ART MOVEMENTS
A style developed in the mid-20th century. It emphasized form and color rather than an actual subject. Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning were abstract expressionists.
A form of art and architecture that was popular in Europe in the 17th and early 18th centuries. Baroque art was very ornate, dramatic and realistic. The Palace of Versailles near Paris is considered to be the greatest example of baroque architecture. Caravaggio and Rembrandt were baroque painters.
A style of art that stressed basic abstract geometric forms and often presented the subject from many angles at the same time. Pablo Picasso was a cubist painter.
Expressionist painters interpreted things around them in exaggerated, distorted and emotional ways. Edvard Munch was one of the best-known Expressionist painters.
A style developed in France during the late 19th century. The impressionists tried to capture an immediate visual interpretation of their subjects by using color rather than lines. Claude Monet and Pierre Auguste Renoir were impressionist painters.
This style was popular from the 1950s through the 1970s. Minimalist paintings and sculpture were very simple, both in how they were presented and what they represented. Richard Serra was a Minimalist artist, and Frank Stella devoted part of his career to Minimalism.
An art movement that emerged in England and the United States after 1950. Pop artists use materials from the everyday world of popular culture, such as comic strips, canned goods, and science fiction. Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein were pop artists.
The Post-impressionists followed the Impressionists. The movement originated in Paris and was popular in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Post-impressionist painters rebelled against the reality of impressionism and created emotional, personal works. Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin were post-impressionist painters.
A style of art popular in the early 19th century. Romantic artists produced exotic, emotional works that portrayed an idealized world and nostalgia for the past. William Blake was a member of the romantic school of painters.
Surrealist artists came from all over the world. The movement, popular in the 1920s, drew on images from artists’ eerie imaginations and dreams. Spanish painters Salvador Dalí and Joan Miró were Surrealists.
Major Types of Painting
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How many of these types of painting have you tried—did you ever paint a local landscape or draw a self-portrait? Some paintings combine types. For example, a portrait might also include details of a still life.
A landscape is an outdoor scene. A landscape artist uses paint to create not only land, water, and clouds but air, wind, and sunlight.
A portrait is an image of a person or animal. Besides showing what someone looks like, a portrait often captures a mood or personality.
A still life shows objects, such as flowers, food, or musical instruments. A still life reveals an artist's skill in painting shapes, light, and shadow.
A real life scene captures life in action. It could show a busy street, a beach party, a dinner gathering, or anyplace where living goes on.
A religious work of art shares a religious message. It might portray a sacred story or express an artist's faith.
Forms of Art
A mosaic is a picture or design made by gluing together small stones, pieces of glass or other hard materials. In the ancient world, grand homes sometimes had mosaic floors.
From ancient cave paintings to graffiti artists today, painting has always been a part of human life. Some of the best-known artists, like Michelangelo and Picasso, were painters.
For thousands of years, people all over the world have made masks to use in rituals, work, theater, and just for fun. Have you ever made a mask from a paper bag?
Drawing is everywhere—in newspapers, books, posters, and more. It is an art by itself, but it is also the starting point for other kinds of art, like painting or sculpture.
In prehistoric times, people used jewelry even before they used clothing. Almost everything has been used to create jewelry, from berry necklaces to gold rings.
People have made sculpture from materials such as clay, marble, ice, wood, and bronze. Some artists today create sculptures that move with the wind or when touched.
There are as many uses for baskets as there are ways to make them. Archaeologists have found 7,000-year-old farming baskets in Egypt.
Pottery is probably the most ancient art as well as the most common. Prehistoric clay bowls, beautifully glazed tiles, and other works are not only useful but decorative.
People have been weaving since the Stone Age. Tapestries and rugs in every color have brought warmth and beauty to walls and floors.
Photography was invented about 200 years ago. We see photographs every day in newspapers and magazines, on billboards and buses and in museums and galleries. Ansel Adams and Mathew Brady were famous photographers. Annie Liebowitz is known for her portrait photography.
As technology changes, the tools artists use change too. New Media includes video, performance, computer imagery and installation (where an entire room may be made into a work of art).