The Most Defining Moment in the History of the Arts?

20 Revolutionary Art Movements That Have Shaped Our Visual History

Looking back through Western history, information technology's incredible to see how many types of art have fabricated an impact on order. Past tracing a timeline through dissimilar fine art movements, we're able to not only run into how modern and contemporary art has developed, but also how art is a reflection of its time.

For instance, did you lot know that Impressionism was once considered an hush-hush, controversial movement or that Abstract Expressionism signaled a shift in the fine art world from Paris to New York? Like building blocks, from Realism to Lowbrow, these dissimilar types of art are interconnected. As the creative pendulum swings, artistic styles are oft reactions against or homages to their predecessors. And by looking back at some of the about important art movements in history, we accept a clearer understanding of how famous artists like Van Gogh, Picasso, and Warhol have revolutionized the art globe.

These 20 visual art movements are key to agreement the different types of art that shape modern history.

Italian Renaissance Fine art

From the 14th through 17 century, Italy underwent an unprecedented age of enlightenment. Known as the Renaissance—a term derived from the Italian word Rinascimento, or "rebirth"—this period saw increased attention to cultural subjects like fine art and compages.

Italian Renaissance artists like Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael found inspiration in classical fine art from Ancient Rome and Hellenic republic, adopting aboriginal interests like balance, naturalism, and perspective. In Renaissance-era Italian republic, this antiquity-inspired approach materialized as humanist portrait painting, anatomically right sculpture, and harmonious, symmetrical compages.

Artists to Know: Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, Titian

Iconic Artwork: Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli (1486), The Terminal Supper by Leonardo da Vinci (1495 – 1498),Mona Lisa (c. 1503 – 1506),David by Michelangelo (1501 – 1504), The School of Athens past Raphael (1509 – 1511)

Bizarre

"The Ecstasy of St. Teresa" past Bernini. 1647-1652. Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vittoria, Rome

Toward the end of the Renaissance, the Bizarre move emerged in Italian republic. Like the preceding genre, Bizarre art showcased artistic interests in realism and rich color. Unlike Renaissance fine art and compages, however, Baroque works also emphasized extravagance.

This opulence is axiomatic in Baroque painting, sculpture, and architecture. Painters similar Caravaggio suggested drama through their treatment of light and depiction of movement. Sculptors like Bernini accomplished a sense of theatricality through dynamic contours and intricate drapery. And architects across Europe embellished their designs with decoration ranging from intricate carvings to imposing columns.

Artists to Know: Caravaggio, Rembrandt, Bernini

Iconic Artwork: The Calling of Saint Matthew past Caravaggio (1599 –1600),The Night Scout by Rembrandt (1642), The Ecstasy of St. Teresa by Bernini (1647 – 1652)

Rococo

Post-obit the extravagance and power of Baroque art came the lighthearted and flirtatious Rococo movement, which blossomed in 18th-century France before spreading to other European countries. The termRococo derives fromrocaille, a method of decoration using pebbles, seashells, and cement to adorn grottoes and fountains in the Renaissance. During the 1730s, the rocaille decoration inspired scrolling curves in ornamental furniture and interior design. In painting, this decorative fashion transferred to a dearest of whimsical narratives, pastel colors, and fluid forms.

Artists to know: Jean-Honoré Fragonard, Antoine Watteau, François Boucher

Iconic Artwork: The Swing by Jean-Honoré Fragonard (1767)

Neoclassicism

Jacques-Louis David, "The Adjuration of the Horatii," 1784–five (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Neoclassicism is an 18th-century art movement based on the ideals of art from Rome and Ancient Greece. Its interest in simplicity and harmony was partially inspired as a negative reaction to the overly frivolous aesthetic of the decorative Rococo fashion. The discovery of Roman archaeological cities Pompeii and Herculaneum (in 1738 and 1748, respectively) helped galvanize the spirit of this move.

Artists to Know: Jacques-Louis David, Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, Antonio Canova

Iconic Artwork: The Oath o the Horatii by Jacques-Louis David (1784–1785),The Decease of Socrates by Jacques-Louis David (1787), Death of Marat by Jacques-Louis David (1793), The Grande Odalisque by Ingres (1814)

Romanticism

Eugène Delacroix, "Freedom Leading the People," 1830 (Photograph: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Romanticism was a cultural motility that emerged around 1780. Until its onset, Neoclassicism dominated 18th-century European art, typified by a focus on classical bailiwick affair, an interest in artful thrift, and ideas in line with the Enlightenment, an intellectual, philosophical, and literary movement that placed accent on the individual.

Artists like Eugène Delacroixfound inspiration in their own imaginations. This introspective approach lent itself to an art form that predominantly explored the spiritual.

Artists to Know: Joseph Mallord William Turner, Eugène Delacroix, Theodore Gericault, Francisco Goya

Iconic Artwork: Wanderer Above the Bounding main of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich (1818), Freedom Leading the People by Delacroix (1830)

Realism

Realism is a genre of art that started in French republic afterwards the French Revolution of 1848. A clear rejection of Romanticism, the dominant style that had come before it, Realist painters focused on scenes of gimmicky people and daily life. What may seem normal now was revolutionary later centuries of painters depicting exotic scenes from mythology and the Bible, or creating portraits of the dignity and clergy.

French artists like Gustave Courbet and Honoré Daumier, also as international artists like James Abbott McNeill Whistler, focused on all social classes in their artwork, giving voice to poorer members of club for the first fourth dimension and depicting social issues stemming from the Industrial Revolution. Photography was also an influence on this type of fine art, pushing painters to produce realistic representations in contest with this new technology.

Artists to Know: Gustave Courbet, Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot, Jean-François Millet, James McNeill Whistler

Iconic Artwork:The Gleanerspast Jean-François Millet (1857), The Burying at Ornans by Gustave Courbet (1849 – 1850)

Impressionism

Information technology may be hard to believe, but this now love fine art genre was in one case an outcast visual motility. Breaking from Realism, Impressionist painters moved away from realistic representations to apply visible brushstrokes, vivid colors with niggling mixing, and open compositions to capture the emotion of light and movement. Impressionism started when a group of French artists broke with academic tradition by painting en plein air—a shocking conclusion 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, was formed in the early on 1860s in French republic. Additional artists would bring together in forming their own society to exhibit their artwork afterwards being rejected by the traditional French salons, who deemed it also controversial to exhibit. This initial underground exhibition, which took place in 1874, allowed them to gain public favor.

Artists to Know: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Mary Cassatt

Iconic Artwork: Impression, Sunrise by Monet (1872), Bal du Moulin de la Galette by Renoir (1876), Water Liliesserial by Monet (1890s – 1900s)

Post-Impressionism

Once again originating from France, this type of art developed between 1886 and 1905 as a response to the Impressionist movement. This time, artists reacted against the need for the naturalistic depictions of light and colour in Impressionist art. As opposed to before styles, Mail service-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 past the inclusion of abstract elements and symbolic content in their artwork. Perchance the about well-known Post-Impressionist is Vincent van Gogh, who used color and his brushstrokes not to convey the emotional qualities of the mural, but his own emotions and state of mind.

Artists to Know: Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Émile Bernard

Iconic Artwork: A Dominicus Afternoon on La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat (1884 – 1886), The Starry Nightpast Vincent van Gogh (1889), The Yellow Christ by Paul Gauguin (1891)

Fine art Nouveau

At the end of the 19th century, a movement of "new fine art" swept through Europe. Characterized by an interest in stylistically reinterpreting the beauty of nature, artists from across the continent adopted and adapted this avant-garde manner. As a outcome, it materialized in sub-movements likethe Vienna Secession in Austria,Modernisme in Spain, and, nearly prominently,Fine art Nouveau in French republic.

The French Art Nouveau mode was embraced by artists working in a range of mediums. In add-on to the fine arts, like painting and sculpture, information technology featured heavily in architecture and decorative arts of the period. All the same, perhaps its near enduring legacy can exist establish in the poster—a commercial craft that Czech creative person Alphonse Mucha helped elevate as a modern art class.

Artists to Know: Alphonse Mucha, Gustav Klimt

Iconic Artwork: The Four Seasons by Alphonse Mucha, The Kiss by Gustav Klimt

Cubism

Pablo Picasso, "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," 1907 (Photo: Wikimedia Commons, Fair Use)

A truly revolutionary mode of art, Cubism is ane of the most of import fine art movements of the 20th century. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque developed Cubism in the early 1900s, with the term being coined past art critic Louis Vauxcelles in 1907 to describe the artists. Throughout the 1910s and 1920s, the two men—joined past other artists—would use geometric forms to build up the final representation. Completely breaking with any previous fine art movement, objects were analyzed and cleaved apart, simply to be reassembled into an abstracted form.

This reduction of images to minimal lines and shapes was function of the Cubist quest for simplification. The minimalist outlook also trickled downwards into the color palette, with Cubists forgoing shadowing and using limited hues for a flattened advent. This was a clear pause from the utilise 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.

Artists to Know: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, Juan Gris

Iconic Artwork:Les Demoiselles d'Avignon past Pablo Picasso (1907)

Futurism

Giacomo Balla, "Dynamism of a Canis familiaris on a Leash," 1912 (Photograph: Wikimedia Commons, Public domain)

Fascinated by new industry and thrilled by what lay ahead, the early 20th-centuryFuturists carved out a place in history. Growing out of Italy, these artists worked as painters, sculptors, graphic designers, musicians, architects, and industrial designers. Every bit the early manifesto did not directly address the creative output of Futurism, information technology took some fourth dimension earlier there was a cohesive visual. A hallmark of Futurist art is the depiction of speed and motility. In item, they adhered to principles of "universal dynamism," which meant that no single object is split up from its background or another object.

This is best exemplified in Giacomo Balla'southDynamism of a Dog on a Ternion, where the move of walking the dog is shown through the multiplying of the dog's anxiety, leash, and owner'south legs.

Artists to Know: Giacomo Balla, Umberto Boccioni

Iconic Artwork: Dynamism of a Domestic dog on a Leash past Giacomo Balla (1912), Unique Forms of Continuity in Space by Umberto Boccioni (1913)

Dada

Dada was a 20th-century avant-garde art movement (oftentimes referred to every bit an "anti-fine art" motion) born out of the tumultuous societal landscape and turmoil of WWI. It began as a vehement reaction and revolt against the horrors of war and the hypocrisy and follies of bourgeois society that had led to it. In a subversion of all aspects of Western civilization (including its art), the ideals of Dada rejected all logic, reason, rationality, and social club—all considered pillars of an evolved and advanced order since the days of the Enlightenment.

Artists to Know: Marcel Duchamp, Homo Ray, Tristan Tzara

Iconic Artwork: Fountain by Marcel Duchamp (1917)

Bauhaus

Poster for the Bauhaus movement past Joos Schmidt, 1923 (Photo: Wikimedia Eatables, Public domain)

Ranging from paintings and graphics to architecture and interiors,Bauhaus art dominated many outlets of experimental European fine art throughout the 1920s and 1930s. Though it is most closely associated with Germany, information technology attracted and inspired artists of all backgrounds. Bauhaus—literally translated to "structure house"—originated as a German school of the arts in the early on 20th century. Founded by Walter Gropius, the schoolhouse eventually morphed into its ain modern art move characterized by its unique approach to compages and design.

Artists to Know: Wassily Kandinsky, Paul Klee, Joost Schmidt, Marcel Breur

Iconic Artwork: Yellow-Red-Bluish by Wassily Kandinsky (1925), Wassily Chair by Marcel Breur (1925)

Art Deco

Art Deco is a modernist movement that emerged in 1920s Europe. While many different aesthetics compose the move—including different colour palettes and a range of materials, from ebony and ivory to woods and plastic—it is most frequently characterized by streamlined, geometric forms contrasted by rich ornamentation and linear ornamentation.

Paintings produced in the Art Deco mode typically feature bold forms and busy compositions. Some, similar those past Polish-born painter Tamara de Lempicka, describe dynamic portraits of stylish subjects. Typically, these figures are dressed in vivid colors and prepare in abstracted metropolitan locations.

Artists to Know: Tamara de Lempicka

Iconic Artwork: Tamara in a Green Bugatti past Tamara de Lempicka (1929)

Surrealism

"The Persistence of Memory" past Salvador Dalí. 1931. MoMA, New York.

A precise definition of Surrealism tin can be hard to grasp, merely it's clear that this once advanced movement has staying power, remaining one of the almost approachable fine art genres, even today. 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 inventiveness.

Borer into the appeal for artists to liberate themselves from restriction and have on full creative freedom, Surrealists often challenged perceptions and reality in their artwork. Part of this came from the juxtaposition of a realistic painting fashion with anarchistic, and unrealistic, field of study matters.

Artists to Know: Salvador Dalí, Max Ernst, René Magritte

Iconic Artwork: The Treachery of Images by René Magritte (1929), The Persistence of Memoryby Salvador Dalí (1931)

Abstract Expressionism

"Fall Rhythm (Number thirty)" by Jackson Pollock. 1950. Metropolitan Museum of Fine art, New York.

Abstruse Expressionism is an American art movement—the starting time to explode on an international scale—that started later 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 the term was besides used to describe work by earlier artists like Wassily Kandinsky. This fashion of art takes the spontaneity of Surrealism and injects information technology with the dark mood of trauma that lingered post-State of war.

Jackson Pollock is a leader of the motion, with his drip paintings spotlighting the spontaneous creation and gestural paint awarding that defines the genre. The term "Abstruse Expressionism," though closely married to Pollock's work, isn't limited to ane specific style. Piece of work every bit varied equally Willem de Kooning's figurative paintings and Marking Rothko's color fields are grouped nether the umbrella of Abstract Expressionism.

Artists to Know: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Even so, Marking Rothko

Iconic Artwork:Autumn Rhythm (Number 30)by Jackson Pollock

Popular Art

Rising upwards in the 1950s, Pop Fine art is a pivotal motion that heralds the onset of contemporary art. This mail-war style emerged in Great britain and America, including imagery from advert, comic books, and everyday objects. Oftentimes satirical, Pop Fine art emphasized banal elements of common appurtenances and is frequently thought of as a reaction against the subconscious elements of Abstract Expressionism.

Roy Lichtenstein'due south bold, vibrant piece of work is an excellent example of how parody and pop culture merged with fine art to make accessible art. Andy Warhol, the virtually famous of the Popular Art figures, helped push button the revolutionary concept of fine art as mass production, creating numerous silkscreen series of his pop works.

Artists to Know: Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, Jasper Johns

Iconic Artwork:Campbell'due south Soup Cans past Andy Warhol (1962)

Installation Art

"The Souls of Millions of Calorie-free Years Abroad" by Yayoi Kusama

In the middle of the 20th century, advanced artists in America and Europe began producing Installation Art. Installations are three-dimensional constructions that play with space to interactively appoint viewers. Often large-calibration and site-specific, these works of art transform museums, galleries, and fifty-fifty outdoor locations into immersive environments.

Inspired by Marcel Duchamp's DadaistReadymades—a series of constitute objects contextualized as sculptures— this important genre was pioneered by modern masters like Yayoi Kusama and Louise Bourgeois. Today, gimmicky artists keep his practise alive, crafting experimental installations from mediums like string, paper, and flowers.

Artists to Know: Yayoi Kusama, Louise Conservative, Damien Hirst

Iconic Artwork:Mirror Rooms by Yayoi Kusama

Kinetic Art

"Rouge Triomphant (Triumphant Cerise)" by Alexander Calder. 1959–1965.

The seemingly contemporary fine art movement actually has its roots in Impressionism, when artists starting time began attempting to express motion in their art. In the early 1900s, artists began to experiment farther with fine art in motion, with sculptural machine and mobiles pushing kinetic art frontwards. Russian artists Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko were the first creators of sculptural mobiles, something that would later be perfected past Alexander Calder.

In contemporary terms, kinetic art encompasses sculptures and installations that accept movement as their primary consideration. American artist Anthony Howe is a leading figure in the contemporary motility, using reckoner-aided design for his large-scale wind-driven sculptures.

Artists to Know: Alexander Calder, Jean Tinguely, Anthony Howe

Iconic Artwork: Arc of Petalspast Alexander Calder

Photorealism

"Untitled" by Yigal Ozeri. 2012.

Photorealism is a way of art that is concerned with the technical ability to wow viewers. Primarily an American art movement, it gained momentum in the late 1960s and 1970s as a reaction against Abstract Expressionism. Here, artists were almost concerned with replicating a photograph to the best of their ability, advisedly planning out their work to not bad effect and eschewing the spontaneity that is the hallmark of Abstract Expressionism. Similar to Popular Fine art, Photorealism is often focused on imagery related to consumer culture.

Early Photorealism was steeped in nostalgia for the American mural, while more recently, photorealistic portraits have become a more than 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 indicate.

Artists to Know: Chuck Shut, Ralph Going, Yigal Ozeri

Iconic Artwork: Untitledby Yigal Ozeri

Lowbrow

Lowbrow, as well called pop surrealism, is an art motility that grew out of an hugger-mugger California scene in the 1970s. Traditionally excluded from the fine fine art world, lowbrow fine art moves from painted artworks to toys, digital fine art, and sculpture. The genre also has its roots in hugger-mugger comix, punk music, and surf civilisation, with artists 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 have given lowbrow artists a forum to display their work exterior of mainstream contemporary art media.

Artists to Know: Mark Ryden, Ray Caesar, Audrey Kawasaki

Iconic Artwork:Incarnationby Mark Ryden

This commodity has been edited and updated.

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