MINIMALISM

Minimalism is a popular art movement that developed in late 1950s and early 60s. During
this period the art world saw a major tradition particular among younger artist whose works
began to actively reject and move away from abstract expressions. Minimalism is
characterized by extreme simplicity of form and a literal objective approach.

Minimal art, also called ABC art, is the culmination of reductionist tendencies in modern art
that first surfaced is the 1913 composition by Russian painter Kasimir Malevich of a black
square on a white ground. The primary structures of the minimalism Donald Judd, Carl
Andre, Dan Flawin, Tony Smith, Anthony Caro, Sol LeWitt, John Cracken, Craig Kaufman,
Robert Duran and Robert Morris and the hard-edge painting of jack youngerman Ellismith
kelly, franks Stella, Kenneth Noland Al held, and gene Davis grew out of the artist
dissatisfaction with action painting a branch of American Avant grade art through much of
the 1950s. the Minimalism, who believed that action oainting was too personal and
insubstantial, adopted the point of view that a work of art should not refer to anything other
than itself. For the reason they attempted to rid their works of extra-visual association.

The art movement was truly ground breaking for this time, as it saw artist focusing on
highlights the very true essence of the medium and material to form the art itself.
Considered an extension of abstract art, minimalism removes all essential form in order to
expose the purity and beauty of the art object. It is a genre that has been widely associated
with conceptional art, which during the 1960s, was extremely radical in that it challenge pre-
existing structures of making viewing and understanding art. With minimalism artist focusing
primarily on the surface of the aesthetic quality of materials, their work have been closely
linked with notion painting to truth and honesty artist’s did not pretend to represent
anything other than what it was

In both music and visual arts, minimalism was an attempt to explore the essential elements
of and art form. In minimalism visual arts, the personal gesture elements were stripped
away in order to reveal the objectives, purely visual elements of painting and sculpture in
minimalism music, the traditional treatment of form and development was rejected in
favour of explorations of timbre and rhythm musical elements largely unfamiliar to western
listeners.
CAVE ART
Cave art, in general, is the many paintings and carvings found in caves and dwellings that
date back to the Ice Age (Upper Paleolithic), approximately between 40,000 and 14,000
years ago. The first painted cave identified as Paleolithic, meaning from the Stone Age, was
Altamira in Spain. The art discovered there is considered by experts to be the work of
modern humans (Homo sapiens). Most examples of cave art are found in France and Spain,
but few are also known in Portugal, England, Italy, Romania, Germany, Russia, and
Indonesia. The total number of known decorated sites is about 400. Most of the cave art
consists of paintings in either red or black pigment. Reds are made of iron oxides (hematite),
while manganese dioxide and charcoal are used for blacks. Sculptures were also discovered,
such as clay bison statues in the Tuc d’Audoubert cave in 1912 and a statue of a bear in the
Montespan cave in 1923, both found in the French Pyrenees. Carved walls were discovered
in the shelters of Roc-aux-Sorciers (1950) in Vienne and of Cap Blanc (1909) in the Dordogne.
The carvings were made with fingers on soft walls or with tools that flint on hard surfaces in
many other caves and dwellings.

Representations in caves, painted or otherwise, include several people, but sometimes

human heads or genitalia appear alone. Hand stencils and handprints are characteristic of
earlier stages, as in the cave of Gargas in the French Pyrenees. Animal figures have always
formed the majority of images in caves from all eras. In the earliest millennium when the
cave cave was first built, the species often represented, such as Chauvet-Pont-d'Arc cave in
France, the latest, which is now extinct-cave lions, mammoths, woolly rhinoceroses , cave
bears. Later, horses, bison, auroch, cervid, and ibex became widespread, as in the Lascaux
and Niaux caves. Birds and fish are rarely depicted. Geometric signs are always numerous,
although specific types vary based on the period of time in which the cave was painted and
location of the cave.

Cave art is generally considered to have a symbol or religious function, sometimes both. The
exact meaning of the images remains unknown, but some experts think they may have been
created within the framework of shamanic beliefs and practices. One such practice involves
going to a deep cave for a ceremony where a shaman will enter a trance state and send his
soul to the other world to make contact with spirits and try to get their goodness.

Examples of paintings and engravings in deep caves—i.e., existing completely in the dark—
are rare outside Europe, but they do exist in the Americas (e.g., the Maya caves in Mexico,
the so-called mud-glyph caves in the southeastern United States), in Australia (Koonalda
Cave, South Australia), and in Asia (the Kalimantan caves in Borneo, Indonesia, with many
hand stencils). Art in the open, on shelters or on rocks, is extremely abundant all over the
world and generally belongs to much later times.
ROMAN PAINTING
Roman painting relies mainly on the form of murals and panel portraits, executed in a
realistic style. This style originated in Classical / Hellenistic Greek painting, which was
absorbed by the Roman state as it expanded throughout the Mediterranean Basin. Roman
art is an immense subject, spanning nearly 1,000 years and three continents, from Europe to
Africa and Asia. The first Roman art can be dated to 509 B.C.E., with the legendary
establishment of the Roman Republic, and lasted until 330 C.E.

Most historians tend to see Roman art as, at best, a poor copy of Greek art. It is possible that
the Romans themselves shared this view. Roman writers cared about Greek sculptures, such
as Phidias and Praxiteles, but they did not mention Roman sculptors. Where the Greeks
treated art almost as a form of religious expression, the Romans seemed to treat it like a
commodity. As such, Roman art is rarely as impressive as its Greek predecessors. However,
despite these shortcomings, the great demand for art in Rome, especially among the Roman
elite, meant that the quantity of Roman art was repetitive to any previous civilization. In
fact, many fine Greek sculptures survive only as Roman copies.

However, the fact remains that Rome owed almost the entirety of its artistic success to the
Greeks. The Greeks have long mastered the art of sculpture, creating some of the greatest
masterpieces of all time. The elements of Greek sculpture - realism, idealism, unity of form -
held a great appeal to the Romans. The Romans could also borrow inspiration from the
Etruscans, who had their own artistic traditions, including sculptures and murals.

Rome became the center of the great empire uniting different cultures under military power
and cultural influence, so the relief technique was also applied to their conquered territories
in the same way that the anonymous workers in Rome to decorate architectural
monuments, memorial and funeral columns. walls of the pantheons as well as the
sarcophagus and the famous Arches of Victory. They are like Roman stories historically made
in stone, containing significant information on many aspects related to the social, religious,
political, military, cultural and economic life of this city and the regions they occupied. It can
be said that “Tree Sculptures” is a creation that resulted from the combination of two-
dimensional pictographic arts and three-dimensional sculptural arts. In accordance with a
relief, rely on a background surface and elongated with a combination of protuberances and
deep carving to see. A relief also has a degree of true three-dimensionality, like a proper
sculpture. Roman artisans made very good use of this technique when narratives and
respect for representations were required.

The reliefs were made not only to spread a message to the society through a great
propaganda, but also to honor their gods. They are also a vehicle of communication between
gods and worshipers. The deities made of stone ensured that the religious offerings would
last forever, with a quality height of what in their eyes these gods deserved. The same desire
of eternal respect and reverence for their love one applies to sarcophagus decorations.
Through this “horror” in Rome they defined the main purpose of communication, carefully
handling each of the artistic elements that needed to be mastered, even if they were less
than the principles of narration in plastic media did not fail in their task. to represent the
personal brand of the country and also the propaganda purposes of the Empire.
CHINESE PAINTING
The Chinese art tradition is the oldest continuous art tradition in the world. The early so
-called "stone age art" in China, consisting of mostly simple pottery and sculptures, began in
10,000 BCE. This early period was followed by a series of dynasties, most of which lasted
several hundred. years. Through dynamic change, political collapse, Mongol and Manchurian
invasions, wars, and famines, the Chinese artistic tradition was preserved by scholars and
nobility and adapted by each successive dynasty. The art of each dynasty can be
distinguished by its unique characteristics and prosperity.

Jade carvings and cast Bronze are among the earliest treasures of Chinese art. The origins of
Chinese music and poetry can be found in the Book of Songs, containing poems composed
between 1000 B.C.E. and 600 B.C.E. The earliest surviving examples of Chinese painting are
pieces of painting on silk, stone, and lacquered objects dating back to the Warring States
period (481 - 221 B.C.E.). Paper, invented in the first century C.E., was replaced by silk. Since
the founding of the Jin Jin Dynasty (265–420) |, painting and calligraphy have been highly
valued as arts in court circles. Both brushes and ink were used on silk or paper. The earliest
paintings were paintings, followed later by landscapes and bird-and-flower paintings.
Confucianism, Daoism and Buddhism have strongly influenced the subject and style of
Chinese art.

Painting is the most characteristic of Chinese art. The Chinese picture is matched, part for
part, to the regions of the outside world; never the whole in one place, but one part in
Luristan (Persia), another in India, there is still one in medieval France. Even the colossal
ogres are indebted to the Eurasian stylization centered elsewhere. The tomb-figurines are
only entirely Chinese, without suspicion of foreign parents, and notorious around the world
as Chinese. But the painting is unique, shaped by the wisdom and love and brooding of this
one person, and unparalleled in its kind in the rest of the world.

It is here that the spirit of national art is strongly expressed. The canon of Chinese aesthetics
that regulates the excellence of a painting in a vitality that is in the painting itself rather than
the life or object being depicted, which is more concerned to open the way to the soul than
to report to the mind-this canon is most meaningful in the body of scrolling paintings and
albums. The painter of the East was a philosopher, a seer, a living artist. He prepares himself
for creative expression through the absorption of the spirit and the strict discipline of the
active mind. Silenced her enthusiastic personal self, concerned with mystical meanings and
cosmic harmonies, she came to her brush and ink and silk field with an overly sensual
purpose.

Chinese paintings have acquired different characteristics after many generations of

development. In general, two methods of brush use exist: Gong Bi (fine strokes), that is,
drawing details with beautiful strokes and rich colors, and Yi Bi (rough strokes), drawing with
rough strokes and light colors. In addition, Chinese art is packed with specific symbols:
bamboo represents a spirit that can be twisted by circumstance but not broken, jade
represents purity, a dragon often symbolizes the emperor, the crane as long life and a pair
of ducks symbolizes fidelity to marriage.
UKIYO-E
Ukiyo-e was founded during the Edo period and is regarded as a form of recreational
entertainment by the common people throughout Edo (present-day Tokyo). Its origin can be
traced back to the late 17th century. The colorful ukiyo-e, with its bold contrast of black and
white, is full of a sense of freedom characterized by a peaceful and steady period that lasted
more than 260 years, and clearly depicted nature. characteristic of the free -hearted
common people of the Edo era and what their social life was at that time. Before the Edo
period, “ukiyo”, in a long period of civil war, meant temporary world. Compared to the Pure
Earth (heaven), ukiyo (this world) is struggling, temporary and fleeting. However, once the
Tokugawa Shogunate unified the country and the Edo began to experience prosperity and
stability, the idea of enjoying a hedonistic lifestyle appeared mainly among the prosperous
merchants, resulting in a change in the meaning of ukiyo in floating world, with a hedonistic
meaning.

Ukiyo gradually began to have a definition of “present, modern style,” which is a sign of
acceptance in society, social life, customs and an existing way of thinking in a positive
manner, which has a significant impact on the creativity of artists. Professional artists who
drew for wealthy people in ancient times, such as court nobles and samurai, began to draw
the social life of the early modern era, capturing the daily life of the common people. This
later resulted in ukiyo-e, reflecting the hedonistic state of time.

The first ukiyo-e artist was Hishikawa Moronobu, whose author is well-known mikaeri bijin
(Seeking Beauty Back-Kiss). Moronobu was born in Boshu (present -day Chiba Prefecture)
and moved to Edo (present -day Tokyo) when he was young, where he learned the
techniques of the artists favored by the Tokugawa Shogunate and the Imperial Court. When
he first became an independent artist, his work mainly consisted of drawing illustrations for
books printed using woodblock printing in black ink only, and not signed. He gradually
emerged as a great artist and diligently worked in the areas of a piece of black ink that was
only wood prints and hand-made drawings, which resulted in laying a foundation for the
development of ukiyo-e in the future.

The theme of ukiyo-e is to draw the present (this world) rather than the past or future.
Therefore, ukiyo-e artists have chosen topics leading to social life and contemporary
subjects as a theme, and the common people continue to be pleased with their detailed
paintings. Entertainment for most common people during the Edo period meant
"recreation" and "theater." These were translated into copies of bijin-ga (copies of beautiful
women) and yakusha-e (copies of kabuki actors) into ukiyo-e, which served as fashion
magazines, posters and photos of kabuki actors, and they immediately spread to the
common people.

Ukiyo-e, often translated as “pictures of the floating world,” refers to Japanese paintings and
wood prints that originally depicted the pleasure districts of cities in the Edo Period, where
the calm nature of life is driven amidst a serene existence under the peaceful rule of the
Shoguns. These idyllic narratives not only document the leisure activities and climate of the
weather, they also describe the decisive Japanese aesthetics of beauty, poetry, nature,
spirituality, love, and sex. Ukiyo-e was one of the first forms of Japanese art found across
the sea to Europe and America in the opening of trade between countries. The influence this
exposure has on the West is known as Japonism, defined by an interest in the aesthetics of
style that will continue to influence many Western artists and movements such as
Impressionism, Art Nouveau, and Modernism. While initially, ukiyo-e’s were defined by a
collaborative four-person woodblock printing process, movement artists soon arrived to
change the creative use of printing through material experiments. , colors, minerals, and
lines to become an ancient ancestor of the contemporary country art movements such as
Superflat.
RENAISSANCE AND MANNERISM
The history of western art is one of movement and counter-movement, action and reaction.
In particular there is an alternation between the inclination towards balance and
righteousness and the inclination towards meaningful explanation or distortion. A typical
example is the contrast between the Renaissance art of the fourteenth to fifteenth
centuries, which sought to re-establish the rules of grand design and proportions of classical
art after the extreme disintegration of Gothic, and of art. of the Mannerist who followed in
the sixteenth century, which elaborates on, and even perversely twists and breaks, the
classical rules.

In early Renaissance paintings such as Piero, and with High Renaissance masters such as
Leonardo and Michelangelo, came the ready, archaic human order. The development of
their art coincided with the flowering of the natural sciences and of the Christian humanist
philosopher who, while deeply religious, marked a demystification and a new urbanity in the
human mind.

By the end of Michelangelo’s career, however, we would notice a distortion of numbers and
an excessive muscular disorder of Mannerism. The term ‘mannerist’ is one of the most
problematic in art history, often used destructively to suggest affect, often from a conflicting
‘classical’ perspective. The original Method of the sixteenth century certainly elevated color
and magnified, expressing pose or Contrapposto to achieve emotional and spiritual charge.
In architecture, at the same time, the beauty of Palladian proportion began to undergo
inventive, if not deliberate, variation, inversion, and parody. Thus opened the way for larger
and more flowery Baroque and Rococo objects.

By the end of the High Renaissance, young artists experienced a crisis as if everything that
could be achieved had been achieved. No more difficulties, technical or otherwise, remained
to be resolved. Detailed knowledge of anatomy, light, physiognomy and the method of
registering human emotion in expression and action, the innovative use of the human form
in figurative composition, the use of subtle grading of tone, all have reached close to
perfection . Young actors need to find a new purpose, and they are looking for new
approaches. At this point the male method began to emerge. The new style flourished
between 1510 and 1520 either in Florence, or in Rome, or in the same city simultaneously.

The Mannerism, also known as the Late Renaissance, was a style in European art that
emerged in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance around 1520, spread around 1530
and lasted until the end of the 16th century in Italy. , if the Baroque style largely replaced it
Northern Mannerism continued until the beginning of the 17th century.

The Mannerism is a counter-classical movement that differs greatly from the aesthetic
ideologies of the Renaissance. Although the Method was first accepted with a positive based
on Vasari’s writings, it was later treated in a negative light because it is only viewed as, “a
change of natural reality and a repetitive repetition of natural and formula. " As an artistic
moment, the Method involves many qualities that are unique and specific to experimenting
with how art is realized. Below is a list of many specific attributes that Mannerist artists will
use in their artwork.

Figura serpentinata is a style in painting and sculpture that is typical of Mannerism. It is

similar, but not identical, to contrapposto, and often features figures in spiral poses.
Early examples can be seen in the work of Leonardo da Vinci, Raphael, and Michelangelo.
BAROQUE AND ROCOCO
Baroque and late Baroque, or Rococo, are loosely defined terms, commonly applied by
common consent to European art of the period from the early 17th century to the mid-18th
century. Extremely Luxurious. Greatness. These are just a few of the words that might run
through your mind when you think of Baroque art and Rococo art: two styles of art and
architecture in Europe. Although the Rococo evolved from the Baroque, the two eras are
separate and distinct, with their own strong cultural influences and meanings. However,
similar characteristics and overlapping time periods are perhaps why Baroque art and
Rococo art are often confused.

Baroque art emerged in the 1600s, about 70 years after the end of the Early Renaissance in
France and the High Renaissance in Italy. The period is said to have lasted nearly 150 years,
during which well -known artists and architects such as Caravaggio, Peter Paul Rubens, Diego
Velázquez, Giovanni Battista Gaulli, Rembrandt van Rijn, Johannes Vermeer, Gian Lorenzo
Bernini, and Francisco de Zurbarán appeared. The word "Baroque" is thought to be derived
from the Italian word barocco, used by Medieval philosophers to refer to an "obstacle to
schematic logic." Barocco later became a term for any undesirable idea or complex thought
process.

Compared to the more classical motifs and passive space in Renaissance works, Baroque art
is perhaps so “contradicted” that it is surprisingly different. Baroque paintings are illusionist,
while sculptures and architecture are decorated with drawings. Together, the Baroque
works create a decorative harmony in churches and other spaces where they are commonly
seen. Chiaroscuro, the use of intense light and dark contrast in fine art painting, became
widely used in Baroque period art to illustrate depth, three-dimensionality, and a sense of
drama. Features of Baroque art include radiant colors, sources of hidden light, and
experiments with different surface textures.

The more typical forms of Baroque architecture, developed in Italy and found in other
Roman Catholic countries such as Spain, Portugal, northern Belgium, Austria and Poland,
usually include a main axis or perspective, such as a shrine . The axes of entry or central
pavilions are the objects of immediate focus. This form of Baroque architecture includes
colorful materials such as brass and gilding, plaster, marble and stucco, which are used for
architectural elements such as curved columns and overarching cupolas.

Baroque buildings often expand to include the public squares facing them, essentially
dwarfing their surroundings. Such theater, spectacular structures and scenes covering the
ceilings and walls became increasingly ways to spread the faith in the Catholic Church during
the Protestant Reformation, as well as to further elevate the state. Baroque churches
emphasized devout worship; Baroque palaces commanded higher power and order.

At the beginning of the 18th century came the era of the Enlightenment (1700-1780). It is a
celebration of reason, in which "the goals of rational humanity are considered knowledge,
liberty, and happiness."

The political philosopher’s love of religious propaganda, Europeans influenced the arrival of
a new child on the block: Rococo. The word “Rococo” is probably derived from the French
word rocaille, which means “small stones” and refers to the rocks and shells used to
decorate the interiors of caves. Shells and similar forms became the main motif of the
Rococo.
Rococo arose in France in the early 1700s, already showing signs of destruction from the
Baroque with its own French Baroque style. Of course, Rococo was not associated with the
church, but instead with the French King Louis XV. The movement eventually spread to other
European countries throughout the 18th century.

The Rococo art movement, which began mainly through interior decoration, saw pastels
replacing the clear light and shadow of the Baroque; the light was there and scattered, not
hidden. Rococo paintings often depict cheerful scenes of the social elite, whether at home or
outside frolicking in the open green pasture. The symbols of drama, love, beauty, gender
and mythology are often evident in the artworks of the time.

Rococo architecture was more involved in the palaces and manors of monarchs and
aristocrats. Churches and palaces, while still combining sculpture, painting and surrounding
architecture, have been simplified inside to provide more etheral essences. The theater,
dark interior is replaced by pleasant and subtle spaces. Rococo -style decorative art -
candelabras, canapés and commodes, to name a few - is often seen in salons where the
higher class entertains their guests.
NEO-CLASSICISM
Neoclassicism refers to art movements that draw inspiration from the “classical” art and
culture of ancient Greece and Rome.

Neoclassicism is the term for art movements that draws inspiration from the classical art and
culture of ancient Greece and Rome. The height of Neoclassicism coincided with the period
of the 18th Enlightenment and continued into the early 19th century. With the advent of the
Grand Tour — a fun journey around Europe intended to introduce young men to the
elongated culture and people of their world — it became fashionable to collect antiques as
souvenirs. This tradition laid the foundations of many great collections and ensured the
spread of the Neoclassical revival throughout Europe and America. The Neoclassical style of
France greatly contributed to the monumentalism of the French Revolution, with an
emphasis that both lay on virtue and patriotism.

Neoclassical painting is characterized by the use of straight lines, a smooth paint surface that
hides the brush work, the depiction of light, a minimal use of color, and the clear, crisp sense
of forms. Its subject is usually associated with either Greco-Roman history or other cultural
features, such as allegory and virtue. The softness of the paint application and the light
-hearted and “vain” subject matter that characterizes Rococo painting are recognized as the
opposite of the Neoclassical style. The works of Jacques-Louis David are widely considered
to be the epitome of Neoclassical painting. Many artists incorporated aspects of
Romanticism into an obscure Neoclassical style prior to David’s success, but these works did
not win any chords in audiences. Typically, the subject of Neoclassical painting consists of
depictions of events from history, mythological events, and the architecture and remains of
ancient Rome.

Like painting, Neoclassicism produced sculpture in the second half of the 18th century. In
addition to the Enlightenment goals, excavations of the ruins at Pompeii began to arouse a
new interest in classical culture. While Rococo sculpture consists of small asymmetrical
objects devoted to themes of love and kindness, neoclassical sculpture assumes life scale to
enormous proportions and focuses on themes of heroism, patriotism, and virtue.

Neoclassical architecture, which began in the mid-18th century, looked to the classical past
of the Graeco-Roman period, the Renaissance, and to classical Baroque to usher in a new era
based on the principles of the Enlightenment. This movement is presented in its details as a
reaction against the style of Rococo naturalism, and in architectural formulas as a growth of
some Late Baroque classical features. In its purse form, Neoclassicism is a style primarily
derived from the architecture of Classical Greece and Rome. In form, Neoclassical
architecture emphasizes the wall and maintains a separate identity in each of its parts.

Intellectually, Neoclassicism was symptomatic of a desire to return to the perceived “purity”

of Roman art. The movement was also inspired by a more vague (“perfect”) understanding
of ancient Greek art and, to a lesser extent, 16th century Renaissance Classicism, which was
also the origin of Late Baroque architecture. There is an anti-Rococo strain that can be
noticed in some European architecture in the early 18th century. This strain is more clearly
represented in the Palladian architecture of Georgian Britain and Ireland.
IMPRESSIONISM
Impressionism was a radical art movement that began in the late 1800s, centered primarily
around Parisian artists. Impressionists rebelled against the classical subject and embraced
modernity, desiring to create works that reflected the world in which they lived.

Impressionism was developed by Claude Monet and other Paris -based artists since the early
1860s. Although the process of painting in the area can be said to have been pioneered in
Britain by John Constable in about 1813–17 through his desire to paint nature in a realistic
manner. Instead of painting in a studio, impressionists found that they could capture the
short -term and temporary effects of sunlight by working quickly, in front of their subjects, in
the open air (en plein air) rather than in a studio. This resulted in a greater awareness of
light and color and in shifting the pattern of the natural scene. The brushwork was turned
quickly and separated into separate dabs to provide short -term light quality.

The group’s first exhibition was in Paris in 1874 and included work by Monet, Auguste
Renoir, Edgar Degas and Paul Cezanne. The work on display was greeted with laughter by
Monet’s Impression, Sunrise specifically set for ridicule and naming it (used by critics as an
insult) to the movement. Seven additional exhibitions were held between until 1886. Other
major artists of impressionism were Camille Pissarro and Berthe Morisot along with Edgar
Degas and Edouard Manet who were often associated with the movement.

Although originally from France, impressionism has had a major influence abroad. Core
British impressionists included Walter Richard Sickert and Wilson Steer.

One of the main factors to keep in mind when looking at art of this style is the lack of fine
detail. This is due to impressionists ’emphasis on visualizing overall visual effects rather than
details. A short, thick coat of paint is used to quickly capture the essence of the subject. They
abandoned the traditional view, and avoided the clarity of form that previously was how
paintings are distinguished by the presence of larger and smaller elements in a picture. This
has resulted in many critics accusing the impressionist paintings of looking unfinished or
novice. The understanding of such critics is enlightened by understanding the meaning of
the word impression: “an idea, feeling, or opinion about something or a person, especially
the unconscious thought formed. or based on little evidence " - Oxford dictionary.
Impressionism captures the senses less sensibilities.

Another factor to look for in impressionist paintings is how the paint is applied.
Impressionists did not take advantage of the transparency of thin paint films (glazes) which
other styles of artists carefully form to produce effects. The surface of an impressionist
painting is usually opaque. Wet paint applied to wet paint “alla prima” without waiting for
successive applications to dry produces softer edges and a coherent color. The paint is often
applied impasto which has a thick texture that seems to pour from the canvas.
POST-IMPRESSIONISM
Post-impressionism is a historical term coined (1910) by British art critic Roger Fry to
describe the different styles of painting that flourished in France during the period from
1880 to about 1910. It is an umbrella term used to describe different artists who were
influenced by Impressionism but took their art in different directions. There is no single well-
defined style of Post-Impressionism, but in general it is less casual and more emotionally
charged than Impressionist work.

Post-Impressionism encompasses a wide range of unique artistic styles all sharing the
common motivation of responding to the optics of the Impressionist movement. Stylistic
variations gathered under the general banner of Post-Impressionism from Georges Seurat’s
scientifically oriented Neo-Impressionism to Paul Gauguin’s lush Symbolism, but all focused
on the subject of artist's vision. The movement ushered in an era where painting went
beyond its traditional role as a window into the world and instead became a window into
the mind and soul of the artist. The immense aesthetic impact of the Post-Impressionists
influenced groups that emerged during the turn of the 20th century, such as the
Expressionists, as well as more contemporary movements, such as Feminist Art associated
with identity.

Some of the example of the important art and artist of the Post-Impressionism are: Sunday
Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte (1884-86) by Georges Seurat, Vision after the
Sermon (1888) by Paul Gauguin and Self Portrait with Waroquy (1889) by Edouard Vuillard.
NEO-IMPRESSIONISM
Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an
art movement founded by Georges Seurat. The movement and the style is an attempt to
drive “proper” vision from modern science, anarchist theory, and late 19th century debates
about the value of academic art. The artists of the movement "promised to use optical and
psycho-biological theories in establishing a well-developed ideal and the real, the fugitive
and the essential, science and habit."

Neo-impressionism was an artistic movement that came after Impressionism. It began as a

section of the eighth and last Impressionist Exhibition in 1886. The founding figure was
Georges Seurat (1859-1891), whose monumental painting, A Week at the Grande Jatte, was
remodeled for its presentation at the exhibition in 1886. , is a kind of standard carrying the
whole movement. Seurat died in 1891 in his early 30s. Her death corresponds more or less
to the end of Neo-impressionism first life, much more so since Camille Pissarro gave up the
new method at about the same time. After Seurat's death, Paul Signac (1863–1935) became
the leader of the movement and its public chief. At the beginning of the twentieth century,
Neo-impressionism had a resurgence during the Fauve period; most pioneers of abstract art
also had a Neo-impressionist stage on their path to abstraction.

In the late 19th century, Neo-Impressionism forced the science of optics and color to forge a
new and innovative painting technique that avoided the spontaneous and romanticism
celebrated by many Impressionists. Relying on the viewer’s ability to optically mix dots of
color on the canvas, Neo-Impressionists endeavored to create brighter paintings depicting
modern life. With the growth of urban centers and the advancement of technology, artists
seek to capture the changing interaction of people in the city and countryside. Many artists
in the following years adopted the Neo-Impressionist technique of Pointillism, the
application of small dots of pigment, which opened the door to further exploration of color
and eventually abstract art.

The Neo-Impressionist movement took the colors and themes of Impressionism, but
rejected the Impressionists' ephemeral treatment of their subjects. Lead by Seurat, the Neo-
Impressionists took a more systematic approach to art. They focused on the theory and
division of color and vision, breaking things down to a more fundamental and basic level.
Example of the artwork in this period are: Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
(1884-86) by Georges Seurat, La Dame à la Robe Blanche (Woman in White) by Albert
Dubois-Pillet, La Récolte des Foins, Éragny by Camille Pissarro, Self-Portrait with Felt Hat by
Vincent van Gogh, Against the Enamel of a Background Rhythmic with Beats and Angles,
Tones, and Tints, Portrait of Félix Fénéon by Paul Signac, The Evening Air by Henri-Edmond
Cross, Luxe, Calme et Volupté (Luxury, Calm and Pleasure) by Henri Matisse and Coucher de
soleil no. 1 by Jean Metzinger.
CONSTRUCTIVISM
Constructivism was the last and most influential modern art movement to flourish in Russia
in the 20th century. This changed as the Bolsheviks came to power during the October
Revolution in 1917, and initially it acted as a lightning bolt for the hopes and ideas of many
of Russia’s most advanced artists who supported the goals of revolution. It borrowed ideas
from Cubism, Suprematism and Futurism, but at its heart was a whole new approach to
making things, seeking to end the traditional artistic concern with composition, and replace
it with ‘construction. ' Constructivism called for a careful technical analysis of modern
materials, and it was hoped that this investigation would eventually yield ideas that could be
used in mass production, serving the ends of a modern, Communist society. Eventually,
however, the movement faltered in an attempt to make the transition from the artist’s
studio to the factory. Some went on to insist on the value of the abstract, analytical work,
and the value of art per se; these artists had a major impact on the spread of Constructivism
throughout Europe. In the meantime, others, have ushered into a new but fleeting and
frustrating stage known as Productivism, where artists worked in the industry. Russia’s
Consumerivism collapsed in the mid -1920s, partially victimized by the Bolshevik regime’s
rising hatred of the artistic arts. But it will continue to be an inspiration for Western artists,
perpetuating a movement called International Cons konstrivivism that flourished in Germany
in the 1920s, and the legacy endured until the 1950s.

Constructivism developed side by side with Suprematism, the two major modern art forms
that emerged in Russia in the 20th century. But unlike Suprematism, whose concerns over
form and abstraction often seem to have mysticism, Constrivivism tightly embraced the new
social and cultural developments that grew from World War I and the October Revolution of
1917. Concerned using ‘real materials in real space’, the movement sought to use art as a
tool for good, conforming to the Communist principles of the new Russian regime. Many of
the Russian Cons konstrivivist works from this period include projects in architecture,
interior and fashion design, ceramics, typography and graphics.

The movement gained ground in England when Moholy-Nagy, Naum Gabo and others took
refuge in London following the German invasion. Echoes of Constructivism came to be seen
in modern sculpture, even in the work of Henry Moore, who was also inspired by natural
forms. The movement also had an impact in the United States, where the sculptor George
Rickey became the first to write a comprehensive guide to Constructivism, in 1967. Today,
the legacy of Russian Constructivism flourishes in the graphic arts and advertising. Street
artists, such as Shepard Fairey, have also gained recognition by employing the
propagandistic style of the Russian Constructivists in their work.
ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM
The Abstract Expressionist movement itself is generally considered to have begun with
paintings by Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning in the late 1940s and early ’50s.

Despite the diversity of the Abstract Expressionist movement, three general approaches can
be identified. One, Action painting, is characterized by a loose, rapid, dynamic, or forced grip
of the paint with sweeping or cutting brushstrokes and with techniques partially dictated by
chance, such as dripping or pouring paint directly. on canvas. Pollock first practiced Action
painting by dripping commercial paints onto raw canvas to construct complex and tangled
skeins of paint in exciting and suggestive linear patterns. De Kooning used extremely vibrant
and suggestive brushstrokes to construct richly colored and textured images. Kline used
powerful, sweeping black strokes on a white canvas to create massive monumental forms.

The middle ground within Abstract Expressionism is represented by many different styles,
from the more lyrical, delicate imagery and fluid shapes in the paintings of Guston and
Frankenthaler to the more clearly structured, strong, almost calligraphic photographs by
Motherwell and Gottlieb.

The third and less suggestive of the emotional approach is that of Rothko, Newman, and
Reinhardt. These painters used large areas, or fields, of flat color and thin, diaphanous paint
to achieve quiet, subtle, almost meditative effects. The outstanding artist in the field of color
is Rothko, whose most works consist of large-scale combinations of soft, colored rectangular
areas that tend to glaze and tingle.

Abstract Expressionism had a major impact on both the American and European art scenes
in the 1950s. In fact, the movement marked the shift of the creative center of modern
painting from Paris to New York City in recent decades. In the course of the 1950s, the
movement’s younger followers increasingly followed the leadership of artists in the field of
color and, in the 1960s, its participants generally drifted away from the overly charged
expression of Action artists.

Take, for example, Frank Bowling, an artist who moved to New York in the mid -60s and was
heavily influenced by Abstract Expressionism there, who continued to paint in this style
throughout his career, regardless of the popular styles of the times. Moreover, in recent
years, female Abstract Expressionists like Lee Krasner, who have long been obscured by their
male counterparts, are also receiving the attention they deserve. The Denver Art Museum in
its 2016 “Women of Abstract Expressionism” showcased the often unknown or
underappreciated female artists of this groundbreaking art movement.
OPTICAL ART
Artists have been intrigued by natural perception and by optical effects and illusions for
hundreds of centuries. They have often been a major concern of art, as have themes derived
from history or literature. But in the 1950s these preoccupations, allied with new interests in
technology and psychology, blossomed into a movement. Op, or Optical, art typically uses
abstract patterns consisting of an intense contrast of foreground and background - often
black and white for maximum contrast - to produce effects that confuse and excite the eye.
Initially, Op shared the field with Kinetic Art - Op artists drawn in virtual movement, Kinetic
artists attracted by the possibility of real movement. Both styles were launched with Le
Mouvement, a group exhibition at Galerie Denise Rene in 1955. It gained a wide
international following, and was later celebrated with a survey exhibition in 1965, The
Responsive Eye, at the Museum of Modern Art in New York, it captured the public’s
imagination and led to a craze for Op designs in fashion and media. For many, it seems the
perfect style for an age defined by the ongoing march of science, by advances in computing,
aerospace, and television. But art critics have never been supportive of it, attacking its
effects as gimmicks, and now remain tainted by those dismissals.

Op art, also called optical art, is a branch of mid-20th-century abstract geometric art that
deals with the illusion of the optical. Achieved through systematic and precise manipulation
of shapes and colors, Op art effects can be based on the illusion of perspective or on
chromatic tension; in painting, the dominant medium of Op art, the surface tension is
usually maximized to the point where an actual pulsation or flickering is visible to the human
eye. With its concern with completely complex formal relationships, Op art is not directly
associated with other 20th-century styles such as Orphism, Constripivism, Suprematism, and
Futurism — specifically the latter because of giving emphasis on pictorial movement and
dynamism. The painters of this movement differed from earlier artists who worked with
geometric styles, however, in their deliberate manipulation of formal relationships to evoke
perceptual illusions, ambiguities, and contradictions in the viewer’s vision.
POP ART
Pop art began with New York artists Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, James Rosenquist, and
Claes Oldenburg, all of whom came from popular imagery and were actually part of an
international phenomenon. Following the popularity of the Abstract Expressionists, Pop’s re
-emergence of recognizable imagery (drawn from mass media and popular culture) was a
major change for the direction of modernism. The subject has become far removed from the
traditional “high art” themes of morality, mythology, and classical history; instead, Pop
artists celebrate the common things and people of everyday life, in this way seeking to
elevate popular culture to the level of fine art. Perhaps due to the incorporation of
commercial images, Pop art has become one of the most well-known styles of modern art.

By creating paintings or sculptures of mass cultural objects and media stars, the Pop art
movement aims to blur the boundaries between “high” art and “low” culture. The concept
that there is no cultural hierarchy and the art that can borrow from any source has become
one of the most influential features of Pop art.

It can be stated that Abstract Expressionists sought trauma in the soul, while Pop artists
sought traces of the same trauma in the intervening world of advertising, cartoons, and
popular imagery at large. But perhaps it is more accurate to say that Pop artists were the
first to recognize that there is no relentless access to anything, be it the soul, the natural
world, or the built environment. Pop artists believe that everyone is connected to everyone,
and therefore seek to make those connections literal in their artwork. Although Pop art
covers a variety of activities with different behaviors and postures, most of them are
somewhat emotionally drained. In contrast to the “hot” expression of motion abstraction
that preceded it, Pop art is generally “cool” ambivalent. Whether it implies a world-famous
acceptance or a shock retreat, has been the subject of much debate.

Pop artists seemed to embrace labor after World War II and the media boom. Some critics
cited Pop art’s choice of imagery as an enthusiastic endorsement of the capitalist market
and the goods it disperses, while others cited an element of cultural criticism in the rise of
-everyday Pop artist in high art: tying the status of the commodity of the goods represented
to the status of the object of art itself, emphasizing the place of art as, in essence, a
commodity.

Most Pop artists have begun their careers in commercial art: Andy Warhol is a successful
magazine illustrator and graphic designer; Ed Ruscha is also a graphic designer, and James
Rosenquist began his career as an artist on a billboard. Their background in the world of
commercial art has trained them in the visual vocabulary of mass culture as well as
techniques to properly integrate the fields of high art and popular culture.