20th Century Art

20th-century art and what it became as modern art began with modernism in the late 19th century. Nineteenth-century movements of Post-Impressionism (Les Nabis), Art Nouveau and Symbolism led to the first twentieth-century art movements of Fauvism in France and Die Brücke ("The Bridge") in Germany.

Artists explored extreme and varying themes in the years before and after World War I, and those same themes were revisited in the aftermath of World War II, creating an interesting parallel. This article is divided into two sections: 1900-1945 and 1945-2000 and focuses on art themes that captured the talents and ideas of some of the most well known artists around the world.

This movement is most well known for capturing the creations of such famous artists as Henri Matisse. The Fauvism movement eventually faded into the calmer, more thoughtful expressionistic art as Fauvism- which came from the word Fauves meaning wild beasts- lost popularity. The short movement characterized the years between 1904 and 1908, but engaged much of the first decade of the 1900's.

COMPARE AND CONTRAST

Neoclassicism is the revival of a classical style from or treatment in art, literature, architecture and music. Neoclassical architecture is an architectural style produced by the neoclassical movement that began in the mid-18th century. In its purest form, it is a style principally derived from the architecture of classical antiquity, the Vitruvian principles, and the work of the Italian architect Andrea Palladio.

 Romanticism An artistic and intellectual movement originating in Europe in the late 1700s and characterized by a heightened interest in nature, emphasis on the individual's expression of emotion and imagination, departure from the attitudes and forms of classicism, and rebellion against established social rules. Realism was an artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s, after the 1848 Revolution. Realists rejected Romanticism, which had dominated French literature and art since the late 18th century. Realism revolted against the exotic subject matter and exaggerated emotionalism and drama of the Romantic movement.

Impressionism is a style of painting associated mainly with French artists of the late nineteenth century, such as Edgar Degas, Edouard Manet, Claude Monet, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir. Impressionist painting seeks to re-create the artist's or viewers general impression of a scene. The Impressionists loosened their brushwork and lightened their palettes to include pure, intense colors. They abandoned traditional linear perspective and avoided the clarity of form that had previously served to distinguish the more important elements of a picture from the lesser ones. For this reason, many critics faulted Impressionist paintings for their unfinished appearance and seemingly amateurish quality.

Expressionism a style of painting, music, or drama in which the artist or writer seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world. A theory or practice in art of seeking to depict the subjective emotions and responses that objects and events arouse in the artist. Expressionism was a modernist movement, initially in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to evoke moods or ideas.

Baroque Art: Exaggerated And Artistic

Baroque art and architecture style began in late 1600, mostly in Italy and Rome, and then spread to other parts of Europe. This period of art can be characterized by artistic style using exaggeration to portray drama, tension, grandeur and so on.

Baroque art and architecture can also be associated with the qualities of vitality, movement and sensuous richness. The term Baroque, which originated from the word barocco, came to be used to describe styles that are irregular, bizarre and out of ordinary.

Some of the arts and architecture during the Baroque period include the “The Triumph of the Immaculate” by Paolo de Matteis, “The Church of Sant'Andrea al Quirinale” designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, and St. Nicholas Church in Lesser Town in Prague that was founded in 1703 under the lead of Baroque architect Christoph Dientzenhofer.

LEONARDO DA VINCI

Renaissance art refers to the painting, sculpture and decorative arts that were produced during the Renaissance period. Its root can be traced back in Italy.

During that time, there was a great interest in rendering the natural world into arts such as painting, sculptures and decorative pieces. At the height of the period, there were three names that made it big in Renaissance art—Leonardo da Vinci, Michaelangelo Buonarroti and Raphael Sanzio.

Leonardo da Vinci’s Mona Lisa became the most famous painting up until today. Michaelangelo is known for his ceiling frescoes of the Sistine Chapel, and Raphael’s Madonnas are still popular.