humanities

• Realism (1848-1900) was believed to be the first modern art movement, a result of the anti-Romantic movement in Germany, the rise of journalism, and the advent of photography, which encouraged new interest in capturing activities of everyday life in a more precise manner
• Realism


  • Artwork featured detailed, lifelike depictions of the subject matter
• Gustave Courbet


  One of the most influential leaders of the Realist movement, a French artist committed to painting only what he could physically see
• Impressionism (1865-1885)

  • Impressionist painters focused on encapsulating the impression of an exact moment, used short, quick brushstrokes and an unfinished sketch-like feel, with modern life as their subject
• Claude Monet


  One of the leading contributors of the Impressionist period, notable work "Impression, Sunrise" (1872) from which the name of the movement was derived
• Post-Impressionism (1885-1910)


  • Post-Impressionist painters concentrated on subjective visions and symbolic, personal meanings rather than observations of the outside world in the form of abstraction
• Influential Post-Impressionist artists

  • Georges Seurat (known for pointillism)
  • Vincent van Gogh (used rugged brushstrokes and dark tones in search for personal expression)
• Art Nouveau (1890-1910)


  • Tried to create a totally genuine movement free from any imitation of styles that came before it, influenced by applied arts, graphics, and illustration, focused on the natural world, characterized by long, sinuous lines and curves
• Significant Art Nouveau artists

  • Alphonse Mucha (graphic designer known for theatrical posters)
  • Antoni Gaudí (Spanish architect and sculptor who created curving, brightly-colored constructions like the Basilica de la Sagrada Familia in Barcelona)
• Fauvism (1900-1935)


  • Emphasized the expressive use of intense color, line and brushwork, a bold sense of surface design and flat composition, built upon the artwork of Vincent Van Gogh and George Seurat
• Henri Matisse


  Led Fauvism, his works were accentuated by painterly qualities and strong color rather than the representational or realistic values of Impressionism
• Expressionism (1905-1920)


  • Sought to display anxieties and raw emotions through the artists' works that show distortion of form and strong colors, due to the growing conflict in world views and loss of spirituality
• Prominent Expressionist groups

  • Die Brücke (The Bridge)
  • Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)
• Cubism (1907-1914)


  • Discarded the idea that art should imitate nature, moved away from customary techniques and perspectives, creating radically fragmented objects through abstraction, characterized by flat, two-dimensional surfaces, geometric forms or cubes of objects and contrasting vantage points
• Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque


  Led Cubism
• Surrealism (1916-1950)


  • Defied reason, denouncing rational mindset, attributed this kind of thinking to events like World War I which made people repress their imaginative thoughts, sought to tap into the unconscious mind to portray revelations found on the street and in everyday life
• Salvador Dalí

  Surrealist artist whose paintings depict historical accuracy paired with vivid and bizarre dreams
• Abstract Expressionism (1940-1950s)


  • Preferred to do away with traditional techniques and instead used spontaneity and improvisation to create abstract action whose size could no longer be placed on an easel but instead, canvases are directly placed upon the floor
• Abstract Expressionist painters


  • Jackson Pollock (known for his unique style of drip painting)
  • Mark Rothko (whose "Orange and Yellow" painting employed large blocks of color to convey a sense of spirituality)
• Op Art (1950-1960)


  Short for "optical art", used shapes, colors, and patterns to create images or patterns that appear to be moving or blurring, most of the time produced in black and white for maximum contrast, meant to both confuse and excite the eye
• Known Op Art practitioner

  • Bridget Riley (her 1964 artwork "Slave" featured zigzag black and white lines that create the fusion of a circular descent)
• Pop Art (1950s-1960s)


  • Used everyday objects to create innovative works of art that feature bold and vivid colors, and challenged consumerism and mass media
• Famous Pop Art work

  • Andy Warhol's "Campbell's Soup Cans"
• Arte Povera (1960s)


  • Introduced common place materials into artworks to challenge the modernist, contemporary systems, many of the notable works during this period are sculptural in nature wherein soil, rocks, paper, rope, and other natural elements were used to evoke a pre-industrial sentiment
• Notable Arte Povera work

  • Mario Merz's "Claps Igloo", made from materials from everyday life, focused on the necessities of life - shelter, warmth, and food
• Minimalism (1950s-1960s)


  • Founded by younger artists in New York who probed the overly expressive works of Abstract Expressionism, invited the viewers to focus on what exactly the art portrays rather than draw interpretations that are beyond one's emotions and reality, used purified forms, order, simplicity and harmony
• American Minimalist artist

  • Frank Stella (featured a pattern of rectilinear stripes of uniform width printed in metallic block ink in his non-representational painting called "Black Paintings")
• Conceptual Art (1960s-1970s)


  • Focused on ideas and concepts, therefore, there is no distinct style or form, completely rejected the previous periods of art where artists valued ideas over visual components, artworks are in the form of performances, ephemera (any transitory written or printed matters that are not meant to be retained or preserved), and other forms
• Conceptual Art work


  • Joseph Kosuth's "One and Three Chairs", which featured one chair in three different ways to convey different meanings of the same object
• Contemporary Art (1970s-present)


  • Marked by the exploration of Postmodernism, Feminist Art, Neo-Expressionism, Street Art, Appropriation Art, Digital Art and other small movements
• Leading Contemporary Art contributor

  • Jeff Koons (famous work "Michael Jackson and Bubbles" in 1988)
• Contemporary art is inspired by Postmodernism, where artworks reflected skepticism, irony and philosophical attitudes, in response against modernism</b>
• Feminist Art attempted to transform stereotypes and break the typical male-dominated art history
• Neo-Expressionism opened the opportunity to revive the original aspects of Abstract Expressionism in order to create highly textual, expressive and large works
• Street art, also known as craft-like art on surfaces in public places such as sidewalks, buildings, and overpasses, conveys messages related to political ideas, social commentary or confrontation
• The Pictures Generation, guided by Conceptual and Pop Art, experimented with appropriation of images from mass media and popular culture