Art History

Some things you should know, when studying art history:

First of all, art historians have attempted to clearly organize, label, and differentiate a history of art that is not at all easy to organize, label, nor differentiate. Many of these so-called movements and "schools" of art mixed with each other, borrowing certain ideas and rejecting others. Many of them even ran simultaneously, in different parts of the world. Furthermore, many artists dabbled here and there with different movements, so that some works clearly fit in neat little rows, while other artists and their works do not. One unfortunate tendency in art history is to ignore and snub these outliers.

Second, once a way or style of art making has been established - it continues. The process is unorganized - anyone, anywhere might try to paint in that style, perhaps for an entire lifetime, perhaps just as one experiment, or a homework assignment. But, no style or movement ever really ends. There are still people painting religious icons of the sort started by the Byzantine empire. There are still people painting cubist pictures, impressionist pictures, rococo style pictures, and so on. Many artists even make a career of it. When we say a movement only lasted a certain amount of time, what we really mean is, after that time, it no longer felt historically relevant or noteworthy. It's a snub to those who carry on that tradition. But, if you look around, you can still find excellent artists who continue every tradition, movement and style ever invented.

In this series of lessons I will try to highlight some artists and outliers that are usually snubbed.

Click these links to access my lessons on the following art periods:

Ancient Civilizations:

1. Prehistoric Art

2. The Art of Mesopotamia

3. The Art of Ancient Egypt

4. The Art of Ancient Greece

5. The Art of Ancient Rome & Early Christianity

The Middle Ages

6. The Art of Byzantium

7. The  Art of Medieval Europe 

The Renaissance

8. The Art of the Early Italian Renaissance

9. The Art of the High Italian Renaissance & Mannerism

10. The Art of the Northern Renaissance

The Age of Academic Art:

11. Baroque Art of Europe

12. The Dutch Golden Age

13. The Rococo

14. Neo Classical Art

15. Romantic Art

16. Orientalist Art

17. The Hudson River School

18. The Barbizon School

19. The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood

20. The Aesthetic Movement - Art For Art's Sake

21. The Realist School

22. The History of Illustration

The Modern Age

23. The Early History of Photography

24. (French) Impressionism

25. American & Canadian Impressionism

26. Post Impressionism, Neo Impressionism, & Pointillism

27. Pictorialism (Photo History)

28. America's Ashcan School

29. The Symbolist Movement

30. Art Nouveau

31. (French) Fauvism

32. Primitivism (Naïve & Folk Art)

33. Art Deco

34. (German) Expressionism

35. Cubism (Orphism, Purism, Section d'Or)

36. (Italian) Futurism

37. Dadaism

38. (Russian) Suprematism

39. De Stijl (Neoplasticism)

40. (Russian) Constructivism & Productivism

41. (German) Bauhaus, the “International Style”

42. The Harlem Renaissance

43. Surrealism

44. Straight (Pure) Photography

45. (American) Abstract Expressionsim & Color Field

The Post Modern Age

46. Conceptual Art

47. Conceptual Photography

48. Minimalism

49. Pop Art

50. Feminist Art

51. Performance Art

52. Nature (Land) Art

53. Appropriation Art vs. Art Appropriation

54. The Black Arts Movement (BAM)

55. Photorealism & Hyperrealism

56. Op Art

Non-Western Art

57. Islamic Art

Art of Africa


Art of Asia

The Art of China - Painting

The Art of China - Architecture

The Art of China - Decorative Arts

The Art of Japan

The Art of India

Pre-Columbian Art of the Americas

Art of the Maya

Art of the Nasca

Art of the Wari

Art of the Aztec

Art of the Inca

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