target="_blank" rel="nofollow" href="#fb3_img_img_9c9a7fad-a9b7-5478-a06d-66c4b6922d2f.png" alt="Bullet"/> Identifying the difference between a movement and a period
In Chapter 1, you find out that art movements and art periods have varying time frames (periods are long, movements are short) and include the works of artists with similar concerns and outlooks. Chapter 1 also presents the major art periods, which are not usually driven by conscious choice on the part of artists. Periods typically outlast movements and develop gradually due to widespread cultural or political pressures.
In this chapter, I tell you a bit more about the differences between art periods and movements and offer a tour through the sequence of movements that began in the mid-19th century. Enjoy the ride!
Distinguishing an Art Period from a Movement
Distinguishing an art movement from an art period is largely a matter of scope: the duration and intention noted in Chapter 1 and the number of participating artists.
An art movement is launched intentionally by a small group of artists who want to promote or provoke change. For example, members of the movement may oppose war or a particular political system. Here are some characteristics of movements:
A movement is usually associated with an art style and often an ideology. Like the women’s movement or the civil rights movement, an art movement may push for a new perspective on specific issues.
Sometimes, artists in a movement write manifestos that spell out their goals and hold movement meetings.
Typically, the artists in a movement hang out together and show their work in group exhibitions. Their art shares stylistic features and focuses on similar subjects.
An art period is often based on a parallel historical era and involves artists who paint similar subjects and typically, though not always, share a set of beliefs. For example, here are key characteristics of art made during the early Christian era:
The period is referred to as the Early Christian art period. Art historians group art of this period together because the artists lived at the same time, painted Christian subjects, and were often driven by the same spirit. Note: Early on, pagan artists were frequently hired to create Christian subject matter because, for the most part, they were the only ones with the experience and requisite skills.
The artists didn’t write manifestos or hold meetings in which they discussed ideology and stylistic guidelines. Instead, their shared time frame and beliefs gave their art a similar “Early Christian” look.
Tracking Major 19th-Century Art Movements
When the “movements” trend kicked in around the middle of the 19th century, periods pretty much got pushed out of the picture. Since then, the direction of art is no longer dictated by church or state, but by the artists themselves.
Realism (1840s–1880s)
Realists reasserted the integrity of the physical world by stripping it of what they viewed as Romantic dreaminess or fuzziness (see Chapter 18). They painted life with a rugged honesty — or at least they claimed to. The Realists tried to elevate middle- and upper-class consciousness regarding the struggles of the poor (factory workers and agricultural laborers) by illustrating them plainly and honestly. The invention of tin tubes for oil paint in 1841 enabled these artists to paint outdoors (en plein air), capturing laborers and other working-class people on canvas while they worked.
Impressionism (1869–late 1880s)
The Impressionists painted slices of everyday life in natural light: people on a picnic, a walk in the park, or an outdoor summer dance. They sought to catch fleeting moments on canvas and the changing effects of light (see Chapter 19). Their rapid brushstrokes (you have to paint fast if you’re going to catch a fleeting moment) give their work a fuzzy, slightly out-of-focus look.
Post-Impressionism (1886–1892)
The Post-Impressionists (see Chapter 20) didn’t have one guiding vision like the Impressionists. In fact, each Post-Impressionist did his own thing:
Van Gogh pursued a universal life force behind all things.
Gauguin tracked primitive emotions and the “noble savage” all the way to Tahiti.
Cézanne painted the geometrical building blocks of nature.
Ensor unmasked society by giving everyone a mask!
So what did Post-Impressionists have in common? Most of them started as Impressionists but broke away to launch new styles that retained some aspects of Impressionism and rejected others.
Moving Off the Rails in the 20th Century
The rapid social and political changes of the 20th century and the inventions that sped up and improved global communication — radio, cinema, the airplane, television, transistors and on and on — triggered a plethora of art movements that responded in a variety of ways to those changes. Here are examples:
Einstein’s Theory of Relativity and Freud’s and Jung’s theories about the unconscious helped define Cubism, Futurism, and Surrealism.
Ghastly world wars caused many artists to react intensely and creatively. The first, called the Great War, because its scale was unimaginable until WWII, spurred the Dada movement and Modernism. It also motivated Expressionists like Kirchner, Heckel, Kollwitz, Otto Dix, and others to make anti-war art.
The rise of communism and fascist movements in the wake of WWI — and the subsequent horrors they unleashed before, during, and after WWII — affected the art of Surrealists such as Joan Miró and René Magritte and post-war art from Abstract Expressionism to Pop Art.
The Viet Nam War helped to spawn ’60s protest art in America and elsewhere.
The women’s movement, as well as civil rights, anti-war, and environmental
