(L-R) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; gift of Elinor Dorrance Ingersoll, 1969 (accession no. 69.281); www.metmuseum.org; The Art Institute of Chicago, Mr. and Mrs. Lewis Larned Coburn Memorial Collection (1933.441), www.artic.edu.; Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (Open Government Data License, version 1.0)
Art movements break up tens of thousands of years of art history into time periods or categories that have common techniques, themes, or philosophies. Some movements have been demarcated retrospectively, some identified contemporaneously as part of a larger cultural trend, and others defined by the artists themselves. The delimitation of an art movement is not meant to be conclusive, but, rather, it provides a flexible category that can overlap with others and is open to revision and debate.
In The Surrealist Manifesto (1924), French poet André Breton first defined Surrealism, calling it a means of reuniting conscious and unconscious realms of experience to create “an absolute reality, a surreality.” He and other poets drew on Austrian neurologist Sigmund Freud’s methods of free association to unlock their unconscious imagination when writing. Soon artists, including Max Ernst, Joan Miró, René Magritte, and Salvador Dalí, began to apply these methods to art making and introduced a few new methods and styles of their own. Although World War II scattered the Surrealists across the globe, the movement continued, and it went on to influence such subsequent art movements as Abstract Expressionism.
Although the concept of art movements is more strongly associated with the Western world, art from the non-Western world is often classified on the basis of dynasties or regions. Many dynasties in Chinese history, for example, had distinct artistic styles, including the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), during which the tradition of “literati painting” (wenrenhua), flourished. This style was concerned more with individual expression than with close representation. Learn about some of the era’s most celebrated artists.
Wang Meng: Thatched Cottage in Autumnal MountainsDetail of Thatched Cottage in Autumnal Mountains, painting by Wang Meng, 14th century; in the National Palace Museum, Taiwan.
Courtesy of the National Palace Museum, Taipei (Open Government Data License, version 1.0)
Huang Gongwang was the oldest of the group of Chinese painters later known as the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368). He was often cited meritoriously by later painters and critics for his rectitude (even though he briefly served in a junior capacity in the Mongol administration) and for
Ni Zan was one of the group of Chinese painters later known as the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368). Although Ni was born to wealth, he chose not to serve the foreign Mongol dynasty of the Yuan and instead lived a life of retirement and cultivated the scholarly arts (poetry, painting,
Wang Meng was a Chinese painter who is placed among the group later known as the Four Masters of the Yuan dynasty (1206–1368), although, being in the second generation of that group, he had a more personal style that was less based upon the emulation of ancient masters. Wang was a grandson of
Wu Zhen was one of the group of Chinese painters later known as the Four Masters of the Yuan, or Mongol, dynasty (1206–1368). His fame derives particularly from his incorruptible life as a recluse (and diviner) away from the Mongol court. Wu, like others of the group, sought stylistic inspiration
Explore Different Art Styles with These Paintings
Earth, heaven, and hell: Hiëronymus Bosch's The Garden of Earthly Delights
Art Nouveau, style of art that flourished between about 1890 and 1910 throughout Europe and the United States. Art Nouveau is characterized by its use of a long, sinuous, organic line and was employed most often in architecture, interior design, jewelry and glass design, posters, and illustration.
Op art, branch of mid-20th-century geometric abstract art that deals with optical illusion. Achieved through the systematic and precise manipulation of shapes and colors, the effects of Op art can be based either on perspective illusion or on chromatic tension; in painting, the dominant medium of
Renaissance art, painting, sculpture, architecture, music, and literature produced during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Europe under the combined influences of an increased awareness of nature, a revival of classical learning, and a more individualistic view of humans. Scholars no longer
Rococo, style in interior design, the decorative arts, painting, architecture, and sculpture that originated in Paris in the early 18th century but was soon adopted throughout France and later in other countries, principally Germany and Austria. It is characterized by lightness, elegance, and an
