Modern Art Movements: Styles, Techniques & Key Concepts

What characterizes Impressionism?

Capturing fleeting light and atmosphere with visible brushstrokes, often painted en plein air

What characterizes Post-Impressionism?

Building on Impressionism but with more emphasis on structure, symbolic color, and personal expression

What is Pointillism?

A Post-Impressionist technique applying small distinct dots of pure color that visually blend from a distance

What characterizes Fauvism?

Bold, non-naturalistic color used for emotional/expressive impact rather than realism

What characterizes German Expressionism?

Distorted forms and intense color used to convey raw emotional/psychological states

What characterizes Cubism?

Fragmenting subjects into geometric planes and showing multiple viewpoints simultaneously

Analytic vs. Synthetic Cubism

Analytic Cubism breaks subjects into fragmented, monochromatic planes; Synthetic Cubism reassembles simplified shapes and adds color, texture, and collage elements

What characterizes Futurism?

Italian movement (starting 1909) celebrating speed, technology, and dynamic movement

What characterizes Dada?

An anti-art, anti-rationalist movement (starting 1915) using absurdity and chance as a reaction to WWI

What is a readymade (Dada/Duchamp)?

An ordinary manufactured object presented as art with little or no alteration, challenging definitions of art and authorship

What characterizes Surrealism?

Exploring the unconscious mind through dreamlike, irrational imagery

What is automatism in Surrealist practice?

Creating art through spontaneous, unplanned mark-making meant to bypass conscious control and access the unconscious

What characterizes De Stijl?

Dutch movement (from 1917) using strict geometric abstraction and primary colors plus black/white/gray

What was the Bauhaus (1919)?

A German school that unified fine art, craft, and design with an emphasis on function and simplicity

What characterizes Constructivism?

A Russian movement using industrial materials and geometric abstraction in service of social/political purpose

What characterizes Expressionism (broadly) as opposed to Impressionism?

Expressionism distorts reality to convey subjective emotion; Impressionism captures an objective sensory impression of light and atmosphere

What is Precisionism?

An early 20th-century American style depicting industrial and urban subjects with sharp-edged, simplified geometric clarity

What characterizes American Regionalism?

Early-to-mid 20th century American style depicting rural/small-town American life in a realistic manner

What characterizes Abstract Expressionism (1940s-50s)?

Large-scale, gestural, non-representational painting emphasizing spontaneity and emotion

Action painting vs. Color Field painting

Action painting emphasizes the physical, gestural act of applying paint (e.g., dripping); Color Field painting emphasizes large flat areas of color meant to evoke a contemplative mood

What characterizes Pop Art?

Incorporating imagery from mass/consumer culture and advertising, often with irony

What is Op Art?

Art using precise geometric patterns and contrast to create optical illusions of movement or vibration

What is Minimalism?

Art reduced to essential geometric forms, often industrially fabricated, removing personal/expressive gesture

What is Conceptual Art?

Art in which the idea or concept behind the work is considered more important than the finished physical object

What is Photorealism (Hyperrealism)?

A style of painting that meticulously reproduces the appearance of a photograph with extreme precision

What is Installation Art?

Large-scale, often immersive artworks designed to transform a viewer's experience of a specific space

What is Environmental/Land Art?

Art made directly in and using the natural landscape, often large in scale (emerging in the 1960s)

What is Street Art?

Art created in public spaces, often without official permission, ranging from graffiti to large murals

What is Art Nouveau known for?

Organic, flowing lines inspired by natural forms, used in decorative arts and architecture (late 1800s-early 1900s)

What is Art Deco known for?

Geometric, streamlined, luxurious style popular in the 1920s-30s, associated with modern industry

What is the Harlem Renaissance?

A flourishing of African American art, literature, and music centered in Harlem in the 1920s-30s

What is the Ashcan School?

Early 1900s American realist painters depicting gritty, everyday urban life

What characterizes Feminist Art (1960s-70s)?

Art addressing women's experiences and challenging patriarchal structures in the art world

What is identity-based/multicultural contemporary art broadly concerned with?

Exploring race, gender, culture, and personal identity, often challenging historically dominant, Western-centric art narratives

What is appropriation art?

Art that intentionally borrows or reuses existing images, objects, or styles, often to comment on authorship, culture, or meaning

What is new media art?

Art created using digital technology — including video, internet, interactive, and computer-generated work — as its primary medium