Art MovementDescriptionImpressionism(1860 – 1888)Paintings are personal impressions, views of contemporary life.Artists of this time used smaller canvases, which allowed easy carrying on trains and across the countryside, thus, this art movement was also about the values of art and making art suit the needs of the people whom practiced it. Light coloured ground.Sketchy and loose painting technique gave an impressionism of landscape rather than realism. Capturing the changing light and atmosphere.Use of brighter and more vibrant colours like colours of the spectrum.Eliminated as much oil as possible in the hope that light would bounce off the artwork.Impressionists used a flat brush, which was able to block in colour broadly and quickly in short brushstrokes. Impressionists became obsessed with this new approach to landscape painting. Some Impressionists include: Claude Monet, Camille Pissarro, Edgar Degas, August Renoir. I like this art movement because of the great artworks produced because of it. For example, I particularly liked Monet’s artworks of the lilies in the valley. This art movement focused mainly on landscape, and this is why the artwork is so beautiful, because so many of them captured the image of the scenery so well and so precisely with clever techniques. Post Impressionism(1888)Post-Impressionism was built on the foundations of the Impressionist principles. Realistic colours were used to convey a mood or emotional feeling. Artists used colours instead of tone. There was a flat
application of colour.There was a use of decorative and often unnatural colour.There was a strong use of outline evident in Japanese art.Van Gogh, for instance used short, emotion-filled brush marks, swirling line and bright, textured colour in his paintings. Some Post-Impressionists include: Seurat, Signac, van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne. Fauvism(1904 – 1908)Fauvists did not have a common philosophy.They thought art should be bold and stimulating to the eye.They used unnatural colour, to enhance the effect of their work.They used canvas that was primed with white, so that the gaps they left in their paintings would contrast with the white colour.They ...
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application of colour.There was a use of decorative and often unnatural colour.There was a strong use of outline evident in Japanese art.Van Gogh, for instance used short, emotion-filled brush marks, swirling line and bright, textured colour in his paintings. Some Post-Impressionists include: Seurat, Signac, van Gogh, Gauguin and Cezanne. Fauvism(1904 – 1908)Fauvists did not have a common philosophy.They thought art should be bold and stimulating to the eye.They used unnatural colour, to enhance the effect of their work.They used canvas that was primed with white, so that the gaps they left in their paintings would contrast with the white colour.They used loose, painterly brushwork and left bits of the canvas exposed.They used paint directly from the tube, rarely premixed, primary colours were unpopular.Some fauvists include: Henri Matisse, Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck and Raoul Dufy.I think the fauvist movement was quite a daring and stimulating movement as it let a majority of artists really express themselves truly. Overall, the works are very unique and distinct to many others as the characteristics of the movement were portrayed in a manner very different to most other movements. Futurism(1909 – 1914)Futurism was a way of approaching modern life with its new ideas and technology. It was an idealogy. Artists from this movement concentrated on the future. Was a new style, portraying the modern machine age.Saw new interest in modern technology, not landscape, as subject matter.Used a limited palette.Found photography as an important source of inspiration that it ‘froze’ movement, allowing analysis.Produced many political manifestos.Used repetition of form to produce visual sensations of movement. Some Futurists include: Filippo Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo Carra, Giacomo Balla and Ginco Severini. I like this art movement because the artists from this movement focused directly on the future, hence the name of the art movement. And since they focused on the future, they developed a impacting theory on the art movements after Futurism. This art movement greatly impacted and affected the future artworks, another factor to why it is actually called Futurism.Cubism(1910 – 1920)Involved the rather complex practice of breaking up forms, deconstructing and reconstructing, and fragmenting and reorganising the form, whether it was landscape, still life or portrait.Sacrificed colour to form, and favoured the use of black and white.Created a new pictorial perspective.Introduced foreign ‘collaged material’ into works.Saw still lifes and portraiture as popular subjects.Some Futurists include: Fernand Leger, Robert Delaunay, Sonia Delaunay, Pablo Picasso. I don’t particularly like Cubism, mainly because I don’t really understand the art movement as well as I would have wanted to. Though it was very abstract in some ways and I usually like abstract works, Cubism just didn’t appeal to me overall.Dada(1915 – 1923)Term invented to describe the phase of the mockery and buffoonery of and the attack on art that appeared around 1915 in Europe. Dada meaning contentious, some critics suggest it derives from the first mutterings of a baby; others say it is an Eastern Europe word meaning ‘rocking horse.’Produced fascinating and illogical artworks that included upturned urinals and bicycle wheels attached to stools, irons with tacks attached. Many of the works were sacrilegious and nonsensical. Mocking the preciousness and high status given to art objects.Some Dada artists include: Kurt Schwitters, Hans Arp, Marcel Duchamp. I like Dada because it was quite different to the rest of the art movements, and it was very abstract, most of the time revealing an inner idea or concept. Dada artworks were very strong and passionate, and usually they appealed because they were so hidden. Dada also impacted many future art movements, like Surrealism. Surrealism(1924 – 1950)Was a movement that relied on dreams, nightmares and images from the subconscious for its bizarre, fantastic subject matter.Looked to the writings of Sigmund Freud. Often used complex symbolism.Used a highly realistic painting technique to make the images appear almost photographic.Did not draw upon the free use of colour, brushwork and technique as practised by earlier artists, but tended to return to a more traditional technique.Some Surrealists include: Salavador Dali, Giogio de Chirico, Joan Miro, Rene Magritte. I like Surrealism mainly because of the fact that it relied on dreams and nightmares and because it was so strange and different. Abstract Expressionism(1950’s)Large canvasCanvases that were too big for easels were worked on the floor or pinned without their stretchers to a wall.Movement lead to new technology and saw the invention of acrylic paints and mediums that permitted new effects and quick drying, and allowed for spontaneous approaches to painting.Large house-painting brushes were used and sticks, rollers, etc became acceptable as artists’ tools.Many artists did not plan composition of their work, but preferred it to be spontaneous, a direct expression of their inner feelings and emotions.Many painters lost interest in realistic subject matter.There was an interest in realistic subject matter.There was an interest in the fluidity and quality of the paint and its effects, e.g. drips, blobs, etc.Some Abstract Expressionists include: Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock.I like Abstract Expressionism again, because it was so different and because it was quite difficult to understand and value it, it was easier to recognise it. It was an expression of one’s feelings and emotions and that was what really mattered.Pop art(Late 1950’s to mid 1960’s)Addressed the contemporary age and drew its imagery from items of local popular culture.Was grounded in Dada, elements of collage and assemblage.Saw acrylic paints used to express the excitement and spontaneity of the new age.Saw techniques previously used in commercial advertising, become legitimate methods of art production. Some pop artists include: Richard Hamilton, David Hockney, Jasper Joans, James Rosenquist, Roy Liechtenstein. Pop art is one of my favourites due to it’s impact on what we see around our society nowadays. We can truly see its impact and influence on the world since it is practically everywhere. And because it is now so world-renowned, it can be truly appreciated for it’s magnificence.
