Europe - Timeline of Modern Art "isms"
In the diagrams below you'll see when the main "isms" of the period occured. Different texts will use slightly different dates as these were not generally movements as such, but more a general description of a type of art being practised at that time. Those "isms" in the blue colours can be said to precede the period often defined as "Modern" but they are important as they help to explain how art was evolving, so they are included in this program.
Post Impressionism
1885 - 1910
1840 1870 1880 1890 1900 1910 1920 1930 1940
Expressionism
1905 - 1914
Surrealism
1924 - 1945
Fauvism
1904 - 1908
Abstract Art 1910 -
Includes Constructivism, Suprematism, De Stijl, Dada
Cubism
1908 - 1922
Romanticism
1780 -1840
Impressionism
1870 -1890
Symbolism
1880 - 1920
Realism
1830 - 1880
School of Paris
1900 - 1940
The Bauhaus
1920 - 1935
Alfred H. Barr, Jr., founding Director of The Museum of Modern Art, wrote in the introduction to the catalogue for Cubism and Abstract Art that the exhibition was "intended as an historical survey of an important movement in modern art."
It was the first in a series of five exhibitions that were curated between 1936 and 1943 devoted to the principal movements in modern art. The series also included Fantastic Art, Dada, Surrealism and Romantic Painting in America.
This chart, hand-drawn by Barr, illustrates the historical development, currents and crosscurrents of modern art. It was a working draft of the first version of the chart that would appear on the dust jacket of the catalogue for Cubism and Abstract Art (see left).
Barr reworked the chart a number times thereafter as he never considered it definitive.
Examples of each Style
 Romanticism 1770 - 1840Henry Fuseli, The Nightmare, 1781 |  Realism 1830 - 1880Ilya Repin, Barge Haulers on the Volga, 1873 |  Impressionism 1870 - 1890Edouard Manet, The Monet Family is their Garden at Argenteuil, 1874 |
|---|---|---|
 Post Impressionism 1885 - 1910Paul Cézanne, The Card Players , 1892-95 |  Symbolism 1880 - 1920Odilon Redon, Madame de Domecy, 1903 |  Fauvism 1904 - 1908Raoul Dufy, The 4th of July at Le Havre,1906 |
 Cubism 1908 - 1922Juan Gris, Man in a Café, 1913 |  Expressionism 1905 - 1914Kathe Kollowitz, War, 1923 |  FuturismCarlo Carra, The Red Horseman, 1913 |
 Abstract Art 1910 - presentWassily Kandinsky, Black Relationship, 1924 |  Orphism 1912 - 1914Férnand Leger, Exit the Ballets Russes, 1914 |  Contructivism 1919 - 1940Lyubov Popova, Sample of Printed Fabric |
 Dada 1916 - 1940Sophie Taeuber, Marionette 6 |  Surrealism 1916 - 1940Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Memory, 1931 |  De Stijl 1917 - 1932Piet Mondrian, Lozenge Composition with Red Grey Blue Yellow and Black 1924-25 |
In this exercise, I would like you to choose two art styles which were closely linked in time.
Go to the pages for each of these styles and select two artworks to copy, noting their similarities and differences.
As you are painting or drawing these, can you see a natural progression or how one may have developed from the other?
How do you think the social and/or economic context influenced the artists?
Reflect on why you chose these works to copy.
Please use the scroll button on the right hand side to see the rest of the question and submit your response