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Art Movements Title

Art has changed more radically this century than in any previous one. A rich variety of art styles developed, mainly Fauvism, expressionism, cubism, futurism, constructivism, neoplasticism, surrealism, precisionism, and minimalism. Painting moved away from exact representation and pure description (paintings of objects) to work which was more about expressing ideas and new forms of expression and their work formed art movements.

A lovely art gallery by the Ningizimu School can be accessed on this site!

EARLY ART MOVEMENTS

Expressionists and Fauvists
, such as the French artist, Henry Mautisse, used bold hues and broader brushstrokes to express mood and emotion. Cubism was a movement started by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in 1907. Cubists tried new ways of solving the problems of painting three dimensional scenes onto canvas. They produced work in which linear, broken-up images suggested a new kind of reality. They were called Cubists because of their use of straight lines and hard edges. Some artists chose not to represent the world around them. From 1917, Piet Mondrian painted arrangements of vertical and horizontal black lines, with patches of red, yellow and blue. After the Second World War, US artists Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothko did not even paint lines. Pollock dripped and splashed paint onto the canvas.

 

PRIMITIVE ART

Many of the great artists of the 20th century were influenced by the "primitive" art of Africa, Central America and Indonesia. Sculptors such as Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth used primitive forms to re-examine natural shapes and textures and give a new vitality to traditional art.

SURREALISM

In 1900, Sigmund Freud had suggested that in dreams, the mind reveals concerns usually hidden or repressed. Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte and Max Ernst were surrealist artists who tried to show what was inside the subconscious. Their paintings were made of seemingly unconnected images in a precise, realistic style. Their art did not make sense when viewed in the same manner as other styles.

 

CONCEPTUAL ART

In 1900, Sigmund Freud had suggested that in dreams, the mind reveals concerns usually hidden or repressed. Salvador Dali, Rene Magritte and Max Ernst were surrealist artists who tried to show what was inside the subconscious. Their paintings were made of seemingly unconnected images in a precise, realistic style. Their art did not make sense when viewed in the same manner as other styles.