Artistic Currents
...From oldest to newest...
Artistic movements are a trend or style shared by a group of artists, usually during a certain period. These movements are often linked by a common philosophy or goal, which gives rise to a common aesthetic in their works.
These allow us to schematize the different visual languages throughout their eras and to visualize the great histories of painting
Ancient art extends from -900 to +300 and includes Greek (Hellenistic) and Roman art in particular.
Gothic painting (painting movement that appeared around the year 1200) is essentially characterized in northern Europe by stained glass painting, which was an important and prestigious form of painting until the 15th century,
Renaissance painting (painting movement that developed in the 16th century) is characterized by a whole series of novelties such as the appearance of the nude, the notion of landscape, perspective, the effects of light and shadow in particular. (Raphael, Leonardo da Vinci, etc.)
Mannerism (painting movement that developed around 1510) is found in precariously balanced poses, elongated forms, theatrical lighting, exaggerated arrangements and dissonant perspectives. (Giuseppe Arcimboldo, Lucas Cranach the Elder...)
Caravaggism (a very fashionable painting movement between 1605 and 1620) is a pictorial movement stemming from the work of Caravaggio, characterized by the realism of the representations and the vigor of the contrasts of shadow and light (Caravaggio, Jusepe de Ribera...)
Baroque (a painting movement that evolved between 1600 and 1720) is the art of staging by dazzling the senses. In baroque paintings, we observe the exuberance of the curves, the play of glances, and the draperies, which express the grandeur of royal power. (Bernardo Strozzi, Jan Vermeer...)
Classicism characterizes the French school of painting of the 17th century. In response to the extravagances of the Baroque, the movement was inspired by the masters of the classical Renaissance and became a pictorial language at the service of the absolute monarchy. (Philippe de Champaigne, Hyacinthe Rigaud...)
Rococo (a painting movement that developed between 1730 and 1789) put all its means at the service of joy, grace and fantasy, in opposition to Baroque art. It disappeared in 1789 in favor of neoclassicism. (Jean-Antoine Watteau, Jean-Honoré Fragonnard...)
Romanticism (a painting movement that appeared at the end of the 18th century) left a large part to the imagination, dreams, sensitivity and originality of artists. (Heinrich Füssli, Goya...)
Realism in painting (19th century painting movement) favors the exact representation, as they are, of nature, men and society. (Eduard Meyerheim, Rudolf Epp...)
Orientalism (19th century painting movement) is characterized by an increased interest in the Orient, a part of the world that is then at the heart of the politics of the great European nations via colonial expansion. (Théodore Chassériau, Eugène Delacroix...)
Biedermeier art (movement between 1815 and 1848) represents the art of the German and Austrian bourgeoisie that is distinguished by a sensitive conception of nature and a precise execution of high. (Franz Eybl, Franz Xaver Petter...)
Pre-Raphaelitism (a mid-19th century painting movement) highlights the imitation of 15th century Italian painters, the predecessors of Raphael who is one of the greatest painters of the Renaissance. (David Scott, James Jacques Tissot...)
As for the realist artists, the painters of the Barbizon school (a mid-19th century painting movement) stand out for their desire to represent what we see by ridding the work of any reference linked to the romantic imagination, they specialize in landscape painting. (Théordore Rousseau...)
Impressionism (a mid-19th century painting movement) was born under the impetus of young artists who made landscape their main theme and endeavored to account for the slightest variation in light through color. (Claude Monet, Edgar Degas...)
The painters of Symbolism (painting movement born in 1866) address the imagination, not the eye. The favorite subject is the woman who embodies the ideal of beauty in all areas. (Joseph Paul Blanc, Odilon Redon...)
Pointillism (a style of painting that appeared around 1880) consists of painting a multitude of small dots or spots on a canvas using only pure colors. Thus, when observing the work from a certain distance, the eye perceives secondary tones, thanks to an optical illusion caused by the juxtaposition of colored dots. The practice of pointillism (or neo-impressionism, or divisionism) is in contrast to the traditional methods of mixing pigments on a palette. (Paul Signac, Wassili Werestschagin...)
Post-Impressionism (movement between 1885 and 1905) brings together artistic movements that, from 1885 onwards, diverge from Impressionism or oppose it: neo-Impressionism, Synthetism, Symbolism, Nabis... Post-Impressionism therefore designates a brief period in the history of art, about twenty years, which will see a proliferation of ideas and the emergence of young talents destined to revolutionize painting. This confused but fertile period will eventually lead to abstract art. (Anders Leonard Zorn, Paul Gauguin...)
Art Nouveau (late 19th and early 20th century) is based on the aesthetics of curved lines and is characterized by the use of sinuous lines, curves and organic shapes. (Ernst Karl Eugen Körner, John Reinhard Weguelin...)
Cubism (painting movement that developed in the first half of the 20th century) is the fruit of the painters Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque who introduced fragmentation into their works of art. (Oskar Schlemmer, ljubow Sergejewna Popowa...)
Fauvism (painting movement from the beginning of the 20th century) is particularly attached to the work of color. The works are easily recognizable by the use of colors in bright hues on large surfaces. (Henri Matisse, André Derain...)
Expressionism (painting movement that appeared at the beginning of the 20th century) is the projection of a personal vision that tends to distort reality to inspire an emotional reaction in the viewer. (George Grosz, Edward Munch...)
Futurism (a movement from the beginning of the 20th century) praises the modern, technological world, where machines and cars have a predominant place, represented by a jerky and moving rhythm. (Giacomo Balla, Carlo Carrà...)
Suprematism (a painting movement from the beginning of the 20th century that appeared in Russia), founded by Kazimir Malevich, is a movement that participates in the broader movement of the Russian Avant-garde by plunging us into absolute abstraction. It is a painting freed from all representation. In a search for pure pictorial sensitivity, color is worked only for itself. (Kazimir Malevich...)
Abstract art (a painting movement that appeared in the 20th century) is a visual language of shapes, colors and lines creating a composition that can exist completely independently of classical visual references. (Günter Behrens, Klara Bernhardi...)
The characteristics of surrealism (movement of the first half of the 20th century) are mainly the surprise and the unexpected juxtaposition that is explained by a philosophical expression. (René Magritte, Salvador Dali...)
Contemporary surrealism: there is no clear consensus on the end, or if there was an end to surrealism. Some art historians say that it was the Second World War that broke the movement. (Jean-Luc Olivier, Frank Kortan...)
The notion of modernism (painting movement that extends from 1907 to the 1960s) covers a set of cultural movements that animated Western societies of the late 19th and 20th centuries, in painting and in other artistic fields. (Otto Freundlich, Amadéo Modigliani...)
Dadaism or Dada is a painting movement (which developed in the 1910s - 1920s) that attempts to abolish the concept of beauty by highlighting a world devoid of meaning. Everything can become art if the artist decides, using revolt or derision. (Picabia, Marcel Duchamp...)
Metaphysical painting (painting movement founded in 1917) marks a return to figurative painting that evokes the tradition of the Italian Renaissance. This painting offers subjects located outside of our contemporaneity to ask us metaphysical questions through enigmatic images. (Girogio de Chirico...)
Pop Art (painting movement that appeared in the mid-1950s) is an art form that reflects a return to the material realities of individuals' daily lives. It actually suggests a return to popular culture (as opposed to expressionism), hence the name Pop. (Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein...)
Painters of naive art (a movement of painting that appeared in the 19th century) are self-taught and their works are often transcended by a kind of childlike simplicity. Because the rules and techniques of art are ignored, perspective is generally absent from naive painting. (douanier Rousseau, Lucien Le Guern...)
And finally unclassified paintings
(Thierry Poncelet, Piero di Cosimo...)