Movements & Masters

Renaissance art revived classical ideals in Italy and introduced techniques like linear perspective.

Baroque art followed the Renaissance with dramatic emotion and strong contrasts of light and shadow.

Surrealism explored dreams and the unconscious, drawing heavily on the psychological ideas of Sigmund Freud.

Romanticism emphasized emotion and nature, arising partly as a reaction against Enlightenment rationalism.

Neoclassicism revived classical order and restraint amid renewed interest in Greek and Roman ruins.

Realism depicted ordinary life without idealization, rejecting the dramatic subjects favored by Romanticism.

Rococo followed the Baroque with a lighter, more playful style built on pastel colors.

Byzantine art, marked by flat gold-backed forms, centered on Constantinople and monuments like the Hagia Sophia.

Mannerism departed from High Renaissance balance with elongated figures and exaggerated poses.

Photorealism paints with photograph-like precision, often working directly from projected photographic references.

Symbolism favored dreamlike, suggestive imagery over realism, emphasizing myth and spirituality.

Impressionism captured fleeting light in everyday scenes and took its name from a dismissive review.

Post-Impressionism pushed past Impressionism's naturalism toward bolder color and more personal expression.

Cubism fragmented subjects into geometric forms, often showing multiple viewpoints at once.

Expressionism distorted reality to convey raw emotion and flourished in early 20th-century Germany.

Abstract Expressionism's spontaneous gestures became the first American art movement of major global influence.

Fauvism used wild, non-naturalistic color and got its name from a critic likening the artists to wild beasts.

Minimalism reduced art to simple geometric forms, rejecting personal expression in favor of pure form.

De Stijl built pure abstraction from a limited palette of black, white, and primary colors.

Pop Art drew from advertising and celebrity culture, blurring lines between fine art and commercial imagery.

Dadaism rejected logic and tradition after World War I, embracing absurdity and chance as artistic tools.

Art Nouveau's flowing organic lines appeared across architecture, posters, and everyday objects.

Art Deco's bold geometric style defined much of 1920s and 1930s design between the World Wars.

Futurism celebrated speed, technology, and industry, originating in early 20th-century Italy.

Gothic art flourished alongside the soaring cathedrals of medieval Europe, exemplified by Chartres Cathedral.

Pointillism builds images from small dots of color that the eye blends together at a distance.

Constructivism linked art to industrial materials and social purpose, emerging in Russia after 1917.

Op Art uses precise patterns to create optical illusions of movement or depth on a flat surface.

Street art has moved from its illegal graffiti roots into galleries and museums worldwide.

Precisionism celebrated American industry, rendering factories and skyscrapers with crisp geometric precision.