A Guide to the Most Significant Art Movements of the Past 500 Years

normal from far away, but close up they are a bit of a mess. Also look for the same the same image painted two or more times under different lighting conditions.

Post-Impressionism (1860 – 1905)

Post-Impressionist were not a cohesive movement, and the style of individual artists vary. Post-Impressionism was simultaneously an extension of Impressionism, and a rejection of its concern for the naturalistic depiction of light and colour in favour of an emphasis on abstract qualities or symbolic content. Post-Impressionists continued using vivid colours (e.g. Cézanne painted red grass), thick application of paint, and distinctive and visible brushstrokes.

What to look for: You see paint first, and the image second.

Abstraction

Abstraction is a generic term for art that does not represent recognizable objects. Abstractionist abandoned art as the imitation of nature in favour of imagery from the imagination and the unconscious. Abstraction comprised a number of different movements, such as Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Dada, Surrealism, and Expressionism.

Fauvism (1905 to 1907), as a movement, had no concrete theories. The name derives from the judgment of a critic who referred to the artists disparagingly as “les fauves” (wild beasts). Fauvist artwork is characterized by distorted forms, bold and vivid colours, often applied unmixed, and a spontaneity and roughness of execution. Fauvism was short lived, and most practitioners became Cubists.

What to look for: You may say to yourself, “I could do that.”

Cubism (1907 to 1914) retreated from traditional

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