Method

• Realism


  Accurate, detailed, unembellished depiction of nature or of contemporary life. Rejects imaginative idealization in favour of close observation of outward appearances.
• Realism


  • A rice harvesting scene by Fernando Amorsolo
• Abstraction


  Art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect. Can be derived from a figurative or other natural source.
• Abstraction


  • Pablo Picasso, Girl Before a Mirror, 1932, MOMA
• Distortion


  • A change, twist, or exaggeration that makes something appear different from the way it really is. Alteration of the original shape of something.
• Elongation


  • Paintings that feature figures that are painted with their forms elongated much more than they are in reality.
• Elongation


  • Amedeo Modigliani-20th-century artist
• Mangling


  • Subjects or objects which are cut, lacerated, mutilated, torn, hacked or disfigured.
• Mangling


  • The Mangled Man is a painting by Michael Noeltner
• Cubism


  One of the most influential art movements of the early twentieth century, involving the analysis of the use of rudimentary shapes and overlapping planes to depict the separate forms of the subjects in a painting.
• Cubism


  • Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso
• Analytical Cubism


  Analyzed the use of rudimentary shapes and overlapping planes to depict the separate forms of the subjects in a painting. Refers to real objects in terms of identifiable details.
• Analytical Cubism


  • Daniel Henry Kahnweiler by Picasso (1910)
• Synthetic Cubism


  A popular style of artwork that includes characteristics like simple shapes, bright colors, and little to no depth. Birth of collage art.
• Synthetic Cubism


  • Still-Life With Chair Caning by Picasso (1912)
• Abstract Expressionism


  An artistic movement of the mid-20th century comprising diverse styles and techniques and emphasizing especially an artist's liberty to convey attitudes and emotions through nontraditional and usually nonrepresentational means.
• Action Painting


  • Characterized by a loose, rapid, dynamic, or forceful handling of paint in sweeping or slashing brushstrokes and in techniques partially dictated by chance, such as dripping or spilling the paint directly onto the canvas.
• Action Painting


  • Autumn Rhythm (Number 30), 1950 by Jackson Pollock
• Color Field Painting


  • The first style to resolutely avoid the suggestion of a form or mass standing out against a background. Figure and ground are one, and the space of the picture, conceived as a field, seems to spread out beyond the edges of the canvas.
• Color Field Painting


  • Green, Red and Blue (1953)
• Symbolism


  An intellectual form of expression where artists inject their compositions with messages and esoteric references, not just using color and shape to communicate their feelings.
• Symbolism


  • Caresses (detail; 1896), Fernand Khnopff
• Fauvism


  A style of painting developed in France at the beginning of the 20th century by Henri Matisse and André Derain, where color was used to express the artist's feelings about a subject, rather than simply to describe what it looks like.
• Fauvism


  • The Open Window, Collioure by Henri Matisse (1905), The Pool of London by André Derain (1906)
• Expressionism


  Art that is more associated with emotion or feeling than with literal interpretation of a subject. Uses vivid colors, distortion, two dimensional subjects that lack perspective.
• Expressionism


  • Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh (1889), The Scream by Edvard Munch (1893-1910)
• Dadaism


  A form of artistic anarchy born out of disgust for the social, political and cultural values of the time. More of a protest movement with an anti-establishment manifesto.
• Dadaism


  • L.H.O.O.Q by Marcel Duchamp (1919)
• Surrealism


  A movement in literature, the arts, and theatre that tries to integrate the confused realms of imagination and reality. Greatly influenced by the writings of Sigmund Freud and the exploration of the 'unconscious mind'.
• Surrealism


  • Metamorphosis of Narcissus by Salvador Dali (1937)
• Surrealism in Literature


  Freedom of Love by Andre Breton, featuring imagery that integrates the realms of imagination and reality.
• Futurism


  An Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world.
• Futurism


  • Unique Forms of Continuity in Space by Umberto Boccioni (1913)
• Impressionism


  An art movement in France at the end of the 19th century, emphasizing an artist's immediate impression of a moment or scene, usually communicated through the use of light and its reflection, short brushstrokes, and separation of colors.
• Impressionism


  • Impression, Sunrise by Claude Monet (1872)