Styles of Art

Artists used many styles in their paintings and drawings. Here are some of the more common styles of art. Learn about each style and how to identify it. Next time you look at a painting, try to figure out what style it is! To see some artwork done in the different styles, check out our ART GALLERY INDEX PAGE.

THE STYLES	ABOUT THE STYLES	THE ARTISTS
Abstract	Abstract artists felt that paintings did not have to show only things that were recognizable. In their paintings they did not try to show people, animals, or places exactly as they appeared in the real world. They mainly used color and shape in their paintings to show emotions. Some Abstract art is also called Non-objective art. In non-objective art, you do not see specific objects. It is not painted to look like something specific.	Sonia Delaunay Jackson Pollock

Cubism

Cubism is modern art made up mostly of paintings. The paintings are not supposed to look real The artist uses geometric shapes to show what he is trying to paint. Early cubists used mainly grays, browns, greens, and yellows. After 1914, Cubists started to use brighter colors. Cubism was the beginning of the Abstract and Non-objective art styles.

Pablo Picasso Marc Chagall Georges Braque

Expressionism

In Expressionist Art, the artist tries to express certain feelings about some thing. The artists that painted in this style were more concerned with having their paintings express a feeling than in making the painting look exactly like what they were painting.

Marc Chagall Wassily Kandinsky Ludwig Kirchner

Fauvism

Fauvism was an art style that lasted only four years, beginning in 1905. The leader of this movement was Henri Matisse. The word Fauvism is french for "wild beasts". It got this name because the paintings had bright and unusual colors. The subjects in the paintings were shown in a simple way, and the colors and patterns were bright and wild.

Henri Matisse

Impressionism

Impressionism was developed in France during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. These pieces of art were painted as if someone just took a quick look at the subject of the painting. The paintings were usually in bold colors and did not have a lot of detail. The paintings in this style were usually outdoor scenes like landscapes. The pictures were painted to look like they were shimmering.

Claude Monet Mary Cassatt Pierre Auguste Renoir Camille Pissaro

Pointillism

In Pointillism, the artist uses small dots or strokes of paint to make up the pictures. From far away, these dots blend together to form the picture and give the impression of different colors as they blend together.

Paul Seurat Paul Signac

Pop Art

Pop art can be any every day item that is drawn in a brash and colorful way. Pop Art is short for Popular Art. It is inspired by comic strips, advertising, and popular entertainment.

Andy Warhol Roy Lichtenstein Claes Oldenberg David Hockney

Postimpressionism

Postimpressionism began in the 19th century. It was mainly still lifes and landscapes. The postimpressionists liked to use lots of colors and shadows.

Vincent Van Gogh Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Paul Gauguin Paul Cezanne

Primitivism

Primitive Art looks like art that is done by a child. Usually the picture is painted very simply, and the subjects are "flat", or two-dimensional.

Paul Klee Henri Matisse

Realism

Realism is a type of art that shows things exactly as they appear in life. It began in the 18th century, but the greatest Realist era was in the mid-19th century. Most Realists were from France, but there were some famous American painters who were Realists also.

Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec Leonardo Da Vinci Gustave Courbet Honore Daumier Thomas Eakins John Singleton Copley

Surrealism

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the visual artworks and writings of the group members. Surrealist works feature the element of surprise, unexpected juxtapositions and non sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement. Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s on, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film, and music of many countries and languages, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy and social theory.

Salvador Dali

Symbolism

Symbolism is the use of symbols to represent things such as ideas and emotions. Symbolism is sometimes used to refer specifically to totemic symbols that stand on their own, as opposed to linguistic symbols[dubious – discuss]. In psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung envisioned symbols as being not of the mind, but rather the mind's capacity to hold information.[citation needed] The mind uses symbols to form free association, organization, and connections between symbols. Jung and Freud diverged on the issue of common cognitive symbol systems and whether they exist within the individual mind or among other minds, whether cognitive symbolism was innate or defined by the environment. Symbolism is important to religion. Some religious oracles divine by interpreting symbols. Max Weber described religion as a system of sacred religious symbolism.[cita

Transcendentalism

Transcendentalism was a group of new ideas in literature, religion, culture, and philosophy that emerged in New England in the early to middle 19th century. It is sometimes called American transcendentalism to distinguish it from other uses of the word transcendental. Transcendentalism began as a protest against the general state of culture and society, and in particular, the state of intellectualism at Harvard and the doctrine of the Unitarian church taught at Harvard Divinity School. Among transcendentalists' core beliefs was an ideal spiritual state that 'transcends' the physical and empirical and is only realized through the individual's intuition, rather than through the doctrines of established religions. Prominent transcendentalists included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau, Orestes Brownson, William Henry Channing, James Freeman Clarke, Christopher Pearse Cranch, Convers Francis, Margaret Fuller, Frederick Henry Hedge, Sylvester Judd, Elizabeth Peabody, George Ripley, Amos Bronson Alcott, and Jones Very.[1]

Veristic Surrealism

Veristic surrealism is a style of surrealistic art which is designed to portray the dream world in rich detail. One of the more famous veristic surrealists was Salvador Dali, who painted ornate scenes of melting clocks, fantastical creatures, and other elements. The style is often marked by strangely veristic, meaning realistic, painting which seems to draw the viewer into a fantasy world that has no connection with reality.