate popular
culture to the level of fine art. Perhaps owing to the
incorporation of commercial images, Pop art has
become one of the most recognizable styles of
modern art.
Contemporary Art