Art History 101

The art movement was actually far more diverse than is widely known, spanning various disciplines, styles, and geographies from 1924 until its end in 1966.

Jon Mann

Sep 23, 2016

Art

Impressionism

Fin-de-siècle artists like Degas, Morisot, and Monet liberated painting from the stuffy academic establishment to capture modern urban life.

In the late 1800s, artworks, design objects, and architecture in Europe and the United States sprouted with the sinuous, unruly lines of Art Nouveau.

George Philip LeBourdais

Nov 23, 2016

Art

Fauvism

With their wild colors and rough, untamed brushwork, Henri Matisse, André Derain, and the Fauvists burst onto the avant-garde Paris scene of the early 20th century.

George Philip LeBourdais

Oct 09, 2017

Art

Cubism

Picasso and Braque’s two-man movement shattered tradition to create a thoroughly modern art that would influence every avant-garde group that followed.

A group of artists in pre-war Italy believed that violence and machinery were the engines of human progress—and that art should hurtle us into the future.

Inspired by the Communist revolution in Russia, artists like Vladimir Tatlin and Alexander Rodchenko set out to create a new, mass-produced art.

The short-lived German school was like an über-designed version of IKEA, churning out items for everyday use that were nonetheless fit for the museum.

Karen Chernick

Mar 20, 2019

Art

Abstract Expressionism

Action painters from Jackson Pollock to Helen Frankenthaler championed freedom of expression, placing New York at the center of the Western art world.

In the counterculture spirit of the 1960s, artists rebelled against the elitism of the art world by intertwining art and life.

Everything you need to know about Symbolism, a movement that encompasses a diverse range artists who created lush, psychologically complex artworks.

Alina Cohen

Nov 28, 2018

About the Series

“Art History 101” is Artsy’s ever-evolving guide to the artists and movements that have shaped our world. Far from a static discipline that can be confined to textbooks, art history is a living thing that requires constant reappraisal to reflect society’s changing attitudes and norms. These articles offer primers on some of art history’s most pioneering artistic experiments, from Claude Monet’s impressionistic studies in light to Kasimir Malevich’s radical Black Square to Jackson Pollock’s mid-century Action paintings. Although the start and end periods for modern movements in art history can be difficult to pinpoint exactly, they are presented here in a loose chronological order oriented to the height of each one’s popularity and influence.