Art History: Art Movements

Rococo Art Movement (1720-1760)

• Characterized by light-hearted depiction of domestic life in upper-class homes
• Features elegantly dressed aristocrats at play, usually in pastoral landscapes
• Themes include courting, beauty, romance, fun, playfulness, and sexual symbols
• Often features mythological themes and uses pastel colors
• Notable artists and artworks: Jean Antoine's "The Lesson of Love" and Jean Honore Fragonard's "The Stolen Kiss"

Realism Art Movement (1840-1870)

• Characterized by realistic depiction of everyday life of ordinary people from middle and lower classes
• Features sympathetic portrayal of poor, urban and rural workers in bent postures, struggling with hard manual labor
• Uses a palette of dark colors to emphasize the plight of workers
• Notable artists and artworks: Gustave Courbet's "The Stone Breakers" and Honore Daumier's "Third Class Carriage"

Cubism Art Movement (1908-1920)

• Characterized by use of cubes and geometric shapes
• Features application of multiple perspectives and monochromatic color palette
• Notable artists and artworks: Georges Braque's "The Portuguese" and Pablo Picasso's "Girl with a Mandolin"

Futurism Art Movement (1908-1918)

• Characterized by depiction of objects in motion, using repeated parallel lines and spirals to convey dynamism
• Features fascination with modernity, industrial landscape, and machinery
• Notable artists and artworks: Luigi Russolo's "Dynamism of a Car" (1913) and Gino Severini's "Armored Train in Action" (1915)

Abstract Art Movement (from 1910)

• Characterized by large canvases with blobs, swirls, and splatters of paint
• Features compositions with flat geometrical shapes in primary colors, often in asymmetry
• Emphasizes minimalism
• Notable artists and artworks: Vassily Kandinsky's "Composition 5" (1911), Kazimir Malevich's "Black Circle" (1924), and Piet Mondrian's "Composition with Yellow, Blue and Red" (1921)

Dada Art Movement (1916-1923)

• Characterized by iconoclastic and playful approach
• Features illogical and absurd compositions, "readymades" (everyday objects as art), and disturbing photomontages
• Notable artists and artworks: Man Ray's "Cadeau" (1921) and Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain" (1917)

Precisionism Art Movement (1915-1945)

• Characterized by realistic depiction of objects with emphasis on geometrical form
• Features celebration of industrialization in urban landscapes and country landscapes
• Notable artists and artworks: Charles Sheeler's "Upper Deck" (ca. 1928) and Charles Demuth's "I Saw the Figure 5 in Gold" (1928)

Surrealism Art Movement (from 1920s)

• Characterized by strange images or bizarre juxtapositions
• Features unconsciousness as a valid reality, dream-like artwork, and symbolic images
• Often employs automatism techniques to create random effects, distorted figures, or biomorphic shapes
• Notable artists and artworks: TBA