Characteristics of Art from Various Art Movements

Vocabulary flashcards summarizing key movements, styles, techniques, and artists covered in the lecture.

Impressionism

Late-19th-century movement that used pure, unmixed colors and short, broken brushstrokes to capture fleeting effects of light.

Pure Unmixed Color

Impressionist technique of placing pigments side by side on the canvas so the viewer’s eye optically blends them.

Short Broken Strokes

Distinct dabs or touches of paint that create vibrancy and texture in Impressionist paintings.

impressionism

Painting outdoors in natural light, a practice favored by Impressionists.

Unusual Visual Angles

Compositional device in Impressionism that presents subjects from unexpected viewpoints.

Off-Centered Composition

Impressionist tendency to place the main subject away from the canvas center, leaving empty space.

Claude Monet

Impressionist celebrated for luminous landscape scenes of his flower gardens and water-lily ponds.

Auguste Renoir

Impressionist painter of snapshot-like scenes depicting real people and social gatherings.

Edouard Manet

Impressionist whose works portrayed contemporary, modern-life subjects.

Expressionism

Early-20th-century movement emphasizing emotional experience over realistic depiction, spawning several sub-styles.

Neoprimitivism

Expressionist style combining South Sea Islander art and African tribal carvings; marked by oval faces and elongated forms.

Amedeo Modigliani

Neoprimitivist known for sculptures and paintings featuring elongated faces inspired by African art.

Fauvism

Expressionist offshoot using strong, unnatural colors and flat, unified compositions; name means “the wild beasts.”

Henri Matisse

Leading Fauvist who gave color new, emotional meaning through bold, simplified forms.

Dadaism

Anti-traditional movement producing satirical, nonsensical art, poetry, and performance with playful visual surprises.

Marc Chagall

Dada-associated painter famed for imaginative, dreamlike imagery and vibrant color.

Giorgio de Chirico

Dada/Metaphysical artist known for eerie, dream-filled cityscapes and non-style approach.

Surrealism

‘Super-realism’ depicting the illogical world of dreams and the subconscious, often bizarre or playful.

Salvador Dali

Surrealist noted for morbid, meticulously rendered dream imagery such as melting clocks.

Paul Klee

Surrealist who created playful, whimsical compositions with child-like symbols.

Joan Miro

Surrealist painter famed for colorful, abstract shapes suggesting whimsical dreamscapes.

Social Realism

Expressionist movement using art to protest social injustices and advocate reform.

Abstractionism

Umbrella term for movements emphasizing abstract forms over realistic representation.

Cubism

Abstractionist style reducing subjects to geometric planes and angles; resembles a three-dimensional cube.

Pablo Picasso

Spanish painter/sculptor and foremost Cubist innovator.

Futurism

Italian movement celebrating motion, speed, and mechanical energy of the modern age.

Gino Severini

Italian Futurist who depicted dynamic movement and mechanical force in his paintings.

Mechanical Style

Abstractionist approach fitting planes, cones, spheres, and cylinders together with precise, machine-like order.

Non-Objectivism

Abstract style that avoids recognizable figures or objects altogether.

Op Art (Optical Art)

Movement creating eye-based ‘action painting’ effects—illusions of vibration or movement on a static surface.

Pop Art

Movement using commonplace or trivial objects and imagery, often with humor and irony.