Author name: Artlex

Cubism is a Modern art movement that emerged around 1907 in Paris, France. The Cubist movement consisted of two major phases: Analytic Cubism and Synthetic Cubism. Cubist artists reimagined conventional representation by rejecting the traditions of perspective, modeling, and foreshortening favored during the Renaissance. The result of this method was a heavily abstracted composition that […]

Cubism is a Modern art movement that emerged around 1907 in Paris, France. Four important characteristics of Cubism are the application of multiple perspectives, the use of geometric shapes, a monochromatic color palette, and a flattened picture plane.  Cubism’s novel handling of form, color, and perspective signaled a shift from the existing conventions of European

Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) was a French Post-Impressionist painter and one of the most influential figures in early Cubism. Cézanne is also widely regarded as a pioneer of Modern art. Cézanne’s use of perspective and geometric shapes predicted the multiple visible planes and geometric compositions central to the Cubist movement. Cézanne painted in various styles, including

What is Neo-Plasticism? Neo-Plasticism, or Neoplasticism, is an artistic philosophy and modern art style that is abstract, using only vertical lines, horizontal lines, and clearly defined primary colors. Artist Piet Mondrian applied the term Neo-Plasticism to his own artwork and that of the De Stijl artists, which followed these particular stylistic conventions. The abstraction of

  What is Photorealism? Photorealism refers to visual art that is based on a photograph, where the subject of that photograph is reproduced in painstaking detail through painting, sculpture, or other media. Photorealism often refers to an American art movement that began in the late 1960s, but artists in Europe were also creating Photorealist art

What is Classical Art? Classical art, or Classicism, refers to artwork that draws inspiration from ancient Roman or ancient Greek culture, architecture, literature, and art. Classicism was most popular in Western art during the Renaissance period and often depicted scenes from mythology through painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Classicism informs much of the subject matter depicted

What is Op Art? Op art is a form of abstract visual art that uses geometric forms to create optical illusions. The term “Op Art” is short for optical art. With the formal movement beginning in the 1960s, op artists explore theories of optics, perception and color theory by creating geometric patterns that create optical

What is Modern Art? Modern art is an art history period between the late 19th century until the mid-20th century that encompassed many different styles, in painting, sculpture, decorative arts and architecture.   Modern art is thought to have began with Impressionism in 1870, and continued through the several styles including Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism,

What is Arte Povera? Arte Povera (Poor Art) is a contemporary art movement developed between the late 1960s and the 1970s in Italy. Arte Povera group had as its main center of activity the city of Turin, in Northern Italy. Arte Povera is distinguished by the use of non-conventional media and the political radicalism of the artistic practice. Italian artists

What is Postmodernism? Postmodernism was an artistic movement from the 1960s to the 1990s that rejected Modern art and idealism. Associated with philosophical critique, it defied categorization, yet encompassed many styles such as Pop art, Conceptual art, Neo-expressionism, Feminist art and works by Young British Artists (YBA). Postmodernism used popular culture to inspire artistic creations

What is Mannerism? Mannerism is an art style and movement of that emerged first in Florence and Rome, at the end of the High Renaissance, between 1520 and 1600, before Baroque style emerged. The popularity of Mannerist art spread to become an international artistic style. It wasn’t until the late 18th century however that archeologist

Analytic Cubism is the early phase of the Cubism art movement that developed around 1907 and lasted until 1912. Analytic Cubism is characterized mostly by paintings that represent a subject from multiple overlapping viewpoints within a single picture plane. The resulting artworks had a fragmented, geometric and abstracted appearance. Artists Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque and

What is High Renaissance Art? High Renaissance art is defined as painting, sculpture, architecture, and other decorative arts created, during Renaissance period, between 1490-1527.  The rebirth of classicism, and an appreciation of the classical learning of ancient Greek and Rome as practiced by earlier Renaissance artists continued, with Renaissance art reaching its greatest heights. Notable

What is Expressionism? Expressionism is a modernist movement that first developed around 1905 and continued until around the end of World War II. Expressionist artists sought to represent the world from a subjective perspective by using color and distortion of the subject to evoke moods and achieve an emotional effect. Expressionism was initially very popular

Renaissance art is defined as the painting, sculpture, architecture and other decorative arts created in Europe between the 15th and 16th centuries, just after the Middle Ages. The Renaissance period provided a rebirth of classicism and an appreciation of the classical learning of ancient Greece and Rome, influencing fine art, literature and philosophy based on

Synthetic Cubism is the second phase of the Cubism art movement that lasted from 1912 to 1914, around the time of the first world war. Led by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, Synthetic Cubism is characterised by flat depictions of everyday objects and bolder, more symbolic compositions than its antecedent, Analytical Cubism. Many art

What is Abstract Expressionism? Abstract Expressionism is a modern art movement that developed in New York City after World War II and was initially popular during the 1940s and 1950s. Abstract Expressionism is recognized for its large-scale paintings consisting of large blocks of color and non-traditional treatment of materials and processes. Abstract Expressionist artists avoided

What is Impressionism? Impressionism is an art movement that originated in France in the 1860s and lasted until the late 1880s. The movement introduced new approaches to painting, such as capturing the changing effects of daylight on colors and objects at different times of the day, painting outdoors, and painting scenes from everyday life. The

What is Byzantine Art? Byzantine Art refers to the artistic production from the Byzantine Empire, which lasted from the 4th to 15th century AD. Famed for its development of Early Christian art, Byzantine icons and models continue to influence religious artworks to this day. The artistic and architectural production of the Byzantine Empire is divided

  What is Fauvism? Fauvism was an art movement that flourished in France from 1905 to 1908. It was led by Henri Matisse (1869 – 1954) and André Derain (1880 – 1954). Other important Fauvists were Maurice de Vlaminck, Henri Charles Manguin, Othon Friesz, Kees van Dongen, Georges Braque, and Raoul Dufy. Their work was

  What is Action Painting? The action painting, also known as “gestural painting,” is a style of abstract painting in which paint is spontaneously dripped, smeared, splashed, or poured directly onto the canvas. It emerged in the 1940s in the US among a group of artists belonging to Abstract Expressionism, including Willem de Kooning (1904

Cubism is a Western modern art movement that began around 1907 in Paris, France and started to decline in 1914 with the start of the First World War. Although the original Cubist movement changed dramatically during this time, its influence lived on in art movements like Futurism, Constructivism, Abstract Expressionism, and others. Cubism was led