In your art history class, you will most definitely have to write art movement essays. These are papers 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 your art movement essay, you might want to concentrate on the importance or characteristics of a certain movement. Depending on your assignment, you’ll probably choose realism, minimalism, postmodernism, feminism movement, or something else. Another option is to share your impressions you got from a certain piece of art in a reflection paper.
Whether you are assigned to write a paper on ancient or modern art, our article will be helpful. In it, our experts have gathered everything necessary to write an essay on art movements. Below you’ll find a list of art style examples. 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 art movements essay examples below. Write an A+ essay about arts with us!
Art Periods & Art Style Examples
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.
Modern Art Movement Essay: What Is It about?
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.
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.
Since the arts play a big role in the society the government has a moral responsibility to fund the arts as they are primarily unsustainable when exposed to open market forces, art is a necessity [...]
The paintings of authors representing the movement of realism are extremely vivid and are likely to create an impression of presence in the painting while observing it.
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 main points of comparison are the history of development, which include artists of the movement, and the central ideas and motivation of the new style.
The realism movement in art is a product of the ideological and philosophical spirit of its time. Modernism is the movement in search of new forms of art, and it emphasizes the interior world.
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.
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.
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.
Men and women performed different roles in the household; the man was responsible for farming while the woman took care of the poultry and dairy. In the upper-class, marriages were arranged and the parents chose [...]
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 Beach Boys' career during the psychedelic movement was distinguished by the creation of the song "Good Vibrations" and the work on the album SMiLE that was never released.
The debate highlights the contrast between the individuality within Arts and Crafts movement and the aim at standardization and a universal taste suitable for the increasing industrial production.
The exhibitions also wanted to privilege the uptake of Asian art in the global market.collection of paintings about the war in Asia was considered critical for the development of advanced history of the region during [...]
I learned that the knowledge of this area of liberal arts is related to behavioral and social sciences and enhances individuals' understanding, enabling them to be productive within relationships and contribute positively and other people [...]
In the dance perspective, it refers to a dance that tries to communicate the beats found in the salsa music. All these are in an effort to spice up the salsa dance and music.
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.
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, [...]
Scientific advancements that made them doubt the stability of the "actual" world and the accuracy of experience strengthened their views. However, Modernism appeared primarily as a protest against the old values and ideals, thereby challenging [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
Proponents of the Art and Craft movement were united by a unanimous set of aesthetics that aimed to reiterate the significance of individual craftsmanship and designs in the world of art in the wake of [...]
The founder of the movement, the poet Tristan Tzara, discovered the word "Dada" in the dictionary. In one of the African languages, it means 'the tail of a sacred cow,' and in some areas of [...]
Created in the early 1900s by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Cubism dramatically transformed the European artistic tradition, inspiring the creation of several related art, sculpture, literature, and architecture movements.
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.
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 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.
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 [...]
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.
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 pinned its faith on the laws of chance and left it to them to recreate a spontaneous, unprejudiced order, which set art free and gave to man the image of a world waking up [...]
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.
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 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.
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 [...]
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.
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 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.
Romanticism in painting rejected the rationalism of classicism and reflected the attention to the depths of the human personality characteristic of the philosophy of the Romantics.
Released in 2020, the video is a retrospective of the events of the women's liberation movement and concerns it indirectly. Sex and the City is a hymn to women's independence and the result of the [...]
Virtosu's contribution to painting art has received significant recognition, given his unique approach to the application of abstract art as a form of expression. Secondly, the "Connections of civilization" painting reveals Virtosu's consistency in the [...]
Having originated in Europe in the late 1850s, the British Art movement took an important place in the pantheon of artistic trends that defined the further evolution of art.
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, [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
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] [...]
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 [...]
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.
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 [...]
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 fact that art is inherent to one's soul is portrayed through the prism of the impact of external events on artists and their audience in the form of connecting to the content.
Thus, the paper aims to explore the impact of Wilson's installation on the discussion about the need for museums' decolonization. The study explains how narrative frameworks can be critically studied to improve the reflection of [...]
Renaissance, characterized by the ideals of humanism, brought numerous innovations into the world of science, architecture, and arts. Donatello's David is an early symbol of the art moving away from church dictate and into the [...]
The Cleveland Museum of Art has a wide range of art created in the 15th-century Italian Renaissance. It is found in the Cleveland Museum of Art and was made by Giunta di Tugio.
Two such examples of Romanticism works are Beethoven's piano sonata, Pathetique, and Frederick Douglass's The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave.
Dada was developed as an anti-war protest and an outrage; therefore, one of its main goals was confronting the materialist and nationalist views that had caused it and were promoting military actions at the time.
The Flemish art period between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries involved significant and dynamic events in the historical mark in the field of artistry.
Surrealists initiated a philosophical and artistic movement that examined the workings of the mind throughout the 20th century. Surrealism aimed to gain access to the subconscious mind and convert the stream of thought into art.
The Harlem Renaissance was born as a result of the significant events which occurred in the lives of Afro-Americans at the beginning of the 20th century.
The era of Romanesque art dates back to the 12th century before the emergence of the Gothic style. There were many reasons for this, such as the fire resistance of the stone, the strength of [...]
Abstract art is truly one of the most controversial and interesting movements in the history of art. It takes time to understand that there is a woman at the center of the composition.
The most notable movements included Impressionism, then Cubism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Suprematism, Abstract art, proponents of which contributed immensely to the establishment of a new perspective on the role of art in society.
This is embodied in the key defining elements of the renaissance and baroque architectures as clearly demonstrated by the Loggia of the Ospedale degli Innocenti by Filippo Brunelleschi and the facade of Il Ges by [...]
Particularly, with the focus on the lack of excessively and the promotion of utility as the foundational quality of art objects, urban design of the time promoted laconism in the choice of form and restraint [...]
According to Chave, "Picasso's picture has been held to mark or even to have precipitated the demise of the old visual order and the advent of the new".
Some of the European artists interested in the Art Deco emigrated due to the political reasons to the United States in the 1920-1930s, contributing to the development of the new tendency in the American architecture, [...]
While the idea of using space as the means of making music sound differently is far from being new, the representation of space as a musical instrument itself is an astounding concept that deserves to [...]
There was a workshop in the Bauhaus art named Weaving Workshop, which was basically the textile art workshop of the Bauhaus Art, and most importantly, most of the artists in the place were women.
He uses some of the aesthetic models of Klee incorporating the female body, thus feminism, and cleverly brings out the idea of rejecting creativity in art, similar to Bahr's, and focuses on the lost aspects [...]
Coupled with other paintings which were not usual, Edouard Manet's paintings led to an uproar by several groups of painters who were ranked by the judges as the poorest impressionists in the painting contests Even [...]
In addition, the history of the church is indicated in art by the use of paintings and sculptures. I have also identified the items that were found in each of these capsules.
The feminist art movement emerged in the 1960s and from that time the women had taken much interest in what causes them to be different from the male gender and particularly, what causes the art [...]
As a whole, artists both in London and New York were still in the experimental stages of installation art. In London, the majority of its gallery spaces are dedicated to installations and installation art as [...]
Learning in western cultures is through logical schools while in eastern cultures it is acquired from the elders and parents. The fourth distinction between the western and eastern cultures is on their history.
Such European Baroque artists as Rembrandt, Peter Paul Rubens, Caravaggio, Vermeer, and others promoted the ideas of the Baroque movement, namely, emotional involvement, spirituality, individualism, and realism; these ideas are reflected by means of the [...]
The style of Baroque was spread all over the European continent in different expressions of art from 1590 and until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Many outstanding artists are representing the style and epoch [...]
Thus the works of literature can be analyzed from the point of view of the actions of the main characters made in the condition similar with the one when the person sleeps.
On the other hand, the creative process may occur through divergent thinking which refers to the application of logic and analytical skills to a certain situation by narrowing down one's ideas.
While racial and gender connotations may be responsible for cultural trends that commonly give rise to specific flavors of creativity or notions and expressions from within the art world, to take this a step further [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
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.
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 [...]
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 [...]
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