Art Movements

The Baroque is a significant artistic style in Western culture that comprised various forms of expression such as architecture, painting, sculpture, music, dance,  poetry, and other arts. Baroque art thrived from the beginning of the 17th century to the 1750s. The style originated in Rome and quickly spread to other European countries like Italy, Spain, France, and Portugal. …

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Renaissance art movement emerged in the 1400s in Italy and lasted through to the 1600s. Renaissance introduced innovative techniques and styles to the fields of painting, sculpture, and architecture, marking a shift from the artistic norms of the Middle Ages. Artists of this era drew inspiration from ancient times while harnessing rapid developments in science and technology …

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American Impressionism is an art movement characterized by its use of broken brushstrokes, asymmetrical balance, pure colors, colored shadows, and outdoor scene painting. Impressionism originated in the middle of the nineteenth century and was adopted by American artists in the country at the start of the twentieth century. The colors and vivid brushwork of French …

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Neo-Impressionism emerged in the late 19th century and rejected the spontaneous brushwork of Impressionism in favor of a more structured approach to creating paintings; it used a methodical technique known as Pointillism or Divisionism, which involved the application of thousands of tiny dots. This movement was influenced by the scientific examination of color theory and …

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1. Michelangelo Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni, known as Michelangelo, was a central figure of the Italian Renaissance, an era marked by a surge of cultural and artistic development from the 14th to the 17th Century. Born in 1475, he was renowned for his unparalleled skill and diversity in multiple disciplines including painting, sculpture, and …

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Impressionism, an iconic movement in art’s landscape that flourished in the 19th century, dramatically shifted traditional artistic perspectives and paved the way for modern art. In this vibrant and ephemeral world of Impressionism, a unique cadre of artists – including the likes of Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Edouard Manet – made their indelible mark, …

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Impressionism has dominated the art world for about 150 years, and the general public and art experts admire it. The innovative genre, renowned for its painters’ avant-garde approaches to painting, has aided in the formation and impacted the development of various art movements, firmly establishing its position as the driving force behind modern art. It …

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The Arts and Crafts Movement is an art movement characterized by the use of high natural quality materials, emphasis on utility in design and a harmonious relationship with nature. The movement emerged in the mid-19th century and initiated a shift in societal perception of the significance of craftsmanship. It was a global movement in the …

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An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time. Art movements are characterized by a unique style, technique, or thematic approach that emerges and is adopted by multiple artists. These movements often reflect or respond …

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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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The Barbizon School was an informal group of French painters that produced work in and around the village of Barbizon, which lies just outside of Paris close to the Forest of Fontainebleau. They were pioneers of the Naturalist movement in landscape art painting. Barbizon school is characterized by tonal qualities, colour harmony, loose brushwork, and gentleness …

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The Realism Art Movement began in the middle of the 19th century as a response to Romanticism and History painting. Realism movement thrived in France from 1840 to the end of the nineteenth century and tried to depict modern life honestly and impartially. Characteristics of the realism art movement include depictions of regular workers and …

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Post-Impressionism is a predominantly French art movement, that arose as a reaction to Impressionism and scientific approach on the naturalistic depiction of light and color. It is an art movement characterized by vivid styles and colors, thick paint applications, clear brush strokes, and more symbolic content. Other notable characteristics in their creation are stress geometric …

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Futurism is an avant-garde art and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th century. Futurist movement highlighted the dynamic, speed, energy, and force of machines and the vigor, change, and restlessness of the modern world. The representation of motion and speed is a distinctive feature of futurist art. They specifically followed the idea …

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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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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 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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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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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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The Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Engravers, etc., consisting of Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Berthe Morisot, Edgar Degas, Alfred Sisley, and Paul Cezanne, independently presented their works for the first time in 1874. The exhibition was held at 35 Boulevard des Capucines, the old studio of photographer Nadar. It was revolutionary to consider …

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