Art Appreciation: Art through History and Other Cultures

African Art
African art includes painting, sculpture, pottery, masks, textiles, body decoration, jewelry, and rock art. Some African art is aesthetic, some is political or ideological, and some is used for rituals. Characteristics of African art include stylized realism, emphasis on sculpture, geometric forms, and an emphasis on the human figure. African artists will tend to visually abstract, or stylize, figures rather than represent them in a naturalistic way. Sculpture is a preferred art form rather than working in two dimensions. African artists use geometric forms and symmetry, with repeated geometric shapes throughout an artwork. This example of a mask is symmetrical and includes geometric shapes. The human figure has often been a main subject for African art, depicted in masks, paintings, and sculptures. Human figures tend to show youthful characteristics because of an emphasis on health and physical strength as well as youth.


Context and Purpose
Some African art was created for religious purposes. In addition to regional religions, Christianity and other religions have been practiced there. Some art objects were created for display on an altar or shrine. Other artworks could be used to present sacrificial offerings, to commemorate leaders, or to contact spiritual ancestors. African art objects could also be used to connect with spirits through religious rites or by a religious specialist. These spirits could be summoned for healing or for communicating with ancestors.
Masks were used in performances and rituals with the participation of musicians, dancers, and the audience. When the masked dancer put on the mask, they took on the role of a powerful spiritual being. Many African societies have names for their masks, and these names include the dance, the meaning of the mask, and the spirits associated with the mask.

Asian Art
Eastern art does not follow the same aesthetics of the elements and principles as Western art. Asian art does not have a hierarchy of fine arts versus crafts; rather, the skill of craftsmanship is valued, and all types of arts and crafts will be exhibited simultaneously. The crafts of creating porcelain or textiles, for example, have a long and respected history in Asia. Calligraphy, or the art of writing, is also a valued art form, and it has included many different scripts from different times and cultures.
Eastern art focuses more on landscapes and spiritual ideas, rather than representational subjects or realism. It will often be shown on more of a flat plane, instead of showing traditional perspective that is used in Western art. Some common forms of traditional Asian art include silk painting, woodblock printing, and batik, as well as painting with ink on rice.
Buddhism has had a great influence on Asian art.
Mandalas, which are geometric artworks representing the universe, and Buddha statues are examples of this influence. Asian art has sought to depict man's understanding of natural forces and to understand the pattern of nature. The creation of artwork, including calligraphy, could refresh the spirit of the artist. Portraits would attempt to highlight the subject's moral character rather than just faithfully depict the subject. Art showed inspirational themes, and it often stayed away from subjects such as war, violence, death, and nudes. All objects in nature were seen as 'alive,' and rather than depicting nature realistically, Asian artists would try to capture the inner essence of these things. The artwork is full of symbolism, such as a dragon representing an emperor, or a pine tree symbolizing endurance. In the 1800s, Asian artists began to experiment with Western artistic traditions but turned back to Eastern traditions and began combining Eastern and Western ideas.

Middle Eastern Art
Middle Eastern or Islamic art includes artwork created by countries in the Middle Eastern region by
Muslim and non-Muslim artists. This includes architecture, mosaics, calligraphy, manuscript illumination, metalworking, textiles, and more.
Religion is the most important aspect of Islamic art, and the artwork will often include patterns that could be repeated into infinity. This concept is important to Muslims, contrasting the experience of infinity with man's finite existence on earth and disregarding this temporary presence. Another important concept is the dissolution of matter, which can be achieved by applying patterns and decoration to surfaces. Floral patterns were often used for patterns and decorations, and they could be highly intricate and ornate.
Calligraphy was integrated into artwork and decorations as an important element, and the inscription is often a quote from the Qur'an.
This image is an example of a repeated infinite pattern as well as dissolution of matter by covering it with a pattern.


Aboriginal Art<br> Early Aboriginal art from Australia included rock paintings (shown) and carvings now found throughout the country, and many are protected in national parks. The rock art is thought to be for decoration or ceremonial purposes. Indigenous art is still created today in Australia and has become popular again since the 1970s.<br> The European colonization of Australia had a large impact on its artwork. Since the 1700s, Europeans began depicting Australian scenes, landscapes, and natural history illustrations.<br> They attempted to capture the difference in lighting and scenery from the European landscape to the Australian landscape. The Victorian gold rush of the 1850s prompted wealthy landowners and merchants to commission landscape paintings. A distinctly Australian style of painting arose in the late 1800s, focusing on idealized landscapes and plein air painting. The main themes included working and conquering the land, the Australian outback, and the rural pioneer.<br><img data-cke-saved-src=" />

Latin American Art
Latin American art, from Central and South America, begins with the indigenous people. The first art objects were utilitarian, but eventually they began to produce artwork that represented the values and religions of the different regions. When South America was colonized by Europe, the art forms began to merge and blend. Latin American art is a blend of three cultures: Native American, African, and European. Prior to colonization, many
Native Americans lived in Latin America, but then European settlers arrived and brought African slaves. During colonial times, art was usually religious, and it resembled traditional European artwork.
In the 1800s, artists began to develop their own regional styles that departed from European styles and traditions. One important artistic movement is muralism, which began in the 1920s. Hundreds of murals were painted in public places, with social and political messages, ideas of identity, and a unifying theme.

European Art
European artwork began with prehistoric rock painting and carving, and it has developed over the centuries through many different artistic movements. Beginning in the middle ages, art would be commissioned by a patron, usually by the church or state. This artwork mainly showed historic, biblical, and religious scenes and religious and political leaders. Secular artwork included landscapes and still lifes. Academies trained artists in methods, materials, and anatomy; attempted to elevate art from a craft to fine art; and began to exhibit artwork. Art was created in workshops by master artists and their apprentices. As the importance of the church and royalty declined, the subject matter changed. The industrial revolution brought changes in technology that included premade, portable paints. Artists became independent and could use their own creativity. Because the academies resisted these changes, innovative artists became avant-garde while academic art stuck to traditions.

North American Art
Prior to colonization, traditional Native American art dominated North America. Early colonial art was based on European traditions, and artists mainly painted portraits and landscapes. In the 18th century, artists such as Benjamin West, John Singleton Copley, and Gilbert
Stuart became some of the first significant American painters. Starting in 1820, the Hudson River School produced romantic landscape painting artists. The American Revolution brought a demand for patriotic artwork, and artists began to document rural America. Prominent 19th-century painters created portraits and painted a wide range of subjects including pioneers, soldiers, and sailors.
American impressionism flourished in the 19th century, and in the 20th century, European art continued to impact America. This influence gave rise to the abstract art scene. Many art genres have risen in North America since the beginning of the 20th century, including pop art, minimalism, and photorealism.

Prehistoric Art
Prehistoric art is art that was produced in preliterate times, prior to writing or recordkeeping. The first known art is from the Paleolithic era, and it consisted of petroglyphs, cave paintings, and sculptures and carvings in bone. Humans were making art to express ideas and to represent their beliefs and surroundings visually. One of the earliest representational artworks from prehistory is the Venus of Willendorf  (shown), from roughly 28,000 BC
In China and Japan, prehistoric pottery has been found, as well as bronze figures. In Europe, cave paintings were found in Lascaux and Chauvet, France, and in parts of Spain.
Aboriginal painted rock art has been found in Australia, and engravings and paintings on stone and walls have been found in African caves. A large percentage of known prehistoric art is attributed to hunters and foragers. Repeated motifs include animals, humans, tools, maps, and symbols. Portable objects, such as rocks and bones, and stationary surfaces such as cave walls, were used for art creation.


Characteristics and Purpose
Whereas some think that cave art was purely decorative, others think it was created for other reasons. Some of the cave walls used were remote and inaccessible, so it is thought that they were used for religious ceremonies or to summon better hunting conditions. Animals and other figures were generally depicted from a simplified side view. Artists painted and drew animals, hunting scenes, landscapes, maps, and many different symbols.
Petroglyphs have also been found, which are prehistoric rock carvings created by removing parts of the rock. Some show real subjects, whereas others are abstract. They might have been used to convey information or for religious purposes. Some might even be a form of prewriting, or a way to map the stars.
The Venus figurines from prehistory are women with exaggerated features, and they are thought to be fertility idols, good luck statues, or a symbol of a mother goddess. The Venus of Willendorf is one of the earliest examples of a female nude.

Materials
Paleolithic artists used five main colors: black, white, yellow, red, and brown, as shown in this example from the Lascaux cave art in France. Color pigments were used for body and face decoration long before creating artwork. Some would mix earth or charcoal with animal fat for blacks and browns, and many paintings like this most likely vanished over time.
Later rock art that has been discovered used materials such as iron oxide, kaolin, hematite, and manganese. Crayons were developed from solid pieces of pigment, and brushes were formed from animal hairs. Artists would also apply paint with their fingers or a pad made from lichen or moss.
Later in the Stone Age, artists used ochre for yellows, browns, and reds and used manganese or charcoal for black. White was ground calcite or kaolin. The artist would grind the pigment into a powder and mix it with water, blood, animal fat, juice, or other materials to help the pigment stick to cave walls or other surfaces.


Egyptian Art
Painting, sculpture, and jewelry were created in ancient Egypt from 3,000 BC to 30 AD. Most of the art from this time was found in monuments and tombs. The artwork is mostly formal, and it follows their own guidelines for depicting figures. The stone statues are rigid and formal, whereas wood figures are more expressive. Ancient Egyptians' two-dimensional art is a combination of people, animals, and symbols. The organization of this artwork depends on the context: For more formal, organized scenes, they are sorted with the more important figures at the top. For a chaotic scene, such as a battle, this organization is not used.
The art we are most familiar with was found in the tombs of wealthy leaders; however, items of lesser quality are found in the burial sites of people of lower status. Statues were used as a conduit for people to interact with their gods. A ka statue is a statue intended as the resting place for a person's life force. Certain conventions were used for the creation of these, such as the sky god Horus always being represented with a falcon head. This consistency gave the figures a timeless quality.


Characteristics and Purpose
Much of the artwork created in ancient Egypt was not meant to be seen; rather, it was mostly created for tombs, and it emphasized life after death. Tombs in ancient Egypt were packed with furniture and food, as well as art and jewelry. The more important and wealthy the person, the more precious artifacts were found in their tomb. These items were meant for the person in their afterlife.
Egyptians used a hierarchy of scale to depict people, leaders, and gods: The larger the figure, the more important they were. Kings and deities might be shown on the same scale. Another common element of Egyptian artwork was hieroglyphs, or images that were symbols for sounds and words. These were the writing system of ancient Egypt, and they often accompanied the artwork.
Two-dimensional scenes were organized in registers, or parallel lines that separated scenes and served as ground lines. People were depicted with a simultaneous profile view and front view.
Ancient Egyptians used soft stones such as limestone, sandstone, and calcite for sculpture. Copper chisels and stone tools could be used on these softer stones, and ancient Egyptians used copper alloys on harder stones such as quartzite, basalt and granite. Most statues were painted, as evidenced by traces of paint left on them. For wood carving and sculpting, a variety of native woods was used, including acacia, fig, fir, and cedar.
For metalwork, Egyptians used copper, bronze, gold, and silver. Many metal statues were melted down, and the materials were reused.
They were able to cut stones for jewelry with precision. They used many stones in jewelry including lapis lazuli, feldspar, jasper, amethyst, and quartz.
The pigments used for painting came from local minerals.
They used carbon for black, gypsum for white, iron oxide for reds and yellows, azurite and malachite for blues and greens, and orpiment for bright yellow.
Paints were applied directly, or they were layered to create other effects.

Renaissance Art
The Renaissance was a revival of classical learning during the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries in Europe. Renaissance artists sought to capture the value of the individual and the beauty of the natural world.
This revival of drawing, painting, sculpture, and architecture was partly driven by humanism, which is a philosophy that attached importance and worth to the individual.
Increased prosperity led to an increase in commissioned artwork from wealthy patrons (especially the Medici family). At the same time, the church was conflicted on spiritual and secular issues, which helped the spread of humanism. The church was also a big patron of the arts, and it spent a great deal on art and architecture at the time. In addition to the wealth of Italy, Italy also contained a lot of Roman architecture and artifacts, which contributed to the beginning of the Renaissance in this area.
The ideas of humanism brought greater attention to detail and greater realism, as well as a focus on virtue. Artists began to use linear perspective foreshortening, bringing a natural realism to faces and figures.
Sculptures, drawings, and paintings showed increased knowledge of anatomy. Most painters began to use oil paint rather than tempera at this time, which contributed to this realism.
Christianity was still the main subject of artwork at this time, reflected in the paintings and sculptures of many prominent artists including Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Raphael. Stories from mythology were depicted, too, to promote the idea of humanism. During the Renaissance, artists were creating artwork for patrons and their status was raised to a level above craftsman. Because of the Renaissance movement, Western art developed from the ideals of classical artwork.

Altarpieces were commissioned often, and these would be the focal point of the space they occupied. Frescoes were often created in churches and in private buildings. This painting method was time consuming, with a prominent example being Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling (shown). Patrons also commissioned portraits of themselves and artworks for their homes.
Frescoes, that is, murals painted onto plaster walls, were painted during the Renaissance period. The pigments were mixed with water and applied to wet plaster, and once the plaster dried, the pigments were visible on the wall. This was a time-consuming process, but it was used for large works of art including the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Artists also painted with oil paints, which became available in the 15th century. The slow drying time allowed artists to blend and paint with greater realism and detail than before. More colors were available, and the transparency allowed artists to use glazing techniques, layering transparent colors for greater depth and richness. Artists during this time also still painted on wood panels or rigid supports with tempera.
For sculpting, the most common material was marble.
Michelangelo's famous sculptures, including David, Moses, and other notable works, were carved from marble.

Baroque Art
Baroque art dominated Europe in the 17th and 18th centuries.
The style was propagated by the Catholic Church, often in the form of monumental works of public art. This style was meant to counter the rationality and simplicity of the Renaissance style and inspire a sense of awe. Many baroque artworks illustrated Catholic ideas, within biblical or mythological depictions. Architecture, painting, and sculpture all reflected these ideals successfully. Baroque sculpture also used a dramatic sense of movement, contrasting with the comparatively still and calm Renaissance sculptures.
Baroque paintings would often include allegories, which are stories with hidden meaning and messages. The educated viewer was expected to recognize and understand symbols and hidden meanings in the artwork.
The Trevi Fountain in Rome  (1732, shown) is an example of the overly ornate baroque style in sculpture.
Some of the major artists of this time include Rembrandt, Caravaggio, and Peter
Paul Rubens.

The baroque art style is characterized by exaggerated motion and attention to detail. The scenes are created to enhance a sense of drama and grandeur. The chiaroscuro technique is often used in baroque art.
This is the use of strongly contrasting tones of light and dark, usually in a dramatic, high-contrast scene. Another technique used is tenebrism, which consists of keeping an area black, while a portion of the subject is brightly illuminated, as shown in this painting from 1636.
To set their artwork apart from the Renaissance artworks, artists departed from tranquil scenes and expressions of that time and instead showed intense emotion and movement in their work. Instead of the even lighting of Renaissance artwork, they used more dramatic lighting and they used asymmetry to enhance the sense of instability and movement. Clothing would be moving by wind or the motion of the person instead of draped and resting motionlessly.


Greek and Roman Art
The great classical art period began in Greece, and this art later greatly influenced Roman artwork. Romans borrowed many elements of their religion from Greece, and they also borrowed art and architectural styles.
Ancient Greeks used art to express noble ideas and emotions. They wanted to highlight the great accomplishments of man and honor their gods through their artwork. Sculptures included nude athletes in realistic poses, as shown, as well as gods and goddesses. The artwork was mostly sponsored by the government and made for the public to see, and it was a great source of pride for the people. Art from ancient Greece includes stone and wood statues and pottery in red figure and black figure styles. They also painted on panels and pottery.
Ancient Romans used their artwork more for aesthetics and decoration, rather than for lofty ideals like the Greeks. In Rome, art lost its spiritual quality and was used more to adorn homes. They did copy the Greek statues of gods and goddesses, but they also created skillful and realistic portrait sculptures. In addition to sculptures, they created paintings and mosaics for homes, showing scenes of daily life.

The Greeks and the Romans used marble and bronze for sculptures. Roman artists used encaustic (pigment mixed with hot wax) and tempera for painting scenes on panels, and they created fresco paintings on architectural surfaces. For mosaics, Romans used small cut pieces of glass, tile, pottery stone, and shells. The pieces were called tesserae, and they were stuck to the surface with mortar.
The ancient Greeks also created wood sculptures in their early period, although few of these have survived. The preferred sculpture materials were marble and limestone, as well as cast bronze. They created figurines from terra cotta and bronze. The Greeks also painted on panels with encaustic and wax, and they painted their sculptures as well as parts of their temples. Most of the paintings that have survived are on pottery. Their pottery had a high iron oxide content, giving it a red color. This example is of the Greek red figure pottery.


Medieval Art
The period of medieval art spans more than 1,000 years, from the fall of the Roman empire to the Renaissance period. Subjects explored during this time include mythology, Christian themes, and biblical stories. The medieval period can be separated into Byzantine, Romanesque, and Gothic.
Byzantine art was from the Eastern Empire called Byzantium, and it was highly stylized. Byzantine art favored symbolism over realism, and the subject matter included imperial and religious subjects. This example of Byzantine painting shows religious subject matter.
Romanesque art included massive churches built with stone arches, similar to Roman architecture. Romanesque painters created frescoes and used encaustic on panels. Gothic art began in Paris and spread throughout Europe. Its greatest contribution was the cathedral and elaborate architecture with complicated decoration. Painting during the Gothic period included animated figures and expressions, painted small in relation to their backgrounds.


The Mannerism Style
The mannerism style of art and architecture emerged as a reaction to the high Renaissance. From the end of the Renaissance in the 1520s to the beginning of baroque art in 1590, mannerism focused more on style and technique than the meaning of the subject.
Mannerism arose partly from new scientific discovery that man was not the center of the universe, but, rather, the earth revolves around the sun. At the same time, the Reformation movement highlighted a need for church reforms, bringing turmoil and religious uncertainty.
Mannerist artists reflected this uncertainty, attempting to solve artistic problems by changing proportions and portraying people in new and strange ways. These included elongated limbs, small heads, and dramatic, unnatural, contrived poses. Departing from the linear perspective and depth used in Renaissance art, mannerists flattened the composition and arranged the figures on a flat plane, as shown. Mannerism artists experimented with form, portraying emotions, and bright and unusual colors.


El Greco and Tintoretto
El Greco, a nickname meaning 'the Greek,' painted in the mannerist style, using elongated and strange proportions and portraying strong, dramatic emotions. The poses are strained and unnatural, heightening the emotion conveyed by the subjects. Rather than using accurate lighting, the lighting in his works seem to come from within the figures or from an unseen source. In his later works, he elongated figures even more, especially on altarpiece works. This work from 1600 shows his odd use of lighting and forced, strained poses that illustrate the mannerist style.
Tintoretto, another mannerist painter, created monumental religious works and emphasized the mystical nature of religion. He also used elongated forms and forced poses, but his works show a mastery of lighting along with a better idea of spatial depth. He sought for viewers to experience the divine through his religious depictions. Through lighting and composition, he created a supernatural atmosphere, portraying scenes not from this world.


The Renaissance Art Period
The Renaissance period of art was a rebirth of interest in classical learning and arts. Artists looked to the past for inspiration, while innovating and producing some of the best-known art in history. Artists used naturalism, attempting to portray figures realistically rather than exaggerating or stylizing them. Renaissance artists studied anatomy and perspective, as well as light and shadow, to use them accurately in their artwork. They took ideas from the mythology of classical civilizations and used them as a starting point to create their own monumental works.
During the Renaissance, the ambition of classical civilizations was rediscovered, boundaries were pushed, and artists innovated to capture the beauty of humanity. The Greek idea of humanism was used to celebrate the accomplishments of man. Renaissance artists saw the classical period as the height of humanity and attempted to recreate and build upon this movement.

Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael
Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael are a few of the best-known artists of the Renaissance period. Leonardo was a 'Renaissance man,' with knowledge of math, astronomy, architecture, art, inventing, literature, anatomy, and more. His well-known works include the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. He pioneered a technique called sfumato, which uses subtle gradations to create a smoky look.
Michelangelo showed a mastery of anatomy in his artworks. His best-known works are his David statue and his painting of the Sistine Chapel ceiling. Unlike many artists, he achieved fame as an artist during his lifetime. He was accomplished in art, sculpture, and architecture, and he inspired the artist Raphael.
Raphael is known for his skillful composition, as well as his serene depictions of the greatness of human nature. One of his best-known works is the School of Athens, a monumental work from 1509–1500 depicting many ancient Greek philosophers
(shown). This artwork also shows a mastery of perspective, as well as natural poses and lighting.


Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism occurred during the late 18th and early 19th centuries. This movement in art and architecture was an attempt to revive the classical Greek style and depart from the highly ornate baroque style. It also came about partly from the discovery of Roman ruins at Pompeii and Herculaneum. Neoclassical artwork was serious, stoic, and heroic. Artists portrayed moral narratives of ethical superiority, returning to classical subjects and motifs from Greek and Roman art. This art is characterized by somber colors, shallow space, balance, clarity, and restraint. Artists sought to show smooth paint surfaces with no brushstrokes visible in their artwork.
This movement coincided with the Age of Enlightenment, or Age of Reason, which was an intellectual and philosophical movement focused on reason as the main source of authority. These ideas were also reflected in the art at the time, as artists moved from ornate and frivolous art to more serious, classical subjects. Neoclassical artists had few surviving Greek paintings to model their work after, but they had many more examples of sculpture to follow for their work.

Jacques-Louis David and Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres.
One significant artist of the neoclassical style is Jacques-Louis David. His painting Oath of the Horatii is a prime example of the neoclassical movement. This painting (shown) tells a story from classical times, from a Roman legend in which the Horatii brothers take an oath to defend Rome. In this carefully organized composition, three arches with columns span the background, whereas all the figures and action are pushed into the foreground as if creating a sculptural relief.
Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres was a student of David, and he also created works in the neoclassical style.
Unlike David, he began to favor more sensuous subjects and became known for portraits. His work Oedipus and the Sphinx (1808) was completed while
Ingres worked in Rome. This scene is from the Greek myth of Oedipus, when Oedipus was guessing the riddle of the Sphinx. Ingres won the prestigious Prix de Rome for this painting. Keeping with classical standards, Oedipus is depicted as a beautiful and ideal young man.


Romanticism
The romanticism movement began in 1770 and encompassed art, literature, music, and culture. The term romantic refers not to love, but to intense emotion. This movement emphasized emotion and individualism, and it was a reaction against the rationalism of neoclassicism. Romantic artists often illustrated literary themes. They emphasized and depicted emotions such as terror, awe, and apprehension, and they attempted to capture the beauty and sublime feel of nature. This painting by Thomas Cole from 1836, The Course of Empire:
Destruction, embodies the focus on nature and destruction in a romantic artwork.
This style first manifested in landscape painting, and artists challenged the previously low status of landscape art by painting monumental works. History painters also created large works, portraying disaster, divine wrath, and natural catastrophe. Artists portrayed vast spaces with people dwarfed in comparison, mystical landscapes, and nature's triumph over man. No traditional religious art came from this period, but artists continued to portray small villages and the wilderness, despite the increase of urban spaces.


Eugène Delacroix, Theodore Gericault, Thomas Cole
Several significant artists worked in the romanticist style.
Eugène Delacroix was at the forefront of the French school of romantic artwork.
In Liberty Leading the People, he depicted the female figure of Liberty leading the French Revolution of 1830. It is a history painting, showing a violent, dramatic, catastrophic scene.
Theodore Gericault was another French romantic artist. His work The Raft of the Medusa is a significant romantic painting. This work is larger than life size, and it shows the aftermath of the wreck of a French naval frigate, with people escaping on a makeshift raft. It shows men dying and struggling to survive against nature, with strong emotions and an unfolding drama.
Thomas Cole was an American painter who portrayed the American wilderness in the romantic style. One of his well-known works is called The Oxbow, which shows a bend in the Connecticut River, in a valley after a thunderstorm. There is a juxtaposition of broken trees, violent cliffs, and dark rain clouds beside blue skies and a tranquil bend in the river.

The realism movement began in France in the 1850s, as a rejection of the ideas of romanticism. Rather than exaggerated scenes and heightened emotions, realism sought to portray ordinary scenes with accuracy and truth. The artists attempted to show people from all walks of life and social classes accurately and not smooth over or avoid unpleasant subjects.
Realist artists did not portray people heroically or sentimentally; instead, they wanted to treat all subjects with equal seriousness. The advent of the camera helped to increase the desire to show subjects realistically.
The realism movement is thought to be the first modern art movement, because the artists rejected traditions and expanded the definition of what is considered art. They examined the political, cultural, and economic structure of society, and they used earthy tones to show what was happening in all parts of society. Realist artists painted real-life events, workers, street life, cafés, peasants, and nightclubs, rather than grand landscapes or posed scenes with extreme emotions.

Gustave Courbet, Jean-Francois Millet, and Honoré Daumier
The main realist artists in France were Gustave Courbet, Jean-Francois Millet, and Honoré Daumier. Courbet would paint ordinary scenes on vast canvases that were normally used for history paintings. Two of his well-known works include The Stonebreakers (shown) and A Burial at
Ornans. The Stonebreakers was painted in 1849, and it shows ordinary workers in his native region of France. He uses natural color and lighting to portray his subjects.
In the United States, Thomas Eakins and Winslow Homer were significant realism painters. Winslow Homer began as a commercial illustrator, but then he was inspired by Courbet, Millet, and Daumier and began to paint ordinary subjects in America. Eakins painted his friends and local people in outdoor sports, including his work Max Schmitt in a Single Scull, from 1871. His most well-known work is The Gross Clinic, which showed a scene from a surgical operation, and this was received unfavorably by critics due to its subject matter.


Impressionism
The impressionism movement began in the late 1800s as artists in Paris began to practice plein air painting together. The artists included Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Impressionists departed from a faithful depiction of a scene, and instead they attempted to capture their impression of it, or the momentary effect of lighting on the scene. Artists used small brushstrokes and pure color. They tried to capture the optical effects of light, and the differences that weather and sun position create in a scene.
The recent invention and availability of paint in a tube helped spur on this movement. Artists were able to paint outside more easily and capture scenes as they saw them. The emphasis in the painting was as much on the artist's perception of the scene as it was on the scene itself. The painting by Claude Monet, Haystack. End of Summer. Morning. from 1891, shows how Monet used color and brushstrokes to capture the lighting of a summer morning on the haystack.

Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, Mary Cassatt, and Auguste Renoir
Claude Monet is the most well-known impressionist painter, and some of his subjects include cathedrals, haystacks, landscapes, water lilies, and his garden in Giverny, France. The paintings of his garden included a Japanese footbridge that spanned over water lilies. His paintings became increasingly abstract in later years due to his failing eyesight.
Edgar Degas was an impressionist painter best known for his paintings of ballerinas and dancers. He captured his impression of dance lessons and performances, showing the movement of the moment with visible brushstrokes. This example from 1873–1876, The Dance Class, shows a dance class being instructed by the man in the center. He did not capture outside light like other impressionists, but he still captured fleeting moments in time.
Mary Cassatt was the best-known female impressionist painter, and she often painted domestic scenes with a child and mother as the subjects. Cassatt was invited to exhibit with the impressionists by Degas, and she began to be influenced by their work.
Auguste Renoir captured stunning landscapes and beautiful portraits in the impressionist style. The visible brushstrokes, soft edges, and pure colors follow the patterns of impressionist painters, and he shows a masterful understanding of how light affects his subjects.

Postimpressionism
Postimpressionism was a French art movement from 1886 to 1905 that followed impressionism and preceded fauvism. Postimpressionism sought to explore the emotional response of the artist and depart from the naturalism of impressionism. These artists still used bold and pure colors as well as real-life subject matter, but they also leaned toward more geometric shapes, distorted forms, exaggerated or arbitrary colors, and sometimes heavy outlines.
Neoimpressionist Georges Seurat departed from the spontaneous nature of impressionism for a more planned approach that included the optical blending of spots of color. This is now known as pointillism, but it falls under the postimpressionist movement. Paul Signac carried on Seurat's ideas; he helped Seurat develop the pointillism style.
This work by Henri de
Toulouse-Lautrec from 1889, titled Monsieur Fourcade, shows several major ideas of postimpressionism. Although the artworks and artists of this period are fairly varied, this work does show the bold, arbitrary colors and outlines used in postimpressionist artwork.


Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and Paul Cezanne
Vincent van Gogh, a prominent Dutch postimpressionist artist, exhibited many of the ideas of this movement. He used bold colors, sometimes arbitrarily or in odd ways, as well as bold lines to express his emotion through his paintings. In this 1890 painting, Portrait of Dr. Gachet, van Gogh expresses emotion through the pose, facial expression, and colors.
Bold colors and brushstrokes, along with heavy outlines, are visible in this Paul Gauguin used bold and unusual colors, sometimes in flat planes and flattened spaces. This French artist's work includes many paintings of landscapes and people of French Polynesia, where he lived for 10 years.
Paul Cezanne was another French postimpressionist painter, and he is known as the father of postimpressionism. His exploration of geometric shapes and bold colors prompted Picasso and others to eventually experiment with multiple views of forms. He sought to reduce nature to geometric shapes and find new ways of modeling space and volume.


Fauvism and Expressionism
The fauvism movement, from about 1905 to 1908, followed the postimpressionism movement and included some similar ideas. Fauvism emphasized strong and unusual colors, using color to express mood without being representational of actual colors. Fauvism also emphasized the flatness of the canvas, and it valued individual expression over naturalistic representation.
The leaders of the fauvism movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain.
Expressionism began in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century, and it spanned from roughly 1905 to 1920. Artists of this movement used strong colors and distorted forms to express their feelings in their artwork. Artwork came from within the artist, rather than being copied from what they observed. They used swirling and exaggerated brushstrokes and sought to evoke emotional responses to their works. Edvard Munch's The Scream (1893) is an example of the Expressionist style, with its unusual, nonrepresentational colors, distorted form, and desire to express a strong feeling of despair or agony.


Fauvist and Expressionist Artists
Henri Matisse was a fauvist artist who pioneered the movement. He applied large, flat areas of color to his paintings and worked with bright colors directly from the tubes to convey emotions. He is also considered a leader in defining the 20th-century modern art movement. One of his best-known works of this period is called Woman with a Hat (1905).
He used unusual colors, including green on the woman's face.
Expressionism began with works of artists such as Vincent van Gogh and Edvard Munch, and then in 1905, German artists formed a group called Die Brücke that began the main wave of expressionism. This group included artists Erich Heckel, Fritz Bleyl, and Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, and they were later joined by Otto Müller, Emil Nolde, and Max Pechstein. Wassily
Kandinsky was a notable Russian expressionist painter, and he went on to work in abstract art.

Cubism and Futurism
Cubism is an early-20th-century art movement in which several viewpoints are shown simultaneously, and simple geometric shapes or interlocking planes are used to construct a scene. Cubism began in 1907 and ended around 1915. Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque pioneered this movement, influenced partly by the three-dimensional representations in works by Paul Cezanne. Cubist artists would analyze a form, break it apart, and reassemble it visually in a more abstracted format.
Futurism, an early-20th-century movement that began in Italy in 1909, emphasized movement, technology, speed, and violence. The artwork included objects such as cars, airplanes, and industrial elements. Like cubists, these artists expressed dynamic elements in artwork. They also praised originality, admired technology over nature, and sought to convey movement through space. Futurist artists praised war and valued nationalism, and they would depict urban scenes such as riots and construction in the city.

Pablo Picasso, Marcel Duchamp, Giacomo Balla
Pablo Picasso is one of the most recognizable names of cubism. His cubist works include flat planes of color, distorted forms, geometric shapes, and reassembled faces with both eyes on one side of a profile.
Marcel Duchamp's work spanned both the cubist and futurist movements. His work, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, from 1912, shows a dynamic scene of repeated abstracted and geometric forms of a nude descending from left to right in the painting. The repetition and form convey movement and rhythm.
Giacomo Balla's Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash from 1912 embodies some of the tenets of the futurist movement. The painting shows the feet of a woman, plus a leash and a walking dog, and through the repetition of the feet, leash, and tail, Balla shows the dynamic movement of the woman and the dog. The dynamic elements show almost a blur of movement, conveying speed and direction.

Constructivism and De Stijl
The constructivism movement began as a Russian abstract style of art and architecture that started in the 1910s. This movement consisted of constructing dynamic three-dimensional forms from objects such as plastic, wood, glass, or iron. This movement began with Vladimir Tatlin, who was influenced by Picasso's cubist constructions and wanted to 'construct' art with dynamic components. Tatlin began to make abstracted still lifes out of scrap materials. D. Stijl is Dutch for 'the style,' and this Dutch art movement that started in 1917 is also known as neoplasticism. This art movement promoted the reduction of artwork into geometric shapes, lines, and primary colors. Artists attempted to turn this style into a universal form of expression, departing from individual expression. Piet Mondrian is the most recognizable de Stijl artist.
Neoplasticism refers to the style and ideas developed by this artist, promoting a new, abstract form of artwork for modern times. This is an example of Mondrian's work, showing his use of black lines, geometric shapes, and primary


Vladimir Tatlin, Piet Mondrian
The constructivism movement began with artist Vladimir Tatlin in 1913. Tatlin was a Soviet architect and painter, and he constructed three-dimensional 'counter-reliefs' of wood and metal. His intention was to question the traditions of art. His main constructivist work was the Monument to the Third International (Tatlin's Tower), which joined the dynamic components of technology with the aesthetics of machines. This construction included searchlights and projection screens, and it was criticized for being a combination of functional items and art. This tower sparked an exchange of ideas between Russia and Germany on the ideas of revolutionizing art.
The main artist from the de Stijl movement is Dutch painter Piet Mondrian. He sought to create pure abstractions with horizontal and vertical lines, as well as primary colors. He wanted to reduce his artwork to the most basic elements, using them to represent the essence of the energy and forces of nature. The pure abstraction and minimal palette was meant to express an ideal and universal harmony in the art world. His idea of neoplasticism, which guided his work, relied on color, line, and form to express universal ideas.

Dada and Surrealism
The Dada art movement began around 1915 in Zurich, New York, Germany, and Paris. The movement came about as a reaction of disgust and revolt to the horrors of World War I, and the movement was also antibourgeois. They sought to depart from traditional values of art and create a new kind of art. It is considered antiart, challenging the definition and conventions of art. Dada techniques include readymades, which involves presenting a premade object as art, and the photomontage, using scissors and glue to assemble images from images printed in the press.
Surrealism began in the 1920s in France, and the movement included paintings of strange, dreamlike, and unnerving scenes with realistic accuracy. Surrealism sought to express unconscious thoughts and resolve contradictions between reality and dreams. This movement eventually affected literature, music, and film in many countries as well. This art movement drew heavily on Freudian theories of sexuality, fantasy, dreams, and irrationality.

Marcel Duchamp, Salvador Dali, and René Magritte

As part of the Dada movement, Marcel Duchamp began creating artwork called 'readymades,' made from items that were already created and he just declared them to be art. One well-known example is his 1917 Fountain, which is an already-made urinal that he signed as R. Mutt. Another Duchamp artwork from 1919, L.H.O.O.Q., shows the departure from and irreverence toward traditional artwork. He took a postcard depicting the Mona Lisa and drew a moustache and face on the portrait, then labeled it L.H.O.O.Q. With this artwork, he challenged artistic conventions of the past, and the value of traditional artwork.
Salvador Dali, a well-known surrealist artist, created his best-known work, The Persistence of Memory, in 1931. The painting depicts melted pocket watches on a dreamlike landscape.
René Magritte, a Belgian surrealist artist, created thought-provoking artwork by juxtaposing ordinary objects in unusual ways. In The
Treachery of Images (1928–1929) he depicts a pipe with the words, in French, 'This is not a pipe.' The viewer is faced with the challenge of reconciling these words with the fact that this is a representation of a pipe, not an actual pipe.

Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism refers to an art style from the 1940s and 1950s. The artists grouped under this style sought total freedom of expression through their artwork. They shared an outlook, rather than a specific style, and this is thought to be the first truly American art movement.
Abstract expressionism is also called the New York School, because the movement was centered in New York. Its influence extended into the 1970s. Abstract expressionist artists were influenced by the surrealist idea of expressing the subconsciousness in artwork. Abstract expressionism includes color field painting and action painting, and mixes of these two, among other techniques.
Color field painting uses solid areas, or fields of color, on a large scale that extend to the edges of the canvas. The extension to the edges suggests the colors continuing to infinity, and the large scale helps to envelop the viewer in the colors. Action painting includes dribbling, splashing, and dripping paint onto a canvas using gestures and movements, while emphasizing the unconscious.

Artists of Abstract Expressionism
Jackson Pollock is known for his action paintings, or splatter paintings. The term 'action painting' was coined to describe Pollock's methods of applying paint to a canvas. Pollock considered this technique to be a way to harness the capabilities of his unconscious, which expressed itself onto the canvas. He saw the drips and splatters not as random paint, but as a balance of chaos and control.
Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still were all color field painters of the abstract expressionist movement. They were looking to get away from form and representation in artwork, and they did away with the figure/ground convention by turning the figure and ground into one. The color seemed to extend beyond the edges of the painting and was the focus of the Helen Frankenthaler used a mix of techniques and invented the 'soak-stain' technique, which involved creating large color washes by pouring thinned paint onto a canvas. She used Pollock's technique of pouring paint but also used elements of color field painting by incorporating large areas of pure color.

Pop Art
Pop art was a British and American movement in the 1960s that used items from popular culture and incorporated them into artwork.
This was partly inspired by the readymades of Dadaism. The artists of this movement went against the disengagement of abstract expressionism and celebrated popular culture and consumer items. They used bright, flat colors from advertising and imagery from comic books as well. As a response to and departure from abstract expressionism, pop art used hard edges instead of painterly techniques and impersonal, everyday reality instead of personal symbolism.
Some of the significant artists of the pop art movement used commercial imagery such as Campbell's Soup cans, imagery directly from comic books, and even a direct representation of the American flag. They were inspired by everyday objects and mass consumerism, and they combined objects, text, and images to create new meaning in their artwork.

Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper Johns
Andy Warhol was a commercial artist who became a significant pop artist. He created video art, installations, performance art, and paintings, and in 1961 he began producing pop art paintings, including the iconic Campbell's Soup Cans. He also painted portraits of many celebrities in bright and vivid colors.
Roy Lichtenstein was a pop artist who is known for his comic book imagery. He altered images from comic books, added different text, and painted them on a large scale. He used Benday dots, the dots produced by mechanical means in printing, to create these images. One of his well-known works is Drowning Girl (1963), which depicts a comic image of a drowning girl and her boyfriend in a boat, along with text.
Jasper Johns was a pop artist known for his American imagery, especially the American flag. His Three Flags (1958) is a painting of three American flags layered upon each other. Flag, from 1954–1955, is a faithful reproduction of an American flag using encaustic.

Postmodernism
Postmodernism is a mid- to late-20th-century art movement that departed from modernism. Since the beginning of the 20th century, modernism had led art practice and theory and had promoted the ideas of progress, reason, and idealism. Postmodern artists would not recognize the authority of previous art movements, and this movement was skeptical and antiauthoritarian.
This 'anything goes' style cast aside all rules of style and included elements of confrontation, tongue-in-cheek humor, and ludicrousness. Postmodernist artists built on the ideas of previous movements such as pop art and feminist art, but they questioned the ideas and subjectivity, authorship, and originality in previous art movements. This movement also questioned the commodification of art production.
Postmodernism is a cross-disciplinary term with philosophical origins, and it was highly influenced by French philosopher
Jacques Lacan. Lacan added a contemporary intellectual significance to the ideas of Freud, and he suggested that the unconscious is just as complex and sophisticated as the conscious mind.

Sigmar Polke, and Gerhard Richter
Sigmar Polke, a German artist whose artwork pioneered a postmodern approach, departed from coherence in his art as well as the idea that art comes from the artist's personality. In his 12 canvases collectively called The Fifties (1963–1969), he portrays a combination of cynicism and nostalgia while commenting on German culture. The grouping of paintings goes against the concept of stylistic coherence because he used different styles throughout the works.
Gerhard Richter's photo paintings of the 1960s combined photography with painting. In doing this, he combined high and low art into one technique. Richter would project a photograph onto a canvas, then paint it in neutral shades of gray, leaving out the black and white tones. He then used a dry brush to soften the edges, degrading the image to give a blurry effect. He assigned neutral titles to his works. This method of mechanical reproduction took any artist style out of the equation, as well as any emotion expressed through the artwork.

Feminist Art
Feminist art began in the late 1960s as female artists sought to revise the history of a male-dominated art world and bring attention to the contributions of female artists. They sought to abolish stereotypes as well as challenge and influence cultural attitudes. Prior to feminism, female artists did not get the same publicity or status that their male counterparts did, and the art world was dominated by male artists.
Feminist artists began to embrace and use materials in their works that were tied to their gender, such as textiles and embroidery. They also used newer styles such as video, body, and performance art that did not have such a long history as a male-dominated style. These newer types of media allowed these artists to deliver more direct and personal messages to their viewers. Whereas some feminist artists explored the objectification of women in media, or ideas of domesticity, others focused on the absence of recognition of female artists throughout history.

Barbara Kruger, Cindy Sherman, and Faith Ringgold.
Barbara Kruger uses mass communication and advertising techniques, pairing black-and-white photos with Helvetica or Futura text, to explore identity and gender issues. The text and slogans she uses challenge the viewer, and her phrases often include pronouns such as I, you, we, or they. She often appropriates images from magazines and adds text to frame the images in a new context to make the viewer think. This image shows her artwork Belief + Doubt from 2012 and its iconic and recognizable style of text.
Cindy Sherman is a feminist artist who is known for her self-portraits. She used makeup, wigs, and props to transform herself to represent various female stereotypes in her photographs. Her artworks question ideas of authenticity and identity.
Faith Ringgold is an African-American feminist artist who worked in themes of racial and gender identity and equality. She told stories through quilts, and she recognized a need for equality in the art world. Ringgold would often insist that 50% of the artists included in prominent art shows should be women.


Armory Show
The Armory Show was the first major exhibition of modern art in America. This show is also called the International Exhibition of Modern
Art, and it was held in New York City's 69th Regiment Armory building in 1913.
The art exhibited here was influential to American art because of the inclusion of modern art by European and American painters and sculptors. Prior to this, Americans were used to seeing realistic art, but this show exposed them to cubist, impressionist, and fauvist artworks. Marcel Duchamp's Nude Descending a Staircase was included in this show. This collection of more than 1,300 artworks shocked many, and it was ridiculed and declared insane and immoral by many. The inclusion of these works in this successful art show served as a catalyst for many artists to rethink their styles and experiment with new ways of creating art.

The Degenerate Art Exhibition
The Degenerate Art Exhibition was in held in Munich by Adolf Ziegler and the Nazi party in 1937. The Nazis had removed more than 20,000 artworks from state museums that had been deemed too modern or progressive.
Works by foreign artists were also confiscated, including Pablo Picasso, Piet Mondrian, and Wassily Kandinsky, but these works were not exhibited. 740 of these confiscated works were shown in the Degenerate Art Exhibition to defame the artists and show the public the decay of culture. These works were thought to lack artistic skill or insult the German culture. The works were shown in the exhibition without frames and were accompanied by derogatory words or slogans. The art was divided into categories including 'An Insult to German
Womanhood,' and 'Nature as Seen by Sick Minds.' More than two million visitors attended this show, and some works were destroyed after the show ended. Many other works were sold on the international market and found new homes in museums abroad.

The Guerrilla Girls
The Guerrilla Girls group formed in 1985 to speak out against sexism and racism in the art world. These women wear gorilla masks to hide their identities while they speak out against powerful institutions. They also hide their identities by using pseudonyms, taking the names of deceased female artists. They have used posters, billboards, and books, as well as public appearances, to disseminate their messages. This group has gained attention for their protest art, and their first well-known poster asked, 'Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?' The image on the poster was a copy of Ingres' La Grande Odalisque, with a gorilla head over the woman's face. This poster was in reference to the number of nude women exhibited in the museum and the lack of female artists represented. The Guerrilla Girls have repeatedly brought attention to issues of inequity through their clean designs and jarring images.

Minimalism Art
The minimalism movement is characterized by an extreme form of abstract art. In the 1960s, artists began to reduce artwork to its barest form, not wishing it to represent anything. They used geometric shapes and challenged the previous conventions of creating and viewing artwork. Minimalist artists wanted their artwork to exist simply as its own form and material, not as a representational form. Minimalist artwork shows traits of simplicity, harmony, and purity.
Although minimalist art can be two-dimensional, it is often three-dimensional, using simple, sometimes repeated, geometric shapes. Early abstract ideas, as well as the constructivist ideas of reducing artwork to its simplest and most essential form, inspired minimalist artists. This example from 1991 by Solomon 'Sol' LeWitt is called Open Cubes, and it shows white repeated geometric forms. These forms exist only as themselves and are not meant to be representational. The viewer should only accept the artwork as its purest form of geometry and simplicity.


Street Art
Street art began with graffiti, but these artists have eventually shown their work in public areas and in galleries and museums in the 1970s and 1980s. Street art initially consisted of politically charged protest slogans and graphics illegally painted in public areas. Graffiti usually refers to vandalism, and street art was initially tied to hip-hop culture and lower income areas. In the 1970s, Jean-Michel Basquiat began spray painting his form of artwork in Manhattan. Later in the 1980s, Keith Haring was creating his distinctive artwork on the subway lines in New York City, and his well-known style of outlines and vivid colors, as shown, has persisted as popular artwork even now.
Banksy is another well-known street artist, although his identity is unknown. Banksy spray paints stencils designs onto walls and buildings throughout major cities, and those works have been turned into prints, t-shirts, and more. Street artist Shepard Fairey created the iconic Andre the Giant stencil which can be seen in many locations, and he went on to make the well-known Barack Obama graphic in red, white, and blue.


The Harlem Renaissance Art Movement
Between 1920 and 1930, a new wave of artistic creativity poured out from a group of African American artists in Harlem, a neighborhood in the borough of Manhattan in New York City. This movement became known as the Harlem Renaissance, and its influence continued through and past the 1930s.
This area of New York became a center of African-American immigrants, and the movement sparked a racial pride that challenged racism and stereotypes. The artwork of this time had aims to uplift African-Americans' spirits and the race as a whole. Some of the common themes represented in the artwork were racism, the effects of slavery, folk traditions, and how to convey the experience of black life or black neighborhoods.
Jacob Lawrence was the first well-known African-American artist, and his Migration series showed the migration of blacks from the rural
South to the urban North.
Aaron Douglas was an artist who painted murals on buildings and created illustrations for the covers of black publications. In this work, Aspiration from 1936, Douglas shows the progression from slavery to the freedom of the industrialized North.

Ashcan School
The Ashcan School describes a group of American realist painters who decided to portray urban life of New York in an unidealized fashion. This was not an organized movement; rather, it was a collective desire to portray modern life in a new way. This group believed that poor and working-class people were a worthy artistic subject matter, and they sought to portray these people in an authentic way. They used a dark palette, a sketchy quality, and visible brushwork to show scenes of everyday modern life in New York City, with subjects including street kids, alcoholics, subways, crowded tenements, and theaters. These artists challenged refined and idealized artwork, moving away from American impressionism and the more polished academic realism. After the Armory Show in 1913, as well as the advent of cubism and fauvism, the work of the Ashcan School no longer seemed as radical as it initially did.


The Hudson River School
The Hudson River School was an American art movement in the mid-19th century that included landscape painters intent on painting in a romantic style. The paintings of this movement depict the Hudson River Valley and areas surrounding it. The themes reflected in these artworks are exploration, discovery, and settlement. These landscapes are detailed and somewhat idealized, often showing a juxtaposition and harmony of settlers or agriculture with nature. They were also showing their belief in nature as a revelation of God.
This movement was the first native art movement in America.
Thomas Cole is credited as the founder, and the movement spanned two generations of painters. The second generation was not as tied to a geographical location as the first, but rather followed the style. Albert Bierstadt was a notable artist of this second generation. This painting by Bierstadt, A River Landscape, Westphalia (1855), shows the accord of man with the beauty and grandness of nature.

Folk Art and Outsider Art
Folk art is the art of peasants or a native culture.
Folk art is generally characterized by simple or naive subject matter, and it is utilitarian or decorative in purpose. Folk art is not influenced by art movements or styles, and it will not include the work of professional artists.
This type of art shares and expresses the values of a community as well as their cultural identity. Pottery, jewelry, paintings, sculpture, needlework, and costumes can all be folk art.
Outsider art is artwork created by untrained artists who learned their craft and methods on their own. These artists are not part of an artistic establishment and can include the mentally ill or even rural artists outside of urban areas. Outsider art is sometimes called 'naive art.' An increased interest in outsider art is in line with the general rejection of traditional values and methods of art by modernist artists.

Warhol's Factory
The Factory refers to Andy Warhol's studio in New York City. This location became a hangout for artists and celebrities, and it was known for its raucous parties. Warhol decorated this location with aluminum foil, mirrors, and silver paint, and it was also called the Silver Factory. The Factory later occupied two other locations.
Warhol's time at this Factory location was referred to as the Silver Era.
In addition to the artistic experimentation and musical performances at The Factory, an assembly-line production of artwork also occurred.
Warhol questioned the idea of artist and art production by mass-producing artwork with his silkscreen method and having a group of helpers create his work for him. These helpers became known as 'Warhol Superstars,' and they included musicians, free thinkers, drag queens, socialites, and celebrities, among others. He paralleled and reflected the concept of mass consumerism and mass-produced commercial objects by creating his own artwork in this way.

Op Art
The op art movement of the 1960s used geometric forms to create visual effects and optical illusions. Op art is abstract and nonrepresentational, and many works were created in just black and white.
Viewers often were given the feeling of movement, vibration, hidden images, or swelling within the artwork. Op artists consider how our vision works and how the planes of the figure and the ground can work with or against each other. Op artists also work with colors and how they can function together to produce different effects on the viewer's eye. As an early op artist, Bridget Riley worked in black and white and later began working in color op art. Josef Albers is another well-known op artist who worked in color, and he would nest geometric shapes of contrasting colors within each other, making visual effects of the shapes receding and advancing against each other.

Art Deco Movement
The art deco movement, taking its name from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925, began in Paris with architecture and decorative arts in the 1920s. It later became a major style in the 1930s throughout America and Western Europe. The art deco style is characterized by streamlined forms, symmetry, geometric shapes, smooth lines, and bright vibrant colors. This movement was influenced by the geometric forms of cubism, the industrial components of futurism and constructivism, and the bright colors of fauvism. The style was used during the roaring twenties as well as the Great
Depression of the 1930s. Art deco was used to improve the style of mass-produced objects, and it was also used for posters and some fine arts.
This poster from 1925 is an example of the art deco style, with hard lines, streamlined forms, and geometric shapes with vibrant colors. The style was meant to be pleasing to the eye.


Art Nouveau
Art nouveau sought to distance itself from historical styles, as well as challenge the hierarchy of fine arts over decorative arts.
Art nouveau was a decorative style that focused on linear contours and outlines, and it used muted, limited colors such as blues, greens, yellows, and browns. Art nouveau artists wanted to revive good craftsmanship, lift the status of crafts, and skillfully create modern designs that did not rely on past design. This international style was popular between 1890 and 1910, and it was applied to art, architecture, as well as everyday objects such as furniture, lamps, and jewelry.
One prominent art nouveau artist was Alphonse Mucha, a Moravian artist who created many illustrations, posters, paintings, and other designs. This example shows his signature style, which was considered outdated by the time of his death. His designs often showed beautiful women surrounded by a symmetrical, flowing, floral and ornate design and muted colors.


Classical Architecture
Classical architecture includes buildings that employs the principles and aesthetics of Greek and Roman architecture. This style includes a post and beam system with columns bearing the load. The pediment (shown) is the triangular part of a building above the columns. It might include elaborate sculptures within. Greek architects used the golden mean, or golden ratio, to create their ideal proportions for some of their buildings.
Columns were units of measurement in human scale, and several styles, orders, were developed over time.
Caryatids functioned as columns in Greek architecture, but they were stone carvings of females used as support pillars. Greek architecture often used marble and stone, but the discovery of concrete in Rome enabled the construction of arches, domes, and vaults, as used in the Pantheon. Whereas Greek temples were invariably oriented east to west, Romans would orient their temples in respect to the other surrounding buildings.


Greek and Roman Column Orders
Ancient Greek architecture has three distinct column orders. These styles are distinguished by their proportions and their unique characteristics. The Doric order is the simplest design, with a flat and unadorned design for the top and bottom of the column. This order is four to eight times its diameter. The Ionic order consists of spiral scrolls, or twin volutes, at the tops of the columns. This column's height is nine times its bottom diameter. The Corinthian order is much more ornate, as shown, with floral designs. This column is taller, at 10 times its diameter.
The Romans adopted all of these column styles, and they later added two of their own. Their Tuscan order is very plain, and it is a simplified version of the Doric order. The composite order is a blend of the Ionic and Corinthian orders, using the scrolls of the Ionic order and the floral motifs of the Corinthian order.

Byzantine Architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine, or later Roman Empire. This style was highly influenced by Greek and Roman architecture. Buildings became more complex, geometrically; in addition to stone, bricks and plaster were used in some instances. Mosaics were used in place of carved stone decorations, and many domes were used at this time. The architects used pendentives to support a circular dome over a square space, or they used an elliptical dome over a rectangular space. Prior to this, domes were used over circular spaces. Most of the surviving examples of Byzantine architecture are sacred in nature.
The greatest surviving example of Byzantine architecture is the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople (shown). A huge dome was constructed over a square space. The interior of the church included colored marble and other stones, and the vaults and domes were covered with elaborate mosaics.


Romanesque Architecture
Romanesque architecture is a style of medieval Europe beginning around the 11th century. This style is characterized by semicircular arches for doors and windows, and barrel or groin vaults. Many castles and churches were built in this style. Romanesque churches had large, thick walls and piers with few windows, a large tower where the nave and transept cross, and smaller towers at the western end of the church. An arcade, or row of columns, was constructed in the center of larger churches, separating the nave from the aisles. These buildings, both secular and sacred, give a feeling of solidity and strength by their massive size, thick walls, and masonry construction. Instead of relying on columns for support as in Greek and Roman architecture, this style, like the Byzantine style, relies more on walls.
This example shows the few small arched windows that exemplify the Romanesque style.


Gothic Architecture<br> The Gothic architecture style in Europe spanned from the mid-12th to the 16th century. Architects sought to solve problems created by simple, dark, damp buildings from previous styles and instead create light, airy, beautiful structures. Gothic architecture is characterized by grand tall designs with upward visual movement. New building techniques allowed builders to create taller towers. The flying buttress is a defining element of this style, and it helped to allow these new heights. The pointed arch is another characteristic of medieval architecture, along with the advent of vaulted ceilings and gargoyles.<br> Gargoyles serve a practical purpose as a drainage spout, but they also serve as decorations with evil or menacing features. The medieval style is known for being ornate, as seen in this example of the Amiens Cathedral in France. Beauty and aesthetic considerations are shown in the designs for these highly decorative buildings.<br><img data-cke-saved-src=" />

Balustrade, Pediment, and Flying Buttress
A balustrade is a series of pillars, or balusters, that support a rail to form a low wall or barrier. This could also be used for an ornamental parapet or balcony.
A pediment is the triangular gable used in classical Greek temples, as well as Renaissance and neoclassical architecture. It is found under the roof of the building and above the entablature. This would usually be on top of a portico or columns. The triangular area within the pediment is called a tympanum, and this was usually decorated with relief sculptures.
A flying buttress (shown) is a masonry support that transmits the thrust of a vault or a roof into the outer support. This is usually an inclined bar on a partial arch that extends, or flies out, from the wall and carries the weight of the vault or roof. This architectural element developed in Gothic architecture, from prior hidden supports in previous styles. This helped architects create the high ceilings characteristic of Gothic-style churches.


Spire, Facade, Caryatid, and Entablature
A spire is a tapering structure that comes to a point at the top of a building. These are often found on skyscrapers and church towers. A spire can function as a symbol of the power of religion, giving a sense of strength and reaching toward heaven.
The architectural term facade comes from a French word meaning 'face.' The facade of a building is its front or face, and this is often the most important design aspect when planning a building.
A caryatid is a stone carving of a female figure, draped in clothing, used to support an entablature.
This caryatid, as shown, was used in place of a column in a Greek building. The entablature is the upper section of a classical order, and this is divided into the architrave, frieze, and cornice. The architrave is the lowest section of the entablature, which rests on the columns. The frieze is the middle section, in which relief sculpture might be found. The cornice is the crowning molding that will be found directly under the pediment.


Basilica, Apse, Nave, and Transept
A basilica was originally a type of Roman building, but this later became the basis for the design of the Christian church. In ancient Rome, a basilica was a public building in which courts were held, and other public functions were held there as well. The basilica would be centrally located in town, near the main forum.
It is a rectangular building divided by rows of columns, or colonnades, into three aisles. The center aisle is called the nave. The nave runs from the entrance or vestibule of the church to the apse. The apse, or chancel, is the vaulted semicircular structure at the end of the center aisle. This is where the altar would be located. The transept is part of the church that lies across the main body and forms the cross shape. In this illustration, it is just before the apse.
The oculus in the Roman Pantheon is open and allows rain in, which leaves the building through drains in the floor.
A pilaster (shown) is a flat, upright architectural element that projects from a wall, giving the appearance of a column inset in the wall. A pilaster only functions as decoration, not as

A rotunda is a building that is round inside and out and is topped with a dome. A rotunda can also be a large interior space topped with a dome.

Renaissance Architecture
Renaissance architecture occurred in Europe between the 14th and 17th centuries. This style followed Gothic architecture, and it was followed by the baroque style. The Renaissance style emphasized proportion, geometry, and symmetry, and it included orderly composition of the columns and pilasters they used. These architects used semicircular arches, as well as hemispherical domes. The building plans are square and symmetrical, and facades are symmetrical as well. Church facades would usually be topped by a pediment, as shown in this example of St. Peter's Basilica. Renaissance architecture used the Greek and Roman orders of columns, either as structural objects or as purely decorative pilasters. The dome was used often as a large external feature or as a structural internal dome. Doors would have square lintels, and openings without doors would have arches with a decorative keystone. The keystone is the top center stone in an arch that carries the load of the arch structure. Moldings and decorative details were created with great attention to detail because they found it critical to master the techniques of the ancient Romans.


Baroque Architecture
Baroque architecture originated in Italy in the late 16th century, and it was prevalent in areas including Germany and South America until the 18th century. The baroque style is characterized by complex architectural plans often based on an oval design, with broader naves in an oval shape. Other characteristics include purposely fragmented elements, dramatic lighting and contrast, large frescoes on the ceiling, trompe l'oeil paintings, sumptuous colors and decorations, pear-shaped domes, and marble or faux finishing in the interior. The interior might also include bronze gilding, sculpted angels, and twisting columns. Baroque architects sought to explore new forms and styles as well as methods of lighting. They were using this architectural style to express the wealth and power of the Catholic Church during the time of the Counter-Reformation, a movement in response to the Protestant Reformation.


Neoclassical Architecture
Classical architecture of ancient Greece and Rome was revived later with neoclassical architecture in the mid-18th century. This style began as a reaction to the excessive ornamentation of the rococo style. This international movement was characterized by a return to the clarity, restraint, and balance, as well as subjects and motifs, of classical styles. Neoclassical architecture used columns, especially the Doric order, and it showed a desire for blank walls rather than decorations. The roof would be flat, sometimes with a pediment, and the facade would be flat and long, with a wall of columns across. No domes or towers were used in this style. Examples of this style include the National Mall and the Lincoln
Memorial (shown) in Washington, D.C. The Lincoln Memorial exemplifies the long, flat facade with a row of columns and the flat roof used in this style of architecture.


Art Nouveau Architecture
The art nouveau style of architecture was popular in the United States and Europe beginning in the 1880s, and it declined around 1910. Architects using this style sought to express modern ideas and use nontraditional forms in their buildings. This is sometimes referred to as the first modern architectural style. It is characterized by curved, graceful lines and decorations influenced by nature including leaves, vines, peacocks, and dragonflies. Ironwork and glass were used as sculptural elements as architects tried to embrace what was then possible because of the industrial revolution. These buildings also might contain mosaics, stained glass, and Japanese motifs. The architectural detail was often colorful and decorative, helping bring in the new, modern era.
This example, the Casa Batlló in Barcelona Spain, was remodeled and redesigned by Antoni Gaudi in 1904. It has the irregular shapes and flowing stone sculptural work that is characteristic of the art nouveau style. The facade is decorated with a mosaic made from broken tiles, and the roof is arched and rounded.


Beaux Arts Architecture<br> The beaux arts architectural style was taught from the 1830s to the end of the 19th century at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris.<br> From there, it strongly influenced architecture in the United States. Beaux arts architecture drew from Greek and Roman styling and included arched and pedimented doors, arched windows, flat roofs, columns, and symmetry. Beaux arts may also include sculptural details as well as classical details such pilasters, garlands, and balustrades. Interiors often have grand stairways and marble floors, with arched doorways and large rooms. Government buildings may have domes and high, vaulted ceilings.<br> The San Francisco Opera House<br> (shown) built in 1932 is an example of the beaux arts style in the United<br> States. The bottom floor is rusticated, with rough-cut stones. The top floor features columns and archways, as well as a low-pitched roof.<br><img data-cke-saved-src=" />

Neo-Gothic Architecture
Neo-Gothic architecture, also known as Gothic Revival or Victorian Gothic, is a style that occurred in the late 18th century in
England. The use of this style increased in the early 19th century as architects sought to revive the Gothic architecture style. This style follows the original Gothic architectural style, with pointed arches for doors and windows; steeply pitched roofs; decorative ornamental patterns; spires; leaded glass, quatrefoil, or clover-shaped windows; pinnacles; grouped chimneys; stone carvings of gargoyles, leaves, and birds; and sometimes patterned brick or multicolored stone. A Gothic Revival building will emphasize vertical elements, leading the eye up to the sky. The style was often used in church architecture and also in the construction of colleges.
This example is the Salt Lake Temple in Utah, and it exhibits many of the Gothic architecture characteristics, including the emphasis on vertical elements. The spires are also reminiscent of the Gothic style.


Art Deco Architecture
The art deco style of architecture began in Paris in 1903. This style was applied to apartment buildings and public structures, but rarely to private homes. Art deco architecture used rectangular, block-like forms, arranged geometrically, with these elements broken up by ornamental and curved decorative motifs. This style was sleek and linear, with a modern feel.
Buildings were embellished with repetitive designs, such as chevrons or geometric shapes, and these decorations might be machine made rather than hand-crafted. Art deco emphasized the horizontal rather than the vertical, and for practicality, a simple geometric box-shaped building could be embellished in this style to create a modern fashionable design on a budget. Materials used in art deco architecture are smooth stone, terra-cotta, stucco, steel, aluminum, and glass blocks.
The Chrysler Building, built in New York City in 1928, is an example of this architectural style. It includes ornaments protruding from the corners, as well as contrasting brickwork and emphasis on horizontal elements.


Bauhaus Architecture
Bauhaus architecture developed from the Bauhaus School of Art and Design in Germany beginning in 1927. The Bauhaus School sought to connect art with design and technology. The director of this school was Walter Gropius, who was a German architect known as a pioneer of modern architecture. The architectural style is simple and straightforward, following the Bauhaus minimalist and industrial aesthetic. Bauhaus architects sought unadorned functionality rather than aesthetics, and they often used a limited palette of neutral colors. This style favored function over form, Gropius designed door handles that became a well-known component of Bauhaus architecture and design.
The Bauhaus Building in Dessau, Germany (shown), built in 1926, is attributed to Gropius and embodies the Bauhaus style. The building is simple, with a clean design, geometric styling, and it uses a limited palette other than the red doors. This building is an example of Bauhaus architecture valuing function over aesthetics.


The Prairie School Movement
The Prairie School was a style of architecture prevalent in the Midwestern United States in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Most architects associated with this movement were employed by Frank Lloyd Wright or Louis Sullivan, but Sullivan himself is not considered an architect of this style. The Prairie School style was used on some public buildings, but it is mostly known for home design. Common features include an emphasis on horizontal lines, overhanging eaves, low pitched or flat roofs, an open floor plan, clean lines, strings of windows in a row, built-in cabinetry, and the use of natural materials such as stone and wood. Wright favored geometric shapes as decorative designs in his buildings, whereas some other Prairie School architects used floral and circular geometric decorations.
This example, Wright's Frederick C. Robie House in Chicago, Illinois, shows the clean lines, horizontal emphasis, overhanging eaves, and emphasis on geometric shapes prevalent in this style.


Skyscrapers
Architect Louis Sullivan is known as the 'father of skyscrapers' and is considered the originator of the modern skyscraper. The name skyscraper was first used in the 1880s as the first skyscrapers were built in the United States. Originally this referred to buildings containing 10 or 20 stories, but later it came to describe buildings higher than 40 or 50 stories tall. After the first safe passenger elevator was created in 1857 and a need for more business space arose in cities, it became desirable to build buildings more vertically than horizontally. The refinement of the steel process in the 1860s also allowed for taller buildings to be constructed. These buildings had a steel skeleton rather than load-bearing walls, and this steel construction allowed these skyscrapers to rise to greater heights. This load-bearing steel frame was developed by architect William
Jenney. Sullivan's Wainwright Building (shown), built in 1891, was the first building with a steel frame and vertical bands to emphasize its height. It is considered the first skyscraper.


The International Style of Architecture
The international style of architecture developed after World War I in the 1920s and 1930s, and it emphasized modern design. This was the dominant style of architecture until the 1970s, and it was influenced by the de Stijl and Bauhaus movements. This style is characterized by industrial materials, linear, geometric forms, an absence of ornamentation. Glass, steel, and reinforced concrete were the main building materials. The style grew from a desire to get away from eclectic and mixed architectural styles and decorations, the development of new construction technologies, and a growing need for office buildings and other industrial structures. These architects took advantage of the inexpensive mass-produced iron and steel, and sheathed the buildings in glass, creating a new, modern look for the era. Prominent architects of this style include Walter Gropius, Ludwig Mies van der Rohe, Le Corbusier, and Philip Johnson. A notable example (shown) is van der Rohe's Seagram Building in New York, built in 1958.


Grotesque, Plinth, Keystone, and Stringcourse
A grotesque is a carved mythical creature that is used for decoration on a building. Grotesques look similar to gargoyles, but gargoyles have a functional purpose as a water spout that carries water away from the side of a building.
A plinth is the square slab at the bottom of a column.
This term can also refer to a flat block at the base of a door, or a projecting course of brick or stone at the base of a wall.
A keystone is the wedge-shaped stone at the top of an arch. This stone locks the arch pieces in place; it is the last piece placed in the arch to give stability to the structure.
A stringcourse is a projecting horizontal course, or band, of bricks or stonework on a building. It can be thin and undecorated or larger and ornate. This stringcourse, above the window, runs along the building horizontally and has a decorative pattern.


The Principle of Form
The principle form follows function is associated with modernist architecture and design. It suggests that the design of a building should be led by its function, or purpose. This quote is attributed to American architect Louis Sullivan, who is known as the 'father of skyscrapers,' as well as America's first modern architect. Sullivan saw the purpose of the building as determining the form, reflecting the activities that will happen inside, instead beginning with a design and fitting the function to it. This became a maxim of modernist architects in the 1930s, who thought that decorative elements were inessential and should not be used in the design of modern buildings. Sullivan, however, continued to use some decorative art nouveau and Celtic elements in his design, including green ironwork that became a recognizable hallmark of his work. Sullivan was a mentor of Frank Lloyd Wright, who later altered the saying to 'form and function are one.'