A Brief History of Art Movements | Behind the Masterpiece

The first piece of visual art in history is from 40,000 years ago. Even before the existence of written language, our Neanderthal ancestors made some of the earliest images we have. The need to create is a part of being human.

It’s as old as our species; as innate as any other desire, the need to eat, to seek protection, to love. Many of us think of art and our minds immediately jump to a framed painting or kneeling statue in a museum. Thinking it’s too nuanced and convoluted to understand.

It's intimidating. But art is not just for the ones seeking it out. It’s for anyone who wants to experience it.

It’s not a luxury. Really, Art is anything that stirs emotion in us. When I first began learning about art history, I wanted to know one thing above all — the timeline.

The idea of progress through the years is intriguing. And the evolution of art goes hand in hand with advancements in technology, expansion of knowledge, and the growth of society over the years. If we want to know more about who we are as a society today, we should look back.

Before the development of written language, humans were creating cave paintings, and rock engravings as a way to share information between themselves and other tribes. This was a time when human survival was the only priority and so the art from this period reflected that; depicting stick figures and animals often in scenes of the hunt. The exception to this art movement is the Venus of Willendorf.

A small sculpture of a nude woman with exaggerated features of fertility. Very little is known about its origins but many researchers believe it to be a fertility Goddess. During a period of time where most evidence about human behavior was purely survival through the tools we’ve found, the art we’ve since discovered is a clear indication of symbolic and abstract thought; a beginning to all art movements.

During this time, advanced civilization throughout Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Persian, China and Rome were becoming more literate and so started creating the earliest naturalistic images of human beings. In these societies, art played an important role as a means of enforcing religious and political ideologies. It included symbolic imagery, mythological stories, and text to tell stories of gods, and rulers.

Look at this, this is one of the most famous artworks from this period. the “Code of Hammurabi. ” It’s a piece of stone, carved with a set of laws and an image of the kind Hammurabi, and the Mesopotamian god Shabash.

The techniques, forms, and evolving subject matter of this art movement has made many people consider Ancient Art to be the foundation of Art History, rather than Prehistoric Art. This thousand plus years period occurred between the end of the Roman Empire, and the beginning of the Renaissance in Europe. Art was no longer about the many different figures people looked up to as the church was gaining more power, and they only believed in one god.

Medieval artists were trying to convey religious messages in their art and were not so concerned with Realism. They depicted clear iconic images of religious figures and decorated them with extensive use of gold and jewels as a way to attract more people to the church. From the 14th through the 17th century, Italy underwent a period of enlightenment, and artists started to appreciate cultural subjects like art, music, and theatre, as well as religion.

The term Renaissance derives from the Italian word Rinascimento, or “rebirth. ” Artists of this period looked back at Ancient Rome and Greece and found inspiration in classical art, which materialized in portrait paintings, anatomically correct sculptures, and symmetrical architecture. The invention of the printing press during this time period also helped push creation even further.

By making books more widely available, the literacy rates in Europe were higher than ever, and so people were more open to appreciate this cultural explosion. As the Renaissance period was coming to an end emerged the Baroque movement. Art during this period emphasized extravagance and emotion.

Like this. Look at the drama that Caravaggio has created here through his meticulous treatment of light and shadows. Artists using other mediums also accomplished a sense of theatricality.

The sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini forged a new path for future artists through his amazing skills in manipulating marble to create intricate drapery. Architects across Europe took to this art movement to embellish their designs. From more ornate carvings to adding in columns and dome-like ceilings to their structures.

Following the opulence of the Baroque movement, came the playful and utopian Rococo period, blossoming in 18th century France and quickly spreading across Europe. The term Rococo comes from the French word Rocaille, which is a method of decorating furniture and interiors  with pebbles and seashells. This decorative style has fluid  asymmetrical forms, elaborate ornamentation, lighter pastel colors, and whimsical narratives.

After the lavishness of the Baroque period and the decorative aesthetic of Rococo, there was a renewed interest in the simplicity, principles, and subject matter of the art from Ancient Rome and Greece. The discovery of Pompeii and Herculaneum buried roman archaeological cities brought a renewed sense of interest for Neoclassical artists to look back. This art movement can be distinguished by its classic-looking subjects, minimal use of color, attention to lines and symmetry, and clear definition of forms and figures.

The 18th-century European art world was dominated by Neoclassicism until Romanticism came around. While Romantic artists also  valued the individuality that was depicted in Neo-classical artworks, they looked within and found inspiration in their own imaginations,  and the nature around them. This art movement predominantly looked into the spiritual side of humanity, exploring the essence of the natural world, and the value of personal freedom and expression.

The French Revolution of 1848, established the right to work in the country and brought on the anti-institutional art movement of Realism. These artists rejected what came before them. Exotic scenes of religious figures, clergy, nobility, and mythology.

Instead, they focused on depicting real people in everyday life. Realism was the first art movement that gave a voice to the members of society that were overlooked up to this point because of their social and financial circumstances. Realist artists depicted contemporary life and nature, completely unembellished.

A close observation of people, the paintings almost look like photographs. Separating from Realism, Impressionism started when a group of French artists broke academic traditions by painting outside, en-Plein-air. A controversial and shocking decision that got them rejected from the official French Salon.

This rigid traditionalism forced these artists to start their own alternative exhibition which was held annually for three decades until the beginning of World War I. Some of the founding members of this art movement include Claude Monet, Berthe Morisot, Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas. These artists did not create images that followed in the footsteps of Realism, of paying attention to lines, and realistically-painted subjects but instead, they opened their compositions to capture the transient presence of sunlight and movement.

The result is an intense and vibrant scene of modern life. You know a painting is done in the Impressionist style when the brushstrokes are visible and small, there is little blending and the colors are vivid. This art movement is an  extension of impressionism, yet at the same, it rejects  some of its limitations.

Post-impressionist artists continued using bold colours and painting scenes of modern life but left behind their predecessors’ spontaneous and naturalistic rendering of light and movement. The major figures were Paul Cézanne, Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Georges Seurat. This art movement really highlighted each artist’s subjective vision and in turn, Post-impressionism includes many art styles like Neo-Impressionism, and art techniques like Pointillism, and divisionism.

These artists incorporated science and imagination into their art as a way to convey more powerful scenes. Meanwhile, in the neighboring northern countries, a modernist movement was gaining steam. Expressionism was found in poetry and paintings, presenting the world solely from a subjective point of view.

Expressionist artists radically distorted the scenes on their canvases to align with their mood, emotions, and ideas. Imbuing their works with power through emotional experiences as a response to a rapidly changing world. These works were often done in vivid and lurid colors, and centered around disfigured subjects.

They offered the viewers a new meaning to what is considered beautiful. One that did not concern itself with recreating the physical reality, but instead celebrated the internal chaos of what it’s truly like to be a free-spirited human. The good and the bad of it all.

Near the end of the 19th century, a movement of “new art” spread across European countries and took on different names and characteristics. In Austria, it was called the “Vienna Secession” In Spain, it was “Modernisme,” and in France, as it’s more commonly known, “Art Nouveau. ” Artists of many mediums embraced this movement.

Art Nouveau was heavily featured in paintings, but also in architecture, decorative arts, and its most enduring medium—posters. This art movement is characterized by long sinuous lines, almost like the stems and petals of flowers. A rhythmic scene.

It modernized the path of art progression, seeking to escape traditional styles and instead creating luxurious works by returning back to nature. Two-dimensional, filled with geometric forms, and flat. This is Cubism, one of the most important art movements of the 20th century.

Founded by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the early 1900s, Cubism completely breaks down the art movements that came before it. The two men analyzed the subjects they wanted to paint, broke it apart, and put it back together on the canvas in an abstract form. Cubist artists wanted to show different viewpoints of the subject on the same plane.

They painted in a way that  suggested a three-dimensional form by emphasizing the two-dimensional flatness. Bringing together different views of the subjects in the same painting. This was a new and fresh form of representation.

Playing with the typical perspective that had been around since the Renaissance. They threw out the rule book, and what’s more, is that they opened the door for the development of abstract modern art movements that came after. Around the same time, Cubism was picking up steam in France, another movement was growing out of Italy.

The energy and the dynamism of the modern world excited many artists about the future. Launched by the poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Futurist artists of all mediums passionately denounced the oppressive culture of the past and welcomed the modern world of technology and industry. In his Manifesto of Futurism, Marinetti said “we will free Italy from her innumerable museums which cover her  like countless cemeteries.

” This art movement is characterized by the power of machines, and the restless energy of modern life. The landscape of art changed drastically after the start of WWI. One art movement rejected all logic, reason, and order of western civilization that caused the horrors of war.

Dada is often referred to as an “anti-war” movement to follow anything set by the bourgeois society. They felt that the war made them question every aspect of the societies they were living in. A society that started this horrific  event and what's worse, continued it.

And so these artists produced works that were satirical in nature. They wanted to destroy traditional artistic values and create something new to replace it. This twentieth-century art movement explored the inner workings of the mind, aiming to revolutionize the human experience.

Surrealism can be difficult to grasp. This imaginative movement, led by Andre Breton, a French writer, and Poet, fascinated viewers then and even today. Influenced by the writings of psychologist Sigmund Freud, Surrealist artworks show us the uninhibited works of these artists, free of the boundaries of the rational mind as they tap into their subconscious.

Many surrealists, like Salvador Dali even used Automatism to draw inspiration from their unconscious minds. This is a method of art-making in which the artist releases conscious control over the creation process, to allow the unconscious mind to take over. Surrealist artworks challenged perceptions and reality by juxtaposing unrealistic subject matter with realistic painting styles.

The movement’s ideologies extended past the artistic mediums, to inspire political liberation. Many Surreal artists turned to political activism, taking on these revolutionary concepts from their creations and applying it to their lives and communities. Throughout the 1920s and 30s, the art movement of choice for experimental European artists was Bauhaus.

Established by Walter Gropius in 1919 Germany, Bauhaus was a revolutionary school of art that aimed to show art in everyday life and not just in fine arts museums. Its name comes from the german words for building and house. Perhaps hoping to invoke the idea of a fraternity in the school, working together to build a new society.

This school housed many well-known artists as instructors including Wassily Kandinsky, and Paul Klee. Bauhaus art is characterized by abstract styles, geometric shapes, and aesthetics that include no historical, mythical, or emotional sources. Abstract Expressionism was the first American movement to become popular internationally.

Following World War II, this movement incorporated the dark trauma of the war that lingered, with the spontaneity of Surrealism. Within this movement, there are two groups of artists: Action painters who filled their canvases with expressive brush strokes like Jackson Pollock; and the color field painters who created canvases with large areas of a single color like Mark Rothko. Both artists were leaders of the movement and showcased their individualism and American spirit.

Through their innovation, they created original and almost meditative works of art. In the 1950s, in post-war Britain and America, young artists began to revolt  against the traditional views on what art should be. They felt what they were taught in art schools or saw in museums, had nothing to do with their everyday lives or what they considered to be art.

So they turned to what surrounded them for inspiration. Hollywood movies, product packaging, comic books, and advertisement posters. They used mundane items from mass media to usher in a new and accessible approach to art that even today is unique and recognizable.

Pop artists were imaginative. They used repetition, bold imagery, and bright color palettes to introduce  art to new demographics. This time without intimidation but through familiarity.

Free of the artist’s input, Minimalism is an extreme form of abstract art that was developed in the US in the 1960s. It embraces literalism, rejecting self-referential narratives, to instead  highlight the characteristics of the artwork, believing art should have its own reality. Minimalist artists like Carl Andre, Frank Stella, and Donald Judd, use factory-made objects, precise hard-edged forms, and geometric shapes to create pieces free of outside influence.

“What you see is what you see. ” The viewer is to only observe what is in front of them. The viewer is to only observe what is in front of them.

Though the date of the start of this movement is unclear, it’s commonly known as “the art of today. ” If you’ve ever stepped inside a modern art gallery, you know that it’s impossible, to sum up, this movement in a few words. It sometimes feels as if the general public rejects it, feeling that it doesn’t necessarily count as art.

That might due to the fact that contemporary art is often about ideas, rather than aesthetics and so there are no clear visual styles for viewers to hold onto, like some other  movements that have recognizable features. Contemporary artists like Jean-Michel Basquiat, Yayoi Kusama and Damien Hirst create art of all mediums that reflect the issues of our societies. Not only self-contained pieces, contemporary art moves beyond the walls of galleries and museums.

These artworks are a part of a bigger cultural dialogue around identity,  community, and nationality. As we come back to the present, looking back at the progression of the history of art, there’s a bit more clarity. Exploring each art movement makes such a vast topic digestible.

A linear timeline filled with talented individuals over the years that always moves forward; towards something more, something new, something that excites a generation. The need to create is human. That's for sure.

But art is also a business, and those whose names we are familiar with today were chosen based on their amazing set of skills and talents, as well as an array of privileges, timing, and sometimes pure luck. What’s missing from western  art history are the people, and cultures that influenced these movements. Those who have had a great deal of  influence, yet are rarely recognized.

The Japanese artists who inspired Van Gogh and Degas. Picasso and Modigliani’s African-influenced periods, and the ideals of indigenous art that inspired contemporary artists to represent in their artworks something beyond themselves. We live in a visual world, constantly looking at images whether we realize it or not.

Through learning about art, we can see where we’ve come from, who we were as a society, and most importantly we can make informed decisions about where we want to be, and what we need to do today, to live in a more inclusive world tomorrow.