In your art history class, you will most definitely have to write about artists, artworks, as well as art movements, and periods. The difference between the last two can be very subtle. Art periods are more about the time when it happens. Art movements are about the intent or a shared goal. While historians define the former, the latter is formed by artists.
The significance of art movements to an artist is hard to overestimate. Individuals get inspired by different trends and incorporate various characteristics into their works.
Artists group an art movement with a set goal, particular style, and common agenda. They create publications and manifestos that declare their values and principles. They share their dreams of what their craft should be. In a way, it is a critique of what art currently is or was.
In this article, our experts have gathered key art periods and movements. You can analyze any of them in your assignment. Besides, you will learn the concepts and terminology that are significant to art movements and see free essay samples below.
Essential Art Periods
As we’ve already mentioned, art periods are defined by historians retrospectively. We’ve gathered information about them in this section. Any of the periods can become a foundation for your art movements essay. As for the idea to write about, you can let our topic generator create one for you.
Here’s how the evolution of art looks like from a linear historical perspective:
Ancient Period (before 800BC)
Everything that is dated before 800 BC and before the rise of Greece is considered ancient. Yet, the cultures of the time were entirely separated. That is why ancient art usually gets categorized geographically. Each culture has its look and character. Celtic, Egyptian, African, Asian, Mesopotamian, and Pre-Columbian art is included in the ancient period.
Greek/Roman Period (800BC – 400AD)
This period in the Greek and Roman Empires focused on beauty and harmony. Most of the artworks centered around religion and human perfection. Among the prominent pieces of art are mosaics, vases, architecture, paintings, sculptures.
Medieval Period (400s-1350s)
Medieval Art can be characterized by Christianity. Elaborate patterns and the use of metals and gems are its prevalent features. Art historians can break the period into several smaller ones:
Early Christian,
Migration,
Byzantine,
Insular,
Romanesque,
Gothic.
Renaissance Period (1350s-1600s)
During this period, artists used linear perspective and Classical ideals to depict nature and beauty. Faith in the nobility of man underpinned paintings, literature, and theater. Naturally, the Renaissance period contains several art movements.
Baroque Period (17th century)
Baroque art in Western tradition coincides with the 17th century. It tried to represent infinity and had an emphasis on light and effects. It was apparent through architecture in particular. The rococo style emerged in the late Baroque period and was characterized by exaggerated ornaments and details.
Neoclassicism (17th century until the 1850s)
The neoclassical period in painting and visual arts began in the 17th century and lasted until the 1840s and 1850s. Artworks were based on simplicity, precision, and symmetry. In some countries, such as France, it is characterized by austere classical settings and artificial light. It is also can be seen as a return to Greek and Roman ideas of logic.
Romanticism (first half of the 19th century)
It’s a period when artists honored nature, emotion, and individualism. Romantic art focused on spirituality, mystery, imagination. In painting, the brushwork was less precise. It was very often depicting landscape, peaceful beauty, church, and revolution.
Realism (19th century)
Realism emerged in France around the time of the Revolution. Realists rejected Romanticism and wanted to depict life as it is. The paintings are drawn photographically, and even unpleasant aspects of everyday life are represented.
Modern Period (1860s-1970s)
During the period, new artists experimented with the traditions of the past. Modern art begins with Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Pablo Picasso. Numerous movements emerged during this time.
Key Modern Art Movements
What is called modern art involves dozens of art movements as this period lasted for over a century. These are so different and versatile that students almost always pick one of them for their works. In this section, you’ll see critical modern art movements that you can discuss. To argue your position and elaborate on the topic properly, check how to write a 5-paragraph essay.
The key modern art movements are as follows:
Impressionism (the 1870s, 1880s) is an art movement characterized by small but visible brush strokes in painting with light. This motion is a crucial element of the drawings. The group originated in Paris, and the name derives from Claude Monet’s painting Impression.
Post-Impressionism (1886 and 1905) emerged as a reaction against Impressionists in France. It attacked the naturalistic depiction of light. Post-Impressionists use vivid colors and thick paint strokes. This movement was created by Paul Cezanne, Paul Gauguin, Vincent van Gogh.
Art Nouveau (around 1890 and 1910) is a style of art, applied art, and architecture that flourished in Europe and the US. The artists tried to create an entirely new style that will be free from any imitation. One of the most prominent representatives was Scottish architect Charles Rennie Mackintosh.
Fauvism (around 1905) was started in Paris by the critic Louis Vauxcelles when he saw Andre Derain and Henri Matisse. The artists emphasized color over realistic representations. The subject matter used abstraction and oversimplification.
Cubism (around 1907) is an avant-garde art movement that changed European painting and sculpture. It revolutionized music, performing arts, literature, and architecture. In Cubism, the artworks are broken up and reassembled. The artist depicts the object from a multitude of viewpoints.
Futurism (around 1909) was launched in Italy by Filippo Marinetti when he published his Founding and Manifesto of Futurism. It was trendy in Italy and Russia. The Futurists produced paintings, ceramics, graphic and urban design. Besides, they impacted theatre, music, literature, and fashion.
Expressionism (the start of the 20th century) is a movement that originated in Germany. Expressionists represented the world from a subject point of view to invoke emotions and ideas.
Dadaism (from 1916 to roughly 1924) is a movement of the European avant-garde in the 20th century. It was developed due to World War I and rejected logic, reason, and capitalist society. Instead, it focused on nonsense and irrationality. Dadaists created artworks in visual, literary, poetry, painting, and sculpture.
Surrealism (from the late 1910s and early ‘20s) appeared in Europe after World War I. The trend is most known for visual works and writings. Artists created illogical works with photographic precision to allow the unconscious to manifest itself. Andre Breton, the leader of the art movement, expressed the aim of creating super-reality or surreality.
Pop Art (the mid-1950s) was established in Britain and the US. It was a response to the optimism during the post-war consumer boom. Artists drew inspiration from popular cultures and new trends in arts such as comics, ads, and television. Andy Warhol, an American artist, and film director, was the leading figure in this movement.
Feminist Art (the 1960s) emerged to provide female representation in art and the world. Feminist artists try to represent feminine experiences highlighting vaginal imagery and naked female body.
Thank you so much for reading our article till the end! Much more can be said and added about art movements and periods. Yet, we hope the information was enough for you to start working on your paper. Read the essays on art movements below to draw inspiration and ideas.
Although the Renaissance period brought tremendous changes in the artistic approaches based upon the traditional art of Greek and Roman statuary, the Expressionist movement of the 1900s instituted a profound rejection of all the traditional [...]
Although as a movement, Expressionism lasted for only a decade, up to 1920, it has been accredited with the explosion of all the innovative ideas of the mid-twentieth century, and the concepts introduced by the [...]
To relate with the third congress of the International association of Art Critics, the Museum of Stedelijk in Amsterdam formed a comprehensive exhibit of the work of the artists in the Stijl Group.
The lifts ought not to be longer but be hidden away like tapeworms in the position of stairwells, also the stairwells themselves, made ineffective, must be eliminated, and the lifts should scale the length of [...]
It was partially a rebellion against aristocratic social and political standards of the Age of Enlightenment and a response against the scientific explanation of nature and was exemplified most powerfully in the visual arts, music, [...]
Minimal art developed mainly in the USA rather than Europe and its impersonality is seen as a reaction against the emotionalism of Abstract Expressionism.
Burtynsky's use of images as metaphors to depict the dilemma of the heavy industrialization due to which nature and earth suffer heavily is a prominent theme which I have used in the creation of the [...]
The new art of the 20th century is a variety of sections and directions. The creativity of separate representatives of the avant-garde does not fit at all in the frameworks of any art currents.
Discuss the topic of how religion influenced art and architecture in the ancient world and during the Christian era, it is necessary to point out that all civilizations beginning from the primitive ones, through the [...]
This was the underlying idea behind resisting the effects of the Industrial Revolution on art the aspiration to create a personal style that would be devoid of the typical features of the products and designs [...]
Pop art depicts the details of everyday life in which people derive most of their visual language in what they perceive to be the real world of entertainment, leisure, and media advertisements.
However, as everybody else feel the impact of Chinese products penetrating even the poorest and most remote areas of third world countries and English become the language that must, power and representation seem to still [...]
The classical style of art have been those of portraits, still, life, landscape, and the genre itself were used as subjects for the different forms of artworks.
All through history, there have been many different styles of art utilizing an abstracting approach but abstract art was established in the early 20th century as artists began creating works of art lacking any apparent [...]
The paintings portraying the mores and morals of pre-war Berlin are the exciting script of a soul fascinated by the temptations of the metropolis, and each stroke of the brush conveys nervous tension and emotional [...]
The events of the 20th century have created a platform for the rapid development of various artistic styles and approaches. One of the most notorious branches of art was the Dada movement and the spreading [...]
They were the two poles of architectural thinking on the side of Neoclassicism was a rational, objective, almost scientific method of thought, which put reason in the first place among human abilities.
Peter Paul Rubens was one of the key figures of the Baroque and the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Jesus Christ is the central character of The Descent from the Cross and draws the viewer's attention from the [...]
Therefore, it requires the evaluation of the current situation in the country, the comparison of past and future experiences, and the necessity to reunify society, offering new goals and visions.
The Russian avant-garde is a massive wave of non-traditional, experimental, and innovative art that covers the period from the end of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th century in Russia.
The art of the twentieth century is characterized by the exploration of self and experimentation with form. Another peculiarity of the art of the beginning of the twentieth century was its connection with African traditions [...]
The relationship between the audience and a work of art was drastically transformed from observation to involvement as for the first time the viewer was placed in the art context.
He continued the tradition of Abstract Expressionism in its detachment from reality; however, the focus was shifted from subjectivism and emphasis on the ways of communing with the artist.
The church chose the style so that it could communicate religious themes in emotional involvement during the time of the Council of Trent. The style dynamically reflected the growth of absolutist monarchies, and in power [...]
Of course, The Persistence of Memory is one of the best-known works, which is often regarded as one of the most conspicuous illustrations of the movement.
The Italian Baroque and the Italian Renaissance are those periods in the history of art that attract the attention of both artists and representatives of the general public.
Simultaneously, the works of Karl Marx challenged the assumption of the relative nature of the shortcomings of capitalist society and suggested its fundamental flaws and inherent contradictions as reasons for the current social issues.
In an oppressive and discriminative society as was the England of that time, art in the form of puppetry was used to impart a sense of freedom in individuals.
Although still prevalent in many cities and states, the growing century will experience decrease in ethnicity due to increased enculturation and diffusion of art across borders.
To understand how the body is constructed and deconstructed in modern western society, it is important to analyze the significance of the corporeal factor in the culture of postmodernism.
The insights of identity can be seen in the artworks of many contemporary artists. The majority of them try to reveal their philosophical views and attract the public's attention to those issues they consider to [...]
One of the main qualities of visual art is that it allows people to get in touch with the surrounding physical reality through the perceptual lenses of another person's mind hence, making it possible for [...]
For this reason, the modern age with its great dependence on money and consumer character of society gives rise to a question of whether there is a significant difference between western and eastern pop art [...]
The main goal of the program is to reduce and avoid defacement caused by graffiti in the city. Stopping graffiti is not the utmost solution to the threat of defacement in a city.
The paintings of the time alongside the artwork were presented mythically and also depicted the religious aspect. The presence of the monarchial administration helped most merchants to come up, something that led to the development [...]
Speaking about contemporary art, people usually mean the objects of art and artistic techniques that began to be used in the middle of the twentieth century.
In this essay Rasquache encompasses the following characteristics: In Rasquache there are the elements of a have-not, the use of creativity in transforming otherwise useless materials into valuable products, and the need for sentimental value [...]
In fact, these works of art influenced modernization in Latin America as part of messages portrayed in the works of art originated from European countries.
The major issues discussed in the book are the place of women in modernism, Stieglitz's impact on O'Keeffe, and the role of O'Keeffe in Stieglitz's life.
The second phase shifts the perspective of the progress of art away from the development of the forms of its representation for example, during the period of modernism, the traditional art pieces can no longer [...]
In the late 19th century art and crafts were developed in Britain with the intentions to change the state of decorative arts movement that dominated at that time. As a school of art, the Bauhaus [...]
The review is divided into three main sections including the identification of the main arguments and the explanation of their worth, the evaluation of the supportive material and the clarification of methodological framework, and, finally, [...]
In the course of their evolution people obtained new values that impacted their vision of the world and resulted in the appearance of new ideals of beauty.
It would seem that the cultural legacy of humanity was an indispensable and logically integrated part of the process and it was, up to a certain point in history.
The Renaissance Period became the greatest period of human creativity since Athens in the 5th century. The Florentines therefore "wanted to flow in the footsteps of these Greek thinkers".
Knowing peculiarities of the appearance of the main cultural peculiarities of the epoch, it is possible to guess what kind of art was appreciated and how it was connected with the life of people.
The question of what it entails to be Hausa is briefly addressed to uncover the dynamic nature of Hausa culture and the religion that plays the main role. The study of the Hausa art offers [...]
3 The outbreak of violent protests in the capital city of France in mid-1968 was because of the Student dissatisfaction at the Sorbonne University and the University of Paris. 9 Accordingly, the right to the [...]
As Bravmann explains, the culture of the Lega society blends the elements of the colonial Bwamis and the elements of other African cultures: "it is through initiation into Bwami, and through the gradual movement through [...]
The given way to look at expressionist art both broadens the definition and narrows it down in that it stretches the concept to the idea of art being used as a tool for creating the [...]
The opposition of mass production to the handmade artistic work can also be regarded as the opposition of the inhuman and soulless to the infinite and spiritual that is comprised of beauty.
The Holy Trinity and the figures of Mary and Saint John are located in the dimension of the divine. At the same time, the figures of the donators are outside the vault.
The element of satisfaction and its relation to commodity exchange in the art market is explored by the author. Fried's article is a deep analysis of the form of photographs in relation to art.
Clearly, theatre is a reflection of the society and, therefore, CDA which was so influential was also a kind of reflection of the society of those days.
A different approach can be observed in Van Gogh's painting; the artist uses energetic brushstrokes with tones of thick paint, and, unlike the Impressionistic method, the artist emphasizes the geometric forms of the objects with [...]
The group had identified that the refugees used art to negotiate their way of becoming part and parcel of the indigenous people of the new home, despite the varying degrees of prejudice and exclusion that [...]
3 It is against this scope that this paper aims to explore the aspect of romanticism in the history of painting by considering the works of artists such as Kauffmann, David, Delacroix and Gros.
The cult of beauty on the other hand is an exhibition that is one of its kind which hopes to showcase the various types of artistic nature in various parts of the world and also [...]
It is easier to explore the impact of Orientalism on human perception of the East through the works of art produced in the 19th and 20th centuries, since they reflect the vision that critical thinkers [...]
Because of the considerable pause in the art development in the Victorian period, Pevsner assumes that such artists as Morris, Gropius, etc.were called to put an end to the period of cultural "stagnation" of the [...]
The kawaii movement as a group wants to send out a message of happiness in the face of adversity. On the other hand, art may actually do the opposite; it can be used to spread [...]
The painters applying impressionism intended to focus the direct impressions of color and light that a person sees and feels when interacting with the environment.
One of the brightest events of that period was the creation of the Aesthetic Movement. The Aesthetic Movement started as a reaction against the Victorian style, which was characterized by the use of jewellery in [...]
This paper discusses not only the essence of visual and performing arts but also focuses on the activities of popular Canadian artists and their ideas, evaluates the history of the Canadian art, and explains the [...]
One of the first features of the painting that fall into the eye of an average observer, the lack of symmetry and straight lines in the painting serves the purpose of stressing the delicate air [...]
In this case, it is worth noting that the use of lines, colors, shades and shapes are renaissance in nature, the theme is religious but a number of aspects provide evidence of humanism in the [...]
Depicted on the paper, the world picture of impressionists turned into the door to the other world the world where the reality mixed with the surreal to create one of the most incredible cocktails.
Romanticism refers to the period of intellectual, artistic and literary movement in Europe in the first half of nineteenth century. The supporters of the Romantic Movement point to the spontaneous and irrational display of powerful [...]
In addition, other art works were as a result of an influence from the features and styles used during previous periods and were a reaction or continuation to the artistic styles.
In export to world, the form of the virtual object is of the main importance. In export to world, the real life object is usually forced to correspond point to point to the virtual object.
This paper will highlight the differences between Watteau's painting of the storm from the neoclassical era and Delacroix's storm painting from the Romantic era.
The three geniuses of the Renaissance, Leonardo, Michelangelo and Rafael, were the cornerstones of the new era, the era when the boundaries between the art and life began to vanish.
Cubism reflected all that had gone before in art, but also reflected the 'interesting' technological and social trends of its era, as attested by each of the commentators in Section IIB.
The whole reason behind the renaissance artists was the representation of nature in their work where the standards were however deviated into the reflection of the human beings as the central focus.
For an artist's work to be exhibited at the salon it had to be evaluated by the salon officials to establish if it conformed to the elements of art and design and those that were [...]
The damage of the temple made some people to steal the artifacts that used to be housed in the temple. Frieze was used to decorate the exterior walls of the temple and also illustrate the [...]
Numerous happenings in the fields of art, philosophy, science, music, and critical theory explain the meaning of post-modernism. Post-modernism is the same as modern art due to the production of new pieces.
The light falls on both the rose and the woman from the right, which is emphasized by a distinct shift in the tints of the color from a very light beige to the darkest brown.
The subject matter of the painting is the odalisque, a concubine of a rich man in the East. Wallowing in luxury and waiting for her master to come is the only sense of her life.
Harrison and Wood observe that "The history of art is that of a long series of attacks upon social and aesthetic values held to be moribund, although the avant-garde position is frequently nostalgic and absolute".[1] [...]
Louise-Alphonsine- she is positioned in the periphery of the composition, to the left of the painting and she has a traditional straw boater on her head.
The focal point of the composition is the figure of the empress, highlighted through color and light. The mosaic 'Empress Theodora and Her Attendants' provides a glaring example of how formal elements of design work [...]
The text, which was written with a great deal of absurdist humor, has references to several precursors of Surrealism that represented the Surrealist spirit before the declaration of the manifesto and the works of other [...]
As such, the Baroque artistic style and period was a reaction to previous artistic styles, specifically the Mannerist art of the 16th century, which appealed to the witty and intellectual qualities only.
The appreciation of beauty and the exercise of discernment in taste became goals in and of themselves, rather than being sidebars to the glorification of God and the church.
Based on the artists and works chosen; the aim is to display works not often seen, to display works by lesser known artists, and to show a wide range of media that were affected by [...]
Naum Gabo in his essay on neoplasticism and constructivism published in the book Theories of modern art tries to analyze the changes that have taken in the art world in modern years.
The meaning of a certain piece of art is shared collectively by the society in relational aesthetics, and it is not limited to the space of individual perception and idea.
This can be explained by the fact that Greco-Roman artists of the era were convinced of the existence of dialectical relationship between the concepts of aesthetic/intellectual finesse, civil virtuousness and the notion of physical health, [...]
In a wide-ranging discussion, he touched on humor, the cathartic value of defacing the iconic image of a dictator, China's imperiled environment, the dangers of political art in that country, and his feelings as a [...]
His proposals fit into a continuum of detachment from the real and the concrete that has been evident in the art and the writing on art in the 20th century.
The natural light appears in a variety of types which gives the impressionist artist much freedom to alter the details of the objects in the painting using the natural light in different types.
Nevertheless, the objections of the Nazi regime to all the non-realist artists is understandable in light of the Third Reich's goals and methods of achieving them.
In the following paper I will examine the example of the mina'i ware Ewer in order show how these aspects are presented in the ewer of the 12th century which is a perfect example of [...]
The proper use of art, according to this declaration, was to document "a true picture of the {Revolutionary} events" and shape the mind towards the revolutionary ideal[7].
Its impact of social and cultural development of the Islamic World and other cultures can be considered to be positive because it has introduced uniqueness, originality, and unity of Islamic culture, architecture, media and politics.
Buchloh observes the cyclical appearance of action and reaction in art since the advent of Cubism, and infers from this that art reflects somehow the state of society.
Though the artistic revolution is considered in this article as the major element of the renaissance, it was a result of the revolutions in the other elements such as the scientific, philosophical and the linguistic [...]
It is therefore believed that the author of Buddha image was Shakyamuni, one of the artists sent to heaven by Maudgalyayana who can be considered as the patron of this art work.
In his Futurist Manifesto published in 1909 in Paris, Marinetti formulated the essence and the purpose of the Futurist movement and thus outlined the "ethical code" of a New Artist, a Futurist.
The simple shapes are the key pieces that enhance change and results to a form of interaction with the viewer. With minimalism, it is not easy to appreciate an oval, a cube or a splash [...]
