INFLUENTIAL MODERN ART MOVEMENTS

REALISM - a genre of art that began in France after the French Revolution of 1848.

A rejection of Romanticism, which focused on contemporary people and daily life.

Artists:  Gustav Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet

 

IMPRESSIONISM- began in the early 1860s in France using visible brushstrokes, vivid colours with little mixing, and open compositions to capture the emotion of light and movement.

The Impressionists broke with academic tradition by painting en plein air.

Artists: Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and Frédéric Bazille,e. 

 

Example - “Water Lilies” by Claude Monet. 1906. Art Institute of Chicago.

 

POST-IMPRESSIONISM - originated in France between 1886 and 1905 as a response to the Impressionist movement.

Artists reacted against the need for the naturalistic depictions of light and colour, united by the inclusion of abstract elements and symbolic content in their artwork.

Post-Impressionism covers many different types of art, from the Pointillism of Georges Seurat to the Symbolism of Paul Gauguin. .

The most well known Post-Impressionist is Vincent Van Gogh, who used colour and his brushstrokes not to convey the emotional qualities of the landscape, but his own emotions and state of mind.

Artists: Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin

Example: The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh

 

CUBISM -  is one of the most important art movements of the 20th century.

Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque developed Cubism in the early 1900s, with the term being coined by art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1907 to describe the artists.

The artists used geometric forms to build up the final representation. Completely breaking with any previous art movement, objects were analysed and broken apart, only to be reassembled into an abstracted form with minimal lines and shapes.

Artists: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris

Example: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon by Pablo Picasso

 

SURREALISM - started in the 1920s using imaginative imagery drawn from by the subconscious which became a signature of this type of art.

The movement began when a group of visual artists adopted automatism, a technique that relied on the subconscious for creativity.

Artists: Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte

Example: The Persistence of Memoryby Salvador Dalí

 

ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM - is an American art movement that started after World War II.

The genre developed in the 1940s and 1950s, though earlier artists like Wassily Kandinsky also used the term to describe work.

Jackson Pollock is a leader of the movement, his drip paintings spotlighting the spontaneous creation and gestural paint application that defines the genre.

Artists: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still

IExample:  Autumn Rhythm (Number 30) by Jackson Pollock

 

POP ART - is a post-war style that emerged in Britain and America,

Includes imagery from advertising, comic books, and everyday objects which is often satirical,

Pop Art emphasized banal elements of every day items like a soup can, 

Artists: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns

Example: Campbell's Soup Cans by Andy Warhol

 

KINETIC ART - expresses movement in art.

In the early 1900s, artists began to experiment with art in motion, with sculptural machine and mobiles pushing kinetic art forward.

In contemporary terms, kinetic art encompasses sculptures and installations that have movement as their primary consideration. 

Artists: Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Anthony Howe

Example: Arc of Petals by Alexander Calder

 

PHOTOREALISM - is a style of art that is concerned with the technical ability to wow viewers.

In the late 1960s and 1970s it was a reaction against Abstract Expressionism.where artists were concerned with replicating a photograph to the best of their ability, carefully planning their work to great effect and without the spontaneity of Abstract Expressionism.

Similar to Pop Art, Photorealism has a focus on consumer culture.

Artists: Chuck Close, Ralph Going, 

Exampl: Untitled by Yigal Ozeri 2012

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