Looking
back through Western history, it’s incredible to see how many types of art
have made an impact on society. The foundation of art history can be traced
back tens of thousands of years to when ancient civilizations used available
techniques and media to depict culturally significant subject matter.
By reviewing
different art movements, you are able to see how modern art has developed, and
is also an expression of it. As the creative pendulum swings, artistic styles
are often reactions against or homage’s to their predecessors. Each art movement has
its own distinct style and characteristics that reflect the political and
social influences of the time period from which it emerged.
REALISM-Realism
is a genre of art that started in France after the French Revolution of 1848. A
clear rejection of Romanticism, the dominant style that had come before it,
Realist painters focused on scenes of contemporary people and daily life. What
may seem normal now was revolutionary after centuries of painters depicting
exotic scenes from mythology and the Bible,
or creating portraits of the nobility and clergy.
French artists
like Gustave Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, and
Honoré Daumier, and international artists like James Abbott McNeill Whistler
focused on all social classes in their artwork. This gave voice to poorer
members of society for the first time and depicted social issues stemming from
the Industrial Revolution. Photography was also an influence on this type of
art, pushing painters to produce realistic representations in competition with
this new technology.
IMPRESSIONISM-It
may be hard to believe, but this now beloved art genre was once an outcast visual
movement. Breaking from Realism, Impressionist painters moved away from
realistic representations to use visible brushstrokes, vivid colors with little
mixing, and open compositions to capture the emotion of light and movement. The
Impressionists started as a group of French artists who broke with academic
tradition by painting en plein
air—a shocking decision when most landscape painters executed their work
indoors in a studio.
The original
group, which included Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Alfred Sisley, and
Frédéric Bazille, formed in the early 1860s in France. Additional artists (like
Mary Cassatt) would join in forming
their own society to exhibit their artwork after being rejected by the
traditional French salons, who deemed it too controversial to exhibit. This
initial underground exhibition, which took place in 1874, allowed them to gain
public favor.
POST-IMPRESSIONISM-Again
originating from France, this type of art developed between 1886 and 1905 as a
response to the Impressionist movement. This time, artists (like Paul Cézanne) reacted
against the need for the naturalistic depictions of light and color in
Impressionist art. As opposed to earlier styles, Post-Impressionism covers many
different types of art, from the Pointillism of Georges Seurat to the Symbolism
of Paul Gauguin.
Not unified by
a single style, artists were united by the inclusion of abstract elements and
symbolic content in their artwork. Perhaps the most well known
Post-Impressionist is Vincent Van Gogh, who used color and his brushstrokes
not to convey the emotional qualities of the landscape, but his own emotions
and state of mind.
CUBISM-A
truly revolutionary style of art, 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 (like Juan Gris). Throughout the
1910s and 1920s, the two men—joined by other artists—would use geometric forms
to build up the final representation. Completely breaking with any previous art
movement, objects were analyzed and broken apart only to be reassembled into an
abstracted form.
This reduction
of images to minimal lines and shapes was part of the Cubist quest for
simplification. The minimalist outlook also trickled down into the color
palette, with Cubists forgoing shadowing and using limited hues for a flattened
appearance. This was a clear break from the use of perspective, which has
been the standard since the Renaissance. Cubism opened the doors for later art
movements, like Surrealism and Abstract Expressionism, by throwing out the
prescribed artist's rulebook.
SURREALISM-A
precise definition of Surrealism can be difficult to grasp, but it is
clear that this once avant-garde movement has staying power as it remains one
of the most friendly current art genres. Imaginative imagery spurred by the
subconscious is a hallmark of this type of art, which started in the 1920s. The
movement began when a group of visual artists adopted automatism, a technique
that relied on the subconscious for creativity.
Tapping into
the appeal for artists (like Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, Rene Magritte) to
liberate themselves from restriction and take on total creative freedom,
Surrealists often challenged perceptions and reality in their artwork. Part of
this came from the combination of a realistic painting style with
unconventional, and unrealistic, subject matters.
ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM-Abstract Expressionism is an American art movement (the
first to explode on an international scale) that started after World War II. It
solidified New York as the new center of the art world, which had traditionally
been based in Paris. The genre developed in the 1940s and 1950s, though earlier
artists like Wassily Kandinsky also used the term to describe their work. This
style of art takes the spontaneity of Surrealism and injects it with the dark
mood of trauma that lingered post-War.
Jackson Pollock
is a leader of the movement, his drip paintings spotlighting the spontaneous
creation and gestural paint application that defines the genre. The term
Abstract Expressionism, though closely married to Pollock’s work, is not
limited to one specific style. Work as varied as Willem de Kooning’s figurative
paintings and Mark Rothko’s color fields are grouped under the umbrella of
Abstract Expressionism.
POP
ART-Rising up in the 1950s, Pop Art is a pivotal movement that
heralds the onset of contemporary art. This post-war style emerged in
Britain and America including imagery from advertising, comic books, and
everyday objects. Often satirical, Pop Art emphasized ordinary elements of
common goods, and is frequently thought of as a reaction against the
subconscious elements of Abstract Expressionism.
Roy Lichtenstein’s
bold, vibrant work is an excellent example of how parody and pop culture merged
with fine art to make accessible art. Andy Warhol, the most famous figure in
Pop Art, helped push the revolutionary concept of art as mass production,
creating numerous silkscreen series of his popular works.
KINETIC
ART-The seemingly contemporary art movement actually has its
roots in Impressionism, when artists first began attempting to express movement
in their art. In the early 1900s, artists began to experiment further with art
in motion, with sculptural machine and mobiles pushing kinetic art forward.
Russian artists Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko were the first creators
of sculptural mobiles; something that would later be perfected by Alexander
Calder.
In contemporary
terms, kinetic art encompasses sculptures and installations that have movement
as their primary consideration. American artist Anthony Howe is a leading
figure in the contemporary movement, using computer-aided design for his
large-scale wind-driven sculptures.
PHOTOREALISM-Photorealism
is a style of art that is concerned with the technical ability to wow viewers. It
is primarily an American art movement that gained momentum in the late 1960s
and 1970s as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. Artists (like Chuck Close and Ralph Going) were
most concerned with replicating a photograph to the best of their ability,
carefully planning their work to great effect and eschewing the spontaneity
that is the hallmark of Abstract Expressionism. Similar to Pop Art,
Photorealism is often focused on imagery related to consumer culture.
Early
Photorealism was steeped in nostalgia for the American landscape while more
recently; photorealistic portraits have become a more common subject.
Hyperrealism is an advancement of the artistic style, where painting and
sculpture are executed in a manner to provoke a superior emotional response and
to arrive at higher levels of realism due to technical developments. A common
thread is that all works must start with a photographic reference point.
LOWBROW-Lowbrow
(also called Pop Surrealism)
is an art movement that grew out of an underground California scene in the
1970s. Traditionally excluded from the fine art world, Lowbrow art moves from
painted artworks to toys, digital art, and sculpture. The genre also has its
roots in underground commix, punk music, and surf culture with artists (like Mark
Ryden and Ray Caesar) not seeking acceptance from mainstream galleries.
By mixing
surrealism imagery with pop colors or figures, artists achieve dreamlike
results that often play on erotic or satirical themes. The rise of magazines
like Juxtapoz and Hi-Fructose has given
lowbrow artists a forum to display their work outside of mainstream
contemporary art media.
“There are two distinct languages. There
is the verbal, which separates people… and there is the visual that is
understood by everybody.” (Yaacov Agam)[i]
[i] Sources used:
·
“10 Revolutionary
Art Movements That Have Shaped Our Visual History” by Smartravel
·
“Art
History Timeline: Western Art Movements and Their Impact” by invaluable
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