Art Movements

Surrealism is a literary, philosophical, and artistic movement from the 20th century that emphasized the poetic, the revolutionary, and the irrational while exploring the mind’s inner workings. It is characterized by the: incorporation of juxtaposition; exploration of unconsciousness; dreams and fantasies and focus on the irrational. In the introduction to a play produced in 1917, …

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Art Nouveau is a design movement that began in Belgium, grew gradually and spread across boundaries throughout 1880-1910. The term “Art Nouveau” was initially used to characterize the work of the group of twenty artists known as Les Vingt in the 1880s Belgian newspaper L’Art Moderne. The 1895 opening of the Parisian art gallery Maison …

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Baroque is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, and poetry that thrived from the early 17th century through the 1750s in the history of western art. Baroque art characteristics include: Chiaroscuro, Tenebrism, Quadro Riportato, and Illusionism (Trompe l’Oeil and Quadratura). The Baroque period came after the Renaissance and Mannerism art periods and before …

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Port Art is a movement that emerged in the mid-to-late 1950s in both the United States and the United Kingdom. Emerging in the mid 1950s in Britain and late 1950s in America, pop art reached its peak in the 1960s. By using imagery from popular art and mass cultures, such as advertisements, comic books, and …

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Art Deco was a style marked by bold colors and daring geometry that produced opulent and intricate artwork. The Art Deco style is especially reminiscent of Ancient Egyptian aesthetics. This is shown by the use of simple geometric forms, fields of unblended color, symmetry, and a focus on line, as Art Deco artists sought to …

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Cubism is an avant-garde art movement characterized by the breaking down of forms into geometric shapes to the point where representation confronts abstraction. Often this had an uneasy effect and had as a result of the establishment of multiple viewpoints within a single work. At first, this was done on the flat two-dimensional surface but …

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Abstract Expressionism describes a style of abstract art developed in New York City in the 1940s and 50s by American painters. The movement developed following World War II, and is also known as the New York School. Being the first American artistic movement to achieve international influence, Abstract Expressionism effectively shifted the creative center of …

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The rigid rules of classical art and the social unrest emerging due to widespread industrialization created the conditions for a rebellious group of young British artists to express their discontentment. The English Pre Raphaelite painters formed the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (PRB) in 1848. The Pre Raphaelite vision was to convey a new spiritual seriousness and sincerity …

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Renaissance art is the decorative, fine, and applied arts produced during the Renaissance, a time in European history. The cornerstone of Renaissance art was Classical antiquity, considered to be the most noble of all historical traditions. The Renaissance period began in Florence, Italy, approximately in the 14th century. Famous supporters of the movement included members …

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The Hudson River School was an American art movement that began in the middle of the 19th century through 1825-1870. It was led by a group of landscape painters who were influenced by Romanticism in terms of style. The Hudson River School was the first American art school to be included in the canon of …

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