Important Art Movements

Miss McDaniel6th Grade Art

Introduction to Art

Art Throughout the Ages

Art is typically broken down into what is known as art movements. Art movements are 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.

There are many different art movements throughout history, but the most well-known artists (Leonardo Da Vinci, Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock) are typically grouped into only a few of the most important art movements.

Important Art Movements• The Renaissance

• Baroque• Impressionism• Fauvism• Expressionism• Abstract Expressionism• Cubism• Dada• Surrealism• Pop Art

The RenaissanceThe humanistic revival of classical art, architecture, literature, and learning that originated in Italy in the 14th century and later spread throughout Europe.

• Occurred in 14th to 15th century• It was a revival or rebirth of cultural

awareness• Artwork reverted back to Greek & Roman Art• There was an emphasis on science, humans

and their environment, and philosophy• Art was realistic and religious in subject

matter but contained much symbolism

The RenaissanceFamous Renaissance Artists:• Leonardo Da Vinci• Michaelangelo• Raphael

BaroqueArt used exaggerated motion and clear, easily interpreted detail to produce drama, tension, exuberance, and grandeur.

• Occurred in 17th century Italy & Europe• Similar to the Renaissance in subject

matter but painters put emotion, movement, and contrast into works

• More common, every-day scenes; not as much religious imagery

• Beginnings of chiaroscuro

BaroqueFamous Baroque Artists:• Caravaggio

ImpressionismAn attempt to accurately and objectively record visual reality in terms of transient effects of light and color

• Occurred in France from 1860’s – 1880’s• A light, spontaneous manner of painting with

short, quick brushstrokes• Painted candid glimpses of subjects showing

effect of light at different times of day• The Impressionist style was probably the

single most successful and identifiable “movement” ever and is still wisely practiced today.

ImpressionismFamous Impressionist Artists:• Claude Monet• Jean Renoir• Mary Cassatt• Edgar Degas

FauvismAn early-20th-century movement in painting begun by a group of French artists and marked by the use of bold, often distorted forms and vivid colors.

• Occurred in France from 1898-1908• Means “Wild Beast”• Use of intense colors – in uncontrolled way –

it is not usually realistic color• Subject matter mostly realistic – it is

somewhat stylized and simplified, but completely abstracted

• Was a substantial influence on some of the Expressionists

FauvismFamous Fauvist Artists:• Henri Matisse• Paul Gauguin

ExpressionismA style of art in which the intention is not to reproduce a subject accurately, but instead to portray it in such a way as to express the inner state of the artist

• Occurred in Germany from 1905-1940’s• EMOTIONAL!• Many different “schools” or groups of

artists for this movement (Der Blaue Reiter, Bauhaus)

ExpressionismFamous Expressionist Artists:• Edvard Munch• Kathe Kollwitz

Abstract ExpressionismA school of painting that flourished after World

War II until the early 1960s, characterized by the view that art is nonrepresentational and chiefly improvisational.

• Occurred in New York City from 1946-1960• Artist expresses himself purely through the use of

form and color. Fast, spontaneous brushstrokes• It was non-representational or non-objective art

which means that there are no actual objects represented

• Considered to be the first American artistic movement of international importance

Abstract ExpressionismThere were two different groups:

Action PaintingAction PaintingStressed the physical action involved in

painting

Color Field PaintingColor Field PaintingPrimarily concerned with exploring the

effects of pure color on a canvas

Abstract Expressionism

Famous Abstract Expressionist Artists:Action PaintersAction Painters

* Jackson PollockColor Field PaintersColor Field Painters

* Willem de Kooning* Kandinsky* Rothko

CubismA non-objective school of painting and sculpture developed in Paris in the early 20th century, characterized by the reduction and fragmentation of natural forms into abstract, often geometric structures usually rendered as a set of discrete planes.

• Occurred in Europe from 1908-1920• Was inspired by African art & Fauvism• Subject matter was broken up, analyzed, and

reassembled in abstract form (broken down into basic shapes)

• “Essence” of an object can only be captured by showing it from many perspectives/views at once

• The most influential art movement of recent years…influenced almost all art of 20th century

CubismFamous Cubist Artists:• Pablo Picasso• Georges Braque

DadaA European artistic and literary movement (1916-1923) that flouted conventional aesthetic and cultural values by producing works marked by nonsense, travesty, and incongruity.

• Occurred in Europe from 1916-1924• Was a protest by a group of European artists against

World War I, bourgeois society, and the conservatism of traditional thought

• It ridiculed contemporary culture and traditional art forms

• It included random “found” objects in sculptures and installations

• The artists were mostly trying to make personal statements about issues in society or about what “art” is

DadaFamous Dadaist Artists:• Jean Arp• Marcel Duchamp

SurrealismA 20th-century literary and artistic movement that attempts to express the workings of the subconscious and is characterized by fantastic imagery and incongruous juxtaposition of subject matter.

• Occurred in Europe from 1924-1950’s• The movement originated in Dada• Fantastical visual imagery from the subconcious

mind is used with no intention of making the work logically comprehensible

• Mostly realistically drawn/painted, the objects are just combined in weird ways or are dream-like

• Influenced by psychoanalytic work of Freud and Jung

SurrealismFamous Surrealist Artists:• Salvador Dali• Rene Magritte• Max Ernst

Pop ArtA form of art that depicts objects or scenes from everyday life and employs techniques of commercial art and popular illustration.

• Occurred in New York City in the 1960’s• It focused attention on familiar images/objects of pop culture• The interest was in mass media, advertising, comics, and

consumer products• Emphasizes flatness and frontal presentation, bright and bold

colors• They use mechanical and other deliberately inexpressive

techniques that imply the removal of the artist’s hand and suggest the depersonalized processes of mass production

• It is almost a joke about what we, as a society, hold important. So these artists are saying that we’ve made the objects/people so important that they are depicted as art.

Pop ArtFamous Pop Art Artists:• Andy Warhol• Roy Lichtenstein