art before and now essay

Art Periods – A Detailed Look at the Art History Timeline

For as long as we have been able to use our hands, we have been creating unique artworks that document our context and state of mind. From early cave paintings to the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, human artistic expression can tell us a lot about the lives of the people who created it. To fully appreciate the cultural, social, and historical significance of different artworks, you need to be aware of the art history timeline and the major periods that shaped it. This article presents an overview of the most significant eras of creation and the historical contexts from which they originated. 

Table of Contents

• 1 Art Eras: Tracing the Earliest Art Periods
• 2 Reviewing the Timeline of the Different Art Periods
• 3.1 The Byzantine Era (330 – 1453): Eastern Roman Empire and Christianization
• 3.2 The Romanesque Period (1000 – 1300): Sharing Information Through Art
• 3.3 The Gothic Era (1100 – 1500): Freedom and Fear Unite
• 3.4 The Renaissance Era (1420 – 1520): The Revival of Humanism
• 3.5 Mannerism (1520 – 1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch
• 3.6 The Baroque Era (1590 – 1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Eye
• 3.7 The Rococo Art Period (1725 – 1780): French Aristocracy 
• 3.8 Classicism (1770 – 1840): A Throwback to Classicism
• 3.9 Romanticism (1790 – 1850): Adding More Feeling to Art
• 3.10 Realism (1850 – 1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity
• 3.11 Impressionism (1850 – 1895): Heralding the Era of Modern Art
• 3.12 Symbolism (1886 – 1900): There is Always More Than Meets the Eye
• 3.13 Post-Impressionism (1886 – 1905): Expression Over Naturalism
• 3.14 Art Nouveau (1890 – 1910): All That Glitters is Klimt
• 3.15 Expressionism (1890 – 1914): Bringing a Political Edge to the Debate
• 3.16 Cubism (1906 – 1914): Distorting Representation
• 3.17 Futurism (1909 – 1945): Artistic Anarchism
• 3.18 Dadaism (1912 – 1920): Life is Nonsense
• 3.19 Constructivism (1913 – 1930): The Union of Cubism and Futurism
• 3.20 The Harlem Renaissance (1920 – 1930): The Revival of African-American Culture
• 3.21 Surrealism (1920 – 1930): Subconscious Realities
• 3.22 New Objectivity (1925 – 1965): Cold and Technical
• 3.23 Abstract Expressionism (1948 – 1962): Stepping Away from Europe
• 3.24 Pop Art (1955 – 1969): Art is Everything
• 3.25 Neo-Expressionism (1980 – 1989): Modern Fauvism
• 4.1 What Is an Art Period?
• 4.2 What Is the Difference Between an Art Period and an Art Movement?
• 4.3 What Is the Current Art Period Called?
• 4.4 Why Was the Renaissance Art Period Important?

Art Eras: Tracing the Earliest Art Periods

The earliest artworks have been identified as Paleolithic cave paintings, which date back to roughly 40,000 years ago. There have been many discoveries that document human activity from this period and have taken shape in many spectacular rock shelter paintings and drawings. While it is unclear as to the reasons why early humans began to produce art, it has remained a consistent practice for centuries. Scholars narrow down the purposes of early art as a tool for recording the early cultures, experiences, and local narratives, such that these images and stories were passed onto the next generation. 

Despite the many exquisite examples of early artistic expression, the official history of art was recognized by the Romanesque era. Official art era timelines do not include cave paintings , sculptures, and other works of art from the Stone Age or the beautiful frescos produced in Egypt and Crete around 2000 BCE.

The reason behind this is that these early eras of artistic expression were bound to a relatively small geographical space. The official art eras that we will be discussing today span many countries and have mostly originated in Europe and parts of North and South America. Despite their lack of official recognition, these earliest examples of human artistic flair raise a lot of interesting questions. Where did early humans learn to draw so realistically, what inspired early humans to create art, and was art a practice that was taught in prehistoric civilizations? 

This article hopes to give you some insight into the ever-changing artistic style of the human creative mind, as we explore the complexities of the different art periods.

Reviewing the Timeline of the Different Art Periods

As with many areas of human history, it is impossible to delineate the different art periods with precision. The dates presented in the brackets below are approximations based on the progression of each movement across several countries. Many of the art periods overlap considerably, with some of the more recent eras occurring at the same time. Some eras last for a few thousand years while others span less than 10 years. Art is a continuous process of exploration, where more recent periods grow out of existing ones.

Art from ancient Greece, including its many temples, ruins, and archaeological sites have provided us with insight into the Classical styles that shaped the Western canon of art for centuries. It may seem strange for our account of the art period timeline to end 30 years ago. The concept of an art era seems inadequate to capture the variety of artistic styles that have grown since the turn of the 21st century.

There is a feeling among some art historians that the traditional concept of painting has died in our era of fast-track living and digital expanse, however, it would be unwise to think that traditional mediums do not have a place in the 21st century. We continue to share our unique human experiences through the medium of art , just as the cave people did outside of our modern system of classification.

A Comprehensive Art Movement Timeline

It is time to dive a little deeper into the social, cultural, and historical contexts of each of the distinct art eras we presented above. You will see how many eras take influence from those before them. Art, like human consciousness, is continuously evolving. It is also important to note that this art timeline is a history of Western and predominantly European art.

The Byzantine Era (330 – 1453): Eastern Roman Empire and Christianization

Byzantine art was a period of increased religious art production that was inspired by the Christianization of Greek culture and the prevailing art styles of the Roman Empire. The Byzantine art period commenced around 330 CE and lasted until 1453. Influential themes on this period included scenes from Greek Hellenistic mythology and Christian literature. Byzantine art is usually categorized into three distinct periods: the Early Byzantine, Middle Byzantine, and Late Byzantine eras.

The styles found in Byzantine painting were religious and devotional, and included angular contours, flat colors, and a distinct gold backdrop. Byzantine styles of the Roman Empire infiltrated architecture and other art forms such as mosaic making, interior decor, and religious buildings as reminders to society of the Christian faith, which promoted “the path to salvation”. Centers such as Constantinople were the hub of artistic expression since it was the center of the Byzantine Empire and the Catholic Church.  

The Romanesque Period (1000 – 1300): Sharing Information Through Art

Art historians typically consider the Romanesque art era to be the start of the art history timeline. Romanesque art developed during the rise of Christianity around 1000 CE. During this time, only a small percentage of the European population were literate. The ministers of the Christian church were typically part of this minority, and to spread the message of the bible, they needed an alternative method.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 CE, art shifted from the ideals of Classical Greek and Roman art styles to focus on religious art promoted by Christianity. Christian objects, stories, deities, saints, and ceremonies were the exclusive subject of most Romanesque paintings and were intended on educating the masses about the values and beliefs of the Christian Church. 

Romanesque art was simple and included bold contours with clean blocks of color. There were also several different forms that artists adopted in Romanesque painting, including wall frescoes, mosaics, panel paintings, and book paintings.

Due to the Christian purpose behind Romanesque paintings, they are almost always symbolic. The relative importance of the figures within the paintings is shown by the size, with the more important figures appearing much larger. You can see that human faces are often distorted, and the stories depicted in these paintings tend to have a high emotional value. 

Romanesque paintings often include mythological creatures like dragons and angels, and almost always appear in churches. At the most fundamental level, paintings of the Romanesque period serve the purpose of spreading the word of the bible and Christianity. The name of this art era stems from round arches used in Roman architecture , often found in churches of the time.

The Gothic Era (1100 – 1500): Freedom and Fear Unite

One of the most famous eras, Gothic art grew out of the Romanesque period in France and is an expression of two contrasting feelings of the age. On the one hand, people were experiencing and celebrating a new level of freedom of thought and religious understanding. On the other, there was a fear that the world was coming to an end. You can clearly see the expression of these two contrasting tensions within the art of the Gothic period.

Just as in the Romanesque period, Christianity lay at the heart of the tensions of the Gothic era. As more freedom of thought emerged, and many pushed against conformity, the subjects of paintings became more diverse. The stronghold of the church began to dissipate.

Gothic paintings portrayed scenes from real life such as laborers in the field and hunting scenes. The focus moved away from divine beings and mystical creatures and tended towards the essence of what it meant to be human .

Human figures received a lot more attention during the Gothic period. Gothic artists fleshed out more realistic human faces, as they became more individual and less two-dimensional. The development of a three-dimensional perspective is thought to have facilitated this change. Painters also paid more attention to subjects of personal value such as clothing, which was typically portrayed realistically. 

Many historians believe that part of the reason why the subjects of art became more diverse during the Gothic era was due to the increased surface area for painting within churches. Gothic churches were more expansive than those of the Romanesque period, which was thought to represent the increased feelings of freedom at this time.

Alongside the newfound freedom of artistic expression, there was a deep fear that the end of the world was fast-approaching. This was accompanied by a gradual decline in faith in the church, which spurred the expansion of art outside of the church. In fact, towards the end of the Gothic era, works by Hieronymus von Bosch, Breughel, and others were unsuitable for placement within a church.

We do not know many individual artists who painted in the Romanesque period, as art was not about who painted it but rather the message it carried. Thus, the move away from the church can also be seen in the enormous increase in known artists from the Gothic period, including Giotto di Bondone . Schools of art began to emerge throughout France, Italy, Germany, the Netherlands, and other parts of Europe.

The Renaissance Era (1420 – 1520): The Revival of Humanism

The Renaissance era is possibly one of the most well-known, featuring artists like Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci. This era continued to focus on the individual human as its inspiration and took influence from the art and philosophy of the ancient Romans and Greeks. The Renaissance can be seen as a cultural rebirth and is usually understood as consisting of several art movements across Europe.

Sandro Botticelli was among the most popular early Renaissance painters, who was later rediscovered by the artists of the pre-Raphaelite movement. Early Renaissance styles of sculpture were further developed by artists such as Donatello, who was inspired by Classical sculpture and was considered to be one of the greatest sculptors in Florence. 

A part of this cultural rebirth was the returned focus on the natural and realistic world in which humans lived. The three-dimensional perspective became even more important to the art of the Renaissance, as is aptly demonstrated by Michelangelo’s statue of David . This statue harkened back to the works of the ancient Greeks as it was consciously created to be seen from all angles. Statues of the last two eras had been two-dimensional, intended to be viewed only from the front.

The same three-dimensional perspective carried over into the paintings of the Renaissance era. Frescoes that were invented 3000 years prior were revived by Renaissance painters . Compositions became more complex and the representation of humans became much more nuanced. Renaissance artists painted human bodies and faces in three dimensions with a strong emphasis on Realism.

The paint used during the Renaissance period also represented a shift from tempera paint to oil paint. The Renaissance period is often credited as the very start of great Dutch landscape paintings . Among the leading painters of the Italian High Renaissance was Raphael, who alongside Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, encompassed the essence of ideal Renaissance styles and values. 

Mannerism (1520 – 1600): A Window into the Future of Kitsch

Of course, this heading is partly in jest. Not all of the art produced in this era is what we would understand today as “kitsch”. What we understand kitsch to mean today is often artificial, cheaply made, and without much ‘classic’ taste. Instead, the reason we describe the art of this period as being kitsch is due to the relative over-exaggeration that characterized it. Stemming from the newfound freedom of human expression in the Renaissance period, artists began to explore their own unique and individual artistic style, or manner.

Michelangelo was not free from the exaggeration that distinguishes the era of Mannerism. Some art historians do not consider some of his later paintings to be Renaissance-styled works. The expression of feelings, human gestures, and items of clothing were intentionally exaggerated in mannerist paintings.

The S-shaped curve of the human body that characterizes the Renaissance style was transformed into an unnatural contortion of the body. This was the first European style that attracted artists from across Europe to its birthplace in Italy.

The Baroque Era (1590 – 1760): The Glorification of Power and the Deception of the Eye

The progression of art celebrating the lives of humans over the power of the divine continued into the Baroque era. Kings, princes, and even popes began to prefer to see their own power and prestige celebrated through art than that of God. The over-exaggeration that classified Mannerism also continued into the Baroque period, with the scenes of paintings becoming increasingly unrealistic and magnificent.

Baroque paintings depicted scenes with monarchs ascending into the heavens, mingling with angels, and reaching closer to the divinity and power of God. Here, we really can see the progression of human self-importance, and although the subject matter does not move away entirely from religious symbolism, man was increasingly the central power within Baroque compositions.

New materials that glorify wealth and status like gold and marble become the prized materials for sculptures. Opposites of light and dark, warm and cold colors, and symbols of good and evil are emphasized beyond what is naturally occurring. Art academies increased in their numbers, as art became a way to display your wealth, power, and status.

Prominent artists of the Baroque period included figures like Caravaggio who was considered to be the master of light and  chiaroscuro  painting. Caravaggio amplified the concepts of divinity and human grandeur through his striking use of contrast in portraiture and religious painting. Another prolific master of Baroque portraiture was Rembrandt, whose theatrical self-portraits continue to inspire many painters who admire the traditions of Baroque art. 

The Rococo Art Period (1725 – 1780): French Aristocracy 

The paintings from the Rococo era are typical of the French aristocracy of the time. The name stems from the French word rocaille which means “shellwork”. The solid forms which characterized the Baroque period softened into light, air, and desire. Paintings of this era were no longer strong and powerful, but light and playful.

The colors were lighter and brighter, almost transparent in some instances. Many pieces of art from this period neglected religious themes, although some artists like Tiepolo did create frescos in many churches.

Much like the attitude of the French aristocracy of the time, the art of the Rococo period was totally removed from social reality. The shepherd’s idyll became the leading theme of this period, representing life as light and carefree, without the constraints of economic or social hardship.

Classicism (1770 – 1840): A Throwback to Classicism

Classicism, like the Rococo era, began in France in around 1770. In contrast to the Rococo era, however, Classism reverted to earlier, more serious styles of artistic expression. Much like the Renaissance period, Classisim took inspiration from classic Roman and Greek art .

The art created in the Classicism era reverted to strict forms, two-dimensional colors, and human figures. The tone of these paintings was undoubtedly strict. Colors lost their symbolism. The art produced in this era was used internationally to instill feelings of patriotism in the people of each nation. Parts of Classicism include Louis-Sieze, Empire, and Biedermeier.

Romanticism (1790 – 1850): Adding More Feeling to Art

You can see from the dates that this art era occurred at around the same time as Classicism. Romanticism is often seen as an emotionally charged reaction to the stern nature of Classicism. In contrast to the strict and realistic nature of the Classicism era, the paintings of the Romantic era were much more sentimental.

The exploration of emotions and the subconscious took center-stage in Romanticism. Many artists engaged with the natural environment and often took hikes to discover the ways that the natural world influenced their emotions.

There is no tangible or precisely determinable style to the art of the Romanticism period . English and French painters tended to focus on the effects of shadows and lights, while the art produced by German painters tended to have more gravity of thought to them. The Romantic painters were often criticized and even mocked for their interpretation of the world around them.

Realism (1850 – 1925): Objectivity over Subjectivity

As the Romanticism era was a reactionary movement to the Classicism period before it, so is Realism a reaction to Romanticism. In contrast to the beautiful and deeply emotional content of Romantic paintings, Realist artists presented both the good and beautiful, the ugly and evil. The reality of the world is presented in an unembellished way by Realism painters .

These artists attempt to show the world, people, nature, and animals, as they truly appeared. In Realism, there was a focus on the “obligation of art into truth”, as phrased by Gustave Courbet .

Just as with Romanticism, Realism was not popular with everyone. The paintings are not particularly pleasing to the eye and some critics have commented that despite the artist’s claims of Realism, erotic scenes somehow miss the real eroticism. Goethe criticizes Realism, saying that art should be ideal, not realistic. Schiller also calls Realism “mean”, indicating the harshness that many of the paintings portrayed.

Impressionism (1850 – 1895): Heralding the Era of Modern Art

Historians often paint the Impressionist movement as the beginning of the modern age. Impressionist art is said to have closed the book on Classical art and was one of the most easily recognizable art periods of the 20th century. Featuring artists like Claude Monet and Vincent van Gogh, Impressionism broke away from the smooth brush strokes and areas of solid color that characterized many art periods before it.

Initially, the word Impressionism was like a swear word in the art world, with critics believing that these artists did not paint with technique, but rather simply smeared paint onto a canvas. The brushstrokes indeed were a significant departure from those that came before them, sometimes becoming furiously expressive. Distinct shapes and lines disappeared into a whirlwind of colors. Individual dots of completely new colors were put together, particularly in the Pointillism variety of Impressionist paintings. The subjects of Impressionist paintings could often only be recognized from a distance.

A significant change that occurred during the Impressionist era was that painting began to take place en-plein-air or outside. Much of the Impressionists’ ability to capture the complex and ever-changing colors of the natural world were a result of this shift. Impressionist artists also began to move away from the desire to lecture and teach, preferring to create art for art’s sake . Galleries and international exhibitions became increasingly important to the spread of such philosophies in art and painting.

Symbolism (1886 – 1900): There is Always More Than Meets the Eye

Between 1886 and 1900, the era of Symbolism began to emerge in France as a literary movement that soon influenced the world of visual art. Artists became preoccupied with the representation of feelings and thoughts through objects. The common themes of the Symbolism movement included death, sickness, sin, and passion. The forms were mostly clear, a fact which art historians believe was in anticipation of the Art Nouveau era.

Post-Impressionism (1886 – 1905): Expression Over Naturalism

The post-Impressionist period followed the era of Impressionism and was defined by its rejection of Naturalism as it applied to the representation of color and expression. The art movement was also coined by the 20th century art critic Roger Fry in 1910 and was a term used to describe the development of art after the styles proposed by Édouard Manet. Post-Impressionism embraced the idea of deep symbolism rather than the mere representation of optical impressions drawn from nature.

Famous artists who followed the stylistic conventions of post-Impressionism include Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Vincent van Gogh, and the iconic Paul Cézanne.

Although these artists operated independently, their works possess similarities that differ from the norms of Impressionism and offer a more emotionally charged atmosphere. While artists like Georges Seurat created his own unique style of painting, traditional mediums saw the use of innovative techniques that made each of these artists stand out from the rest of the art crowd of the early 20th century. Famous Fauvists such as Henri Matisse was also greatly influenced by the work of renowned post-Impressionists such as Paul Signac and John Russell. 

Art Nouveau (1890 – 1910): All That Glitters is Klimt

Although Gustav Klimt was by no means the most important artist in the Art Nouveau movement, he is one of the most well-known. His style perfectly encapsulates the Art Nouveau movement with soft, curved lines, lots of florals, and the stylistic characterization of human figures. In many countries, this style is known as the Secession style.

The art produced in the Art Nouveau period includes a lot of symmetry and is characterized by playfulness and youthfulness. Art Nouveau has a lot of political content, although many critics ignore this and hold the decorative aspects against it. Through the art of the Art Nouveau period, artists attempted to bring nature back into industrial cities.

Expressionism (1890 – 1914): Bringing a Political Edge to the Debate

In the Expressionism art era, we once again see a resurgence of the importance of the expression of subjective feelings. Expressionism originated in Germany and reflected many artists’ criticism of power. The artists within this movement were not interested in Naturalism or what things look like on the outside. As a result, there was a tinge of aggression in some Expressionist paintings, which are often archaic and expressive. Wassily Kandinsky was one such Modern artist who leveraged Expressionism styles in his abstract compositions to explore color theory , form, and pure abstraction in painting. 

Towards the beginning of the First World War, Expressionist paintings had a disturbing intensity about them. Expressionism was one such movement that reflected direct political messages through painting and a sort of violence in brushwork styles.  

Cubism (1906 – 1914): Distorting Representation

Beginning with two artists, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, the Cubist movement was all about fragmentation, geometric shapes, and multiple perspectives. The dimensional planes of everyday objects were broken down into different geometric segments and put back together in a way that presented the object from multiple sides simultaneously. Cubism was a rejection of all the rules of traditional Western painting and has had a strong influence on the styles of art that have followed it.

Futurism (1909 – 1945): Artistic Anarchism

Futurism is less of an artistic style and more of an artistically inspired political movement. Founded by Tommaso Marinetti’s  Futurist Manifesto , which rejected social organization and Christian morality, the Futurist era was full of chaos, hostility, aggression, and anger. Although Marinetti was not a painter himself, painting became the most prominent form of art within the Futurist movement .

These artists vehemently rejected the rules of Classical painting, believing that everything that was passed through generations (beliefs, traditions, religion) was suspicious and dangerous. The militant nature of the Futurist movement resulted in many people believing that it was too closely affiliated with Fascism.

Dadaism (1912 – 1920): Life is Nonsense

Dada means a great many things and nothing at all. The writer Hugo Ball discovered that this small word has several different meanings in different languages and at the same time, as a word, it meant nothing at all. The Dadaism movement is based on the concepts of illogic and provocation and was seen as not only an art movement, but an anti-war movement.

The illogic of existing rules, norms, traditions, and values was called into question by the Dadaist movement. The art movement encompassed several art forms including writing, poetry, dance, and performance art . Part of the movement was to call into question what could be classified as “art”. Artists such as Henri-Robert-Marcel Duchamp also leveraged Dadaism and Surrealism to define the foundations of conceptual art, which paved the path forward for later Modern art movements. 

Dadaism represents the beginnings of action art in which painting becomes more than just a portrait of reality, but rather an amalgamation of the social, cultural, and subjective parts of being human.

Constructivism (1913 – 1930): The Union of Cubism and Futurism

In 1913, the Russian Konstruktivizm movement emerged with the abstract paintings of Vladimir Tatlin, which went on to influence the development of abstract modern art itself. The art period is also recognized as a historical movement that involved the arrangement of geometric forms in a harmonious manner. Painters who explored Constructivism rejected bright colors and expanded the styles found in earlier movements such as Suprematism.

The conceptual theory behind the era was shaped by Jean Piaget, whose work in educational psychology and cognitive development expanded on how humans create meaning and explored the relationships between human experiences and their ideas. The theory also described the idea that human create their own knowledge.

Bold typography and constructed photomontages became the essence of Konstruktivizm  with minimal color palettes. The era proved to be incredibly influential in the fields of design and architecture, which shifted from political connotations to a dynamic design style throughout the 1920s. Famous Russian artist Kazimir Malevich also coined the term “Constructivist” while referring to the work of Alexander Rodchenko, a well-known Russian designer. 

The Harlem Renaissance (1920 – 1930): The Revival of African-American Culture

The Harlem Renaissance was a decade of significant cultural rebirth for the African-American communities of America in the 1920s. The period was characterized by the recognition and production of intellectual and cultural art forms spanning music, literature, visual art, poetry, politics, dance, and fashion produced by African-American individuals.

The period is also recognized as the New Negro Movement and encompassed a variety of unique Contemporary art styles that focused on relaying the Black experience from a non-Western perspective in light of the historical negation of African-American scholars and artists. 

The Harlem Renaissance originated in the New York neighborhood of Harlem, which debuted many cultural icons that promoted African-American culture and the recognition of Black artists in the early 20th century. The period fostered a strong commitment to political activism, which went on to influence important movements such as the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s. 

Surrealism (1920 – 1930): Subconscious Realities

As if the pure illogic nature of the Dadaism movement was not outlandish enough, the Surrealists took the dream world to be the fountain of all truth. One of the most famous Surrealist artists is Salvador Dalí, and you are bound to know his painting Melting Watch (1954).

Surrealism was fundamentally psychoanalytical and many Surrealist artists would paint directly from their dreams.

Sometimes dealing with uncomfortable concepts, hidden desires, and taboos, Surrealism was a direct critique of the ingrained ideas and beliefs of the bourgeoise. As you can imagine, this style of art was not popular when it began, but it has greatly influenced the world of modern art.

New Objectivity (1925 – 1965): Cold and Technical

The different art periods from the 1960s to the Contemporary era mark the height of Modern art and the development of art styles that proved significantly influential in redefining notions of representation, visual aesthetics, and postwar culture.

The New Objectivity movement of the 1960s turned towards themes that dealt with social and political critique. The turbulence of the war left many people searching for some kind of order to hold onto, and this can be seen clearly in the art of New Objectivity.

The images represented in New Objectivity were often cold, unemotional, and technical, with some common subjects such as the radio and lightbulbs. As is the case with many Modern movements in art , there were several different wings to the New Objectivity movement.

Abstract Expressionism (1948 – 1962): Stepping Away from Europe

The 1960s also produced one of the most impactful art periods shaped by Abstract Expressionism. The art world saw many post-World War II painters from the United States embrace abstract approaches to painting as a means of expressing emotion. Abstract Expressionism is said to be the first art movement to originate outside of Europe. Emerging from North America, Abstract Expressionism focused on color-field painting and action paintings. Rather than using a canvas and a brush, buckets of paint would be poured on the ground, and artists used their fingers to create images.

With well-known artists of the 1960s include figures like Marc Tobey and Jackson Pollock , who piloted the style of the art movement. The application of the paint in Abstract Expressionism was sometimes so thick that the finished piece would take on a form unlike any painting before it. As with all art, there are always critics, with conservative Americans during the cold war calling it “un-American.”

Pop Art (1955 – 1969): Art is Everything

For the artists of Pop art period, almost every aspect of popular culture in the world was art. From advertisements, tin cans, toothpaste, and toilets, everything was art. Pop art developed simultaneously in the United States and England and was characterized by uniform blocks of color and clear lines and contours. Painting and graphic art became influenced by Photorealism and serial prints.

One of the most famous English Pop artists was David Hockney, although only a few of his lifetime paintings were in this movement. Another iconic legend of the Pop art era in the 1960s was Andy Warhol, whose most popular artworks were inspired by vivid imagery from popular culture and Hollywood’s finest celebrities, including Marilyn Monroe and Elizabeth Taylor. 

Neo-Expressionism (1980 – 1989): Modern Fauvism

Starting in the 1980s, Neo-Expressionism emerged with large-format representational and life-affirming paintings. Berlin was a central point for this new movement, and the designs typically featured cities and big-city life. The name Neo-Expressionism emerged from Fauvism , and although the artists in Berlin disbanded in 1989, some artists continued to paint in this style in New York. 

Art is a fundamental part of what it means to be human. Many of the troubles and joys we experience can only be captured accurately through artistic expression. We hope that this short summary of the art periods timeline has helped you gain more insight into the contexts surrounding some of the most famous works of art.

We’ve also created a web story about art periods.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is an art period.

In art history, an art period is understood as a particular span of time that encompasses various artists and their artworks, whose works are classified under a particular style or movement within art. Art periods indicate eras of significant change or evolution in the trajectory of art and the way it is understood by society. Art periods usually highlight a focused goal and may encompass multiple art movements. 

What Is the Difference Between an Art Period and an Art Movement?

Art movements differ from art periods since art periods are categorized and understood according to time and the different eras they encompass, while art movements are formed by artists in a conscious manner and share a common philosophy. Art periods are used to classify artists according to the style of the time and is a broader category that can encompass more than one art movement. 

What Is the Current Art Period Called?

The art period of the present is known as the Contemporary art period, which encompasses art and new styles of art produced from the late-1970s until the current era. The Contemporary art period is characterized by art formed within the context of a globalized and technologically advanced era. 

Why Was the Renaissance Art Period Important?

The Renaissance art period is a broad art era that is considered significant for the many cultural changes that occurred in multiple disciplines in Europe. The era was recognized as a widespread period of cultural rebirth that saw the revival of Classical subjects across philosophy, literature, visual art, and science. The Renaissance also included the Northern Renaissance, which occurred from the late-15th century and spread to the North of the Alps. The Northern Renaissance was considered particularly important since it birthed many advanced oil painting techniques and approaches in printmaking. 

Isabella studied at the University of Cape Town in South Africa and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts majoring in English Literature & Language and Psychology. Throughout her undergraduate years, she took Art History as an additional subject and absolutely loved it. Building on from her art history knowledge that began in high school, art has always been a particular area of fascination for her. From learning about artworks previously unknown to her, or sharpening her existing understanding of specific works, the ability to continue learning within this interesting sphere excites her greatly.

Her focal points of interest in art history encompass profiling specific artists and art movements, as it is these areas where she is able to really dig deep into the rich narrative of the art world. Additionally, she particularly enjoys exploring the different artistic styles of the 20 th century, as well as the important impact that female artists have had on the development of art history.

Learn more about Isabella Meyer and the Art in Context Team .

Cite this Article

Isabella, Meyer, “Art Periods – A Detailed Look at the Art History Timeline.” Art in Context. December 17, 2020. URL: https://artincontext.org/art-periods/

Meyer, I. (2020, 17 December). Art Periods – A Detailed Look at the Art History Timeline. Art in Context. https://artincontext.org/art-periods/

Meyer, Isabella. “Art Periods – A Detailed Look at the Art History Timeline.” Art in Context , December 17, 2020. https://artincontext.org/art-periods/ .

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One comment.

All is lovely, “is OK”, but only till Surrealism (and few of this, I want believe that I understand). Am I so old ? Am I one of them can not addapted ?

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An Art History Timeline From Ancient to Contemporary Art

The Lifespan of Art in Five Easy Steps

• Art History
• Architecture

There is a lot to be found in a timeline of art history . It begins over 30,000 years ago and takes us through a series of movements, styles, and periods that reflect the time during which each piece of art was created.

Art is an important glimpse into history because it is often one of the few things to survive. It can tell us stories, relate the moods and beliefs of an era, and allow us to relate to the people who came before us. Let's explore art, from Ancient to Contemporary, and see how it influences the future and delivers the past.

Ancient Art

 Anders Blomqvist / Getty Images

What we consider ancient art is what was created from around 30,000 B.C.E. to 400 A.D. If you prefer, it can be thought of as fertility statuettes and bone flutes to roughly the fall of Rome .

Many different styles of art were created over this long period. They include those of prehistory ( Paleolithic , Neolithic , the Bronze Age , etc) to the ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia, Egypt, and the nomadic tribes. It also includes the work found in classical civilizations like the Greeks and Celts as well as that of the early ​ Chinese dynasties  and the civilizations of the Americas.

The artwork of this time is as varied as the cultures that created it. What ties them together is their purpose.

Quite often, art was created to tell stories in a time when oral tradition prevailed. It was also used to decorate utilitarian objects like bowls, pitchers, and weapons. At times, it was also used to demonstrate the status of its owner, a concept that art has used forever since.

Medieval to Early Renaissance Art

Jean-Philippe Tournut / Getty Images

Some people still refer to the millennium between 400 and 1400 A.D. as the "Dark Ages." The art of this period can be considered relatively "dark" as well. Some depicted rather grotesque or otherwise brutal scenes while others were focused on formalized religion. Yet, the majority are not what we would call cheery.

Medieval European art saw a transition from the Byzantine period to the Early Christian period. Within that, from about 300 to 900, we also saw Migration Period Art as Germanic people migrated across the continent. This "Barbarian" art was portable by necessity and much of it was understandably lost.

As the millennium passed, more and more Christian and Catholic art appeared. The period centered around elaborate churches and artwork to adorn this architecture. It also saw the rise of the "illuminated manuscript" and eventually the Gothic and Romanesque styles of art and architecture.

Renaissance to Early Modern Art

 alxpin / Getty Images

This period covers the years 1400 through 1880 and it includes many of our favorite pieces of art.

Much of the notable art created during the Rennaissance was Italian. It began with the famous 15th-century artists like Brunelleschi and Donatello, who led to the work of Botticelli and Alberti. When the High Rennaissance took over in the next century, we saw the work of Da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

In Northern Europe, this period saw the schools of Antwerp Mannerism, The Little Masters, and the Fontainebleau School, among many others.

After the long Italian Renaissance,  Northern Renaissance , and Baroque periods were over, we began to see new art movements appear with greater frequency. 

By the 1700s, Western Art followed a series of styles. These movements included Rococo and Neo-Classicism, followed by Romanticism, Realism, and Impressionism  as well as many lesser-known styles.

In China, the Ming and Qing Dynasties took place during this period and Japan saw the Momoyama and Edo Periods. This was also the time of the Aztec and Inca in the Americas who had their own distinct art.

 PHILIP FONG/AFP/Getty Images

Modern Art runs from around 1880 to 1970 and they were an extremely busy 90 years. The Impressionists opened the floodgates on new paths to take and individual artists such as Picasso and Duchamp were themselves responsible for creating multiple movements.

The last two decades of the 1800s were filled with movements like Cloisonnism, Japonism, Neo-Impressionism, Symbolism, Expressionism , and Fauvism. There were also a number of schools and groups like The Glasgow Boys and the Heidelberg School, The Band Noire (Nubians) and The Ten American Painters.

Art was no less diverse or confusing in the 1900s. Movements like Art Nouveau and Cubism kicked off the new century with Bauhaus, Dadaism, Purism, Rayism, and Suprematism following close behind. Art Deco, Constructivism, and the Harlem Renaissance took over the 1920s while Abstract Expressionism emerged in the 1940s.

By mid-century, we saw even more revolutionary styles. Funk and Junk Art, Hard-Edge Painting, and Pop Art became the norm in the 50s. The 60s were filled with Minimalism, Op Art, Psychedelic Art, and much, much more.

Contemporary Art

 Dan Forer / Getty Images

The 1970s is what most people consider as the beginning of Contemporary Art and it continues to the present day. Most interestingly, either fewer movements are identifying themselves as such or art history simply hasn't caught up yet with those that have.

Still, there is a growing list of - isms in the art world. The 70s saw Post-Modernism and Ugly Realism along with a surge in Feminist Art, Neo-Conceptualism, and Neo-Expressionism. The 80s were filled with Neo-Geo, Multiculturalism, and the Graffiti Movement , as well as BritArt and Neo-Pop.

By the time the 90s hit, art movements became less defined and somewhat unusual, almost as if people had run out of names. Net Art, Artefactoria, Toyism, Lowbrow , Bitterism, and Stuckism are some of the styles of the decade. And though it's still new, the 21st century has its own Thinkism and Funism to enjoy.

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Impressionism: art and modernity.

Garden at Sainte-Adresse

Claude Monet

Porte de la Reine at Aigues-Mortes

Jean-Frédéric Bazille

La Grenouillère

The Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne

Alfred Sisley

Edouard Manet

Madame Georges Charpentier (Marguerite-Louise Lemonnier, 1848–1904) and Her Children, Georgette-Berthe (1872–1945) and Paul-Emile-Charles (1875–1895)

Auguste Renoir

The Monet Family in Their Garden at Argenteuil

The Dance Class

Edgar Degas

Mademoiselle Bécat at the Café des Ambassadeurs, Paris

Côte des Grouettes, near Pontoise

Camille Pissarro

Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

Allée of Chestnut Trees

Young Woman Seated on a Sofa

Berthe Morisot

Two Young Girls at the Piano

Dancers in the Rehearsal Room with a Double Bass

Young Girl Bathing

Young Woman Knitting

The Garden of the Tuileries on a Spring Morning

Margaret Samu Institute of Fine Arts, New York University

October 2004

In 1874, a group of artists called the Anonymous Society of Painters, Sculptors, Printmakers, etc. organized an exhibition in Paris that launched the movement called Impressionism. Its founding members included Claude Monet , Edgar Degas , and Camille Pissarro, among others. The group was unified only by its independence from the official annual Salon , for which a jury of artists from the Académie des Beaux-Arts selected artworks and awarded medals. The independent artists, despite their diverse approaches to painting, appeared to contemporaries as a group. While conservative critics panned their work for its unfinished, sketchlike appearance, more progressive writers praised it for its depiction of modern life. Edmond Duranty, for example, in his 1876 essay La Nouvelle Peinture (The New Painting), wrote of their depiction of contemporary subject matter in a suitably innovative style as a revolution in painting. The exhibiting collective avoided choosing a title that would imply a unified movement or school, although some of them subsequently adopted the name by which they would eventually be known, the Impressionists. Their work is recognized today for its modernity, embodied in its rejection of established styles, its incorporation of new technology and ideas, and its depiction of modern life.

Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (Musée Marmottan Monet, Paris) exhibited in 1874, gave the Impressionist movement its name when the critic Louis Leroy accused it of being a sketch or “impression,” not a finished painting. It demonstrates the techniques many of the independent artists adopted: short, broken brushstrokes that barely convey forms, pure unblended colors, and an emphasis on the effects of light. Rather than neutral white, grays, and blacks, Impressionists often rendered shadows and highlights in color. The artists’ loose brushwork gives an effect of spontaneity and effortlessness that masks their often carefully constructed compositions, such as in Alfred Sisley’s 1878 Allée of Chestnut Trees ( 1975.1.211 ). This seemingly casual style became widely accepted, even in the official Salon, as the new language with which to depict modern life.

In addition to their radical technique, the bright colors of Impressionist canvases were shocking for eyes accustomed to the more sober colors of academic painting. Many of the independent artists chose not to apply the thick golden varnish that painters customarily used to tone down their works. The paints themselves were more vivid as well. The nineteenth century saw the development of synthetic pigments for artists’ paints, providing vibrant shades of blue, green, and yellow that painters had never used before. Édouard Manet’s 1874 Boating ( 29.100.115 ), for example, features an expanse of the new cerulean blue and synthetic ultramarine. Depicted in a radically cropped, Japanese-inspired composition , the fashionable boater and his companion embody modernity in their form, their subject matter, and the very materials used to paint them.

Such images of suburban and rural leisure outside of Paris were a popular subject for the Impressionists, notably Monet and Auguste Renoir . Several of them lived in the country for part or all of the year. New railway lines radiating out from the city made travel so convenient that Parisians virtually flooded into the countryside every weekend. While some of the Impressionists, such as Pissarro, focused on the daily life of local villagers in Pontoise, most preferred to depict the vacationers’ rural pastimes. The boating and bathing establishments that flourished in these regions became favorite motifs. In his 1869 La Grenouillère ( 29.100.112 ), for example, Monet’s characteristically loose painting style complements the leisure activities he portrays. Landscapes , which figure prominently in Impressionist art, were also brought up to date with innovative compositions, light effects, and use of color. Monet in particular emphasized the modernization of the landscape by including railways and factories, signs of encroaching industrialization that would have seemed inappropriate to the Barbizon artists of the previous generation.

Perhaps the prime site of modernity in the late nineteenth century was the city of Paris itself, renovated between 1853 and 1870 under Emperor Napoleon III. His prefect, Baron Haussmann, laid the plans, tearing down old buildings to create more open space for a cleaner, safer city. Also contributing to its new look was the Siege of Paris during the Franco-Prussian War (1870–71), which required reconstructing the parts of the city that had been destroyed. Impressionists such as Pissarro and Gustave Caillebotte enthusiastically painted the renovated city, employing their new style to depict its wide boulevards, public gardens, and grand buildings. While some focused on the cityscapes, others turned their sights to the city’s inhabitants. The Paris population explosion after the Franco-Prussian War gave them a tremendous amount of material for their scenes of urban life. Characteristic of these scenes was the mixing of social classes that took place in public settings. Degas and Caillebotte focused on working people, including singers and dancers , as well as workmen. Others, including Berthe Morisot and Mary Cassatt , depicted the privileged classes. The Impressionists also painted new forms of leisure, including theatrical entertainment (such as Cassatt’s 1878 In the Loge [Museum of Fine Arts, Boston]), cafés, popular concerts, and dances. Taking an approach similar to Naturalist writers such as Émile Zola, the painters of urban scenes depicted fleeting yet typical moments in the lives of characters they observed. Caillebotte’s 1877 Paris Street, Rainy Day (Art Institute, Chicago) exemplifies how these artists abandoned sentimental depictions and explicit narratives, adopting instead a detached, objective view that merely suggests what is going on.

The independent collective had a fluid membership over the course of the eight exhibitions it organized between 1874 and 1886, with the number of participating artists ranging from nine to thirty. Pissarro, the eldest, was the only artist who exhibited in all eight shows, while Morisot participated in seven. Ideas for an independent exhibition had been discussed as early as 1867, but the Franco-Prussian War intervened. The painter Frédéric Bazille, who had been leading the efforts, was killed in the war. Subsequent exhibitions were headed by different artists. Philosophical and political differences among the artists led to heated disputes and fractures, causing fluctuations in the contributors. The exhibitions even included the works of more conservative artists who simply refused to submit their work to the Salon jury. Also participating in the independent exhibitions were Paul Cézanne and Paul Gauguin , whose later styles grew out of their early work with the Impressionists.

The last of the independent exhibitions in 1886 also saw the beginning of a new phase in avant-garde painting. By this time, few of the participants were working in a recognizably Impressionist manner. Most of the core members were developing new, individual styles that caused ruptures in the group’s tenuous unity. Pissarro promoted the participation of Georges Seurat and Paul Signac, in addition to adopting their new technique based on points of pure color, known as Neo-Impressionism . The young Gauguin was making forays into Primitivism. The nascent Symbolist Odilon Redon also contributed, though his style was unlike that of any other participant. Because of the group’s stylistic and philosophical fragmentation, and because of the need for assured income, some of the core members such as Monet and Renoir exhibited in venues where their works were more likely to sell.

Its many facets and varied participants make the Impressionist movement difficult to define. Indeed, its life seems as fleeting as the light effects it sought to capture. Even so, Impressionism was a movement of enduring consequence, as its embrace of modernity made it the springboard for later avant-garde art in Europe.

Samu, Margaret. “Impressionism: Art and Modernity.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/imml/hd_imml.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Bomford, David, et al. Art in the Making: Impressionism . Exhibition catalogue.. New Haven and London: National Gallery, 1990.

Herbert, Robert L. Impressionism: Art, Leisure, and Parisian Society . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1988.

House, John. Monet: Nature into Art . New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986.

Moffett, Charles S., et al. The New Painting: Impressionism 1874–1886 . San Francisco: Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, 1986.

Nochlin, Linda, ed. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism, 1874–1904: Sources and Documents . Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice-Hall, 1966.

Rewald, John. The History of Impressionism . Rev. and enl. ed. . New York: Museum of Modern Art, 1961.

Tinterow, Gary, and Henri Loyrette. Origins of Impressionism . Exhibition catalogue.. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994. See on MetPublications

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• Academic Painting
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Artist or Maker

• Bazille, Jean-Frédéric
• Cassatt, Mary
• Cézanne, Paul
• Degas, Edgar
• Gauguin, Paul
• Manet, Édouard
• Monet, Claude
• Morisot, Berthe
• Pissarro, Camille
• Redon, Odilon
• Renoir, Auguste
• Sisley, Alfred
• Sorolla y Bastida, Joaquin

Online Features

• The Artist Project: “George Condo on Claude Monet’s The Path through the Irises “

What made art valuable, in the Middle Ages and Renaissance vs. now

For artists working in the West in the period before the modern era (before about 1800 or so), the process of selling art was different than it is now. In the Middle Ages and in the Renaissance works of art were commissioned, that is, they were ordered by a patron (the person paying for the work of art), and then made to order. A patron usually entered into a contract with an artist that specified how much he would be paid, what kinds of materials would be used, how long it would take to complete, and what the subject of the work would be.

Not what we would consider artistic freedom—but it did have its advantages. You didn’t paint something and then just hope it would sell, the way artists often do now.

Patrons often asked to be included in the painting they commissioned. When patrons appear in a painting we usually refer to them as donors. In this painting, the donor is shown kneeling on the right before the Virgin Mary and the Christ Child. Jan van Eyck, The Virgin and Child with Canon van der Paele , 1436, oil on panel, 141 x 176.5 cm (including frame) ( Groeningemuseum , Bruges)

What was the status of the artist before the modern era?

One way to understand this is to think about what you “order” to have made for you today. A pizza comes to mind—ordered from the cook at the local pizza parlor—”I’ll have a large pie with pepperoni,” or a birthday cake from a baker—”I’d like a chocolate cake with mocha icing and blue letters that say ‘Happy Birthday Jerry.'” Or perhaps you ordered a set of bookshelves from a carpenter, or a wedding dress from a seamstress?

Does our culture consider cooks and carpenters to be as high in their status as lawyers or doctors (remember we’re not asking what we think, but what value our culture generally gives to those professions)? Our culture creates a distinction that we sometimes refer to as “blue collar” work versus “white collar” work.

In the Middle Ages and even for much of the Renaissance, the artist was seen as someone who worked with his or her hands—they were considered skilled laborers, craftsmen, or artisans. This was something that Renaissance artists fought fiercely against. They wanted, understandably, to be considered as thinkers and innovators. And during the Renaissance the status of the artist does change dramatically, but it would take centuries for successful artists to gain the extremely high status we grant to “ art stars ” today (for example, Pablo Picasso , Andy Warhol , Jeff Koons , or Damien Hirst ).

Left: Simone Martini, Annunciation , 1333, tempera on panel, 184 x 210 cm (Uffizi Gallery, Florence; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0); right: soup can (detail), Andy Warhol, Campbell’s Soup Cans , 1962, synthetic polymer on thirty-two canvases, each canvas 20 x 16 inches (Museum of Modern Art, New York; photo: Steven Zucker , CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)

What we value has changed

Medieval paintings were often sumptuous objects made with gold and other precious materials (like Simone Martini’s Annunciation ). What made these paintings valuable were these materials (blue, for example, was often made from the rare and expensive semi-precious stone, lapis lazuli ). These materials were lavished on objects to express religious devotion or to reflect the wealth and status of its patron. Today the value of a painting is often the result of something entirely different. Picasso could have painted on a napkin and it would have been incredibly valuable just because it was by Picasso—art is now an expression of the artist and materials often have little to do with the worth of the art.

Bibliography

Life in a Renaissance artist’s workshop

Important fundamentals

Why commission artwork during the Renaissance?

Learn about the role of the workshop in late medieval and early modern Northern Europe

Learn about the role of the workshop in Italian Renaissance art

Cite this page

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Escalette Permanent Collection of Art at Chapman University

Contemporary Art vs. Modern Art Defining "Now" from "Then"

November 30, 2015

According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary, the word “modern” is  defined  as, “of or relating to the present time.”  The word “contemporary” is  defined  as “happening or beginning now or in recent times.” While these definitions may appear to be similar or even nearly identical, in terms of art genres, they are very incongruent.

The  modern art movement  began in the 1860’s during the period of the Industrial Revolution. With the advent of photography, artists no longer saw the necessity to make art for the sake of portraying reality exclusively. Many artists therefore began experimenting with color, form, shape, abstraction, different mediums, and different techniques. Modern art was a major diversion from techniques of the past, as described below by Melissa Ho,  an assistant curator at the Hirshorn Museum :

  “[Traditional academic painting of the 17th, 18th and 19th centuries] was about perfect, seamless technique and using that perfect, seamless technique to execute very well-established subject matter […] With modern art, there is this new emphasis put on the value of being original and doing something innovative.”  

Roy Lictenstein, Mirror #5 , 1972, Lithograph, 34″ x 24″

Modern art made way for many different trends and movements, including futurism, cubism, abstract expressionism,  pop art , and many more . Al Held and Roy Lichtenstein were two very influential modern artists who helped define the trends within modernism, and we are proud to have works by both included in the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art.  Al Held  was primarily focused around abstract expressionism, but particularly favored playing with geometric shapes, layers, and illusion. All three of these components are clearly exhibited in his work  Stoneridge,  which is currently on display in Beckman Hall, third floor.  Roy Lichtenstein , on the other hand, was a passionate participant and leader of the pop art movement. Early on in his career, he would depict widely recognized images from comic books and advertising, putting his own spin on the illustrations using bright colors and large shapes. Later on in his career in the 1970’s, however, he began to experiment with more abstract forms, as can be seen in his work  Mirror #5,  which is also on display on the third floor of Beckman Hall.

Al Held, Stoneridge , 1983, Etching and Aquatint on Paper, 22.75″ x 40″

Contemporary art , on the other hand, is typically less well-defined as the former topic. This style is most commonly described as belonging to artists still living today. Much like what spurred the modern art movement, contemporary art has begun to incorporate new mediums to match societal advancements in resources and technology- including video art, site-specific art, and installation art.

Lisa Adams, The Wood Family , 1995, Mixed Media on Wood, 60″ x 48″

The majority of the Escalette Permanent Collection of Art features some intriguing pieces by contemporary artists. Two of these artists are Lisa Adams and  Ellina Kevorkian  , both of whom have their works on display on the fourth floor of Beckman Hall. Lisa Adams primarily works to create  paintings and gouaches , and typically depicts scenes of nature. In  The Wood Family,  Adams further incorporates nature into her piece by adding wood as a medium in the work itself. Further exploring the idea of mixed media within a singular piece of art is Ellina Kevorkian, who, as she advertises on her own  website , “creates hybridized relationships between painting, photography, video, and performance using tropes, humor, and the visual languages of art and popular culture.” Kevorkian is “contemporary” in every sense of the word,  and her work cannot be represented better than in her piece  Last Night My Tears Were Falling, I Went To Bed So Sad And Blue, Then I Had a Dream Of You.  Using glitter, spray paint, acrylic paint, lace, and puff paint, Kevorkian creates a rich world poking fun at the trope of what is widely considered, “feminine.”

Ellina Kevorkian, Last Night My Tears Were Falling, I Went To Bed So Sad And Blue, Then I Had a Dream Of You , 2002, Mixed Media, 84″ x 72″

While contemporary art and modern art may sound similar, in form and practice they are quite contrasting. In many ways, modern art has laid the groundwork for contemporary art, as both seem to have arisen directly as a result of technological advancements in society and are concerned with being indicative of popular culture or social issues of their respective time period. We here at the Escalette Collection invite you to take a look at the artwork on display all around Chapman University’s campus, exploring our vast collection of modern and contemporary artists and seeing if you can define what makes each unique to one another!

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By Will Fenstermaker

June 14, 2017

There has never been a time when art critics held more power than during the second half of the twentieth century. Following the Second World War, with the relocation of the world’s artistic epicenter from Paris to New York, a different kind of war was waged in the pages of magazines across the country. As part of the larger “culture wars” of the mid-century, art critics began to take on greater influence than they’d ever held before. For a time, two critics in particular—who began as friends, and remained in the same social circles for much of their lives—set the stakes of the debates surrounding the maturation of American art that would continue for decades. The ideas about art outlined by Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg are still debated today, and the extent to which they were debated in the past has shaped entire movements of the arts. Below are ten works of criticism through which one can trace the mainstreaming of Clement Greenberg’s formalist theory, and how its dismantling led us into institutional critique and conceptual art today.

The American Action Painters

Harold Rosenberg

Harold Rosenberg, a poet who came to art through his involvement with the Artist’s Union and the WPA, was introduced to Jean-Paul Sartre as the “first American existentialist.” Soon, Rosenberg became a contributor to Sartre’s publication in France, for which he first drafted his influential essay. However, when Sartre supported Soviet aggression against Korea, Rosenberg brought his essay to Elaine de Kooning , then the editor of ARTnews , who ran “The American Action Painters” in December, 1952.

RELATED: What Did Harold Rosenberg Do? An Introduction to the Champion of “Action Painting”

Rosenberg’s essay on the emerging school of American Painters omitted particular names—because they’d have been unfamiliar to its original French audience—but it was nonetheless extraordinarily influential for the burgeoning scene of post-WWII American artists. Jackson Pollock claimed to be the influence of “action painting,” despite Rosenberg’s rumored lack of respect for the artist because Pollock wasn’t particularly well-read. Influenced by Marxist theory and French existentialism, Rosenberg conceives of a painting as an “arena,” in which the artist acts upon, wrestles, or otherwise engages with the canvas, in what ultimately amounts to an expressive record of a struggle. “What was to go on the canvas,” Rosenberg wrote, “was not a picture but an event.”

Notable Quote

Weak mysticism, the “Christian Science” side of the new movement, tends … toward easy painting—never so many unearned masterpieces! Works of this sort lack the dialectical tension of a genuine act, associated with risk and will. When a tube of paint is squeezed by the Absolute, the result can only be a Success. The painter need keep himself on hand solely to collect the benefits of an endless series of strokes of luck. His gesture completes itself without arousing either an opposing movement within itself nor the desire in the artist to make the act more fully his own. Satisfied with wonders that remain safely inside the canvas, the artist accepts the permanence of the commonplace and decorates it with his own daily annihilation. The result is an apocalyptic wallpaper.

‘American-Type’ Painting

Clement Greenberg

Throughout the preceding decade, Clement Greenberg, also a former poet, had established a reputation as a leftist critic through his writings with The Partisan Review —a publication run by the John Reed Club, a New York City-centered organization affiliated with the American Communist Party—and his time as an art critic with The Nation . In 1955, The Partisan Review published Greenberg’s “‘American-Type’ Painting,” in which the critic defined the now-ubiquitous term “abstract expressionism.”

RELATED: What Did Clement Greenberg Do? A Primer on the Powerful AbEx Theorist’s Key Ideas

In contrast to Rosenberg’s conception of painting as a performative act, Greenberg’s theory, influenced by Clive Bell and T. S. Eliot, was essentially a formal one—in fact, it eventually evolved into what would be called “formalism.” Greenberg argued that the evolution of painting was one of historical determinacy—that ever since the Renaissance, pictures moved toward flatness, and the painted line moved away from representation. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were two of the landmarks of this view. Pollock, who exhibited his drip paintings in 1951, freeing the line from figuration, was for Greenberg the pinnacle of American Modernism, the most important artist since Picasso. (Pollock’s paintings exhibited in 1954, with which he returned to semi-representational form, were regarded by Greenberg as a regression. This lead him to adopt Barnett Newman as his new poster-boy, despite the artist’s possessing vastly different ideas on the nature of painting. For one, Greenberg mostly ignored the Biblical titles of Newman’s paintings.)

Greenberg’s formalist theories were immensely influential over the subsequent decades. Artforum in particular grew into a locus for formalist discourse, which had the early effect of providing an aesthetic toolkit divorced from politic. Certain curators of the Museum of Modern Art, particularly William Rubin, Kirk Varnedoe, and to an extent Alfred Barr are credited for steering the museum in an essentially formalist direction. Some painters, such as Frank Stella , Helen Frankenthaler , and Kenneth Noland, had even been accused of illustrating Greenberg’s theories (and those of Michael Fried, a prominent Greenbergian disciple) in attempt to embody the theory, which was restrictive in its failure to account for narrative content, figuration, identity, politics, and more. In addition, Greenberg’s theories proved well-suited for a burgeoning art market, which found connoisseurship an easy sell. (As the writer Mary McCarthy said, “You can’t hang an event on your wall.”) In fact, the dominance of the term “abstract expressionism” over “action painting,” which seemed more applicable to Pollock and Willem de Kooning than any other members of the New York School, is emblematic of the influence of formalist discourse.

The justification for the term, “abstract expressionist,” lies in the fact that most of the painters covered by it took their lead from German, Russian, or Jewish expressionism in breaking away from late Cubist abstract art. But they all started from French painting, for their fundamental sense of style from it, and still maintain some sort of continuity with it. Not least of all, they got from it their most vivid notion of an ambitious, major art, and of the general direction in which it had to go in their time.

Barbara Rose

Like many critics in the 1950s and 60s, Barbara Rose had clearly staked her allegiance to one camp or the other. She was, firmly, a formalist, and along with Fried and Rosalind Krauss is largely credited with expanding the theory beyond abstract expressionist painting. By 1965, however, Rose recognized a limitation of the theory as outlined by Greenberg—that it was reductionist and only capable of account for a certain style of painting, and not much at all in other mediums.

RELATED: The Intellectual Origins Of Minimalism

In “ABC Art,” published in Art in America where Rose was a contributing editor, Rose opens up formalism to encompass sculpture, which Greenberg was largely unable to account for. The simple idea that art moves toward flatness and abstraction leads, for Rose, into Minimalism, and “ABC Art” is often considered the first landmark essay on Minimalist art. By linking the Minimalist sculptures of artists like Donald Judd to the Russian supremacist paintings of Kasimir Malevich and readymades of Duchamp, she extends the determinist history that formalism relies on into sculpture and movements beyond abstract expressionism.

I do not agree with critic Michael Fried’s view that Duchamp, at any rate, was a failed Cubist. Rather, the inevitability of a logical evolution toward a reductive art was obvious to them already. For Malevich, the poetic Slav, this realization forced a turning inward toward an inspirational mysticism, whereas for Duchamp, the rational Frenchman, it meant a fatigue so enervating that finally the wish to paint at all was killed. Both the yearnings of Malevich’s Slavic soul and the deductions of Duchamp’s rationalist mind led both men ultimately to reject and exclude from their work many of the most cherished premises of Western art in favor of an art stripped to its bare, irreducible minimum.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Philip Leider

Despite the rhetorical tendency to suggest the social upheaval of the '60s ended with the actual decade, 1970 remained a year of unrest. And Artforum was still the locus of formalist criticism, which was proving increasingly unable to account for art that contributed to larger cultural movements, like Civil Rights, women’s liberation, anti-war protests, and more. (Tellingly, The Partisan Review , which birthed formalism, had by then distanced itself from its communist associations and, as an editorial body, was supportive of American Interventionism in Vietnam. Greenberg was a vocal hawk.) Subtitled “Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Utah,” the editor’s note to the September 1970 issue of Artforum , written by Philip Leider, ostensibly recounts a road trip undertaken with Richard Serra and Abbie Hoffman to see Michael Heizer’s Double Negative in the Nevada desert.

RELATED: A City of Art in the Desert: Behind Michael Heizer’s Monumental Visions for Nevada

However, the essay is also an account of an onsetting disillusion with formalism, which Leider found left him woefully unequipped to process the protests that had erupted surrounding an exhibition of prints by Paul Wunderlich at the Phoenix Gallery in Berkeley. Wunderlich’s depictions of nude women were shown concurrently to an exhibition of drawings sold to raise money for Vietnamese orphans. The juxtaposition of a canonical, patriarchal form of representation and liberal posturing, to which the protestors objected, showcased the limitations of a methodology that placed the aesthetic elements of a picture plane far above the actual world in which it existed. Less than a year later, Leider stepped down as editor-in-chief and Artforum began to lose its emphasis on late Modernism.

I thought the women were probably with me—if they were, I was with them. I thought the women were picketing the show because it was reactionary art. To the women, [Piet] Mondrian must be a great revolutionary artist. Abstract art broke all of those chains thirty years ago! What is a Movement gallery showing dumb stuff like this for? But if it were just a matter of reactionary art , why would the women picket it? Why not? Women care as much about art as men do—maybe more. The question is, why weren’t the men right there with them?

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

Linda Nochlin

While Artforum , in its early history, had established a reputation as a generator for formalist theory, ARTnews had followed a decidedly more Rosenberg-ian course, emphasizing art as a practice for investigating the world. The January 1971 issue of the magazine was dedicated to “Women’s Liberation, Woman Artists, and Art History” and included an iconoclastic essay by Linda Nochlin titled “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”

RELATED: An Introduction to Feminist Art

Nochlin notes that it’s tempting to answer the question “why have there been no great women artists?” by listing examples of those overlooked by critical and institutional organizations (a labor that Nochlin admits has great merit). However, she notes, “by attempting to answer it, they tacitly reinforce its negative implications,” namely that women are intrinsically less capable of achieving artistic merit than men. Instead, Nochlin’s essay functions as a critique of art institutions, beginning with European salons, which were structured in such a way as to deter women from rising to the highest echelons. Nochlin’s essay is considered the beginning of modern feminist art history and a textbook example of institutional critique.

There are no women equivalents for Michelangelo or Rembrandt, Delacroix or Cézanne, Picasso or Matisse, or even in very recent times, for de Kooning or Warhol, any more than there are black American equivalents for the same. If there actually were large numbers of “hidden” great women artists, or if there really should be different standards for women’s art as opposed to men’s—and one can’t have it both ways—then what are feminists fighting for? If women have in fact achieved the same status as men in the arts, then the status quo is fine as it is. But in actuality, as we all know, things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and above all, male. The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education.

Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief

Thomas McEvilley

One of the many extrapolations of Nochlin’s essay is that contemporary museum institutions continue to reflect the gendered and racist biases of preceding centuries by reinforcing the supremacy of specific master artists. In a 1984 Artforum review, Thomas McEvilley, a classicist new to the world of contemporary art, made the case that the Museum of Modern Art in New York served as an exclusionary temple to certain high-minded Modernists—namely, Picasso, Matisse, and Pollock—who, in fact, took many of their innovations from native cultures.

RELATED: MoMA Curator Laura Hoptman on How to Tell a Good Painting From a “Bogus” Painting

In 1984, MoMA organized a blockbuster exhibition. Curated by William Rubin and Kirk Varnedoe, both of whom were avowed formalists, “‘Primitivism’ in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern” collected works by European painters like Paul Gaugin and Picasso with cultural artifacts from Zaire, arctic communities, and elsewhere. McEvilley takes aim at the “the absolutist view of formalist Modernism” in which MoMA is rooted. He argues that the removal tribal artifacts from their contexts (for example, many were ritual items intended for ceremonies, not display) and placement of them, unattributed, near works by European artists, censors the cultural contributions of non-Western civilizations in deference to an idealized European genius.

The fact that the primitive “looks like” the Modern is interpreted as validating the Modern by showing that its values are universal, while at the same time projecting it—and with it MoMA—into the future as a permanent canon. A counter view is possible: that primitivism on the contrary invalidates Modernism by showing it to be derivative and subject to external causation. At one level this show undertakes precisely to coopt that question by answering it before it has really been asked, and by burying it under a mass of information.

Please Wait By the Coatroom

Not content to let MoMA and the last vestiges of formalism off the hook yet, John Yau wrote in 1988 an essay on Wifredo Lam, a Cuban painter who lived and worked in Paris among Picasso, Matisse, Georges Braque, and others. Noting Lam’s many influences—his Afro-Cuban mother, Chinese father, and Yoruba godmother—Yau laments the placement of Lam’s The Jungle near the coatroom in the Museum of Modern Art, as opposed to within the Modernist galleries several floors above. The painting was accompanied by a brief entry written by former curator William Rubin, who, Yau argues, adopted Greenberg’s theories because they endowed him with “a connoisseur’s lens with which one can scan all art.”

RELATED: From Cuba With Love: Artist Bill Claps on the Island’s DIY Art Scene

Here, as with with McEvilley’s essay, Yau illustrates how formalism, as adapted by museum institutions, became a (perhaps unintentional) method for reinforcing the exclusionary framework that Nochlin argued excluded women and black artists for centuries.

Rubin sees in Lam only what is in his own eyes: colorless or white artists. For Lam to have achieved the status of unique individual, he would have had to successfully adapt to the conditions of imprisonment (the aesthetic standards of a fixed tradition) Rubin and others both construct and watch over. To enter this prison, which takes the alluring form of museums, art history textbooks, galleries, and magazines, an individual must suppress his cultural differences and become a colorless ghost. The bind every hybrid American artist finds themselves in is this: should they try and deal with the constantly changing polymorphous conditions effecting identity, tradition, and reality? Or should they assimilate into the mainstream art world by focusing on approved-of aesthetic issues? Lam’s response to this bind sets an important precedent. Instead of assimilating, Lam infiltrates the syntactical rules of “the exploiters” with his own specific language. He becomes, as he says, “a Trojan horse.”

Black Culture and Postmodernism

Cornel West

The opening up of cultural discourse did not mean that it immediately made room for voices of all dimensions. Cornel West notes as much in his 1989 essay “Black Culture and Postmodernism,” in which he argues that postmodernism, much like Modernism before it, remains primarily ahistorical, which makes it difficult for “oppressed peoples to exercise their opposition to hierarchies of power.” West’s position is that the proliferation of theory and criticism that accompanied the rise of postmodernism provided mechanisms by which black culture could “be conversant with and, to a degree, participants in the debate.” Without their voices, postmodernism would remain yet another exclusionary movements.

RELATED: Kerry James Marshall on Painting Blackness as a Noun Vs. Verb

As the consumption cycle of advanced multinational corporate capitalism was sped up in order to sustain the production of luxury goods, cultural production became more and more mass-commodity production. The stress here is not simply on the new and fashionable but also on the exotic and primitive. Black cultural products have historically served as a major source for European and Euro-American exotic interests—interests that issue from a healthy critique of the mechanistic, puritanical, utilitarian, and productivity aspects of modern life.

Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power

Anna C. Chave

In recent years, formalist analysis has been deployed as a single tool within a more varied approach to art. Its methodology—that of analyzing a picture as an isolated phenomena—remains prevalent, and has its uses. Yet, many of the works and movements that rose to prominence under formalist critics and curators, in no small part because of their institutional acceptance, have since become part of the rearguard rather than the vanguard.

In a 1990 essay for Arts Magazine , Anna Chave analyzes how Minimalist sculpture possesses a “domineering, sometimes brutal rhetoric” that was aligned with “both the American military in Vietnam, and the police at home in the streets and on university campuses across the country.” In particular, Chave is concerned with the way Minimalist sculptures define themselves through a process of negation. Of particular relevance to Chave’s argument are the massive steel sculptures by Minimalist artist Richard Serra.

Tilted Arc was installed in Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan in 1981. Chave describes the work as a “mammoth, perilously tilted steel arc [that] formed a divisive barrier too tall to see over, and a protracted trip to walk around.” She writes, “it is more often the case with Serra that his work doesn’t simply exemplify aggression or domination, but acts it out.” Tilted Arc was so controversial upon its erecting that the General Services Administration, which commissioned the work, held hearings in response to petitions demanding the work be removed. Worth quoting at length, Chave writes:

A predictable defense of Serra’s work was mounted by critics, curators, dealers, collectors, and some fellow artists…. The principle arguments mustered on Serra’s behalf were old ones concerning the nature and function of the avant-garde…. What Rubin and Serra’s other supporters declined to ask is whether the sculptor really is, in the most meaningful sense of the term, an avant-garde artist. Being avant-garde implies being ahead of, outside, or against the dominant culture; proffering a vision that implicitly stands (at least when it is conceived) as a critique of entrenched forms and structures…. But Serra’s work is securely embedded within the system: when the brouhaha over Arc was at its height, he was enjoying a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art…. [The defense’s] arguments locate Serra not with the vanguard but with the standing army or “status quo.” … More thoughtful, sensible, and eloquent testimony at the hearing came instead from some of the uncouth:

My name is Danny Katz and I work in this building as a clerk. My friend Vito told me this morning that I am a philistine. Despite that I am getting up to speak…. I don’t think this issue should be elevated into a dispute between the forces of ignorance and art, or art versus government. I really blame government less because it has long ago outgrown its human dimension. But from the artists I expected a lot more. I didn’t expect to hear them rely on the tired and dangerous reasoning that the government has made a deal, so let the rabble live with the steel because it’s a deal. That kind of mentality leads to wars. We had a deal with Vietnam. I didn’t expect to hear the arrogant position that art justifies interference with the simple joys of human activity in a plaza. It’s not a great plaza by international standards, but it is a small refuge and place of revival for people who ride to work in steel containers, work in sealed rooms, and breathe recirculated air all day. Is the purpose of art in public places to seal off a route of escape, to stress the absence of joy and hope? I can’t believe this was the artistic intention, yet to my sadness this for me has become the dominant effect of the work, and it’s all the fault of its position and location. I can accept anything in art, but I can’t accept physical assault and complete destruction of pathetic human activity. No work of art created with a contempt for ordinary humanity and without respect for the common element of human experience can be great. It will always lack dimension.

The terms Katz associated with Serra’s project include arrogance and contempt, assault, and destruction; he saw the Minimalist idiom, in other words, as continuous with the master discourse of our imperious and violent technocracy.

The End of Art

Arthur Danto

Like Greenberg, Arthur Danto was an art critic for The Nation . However, Danto was overtly critical of Greenberg’s ideology and the influence he wielded over Modern and contemporary art. Nor was he a follower of Harold Rosenberg, though they shared influences, among them the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Danto’s chief contribution to contemporary art was his advancing of Pop Artists, particularly Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein .

In “The End of Art” Danto argues that society at large determines and accepts art, which no longer progresses linearly, categorized by movements. Instead, viewers each possess a theory or two, which they use to interpret works, and art institutions are largely tasked with developing, testing, and modifying various interpretive methods. In this way, art differs little from philosophy. After decades of infighting regarding the proper way to interpret works of art, Danto essentially sanctioned each approach and the institutions that gave rise to them. He came to call this “pluralism.”

RELATED: What Was the Pictures Generation?

Similarly, in “Painting, Politics, and Post-Historical Art,” Danto makes the case for an armistice between formalism and the various theories that arose in opposition, noting that postmodern critics like Douglas Crimp in the 1980s, who positioned themselves against formalism, nonetheless adopted the same constrictive air, minus the revolutionary beginnings.

Modernist critical practice was out of phase with what was happening in the art world itself in the late 60s and through the 1970s. It remained the basis for most critical practice, especially on the part of the curatoriat, and the art-history professoriat as well, to the degree that it descended to criticism. It became the language of the museum panel, the catalog essay, the article in the art periodical. It was a daunting paradigm, and it was the counterpart in discourse to the “broadening of taste” which reduced art of all cultures and times to its formalist skeleton, and thus, as I phrased it, transformed every museum into a Museum of Modern Art, whatever that museum’s contents. It was the stable of the docent’s gallery talk and the art appreciation course—and it was replaced, not totally but massively, by the postmodernist discourse that was imported from Paris in the late 70s, in the texts of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Lacan, and of the French feminists Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. That is the discourse [Douglas] Crimp internalizes, and it came to be lingua artspeak everywhere. Like modernist discourse, it applied to everything, so that there was room for deconstructive and “archeological” discussion of art of every period.

Editor’s Note: This list was drawn in part from a 2014 seminar taught by Debra Bricker Balken in the MFA program in Art Writing at the School of Visual Arts titled Critical Strategies: Late Modernism/Postmodernism. Additional sources can be found here , here , here (paywall), and here . Also relevant are reviews of the 2008 exhibition at the Jewish Museum, “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976,” notably those by Roberta Smith , Peter Schjeldahl , and Martha Schwendener .

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