artistic trends - main features

7/28/2019 Artistic Trends - Main Features

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ARTISTICTREND

FEATURES

Carolingian art(800-814)

- Naturalistic figure style- Vivid expressiveness

Renaissance(14th 16th c.)

- Term meaning rebirth [= revival of the values of theclassical world], applied to an intellectual or artistic

movement- The picture seems much too simplistic

- A period of gradual change in painting- In architecture, the revival of the antique (see

Brunelleschi, the firstRenaissance architect)

Mannerism

(1520-1600 Italy)(20th c. Europe)

- The artistic era between the High Renaissance and

theBaroque (Italy)- The implication of cadence, superficiality and

exaggeration (Italy)- Tension, emotionalism, elongation of the human

figure, strained poses, unusual effects of scale,lighting or perspective (Europe)

- Vivid, sometimes harsh or lurid colours (Europe)

Naturalism(17th c., but even

earlier with Greek

sculpture)

- The doctrine: copying nature faithfully whether itseems to us ugly or beautiful

- Sometimes minute attention to detail

Classicism(17th, 18th c.)

- Adherence to recognized aesthetic ideals; universality

& idealism- Harmony, clarity & restraint

- Preference for line over colour- Straight lines over curves- The individuality of expression is less important; the

general over the particular- Direct inspiration from antique art- Dependence on ancient models, but without any sense


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of qualitative judgment

Baroque(1600-1740)

- Capricious, florid style

- Emphasis is laid on motion, physical strength,sensuality and pathos (see Rubens)- Ample gestures

- Monumental grandeur of the compositions- Bright colours

- Mythological subjects sometimes depicted

Rococo

(18th c.)

- Against the weightierBaroque style- The complexity of form

- A delicate play on the surface- Light pinks, blues, greens- White is prominent

Romanticism(late 18th c. early

19th c.)

- Against the rationalism ofNeoclassicism- Emotion prevails over reasoning

- A more intense colour palette (if compared withprevious artistic movements)

- More dramatic subject-matters the sentiments are

stressed on- Melancholy, discontentment and excess very much

exploited- Most artists were landscape painters- Imagination as a basis for artistic creations

- The Art for the arts sake principle was valued art shouldnt be concerned with subject-maters such

as: literature, history, religion, science

Neo-Classicism(late 18th c. early

19th c.)

- Desire to recreate the spiritual forms of art of Greeceand Rome

- A reaction against the light-hearted and frivolousRococo style

Barbizon School(1840)

- Landscape painting for its own sake

- A realistic view of the nature

- Attempts precise imitation of external and historical

experience


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Realism(1840-1870)

- Insists on empirical observation, on fact- Erich Auerbach, in Mimesis, underlines the long

historical dimension ofRealism and that it cannotlogically be formless, nor beyond form

- Art becomes humanized, it emphasizes character,controls fantasy and idealism

- Sceptical view (in the spirit of W.D. Howells)- Both in painting and in literature, Realism evolved

towards Impressionism (stressing the aesthetic andperceptual technique, the new way of setting down

what was seen) and towardsNaturalism (emphasizingthe scientific and evolutionary elements that help

interpret the subject)

Impressionism( 1860)

- In revolt from the basic principles ofRomanticismthat art should convey intense personal emotion- Landscape as a more typical theme

- Tried to catch the effects of light on varied surfaces- Tender soft hues

- Bright colours and sketchy brush-work that seemedbewildering or shocking to traditionalists

- Empirical and spontaneous in the representation oflight and colour

Aestheticism(late 19th c.)

- Art is self-sufficient: it serves no other purposes (e.g.religion, etc.)

Neo-Impressionism(late 19th c.)

- A development from Impressionism and a reactionagainst it

- Concerned with the representation of light and colourhighly based on scientific principles

- Highly formalized compositions

Pointillism /Divisionism(late 19th c.)

- Another name Divisionism, was preferred by Seurat

and Signac- Technique of using regular small touches / dots of

pure colour in such a way as that, when a picture isviewed from a suitable distance, they seem to reacttogether optically, creating more vibrant coloureffects and achieving a maximum of luminosity (than

if the same colours are physically mixed together)

- The dots were of a uniform size, chosen to harmonizewith the scale of the work


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Symbolism(late 19th c.)

- Rejection of direct, literal representation in favour of

evocation and suggestion- It gives visual, sensuous expression to emotional

experiences- Forms, colour, lines in themselves could express ideas

- Primitive simplicity in the conception of the subject- Religious feeling of an intense, mystical kind- Variation from firm outlines to misty softness in the

delineation of forms

Art Nouveau(1890)

- The use of asymmetrical lines based on plant forms- Elements of interior design sometimes employed in

the figurative paintings

Expressionism(1905-1930)

- A rebellion against theNaturalism of the 19th c.

- Insistence on the supreme importance of the artist` spersonal feeling

- The use of distortion and exaggeration for emotionaleffect

Futurism

(1909)

- Celebrates modern technology, dynamism and power

- The rendering of motion

Cubism(1907-1914)

- The subjects represented into a multiplicity of facets(not a single, fixed viewpoint)

- In a second phase, Synthetic Cubism, the colour ismuch stronger and shapes more decorative

- One of the principal sources ofAbstract Art

Abstract Art(1910-1920)

- It does not depict recognizable objects or scenes non-figurative, non-representational, non-objectiveform of art

- Sometimes, there is not a matter of style, but a meansof expressing deeply felt ideas

- Formal qualities may exist independently of subject-matter

- The reduction of natural (= to summarize, toconcentrate) appearance to radically simplified forms

- Often simple, geometrical forms

- Spontaneous, free expressions (seeAction PaintingofJackson Pollock)

- Forms and colours exist for their own expressive sake


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Orphism

(1911-1914)

- Developed from Cubism

- All reference to Orpheus (the singer and the poet ofGreek mythology)

- A new element of lyricism- Colour, the principal means of artistic expression- Total non-representational picture

Rayonism(1912-1914)

- Also called Rayonnism, Rayism, Luchism- A type of (semi-)abstract painting practised by the

Russian artists: Goncharova and Larionov- A synthesis ofCubism, Futurism and Orphism

- The style was bound up with a theory of invisible

rays, in some ways analogous to the lines of forceemitted by the objects and intercepted by otherobjects in the vicinity

- Particular emphasis on breaking up the subject intobundles of slanting lines

- Sometimes, the subject virtually or completelydisappears

MetaphysicalPainting

(1913-1920)

- it.pittura metafisica- Images conveying a sense of mystery and

hallucination- Mysterious inhuman calmness in the pictures- Unreal perspectives and lighting- Empty city spaces

- Banal ordinary things- Strange iconography: the use of tailor` s dummies and

statues in place of human figures

Fauvism

(beginning of the20th c.)

- Intensely vivid naturalistic colours used in anaggressive and subjective way

- Exploration of the beauty of pure colour- Source of Expressionism

Dada(1915-1922)

- Anarchic revolt against traditional values- Adopted the Cubist techniques of collage and

montage

- anti-art / A term used for works of the Dadamovement, which used the arts to attack or deride allestablished institutions, including the very notion of


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art.

Constructivism(1920s)

- Internationally influential Soviet art movement, based

on elimination of easel painting- Applies a three-dimensional Cubist vision (inspired

by the sculptor Alexander Archipenko)- It was made up of two threads: 1. the concern with

space and rhythm (expressed in Anton Pevsners andNaum Gabos Realist Manifesto 1920) and 2. (a

tussle within Education Commissariat between suchsupporters of pure art and a more socially orientatedgroup headed by Alexei Gan, Alexander Rodchenkoand Varvara Stepanova, who) wanted this art to be

absorbed in industrial production

- In Russia, meanwhile, both sides became identifiedwith Formalism

Surrealism(1920-1930)

- Closely related to DADA (but not nihilist as Dada),positive in spirit

- Releases the creative powers of the subconscious

- Gives a hallucinatory sense of reality to scenes thatmake no rational sense

Degenerate Art(1930s)

- A modern art that was forbidden to exhibit any moreand such paintings on display were confiscated and

sold at auction- Art that did not follow the ideology of Nazi party and

racial theories- Not traditional in concept and technique

Concrete Art

(from 1930onwards)

- Term used in the Abstraction-Cration Group, when

Hans Arp called his sculptures concretions- The Swiss Max Bill based his strongly geometrical art

on mathematical reasoning

Abstract

Expressionism(1940-1950)

- Working on a huge scale- The emphasis placed on surface qualities so that the

flatness of the canvas is stressed- All-over type of treatment (it means uniformity: not

top, bottom, centre of the composition) the wholearea of the picture is regarded as equally important

- The glorification of the act of painting itself


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Tachisme(1940-1950)

- Irregular dabs or splotches of colour

- Strives to be spontaneous and instinctive, excludingdeliberation and formal planning

- More elegant and less aggressive than the work of theAmerican Abstract Expressionists

Colour FieldPainting

(late 1940s-early1950s)

- A type of Abstract Painting characterized by largeexpanses of more or less unmodulated colour, with no

strong contrasts of tone or obvious focus of attention- It leads to another tendency called Colour Stain

Painting, consisting in soaking and staining very thinpaint into raw unprimed canvas, so that the paint is

integral with it rather than superimposed

Op Art(in the 1960s)

- Exploits certain optical phenomena to cause a work to

seem to vibrate, pulsate or flicker- Op artists employ devices such as: after-images,

effects of dazzle and vibration, which are oftenelaborations of visual illusions

- Maximum precision is sought in the control ofsurfaces and edges in order to evoke an exactly

prescribed retinal response- Often, repeated small-scale patterns arranged so as to

suggest underlying secondary shapes or warping orswelling surfaces

- Sometimes, constructions that depend for their effecton light and movement Op Art and Kinetic Art

might overlap

- Avant-garde visual art, abstract or figurative- It evolves out ofMinimal Art, which it crosses withiconoclastic strands of theory and practice stemming

from Marchel Duchamp andDADA, to emerge as oneof the most single-minded examples of aesthetic

Nihilism yet produced by the modern movement- Emphasizes content & deliberately neglects form- Involves eccentric materials: earth (earth art), cloth

and refuse, everyday media such as neon lights, maps,

essays, photographs and human bodies (body art),

which it uses in random assemblages- The sand-paintings- Painting with acid on nylon, cloth, etc.


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Conceptual Art /Self-Destructive

Art

(about 1965)

- Installations encouraging spectator participation- Systematic yet banal design

- Aims at direct communication of a concept- Treats the material means of communication as

unimportant disposable, inexpressive andanaesthetic (! paradoxically, these material products

are claimed to be works of art)- Self-destructive art / A term used of any artefact

designed to damage itself though generally with alittle help from outside. Celebrated examples are the

Swiss sculptor Jean Tinguelys machines whichdismantled themselves (e.g. Study no. 2 for an End

of the World, detonated in the Nevada Desert) andGustav Metzgers nylon cloth which be destroyedwith hydrochloric acid

- Relatives of Conceptual Art are:Body Art(i.e. body

as a medium) and Performance Art (= an art formcombining elements of theatre, music, and the visual

arts)

Neo-Expressionism

(in the late1970s)

- Intense subjectivity of feeling- Aggressively raw handling of materials- Large and rapidly executed paintings

- Materials such as: straw or broken crockery

embedded in their surface- Usually figurative paintings- Often with violent and doom-laden subjects- The image is sometimes almost lost in the welter of

surface activity

Land Art(20th c.)

- A recent tendency overlapping with the ConceptualArt

- Adds or modifies landscape, often on a large scale

Sources:

- Arta Istoria vizual a artelor plastice, volum editat de Elke Linda Buchholz, GerhardBhler, Karoline Hille, Susanne Kaeppele, Irina Stotland, Bucureti, Ed. Litera

Internaional, 2008

- Bullock, Alan, Stallybrass, Oliver, The Fontana Dictionary of Modern Thought, London,Fontana / Collins, 1983

- Chilvers, Ian, Oxford Concise Dictionary of Art and Artists, Oxford and New York, OxfordUniversity Press, 1996

- Encyclopaedia Britannica Deluxe EditionCD ROM, Theodore Pappas (Editor Executiv),


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2004

- Mari pictori / Art Gallery Magazines, 2001-2007, Odorheiul-Secuiesc , Romnia

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