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Art Movements (part -1) (Nov 2, 2006)
An art movement is an artistic style or tendency as perceived by the collective works of a group of artists; moreover, there are commonalities among the techniques, philosophy or goals they have embraced, or in the attitudes that they espouse in an organized effort.
Abstract Expressionism is a modern art movement that began in America after the Second World War and flourished until the dawn of Pop Art in the 1960's. It has its genesis in other earlier 20th century art movements such as Cubism and Surrealism that promoted abstraction rather than representation—paintings were often composed of shapes, lines, and forms not meant to depict the reality of the visible world, but to convey spiritual and emotional truths. The psychoanalytic theories of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung provided the intellectual context in this quest for new subject matter.
As the first truly original school of painting in America, abstract expressionism demonstrated the vitality and creativity of the country in the post-war years, as well as its ability to develop an aesthetic sense that was not constrained by the European standards of art. The Abstract Expressionists' goal was a raw and impulsive art—what mattered were the qualities of the paint and the act of painting itself. Major artists associated with the movement include Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Clyfford Still, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, Philip Guston, and Lee Krasner.
It was the first specifically American art movement to achieve worldwide influence, with New York and California replacing Paris as the epicenters of the art world.
Baroque, one of the most identifiable movements in art history, is clearly distinguishable from the art of the late Renaissance era. Although exact dates cannot be reliably determined, the Baroque period generally spans the years 1600 - 1750. It grew directly from the Counter-Reformation movement in Europe and was encouraged by the Roman Catholic Church, which had decided that the arts should communicate religious themes in direct and emotional involvement.
Baroque was a highly decorative style that used exaggerated movement and forms achieved by means of highly developed naturalistic illusionism. This was usually heightened by utilizing rich or muted colors to create an emotional reaction, by using dramatic lighting effects, and by incorporating deep space perspectives. The end results were an unequaled sense of theaticality, exuberance, energy, and grandeur.
Perhaps recognized primarily for religious and allegorical subject matter, it should be noted that historical moments, portraits of nobility and the wealthy, landscapes, still lifes, and scenes from everyday life were prevalent as well. Caravaggio, Annibale Carracci, Gianlorenzo Bernini, Peter Paul Rubens, Rembrandt, Diego Velázquez, and Jan Vermeer were some of the grand master painters of this time.
Classicism is loosely defined as emulating the principles or style embodied in the literature, art, or architecture of ancient Greece and Rome. This reflection was an adherence to traditional standards in simplicity, restraint, and proportion that are universally and enduringly valid. The term may refer either to works produced in antiquity or to later works inspired by those of antiquity. Neoclassicism usually refers to art produced later but inspired by antiquity.
When applied generally, classicism means clearness, elegance, symmetry, and repose produced by attention to traditional forms. It is sometimes synonymous with excellence or artistic quality of high distinction. Because the principles of classicism were derived from the rules and practices of the ancients, the term came to mean the adherence to specific academic canons.
Renaissance painters and sculptors whose works reflect the classical influence include Andrea Mantegna, Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo. In the 20th-century, abstracted classical elements can be found in the paintings of Paul Cézanne and Pablo Picasso.
Cubism, which began in France in the early 20th century, played an extremely important role in the development of modern art in the decades that followed. Its inception was a backlash to the impressionists who emphasized light and color, and follows Paul Cézanne’s observation that everything in nature takes its form from the sphere, the cone, and the cylinder. In Cubism, forms are either deconstructed by painting the basic geometric solid of the subject, or the objects are fractured into multiple perspectives that do not exist in reality. It also solved the dilemma of visually representing 3-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional canvas.
The movement stated in Paris in 1908, reached its peak in 1914, and continued into the 1920's. Led by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Cubism shocked art circles, and its influence soon spread rapidly to other parts of Europe and to New York.
Dada, the nonsensical baby talk syllables for hobbyhorse and a word chosen at random, was a radical international movement in literature and art that began in Zurich, Switzerland in 1916. The artists and writers who embraced the movement made deliberate attempts to express the negation of all current aesthetic and social values by utilizing incomprehensible artistic and literary methods. Their works were designed to surprise, shock, or bewilder with the aim of startling the public into reconsidering accepted norms. It grew out of an antagonistic reaction against bourgeois Victorian values of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
Integral to the Dada movement was creating work that defied intellectual analysis. Much of it was absurd and playful, but at times, intuitive and even cryptic. Methods of production were unconventional, employing chance and using found or discarded objects. Dadaists rejections’ of the norm was an attempt to make a statement on the social values and cultural trends of a contemporary world facing a devastating period of war.
Dada, as an anti-art, ant-war movement, rapidly spread to Germany, Paris, Russia, and America, and was adopted by artists such as Jean Arp, Marcel Duchamp, and Max Ernst.
Expressionism, denoting the use of distortion and exaggeration for emotional effect, first surfaced in Germany the early twentieth century that challenged the academic traditions, particularly through Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter. Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche played a key role in originating modern expressionism by clarifying and serving as a conduit for previously neglected currents in ancient art. When applied to art, particular characteristics were the use of intense colors, agitated brushstrokes, and disjointed space. However, the movement was not limited to painting only, for it soon found its way into dance, cinema, literature, and the theatre as well.
Expressionists’ goals were not to reproduce the impression suggested by the surrounding world, but to strongly impose their own sensibility to the world's representation. The expressionist artist transformed the visual object reality to his own image of this object, which he felt was a more accurate representation of its real meaning. The search of harmony and forms was not as important as trying to achieve the highest expression of intensity, both from the aesthetic point of view and according to idea and human critics.
A radical departure away from Impressionism, the movement drew inspiration from Symbolism, Fauvism, and Cubism. Leading Expressionists included Wassily Kandinsky, Amadeo Modigliani, Edvard Munch, Georges Rouault, Franz Marc, and George Grosz.
Fauvism was the first art movement of the modern period. At the turn of the 20th century, a group of artists led by Henri Matisse so stunned the public with their art that they were called "wild beasts" or "fauves", in French. Inspired by the earlier work of Vincent Van Gogh, fauvist paintings often revealed very bold, vivid, pure colors and short blunt brushstrokes; they differed from Impressionists, however, in that the work was very emotional, raw, and even shocking and violent. Fauvist artist often chose colors, lines and shapes to express emotion rather than to represent the real world.
The movement reveled in the sheer patterning of things. It was not profound art but was visually pleasurable. During its brief flourishing, Fauvism had some notable adherents, including Andre Derain, Georges Braque and Georges Rouault, and was a great influence on future art movements, particularly on German expressionism.
Futurism was an early 20th century art and literary movement based in Italy that celebrated the pandemic changes wrought by the technological revolution. Largely inspired by the development of Cubism, the core preoccupations of Futurist thought and art were machines and motion.
Founded in 1909 by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, The Futurists were the first artists of this time who pledged themselves to ideological activism and devoted their energies and talents to converting he masses to that ideal, rather than to formalizing and promoting their individual artistic merits. The movement began not through a collection of works as most others do, but through a series of written manifestos.
Futurist artists were dominated by the inclusion of new technologies and scientific development; for example, it was their belief that paintings of nudes were akin to anatomical studies. It was the position of these artists that they must consider what one remembers and what one sees—the lines and planes of objects, rather than the reflected light. Practicitioners included painters Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà, and Gino Severini.
