AP Art History: Styles

Abstract Expressionism

First major American avant-garde movement; emerged 1940s in NYC; artists focused on automatism and revealing their subconscious through automatism artmaking; broad gestural strokes on huge canvases

Amarna Style

Based on newly introduced monotheism, this style rejected traditional artistic conventions; utilized elongated forms, androgynous bodies and scenes of daily life

Ancient Egypt

Aimed to evoke timelessness and tradition through conventional images of power and rulership; frequently funerary; utilized twisted perspective and hierarchical scale; bodies based on a canon of proportion

Archaic Greek

Artwork is typically funerary or for ritual; male figures are nude, while female figures are clothed; bodies are idealized, with little negative space and no contrapposto

Art Nouveau

An ornamental style of art that flourished between 1880 and 1910; characterized by organic, twisting decorative natural motifs; a decorative arts movement as well as a fine arts movement

Austrian Secession

Characterized by decadence, a breakdown of light, decorative patterning; a reaction to the traditional Viennese art community

Byzantine

Focused on formal religious imagery with figures who were often flattened and frontal; limited range of modeling; lack of depth or perspective

Chicago Style

A turn of the 20th-century architecture style that focused on a simple style that was free from classical ornamentation; characterized by steel-frame technology and a simple exterior with limited ornamentation

Classical Greek

Figures are based on a canon of proportions, based upon mathematical principles; bodies display idealism, rationalism, and humanism; bodies are typically nude or utilize wet drapery

Color field

Artists sought to reduce painting to its physical essence by pouring diluted paint onto unprimed canvas in large sections; explored the idea of how our bodies respond to color

Constructivism

Originated in Russia; often utilized photomontages to construct images of a utopian, politically-charged world

Cubism

Early-20th-century art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions, preferring compositions of shapes and forms that were abstracted ; inspired by African art (primitivism); multiple views within a single image exist

Dada

A 20th-century art movement prompted by a revulsion against the horror of World War I; characterized by a disdain for convention, often enlivened by humor; makes art absurd with a contempt for tradition

De Stijl

Dutch, "the style;" early- 20th-century art movement founded by Piet Mondrian; developed a simplified geometric style of pure abstraction; believed that abstraction was the only universal art form

Documentary Photography

Chronicled significant historical events; often promoted a cultural or social message, regardless of artist's intent

Dutch Baroque

Characterized by scenes with Protestant moral messages; exquisite attention to light and fabrics; patrons ennobled by new mercantile wealth; new types of art emerge (genre, landscapes, still lifes)

Early Christian

Christian re-adaptation of Greco-Roman imagery; characterized by short, squat figures, no individuality or consistent scale; no perspective

Early Medieval

Artwork typically consisted of manuscripts created by monks in scriptoria; interlacing and other complex but spatially flat decoration fills the pages, particularly the borders; richly colored; frequently includes Biblical text

Environmental art/Earth Art

American movement in the 1960s and 1970s; used the land itself as the material; response to growing environmentalism in America; rejection of traditional art object

Etruscan

Based upon Archaic Greek sculpture, but utilizes greater emotion; commonly funerary and joyful

Fauvism

From the French word fauve, "wild beast;" Early-20th-century art movement led by Henri Matisse, for whom color became the formal element most responsible for pictorial meaning; expressive power of color

Feminist Art

Explored the accomplishments of women artists and focused on subject matter related to women's issues, or historical women

German Expressionism

Early-20th century art movement; characterized by bold, vigorous brushwork, rough/jagged line, and bright color; Two important groups: Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter; create a new universal art form

Gothic

Popular in the 13th and 14th centuries; characterized by rib vaults, pointed arches, flying buttresses, and stained glass

Gothic Revival/Neo-Gothic

19th century - predominantly English - architectural movement to revive medieval Gothic architecture

Harlem Renaissance

A rich period of cultural production for African Americans in the 20th century; celebrated their heritage and culture and redefined artistic forms of expression

Hellenistic Greek

Sculptural forms reveal greater emotion and movement in the body; subject matter expands to show unusual subjects, all of which utilize drama; departure from the previous period

Italian Renaissance

Highly influenced by classical styles with a great emphasis on humanism, organization, modeling, balance; figures are calm and do not exhibit emotion; artists in guilds utilized chiaroscuro in tempera paint

Impressionism

Interested in Parisian leisure and modern life; focused on light and its reflections while painting outside; influenced by Japonisme

International Style

Early 20th century architectural movement that rejected all historical ornamentation and utilized clean, straight lines

Italian Baroque

Theatrical multi-media art that retained an interest in classicism but added complex movement to the compositions; characterized by drama, intensity, engagement with the audience; often associated with Counter-Reformation propaganda

Mannerism

A style of European art that emerged in Italy after the 16th c. Renaissance; characterized by elongation, artifice, tension, and instability; no central organization; dramatic and exaggerated in such a way that creates a visual puzzle for the viewer

Neoclassicism

A style of art and architecture that emerged in the later 18th century. Part of a general revival of interest in classical cultures; characterized by the utilization of themes and styles from ancient Greece and Rome

Neo-Expressionism

An art movement that emerged in the 1970s and that reflects the artists' interest in the expressive capability of the human body; characterized by rough handling and intensity

Northern Renaissance

Eventually, interest in classicism like the South develops but early artwork in this style retained Gothic elongation; known for use of brilliant colors in oil paint; extraordinary realism with minute details; religious subject matter is humanized

Prairie Style

Early 20th-century architectural style that submerged architecture into nature; materials, colors, and light integrated nature as well

Prehistoric

Often utilized found objects; focused on animals, life cycles, fertility and typically used for rituals/religious ceremonies

Pop art

1950s art that incorporated elements from consumer culture, the mass media, and popular culture, such as images from motion pictures and advertising

Post-Impressionism

Retains Impressionism's interest in color, but focused on exploration of structure and form; additionally, at times emotional content was added; move towards abstraction

Post-Modernism

Art after the 1970s that transformed traditional practices and focused on challenging the traditional art world, the art object and the identity of the artist

Proto-Renaissance

Characterized by a growing interest in reality; returned to bodies with mass-like forms and realistic modeling to achieve roundness; primarily a movement utilizing frescos made with tempera

Realism

Rejection of anything that was not real or that was elite; focus on lower classes and their plight; favored accurate or objective depictions of ordinary world

Rococo

18th-century artistic style focused on asymmetry, decoration, grace, detail, and frivolity; included interior design; interest in aristocratic leisure

Roman Republic

Veristic sculpture portrayed civic pride, honor, intelligence, and merit

Roman Empire (Early/High)

Rounded arch and vault created; new building shapes achieved through the use of concrete; figures are idealized, in contrapposto, and display heroism, civic pride, and status

Roman Empire (Late)

Compositions become chaotic and abandon the idealism of the previous period; no central focus as figures are jumbled and start to stack on top of one another; figures lose idealism and rationalism

Romanesque

Primarily an architectural movement in the 11th-13th centuries in Western Europe; large, monumental, solid, and dark interiors; constructed with ambulatories and reliquaries that accommodated and attracted pilgrims

Romanticism

Explored scenes from the past, intense imagery, scenes of nature, and exotic subjects; glorification of emotion and feeling

Surrealism

20th-century movement; grew out of automatism and depicted dream-like states and hypnotic trances (all techniques for liberating the individual unconscious); meant to puzzle or challenge the viewer; often, there existed a multiplicity of interpretations

Symbolism

19th-century movement that depicted extreme emotion; often left up to the viewer's interpretation; embodied a world of fantasy, sensation, imagination, emotion

Venetian

Early use of (and characterized by) wet-in-wet technique to create glazes with oil paint; known for rich and lustrous skin tones acquired by vibrant pigments through Silk Road trade; also first consistent use of canvas

Video Art

Relies on new technologies that include moving pictures with sound; combination of visual and audio media