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The best way to understand varying art styles is through study of the history, subject matter, common motifs, composition, colors and brushwork appropriate to each school.
PaintingsDIRECT's QuickSketch provides you with basic case studies of the most well-known art styles.
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Naive/Folk Art
Naïve art and folk art are easy to recognize but difficult to define. Naïve art is made by (or in the manner of) painters without formal schooling in art. What naïve painters lack in conventional expertise, with respect to perspective and representational style, is made up for with freshness and simplicity. For more details...
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Realism
With Realism, artists began to favor the
portrayal of things as they really appeared and
subject matter such as ordinary objects, and the
common man performing tasks in everyday
settings.For more details...
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Impressionism
Impressionists often paint outdoors and on site (en plein air) instead of in a studio. The impressionist attempts to capture the overall feeling (an "impression") of the scene, rather than faithfully reproducing it in all its detail. For more details...
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Expressionism
The loose brushwork of the Impressionists, Gauguin's "primitive" style and Cezanne's experimentation with perspective opened the door for Expressionism. The key to the expressionist style is the expression of emotion. Energetic brushstrokes and vivid colors impart emotional impact to the artists' paintings. For more details...
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Cubism
Cubism has had a tremendous impact on art history. The root of the word Cubism, "cube", describes its general idea: an object is depicted by "cubing" it or breaking it down into essential shapes.For more details...
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Surrealism
In his 1924 Surrealist Manifesto, André Breton identifies Sigmund Freud's work in psychology as contributing to the founding of Surrealism. Most important was Freud's distinction between the unconscious and conscious realms of the mind. Surrealists incorporate images from dreams, imagination, and free-association. For more details...
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Pop
By the 1950s, a few artists and intellectuals began to recognize the powerful impact of the mass media on
contemporary American culture. By the early
1960s, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, and Jasper
Johns were creating fine art based on elements of
commercial and graphic arts imagery. For more details...
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Minimalism
Minimalism developed in the 1960's in reaction to the subjective art movement, Expressionism. Emphasizing the bare minimum, Minimalist art is generally non-representational and non-symbolic. The key concept of Minimalism is pure simplicity - breaking down a work of art into its minimum componentsFor more details...
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Abstract Art
Abstract art describes a broad category of artwork in which forms and figures are not depicted realistically. An abstract work of art may not depict anything recognizable at all. For more details...
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