History of painting

The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts and History of painting
artwork created by pre-historic artists, and spans all cultures.
It represents a continuous, though periodically disrupted,
tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, continents, and
millennia, the history of painting consists of an ongoing river
of creativity that continues into the 21st century.[1] Until the
early 20th century it relied primarily on representational,
religious and classical motifs, after which time more purely
abstract and conceptual approaches gained favor.
Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave, in Kalimantan,
Developments in Eastern painting historically parallel those Indonesia, contains one of the oldest
in Western painting, in general, a few centuries earlier.[2] known figurative paintings, a 40,000-year-
African art, Jewish art, Islamic art, Indonesian art, Indian old depiction of a bull.
art,[3] Chinese art, and Japanese art[4] each had significant
influence on Western art, and vice versa.[5]

Initially serving utilitarian purpose, followed by imperial,

private, civic, and religious patronage, Eastern and Western
painting later found audiences in the aristocracy and the
middle class. From the Modern era, the Middle Ages through
the Renaissance painters worked for the church and a
wealthy aristocracy.[6] Beginning with the Baroque era artists
received private commissions from a more educated and
prosperous middle class.[7] Finally in the West the idea of
"art for art's sake"[8] began to find expression in the work of
the Romantic painters like Francisco de Goya, John
Constable, and J. M. W. Turner.[9] The 19th century saw the
rise of the commercial art gallery, which provided patronage The Milkmaid by Johannes Vermeer,
in the 20th century.[10] c. 1657

Pre-history
The oldest known paintings are approximately 40,000 years old, found in both the Franco-Cantabrian
region in western Europe, and in the caves in the district of Maros (Sulawesi, Indonesia). The oldest type of
cave paintings are hand stencils and simple geometric shapes; the oldest undisputed examples of figurative
cave paintings are somewhat younger, close to 35,000 years old.[11] In November 2018, scientists reported
the discovery of the then-oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years
old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo
(Kalimantan).[12][13] In December 2019, however, figurative cave paintings depicting pig hunting in the
Maros-Pangkep karst in Sulawesi were estimated to be even older, at least 43,900 years old. The finding
was noted to be "the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the
world".[14][15] And more recently, in 2021, cave art of a pig found
in an Indonesian island, and dated to over 45,500 years, has been
reported.[16] There are examples of cave paintings all over the
world—in Indonesia, France, India, Spain, Southern Africa, China,
Australia etc.

Various conjectures have been made as to the meaning these

paintings had to the people that made them. Prehistoric artists may
have painted animals to "catch" their soul or spirit in order to hunt
them more easily or the paintings may represent an animistic vision
and homage to surrounding nature. They may be the result of a
basic need of expression that is innate to human beings, or they
could have been for the transmission of practical information.

Pettakere Cave are more than

44,000 years old, Maros, South
Sulawesi, Indonesia

Rock Shelters of Lascaux, Horse

Bhimbetka, rock painting,
Stone Age, India

Eland, rock painting, Lascaux, Bulls and Spanish cave painting of

Drakensberg, South Horses Bulls
Africa
 Petroglyphs, from Lascaux, Aurochs (Bos Pictographs from the
Sweden, Nordic Bronze primigenius primigenius) Great Gallery,
Age (painted) Canyonlands National
Park, Horseshoe
Canyon, Utah, c. 1500
BCE

Cueva de las Manos Gwion Gwion rock

(Spanish for Cave of the paintings found in the
Hands) in the Santa Cruz north-west Kimberley
province in Argentina, c. region of Western
7300 BC Australia c. 15,000 BC[17]

In Paleolithic times, the representation of humans in cave paintings was rare. Mostly, animals were painted,
not only animals that were used as food but also animals that represented strength like the rhinoceros or
large Felidae, as in the Chauvet Cave. Signs like dots were sometimes drawn. Rare human representations
include handprints and stencils, and figures depicting human / animal hybrids. The Chauvet Cave in the
Ardèche Departments of France contains the most important preserved cave paintings of the Paleolithic era,
painted around 31,000 BC. The Altamira cave paintings in Spain were done 14,000 to 12,000 BC and
show, among others, bisons. The hall of bulls in Lascaux, Dordogne, France, is one of the best known cave
paintings and dates to about 15,000 to 10,000 BC.

If there is meaning to the paintings, it remains unknown. The caves were not in an inhabited area, so they
may have been used for seasonal rituals. The animals are accompanied by signs which suggest a possible
magic use. Arrow-like symbols in Lascaux are sometimes interpreted as being used as calendars or
almanacs, but the evidence remains inconclusive.[18] The most important work of the Mesolithic era were
the marching warriors, a rock painting at Cingle de la Mola, Castellón, Spain dated to about 7000 to 4000
BC. The technique used was probably spitting or blowing the pigments onto the rock. The paintings are
quite naturalistic, though stylized. The figures are not three-dimensional, even though they overlap.
The earliest known Indian paintings were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, the petroglyphs as found
in places like the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, and some of them are older than 5500 BC. Such works
continued and after several millennia, in the 7th century, carved pillars of Ajanta, Maharashtra state present
a fine example of Indian paintings. The colors, mostly various shades of red and orange, were derived from
minerals.

Eastern

Mural paintings of court life in Xu Xianxiu's Tomb, Northern Qi dynasty, 571 AD, located in Taiyuan, Shanxi
province, China

The history of Eastern painting includes a vast range of influences from various cultures and religions.
Developments in Eastern painting historically parallel those in Western painting, in general a few centuries
earlier.[2] African art, Jewish art, Islamic art, Indonesian art, Indian art,[19] Chinese art, Korean Art, and
Japanese art[4] each had significant influence on Western art, and, vice versa.[5]

Chinese painting is one of the oldest continuous artistic traditions in the world. The earliest paintings were
not representational but ornamental; they consisted of patterns or designs rather than pictures. Early pottery
was painted with spirals, zigzags, dots, or animals. It was only during the Warring States period (403–221
B.C.) that artists began to represent the world around them. Japanese painting is one of the oldest and most
highly refined of the Japanese arts, encompassing a wide variety of genre and styles. The history of
Japanese painting is a long history of synthesis and competition between native Japanese aesthetics and
adaptation of imported ideas. Korean painting, as an independent form, began around 108 B.C., around the
fall of Gojoseon, making it one of the oldest in the world. The artwork of that time period evolved into the
various styles that characterized the Three Kingdoms of Korea period, most notably the paintings and
frescoes that adorn the tombs of Goguryeo's royalty. During the Three Kingdoms period and through the
Goryeo dynasty, Korean painting was characterized primarily by a
combination of Korean-style landscapes, facial features, Buddhist-centered
themes, and an emphasis on celestial observation that was facilitated by the
rapid development of Korean astronomy.

East Asian
See also Chinese painting, Japanese painting, Korean painting.

Silk painting depicting a

man riding a dragon,
painting on silk, dated to
5th–3rd century BC, Warring
States period, from Zidanku
Tomb no. 1 in Changsha,
Hunan Province
A lacquerware painting Detail of a fresco
from the Jingmen Tomb showing the Chinese
(Chinese: 荊門楚墓 ; philosopher Confucius,
from a Western Han (202
Pinyin: Jīngmén chǔ mù)
of the State of Chu (704– BC – 9 AD) tomb of
223 BC), depicting men Dongping County,
riding in a two-horsed Shandong province
chariot

A Chinese woman, Paintings on tile of Gentlemen in

fresco from a Western guardian spirits donned in Conversation, tomb
Han (202 BC – 9 AD) Chinese robes, from the painting dated to the
tomb of Xi'an (ancient Han dynasty (202 BC – Eastern Han dynasty
Chang'an), Shaanxi 220 AD) (25–220 AD).
province
Lacquerware basket from Female court attendants, Female court attendants,
the Lelang Commandery, a mural from an Eastern a mural from an Eastern
showing seated men, Han (25-220 AD) tomb in Han (25-220 AD) tomb in
Eastern Han dynasty Zhengzhou, Henan Zhengzhou, Henan
(25-220 AD) province province

Male figure from a Buddhist art of painted Emperor Sun Quan in the
lacquerware painting over relief sculptures from the Thirteen Emperors Scroll
wood, Northern Wei Yungang Grottoes, and Northern Qi Scholars
period, 5th century AD Northern Wei dynasty Collating Classic Texts,
(386-535 AD) by Yan Liben (c. 600–673
AD), Chinese

Eighty-Seven Celestials, Portrait of Night-Shining Spring Outing of the Tang

by Wu Daozi (685–758), White, by Han Gan, 8th Court, by Zhang Xuan,
Tang dynasty, Chinese century, Tang dynasty, 8th century, Tang
Chinese dynasty, Chinese
Servant, 8th century, Ladies making silk, a An illustrated sutra from
Tang dynasty, Chinese remake of an 8th-century the Nara period, 8th
original by Zhang Xuan century, Japanese
by Emperor Huizong of
Song, early 12th century,
Chinese

Ladies Playing Double A Palace Concert, Tang The Xiao and Xiang
Sixes, by Zhou Fang dynasty, Chinese Rivers, by Dong Yuan (c.
(730–800 AD), Tang 934–962 AD), Chinese
dynasty, Chinese

Night Revels, a Song Court portrait of Emperor Golden Pheasant and

dynasty remake of a Shenzong of Song (r. Cotton Rose, by Emperor
10th-century original by 1067–1085), Chinese Huizong of Song (r.1100–
Gu Hongzhong. 1126 AD), Chinese
Listening to the Guqin, by Children Playing, by Su Chinese, anonymous
Emperor Huizong of Han Chen, c. 1150, artist of the 12th century
Song (1100–1126 AD), Chinese Song dynasty
Chinese

Portrait of the Zen Ma Lin, 1246 AD, A Man and His Horse in
Buddhist Wuzhun Shifan, Chinese the Wind, by Zhao
1238 AD, Chinese Mengfu (1254–1322 AD),
Chinese

Shukei-sansui (Autumn Kanō Masanobu, 15th- A White-Robed Kannon,

Landscape), Sesshu century founder of the Bodhisattva of
Toyo (1420–1506), Kanō school, Zhou Compassion, by Kanō
Japanese Maoshu Appreciating Motonobu (1476–1559),
Lotuses, Japanese Japanese
Yi Ahm (1499–?), Mother Tang Yin, A Fisher in Nanban ships arriving for
Dog, 15th century, Autumn, (1523), Chinese trade in Japan, 16th
National Museum of century, Japanese
Korea

A screen painting Right panel of the Pine Scroll calligraphy of

depicting people playing Trees screen (Shōrin-zu Bodhidharma, "Zen
Go, by Kanō Eitoku
(1543–1590), Japanese
byōbu, 松林図 屏風 ) by points directly to the
human heart, see into
Hasegawa Tōhaku
(1539–1610), Japanese your nature and become
Buddha", Hakuin Ekaku
(1686 to 1769), Japanese

Hanging scroll 1672, Peonies, by Yun Genji Monogatari, by

Kanō Tanyū (1602–1674), Shouping (1633–1690), Tosa Mitsuoki (1617–
Japanese Chinese 1691), Japanese
View of Geumgang, Ike no Taiga (1723– Maruyama school, Pine,
Jeong Seon (1676– 1776), Fish in Spring, Bamboo, Plum, six-fold
1759), 1734, Korean Japanese screen, Maruyama Ōkyo
(1733–1795), Japanese

A Cat and a Butterfly, A Boat Ride, Shin Yun- Rimpa school, Autumn
Kim Hong-do (1745–?), bok (1758–?), 1805, Flowers and Moon, Sakai
18th century, Korean Korean Hoitsu (1761–1828),
Japanese
 A tanuki (raccoon dog) as A House amongst Apricot Katsushika Hokusai, The
a tea kettle, by Trees, Jo Hee-ryong Dragon of Smoke
Katsushika Hokusai (1797–1859), Korean Escaping from Mt Fuji,
(1760–1849), Japanese Japanese

Miyagawa Isshō, untitled Tomioka Tessai (1837–

Ukiyo-e painting, 1924), Nihonga style,
Japanese Two Divinities Dancing,
1924, Japanese

China, Japan and Korea have a strong tradition in painting which is also
highly attached to the art of calligraphy and printmaking (so much that it is
commonly seen as painting). Far east traditional painting is characterized by
water based techniques, less realism, "elegant" and stylized subjects,
graphical approach to depiction, the importance of white space (or negative
space) and a preference for landscape (instead of the human figure) as a
subject. Beyond ink and color on silk or paper scrolls, gold on lacquer was
also a common medium in painted East Asian artwork. Although silk was a
somewhat expensive medium to paint upon in the past, the invention of
paper during the 1st century AD by the Han court eunuch Cai Lun
provided not only a cheap and widespread medium for writing, but also a
cheap and widespread medium for painting (making it more accessible to
the public). A Chinese painted jar from
the Western Han Era (202
The ideologies of Confucianism, Daoism, and Buddhism played important BCE – 9 CE)
roles in East Asian art. Medieval Song dynasty painters such as Lin Tinggui
and his Luohan Laundering[20] (housed in the Smithsonian Freer Gallery of
Art) of the 12th century are excellent examples of Buddhist ideas fused into classical Chinese artwork. In
the latter painting on silk (image and description provided in the link), bald-headed Buddhist Luohan are
depicted in a practical setting of washing clothes by a river. However, the painting itself is visually stunning,
with the Luohan portrayed in rich detail and bright, opaque colors in contrast to a hazy, brown, and bland
wooded environment. Also, the tree tops are shrouded in swirling fog, providing the common "negative
space" mentioned above in East Asian Art.

In Japonisme, late 19th-century Post-Impressionists like Van Gogh and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and
tonalists such as James McNeill Whistler, admired early 19th-century Japanese Ukiyo-e artists like Hokusai
(1760–1849) and Hiroshige (1797–1858) and were influenced by them.

Panorama of Along the River During Qing Ming Festival, 18th-century remake of 12th-century Song dynasty
original by Chinese artist Zhang Zeduan. The original painting by Zhang is revered by scholars as "one of Chinese
civilization's greatest masterpieces."[21] Note: scroll starts from the right.

Chinese
The earliest surviving examples of Chinese painted artwork date to
the Warring States period (481–221 BC), with paintings on silk or
tomb murals on rock, brick, or stone. They were often in simplistic
stylized format and in more-or-less rudimentary geometric patterns.
They often depicted mythological creatures, domestic scenes, labor
scenes, or palatial scenes filled with officials at court. Artwork
during this period and the subsequent Qin dynasty (221–207 BC)
and Han dynasty (202 BC – 220 AD) was made not as a means in
Spring Morning in the Han Palace, by
and of itself or for higher personal expression; rather artwork was
Ming-era artist Qiu Ying (1494–1552 created to symbolize and honor funerary rites, representations of
AD) mythological deities or spirits of ancestors, etc. Paintings on silk of
court officials and domestic scenes could be found during the Han
dynasty, along with scenes of men hunting on horseback or
partaking in military parade. There was also painting on three dimensional works of art like figurines and
statues, such as the original-painted colors covering the soldier and horse statues of the Terracotta Army.
During the social and cultural climate of the ancient Eastern Jin dynasty (316 – 420 AD) based at Nanjing
in the south, painting became one of the official pastimes of Confucian-taught bureaucratic officials and
aristocrats (along with music played by the guqin zither, writing fanciful calligraphy, and writing and
reciting of poetry). Painting became a common form of artistic self-expression, and during this period
painters at court or amongst elite social circuits were judged and ranked by their peers.

The establishment of classical Chinese landscape painting is accredited largely to the Eastern Jin dynasty
artist Gu Kaizhi (344 – 406 AD), one of the most famous artists of Chinese history. Like the elongated
scroll scenes of Kaizhi, Tang dynasty (618–907 AD) Chinese artists like Wu Daozi painted vivid and highly
detailed artwork on long horizontal handscrolls (which were very popular during the Tang), such as his
Eighty Seven Celestial People. Painted artwork during
the Tang period pertained the effects of an idealized
landscape environment, with sparse numbers of objects,
persons, or amount of activity, as well as monochromatic
in nature (example: the murals of Prince Yide's tomb in
the Qianling Mausoleum). There were also figures such
The Sakyamuni Buddha, by Zhang Shengwen,
as early Tang-era painter Zhan Ziqian, who painted
1173–1176 AD, Song dynasty period.
superb landscape paintings that were well ahead of his
day in portrayal of realism. However, landscape art did
not reach greater level of maturity and realism in general until the Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period
(907–960 AD). During this time, there were exceptional landscape painters like Dong Yuan (refer to this
article for an example of his artwork), and those who painted more vivid and realistic depictions of domestic
scenes, like Gu Hongzhong and his Night Revels of Han Xizai.

During the Chinese Song dynasty (960–1279 AD), not only

landscape art was improved upon, but portrait painting became
more standardized and sophisticated than before (for example, refer
to Emperor Huizong of Song), and reached its classical age
maturity during the Ming dynasty (1368–1644 AD). During the late
13th century and first half of the 14th century, Chinese under the
Mongol-controlled Yuan dynasty were not allowed to enter higher
posts of government (reserved for Mongols or other ethnic groups
from Central Asia), and the Imperial examination was ceased for the
time being. Many Confucian-educated Chinese who now lacked
profession turned to the arts of painting and theatre instead, as the
Loquats and Mountain Bird, Yuan period became one of the most vibrant and abundant eras for
anonymous artist of the Southern
Chinese artwork. An example of such would be Qian Xuan (1235–
Song dynasty; paintings in leaf
album style such as this were
1305 AD), who was an official of the Song dynasty, but out of
popular in the Southern Song (1127– patriotism, refused to serve the Yuan court and dedicated himself to
1279). painting. Examples of superb art from this period include the rich
and detailed painted murals of the Yongle Palace,[22][23] or
"Dachunyang Longevity Palace", of 1262 AD, a UNESCO World
Heritage site. Within the palace, paintings cover an area of more than 1000 square meters, and hold mostly
Daoist themes. It was during the Song dynasty that painters would also gather in social clubs or meetings to
discuss their art or others' artwork, the praising of which often led to persuasions to trade and sell precious
works of art. However, there were also many harsh critics of others art as well, showing the difference in
style and taste amongst different painters. In 1088 AD, the polymath scientist and statesman Shen Kuo once
wrote of the artwork of one Li Cheng, who he criticized as follows:

...Then there was Li Cheng, who when he depicted pavilions and lodges amidst mountains,
storeyed buildings, pagodas and the like, always used to paint the eaves as seen from below. His
idea was that 'one should look upwards from underneath, just as a man standing on level ground
and looking up at the eaves of a pagoda can see its rafters and its cantilever eave rafters'. This is
all wrong. In general the proper way of painting a landscape is to see the small from the
viewpoint of the large...just as one looks at artificial mountains in gardens (as one walks about). If
one applies (Li's method) to the painting of real mountains, looking up at them from below, one
can only see one profile at a time, and not the wealth of their multitudinous slopes and profiles, to
 say nothing of all that is going on in the valleys and canyons, and in the lanes and courtyards with
their dwellings and houses. If we stand to the east of a mountain its western parts would be on the
vanishing boundary of far-off distance, and vice versa. Surely this could not be called a
successful painting? Mr. Li did not understand the principle of 'seeing the small from the
viewpoint of the large'. He was certainly marvelous at diminishing accurately heights and
distances, but should one attach such importance to the angles and corners of buildings?[24]

Although high level of stylization, mystical appeal, and surreal

elegance were often preferred over realism (such as in shan shui
style), beginning with the medieval Song dynasty there were many
Chinese painters then and afterwards who depicted scenes of nature
that were vividly real. Later Ming dynasty artists would take after
this Song dynasty emphasis for intricate detail and realism on
objects in nature, especially in depictions of animals (such as ducks,
swans, sparrows, tigers, etc.) amongst patches of brightly colored
flowers and thickets of brush and wood (a good example would be
the anonymous Ming dynasty painting Birds and Plum Qianlong Emperor Practicing
[25] Calligraphy, mid-18th century.
Blossoms, housed in the Freer Gallery of the Smithsonian
Museum in Washington, D.C.). There were many renowned Ming
dynasty artists; Qiu Ying is an excellent example of a paramount Ming era painter (famous even in his own
day), utilizing in his artwork domestic scenes, bustling palatial scenes, and nature scenes of river valleys and
steeped mountains shrouded in mist and swirling clouds. During the Ming dynasty there were also different
and rivaling schools of art associated with painting, such as the Wu School and the Zhe School.

Classical Chinese painting continued on into the early modern Qing dynasty, with highly realistic portrait
paintings like seen in the late Ming dynasty of the early 17th century. The portraits of Kangxi Emperor,
Yongzheng Emperor, and Qianlong Emperor are excellent examples of realistic Chinese portrait painting.
During the Qianlong reign period and the continuing 19th century, European Baroque styles of painting had
noticeable influence on Chinese portrait paintings, especially with painted visual effects of lighting and
shading. Likewise, East Asian paintings and other works of art (such as porcelain and lacquerware) were
highly prized in Europe since initial contact in the 16th century.

Chinese oil paintings

Western techniques of oil paintings began entering China in the 19th century, becoming prevalent among
Chinese artists and art students in the early 20th century, coinciding with China's growing engagement with
the West. Artists such as Li Tiefu, Hong Yi, Xu Beihong, Yan Wenliang, Lin Fengmian, Fang Ganmin,
Pang Yuliang went abroad, predominantly to Paris and Tokyo, to learn Western art. Through them, artistic
movements such as Impressionism, Cubism, Fauvism, Post-impressionism grew and thrived in China, only
halted by the Second World War and the birth of the People's Republic of China, when modernistic artistic
styles were seen as being inconsistent with the prevailing political ideals and realism was the only
acceptable artistic form. Nonetheless, the legacy of the close engagement with Western art in the early 20th
century endured. Oil paintings survived as an important medium in Chinese artistic scenes; traditional
Chinese ink paintings were also changed as a result.
 Portrait of Madame Liu, Portrait of Kang Youwei Portrait of Madam Cheng
(1942) Li Tiefu oil on (1904) Li Tiefu oil on (1941) Oil on board Xu
canvas canvas Beihong

Japanese
Japanese painting ( 絵画 ) is one of the oldest and most highly refined of the
Japanese arts, encompassing a wide variety of genres and styles. As with Japanese
arts in general, Japanese painting developed through a long history of synthesis
and competition between native Japanese aesthetics and adaptation of imported
ideas. Ukiyo-e, or "pictures of the floating world," is a genre of Japanese
woodblock prints (or "woodcuts") and paintings produced between the 17th and
20th centuries, featuring motifs of landscapes, theater, and courtesan districts. It is
the main artistic genre of Japanese woodblock printing. Japanese printmaking,
especially from the Edo period, exerted enormous influence on French painting
over the 19th century. While in the 19th century, Japanese painters developed a
new painting technique called yōga that borrowed heavily from western painting
techniques and materials, such notable artists include Harada Naojirō, Fujishima
Takeji, and Kuroda Seiki.

Korean
Korean painting, as an independent form, began around 108 B.C., around the fall
of Gojoseon, making it one of the oldest in the world. The artwork of that time
period evolved into the various styles that characterized the Three Kingdoms of
Korea period, most notably the paintings and frescoes that adorn the tombs of
Goguryeo's royalty. During the Three Kingdoms period and through the Goryeo
dynasty, Korean painting was characterized primarily by a combination of
Korean-style landscapes, facial features, Buddhist-centered themes, and an Muromachi period,
emphasis on celestial observation that was facilitated by the rapid development of Shingei (1431–1485),
Korean astronomy. It wasn't until the Joseon dynasty that Confucian themes Viewing a Waterfall,
Nezu Museum,
began to take root in Korean paintings, used in harmony with indigenous aspects.
Tokyo.[26]
The history of Korean painting has been characterized by the use monochromatic works of black
brushwork, often on mulberry paper or silk. This style is evident in "Min-Hwa", or colorful folk art, tomb
paintings, and ritual and festival arts, both of which incorporated an extensive use of colour.

South Asian

Floating Figures Dancing, Mughal, Akbar Being Deccan painting; the

a mural of c. 850. Received by Khan Kilan, young Ibrahim Adil Shah
the Governor of Nagaur, II hawking, c. 1590
in 1570, Akbarnama

Mughal, Yudishthira Mughal nilgai, 1625–1650 Emperor Shah Jahan and

wrestling with Karna, sons, c. 1628 or later.
1598 Mughal portraits normally
use profile views.
A Lady Listening to Bahsoli painting of Radha Deccan painting, Sultan
Music, c. 1750. and Krishna in Ibrahim Adil Shah II of
Discussion, c. 1730. Bijapur, c. 1590. A three-
quarter view which gives
a powerful and lively
impression of the sitter,
despite lacking both
Mughal precision, and
very coherent modelling
of the surfaces.

Mughal portrait of Raja Pahari painting, Chamba, Portrait of the Govardhân

Jagat Singh of Nurpur c. 1665, a warrior mounts Chand, Pahari painting
(reigned 1618–1646), his horse style, c. 1750.
probably 1619

Kangra painting, c. 1775, Ravana kills Jathayu; the Akbar and Tansen Visit
Krishna plays his flute to captive Sita despairs, by Haridas in Vrindavan,
the gopis Raja Ravi Varma Rajasthan style, c. 1750.
 Krishna Summoning the A man with children, Company style, 1770s,
Cows, Pahari painting, Pahari painting style, Crimson Horned
Bilaspur, 18th century 1760. Pheasant (Satyr
Tragapan)

Râdhâ arrests Krishna, Rama and Sita in the Late Kangra painting,
Pahari painting style, Forest, Pahari painting 1815/1825, Rama,
1770. style, 1780. Lakshmana, and Sita

Late Rajput painting,

Kota, c. 1830s, Ram
Singh II Tiger Hunting

Indian
Indian paintings historically revolved around the religious deities and kings. Indian art is a collective term
for several different schools of art that existed in the Indian subcontinent. The paintings varied from large
frescoes of Ajanta to the intricate Mughal miniature paintings to the metal embellished works from the
Tanjore school. The paintings from the Gandhar–Taxila are
influenced by the Persian works in the west. The eastern style of
painting was mostly developed around the Nalanda school of art.
The works are mostly inspired by various scenes from Indian
mythology.

History
The earliest Indian paintings Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, rock
painting, Stone Age, India
were the rock paintings of
prehistoric times, the
petroglyphs as found in places like the Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka,
and some of them are older than 5500 BC. Such works continued
and after several millennia, in the 7th century, carved pillars of
Ajanta, Maharashtra state present a fine example of Indian
paintings, and the colors, mostly various shades of red and orange,
A fresco from Cave 1 of Ajanta. were derived from minerals.

Ajanta Caves in Maharashtra, India are rock-cut cave monuments

dating back to the 2nd century BCE and containing paintings and sculpture considered to be masterpieces
of both Buddhist religious art[27] and universal pictorial art.[28]

Madhubani painting

Madhubani painting is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the Mithila region of Bihar state, India. The
origins of Madhubani painting are shrouded in antiquity.

Mughal
Mughal painting is a particular style of Indian
painting, generally confined to illustrations on the
book and done in miniatures, and which emerged,
developed and took shape during the period of the
Two Scribes Seated with Books and a Writing Table
Mughal Empire 16th −19th centuries.
Fragment of a decorative margin Northern India
(Mughal school), ca. 1640–1650
Rajput
Rajput painting evolved and flourished during the
18th century, in the royal courts of Rajputana, India. Each Rajput kingdom evolved a distinct style, but with
certain common features. Rajput paintings depict a number of themes, events of epics like the Ramayana
and the Mahabharata, Krishna's life, beautiful landscapes, and humans. Miniatures were the preferred
medium of Rajput painting, but several manuscripts also contain Rajput paintings, and paintings were even
done on the walls of palaces, inner chambers of the forts, havelies, particularly, the havelis of Shekhawait.
The colors extracted from certain minerals, plant sources, conch shells, and
were even derived by processing precious stones, gold and silver were
used. The preparation of desired colors was a lengthy process, sometimes
taking weeks. Brushes used were very fine.

Tanjore
Tanjore painting is an important form of classical South Indian painting
native to the town of Tanjore in Tamil Nadu. The art form dates back to the
early 9th century, a period dominated by the Chola rulers, who encouraged
art and literature. These paintings are known for their elegance, rich colors,
and attention to detail. The themes for most of these paintings are Hindu
Gods and Goddesses and scenes from Hindu mythology. In modern times,
these paintings have become a much sought after souvenir during festive Mother Goddess A miniature
occasions in South India. painting of the Pahari style,
dating to the eighteenth
The process of making a Tanjore painting involves many stages. The first century. Pahari and Rajput
stage involves the making of the preliminary sketch of the image on the miniatures share many
base. The base consists of a cloth pasted over a wooden base. Then chalk common features.
powder or zinc oxide is mixed with water-soluble adhesive and applied on
the base. To make the base smoother, a mild abrasive is sometimes used.
After the drawing is made, decoration of the jewellery and the apparels in the image is done with semi-
precious stones. Laces or threads are also used to decorate the jewellery. On top of this, the gold foils are
pasted. Finally, dyes are used to add colors to the figures in the paintings.

Madras School
During British rule in India, the crown found that Madras had some of the most talented and intellectual
artistic minds in the world. As the British had also established a huge settlement in and around Madras,
Georgetown was chosen to establish an institute that would cater to the artistic expectations of the royal
family in London. This has come to be known as the Madras School of Art. At first traditional artists were
employed to produce exquisite varieties of furniture, metal work, and curios and their work was sent to the
royal palaces of the Queen.

Unlike the Bengal School where 'copying' is the norm of teaching, the Madras School flourishes on
'creating' new styles, arguments and trends.

Bengal School
The Bengal school of art was an influential style of art that flourished in India during the British Raj in the
early 20th century. It was associated with Indian nationalism, but was also promoted and supported by
many British arts administrators.

The Bengal School arose as an avant garde and nationalist movement reacting against the academic art
styles previously promoted in India, both by Indian artists such as Raja Ravi Varma and in British art
schools. Following the widespread influence of Indian spiritual ideas in the West, the British art teacher
Ernest Binfield Havel attempted to reform the teaching methods at the Calcutta School of Art by
encouraging students to imitate Mughal miniatures. This caused immense controversy, leading to a strike by
students and complaints from the local press, including from
nationalists who considered it to be a retrogressive move. Havel
was supported by the artist Abanindranath Tagore, a nephew of the
poet Rabindranath Tagore. Tagore painted a number of works
influenced by Mughal art, a style that he and Havel believed to be
expressive of India's distinct spiritual qualities, as opposed to the
"materialism" of the West. Tagore's best-known painting, Bharat
Mata (Mother India), depicted a young woman, portrayed with four
arms in the manner of Hindu deities, holding objects symbolic of
India's national aspirations. Tagore later attempted to develop links
with Japanese artists as part of an aspiration to construct a pan-
Asianist model of art.

The Bengal School's influence in India declined with the spread of

modernist ideas in the 1920s. In the post-independence period,
Indian artists showed more adaptability as they borrowed freely
from European styles and amalgamated them freely with the Indian
motifs to new forms of art. While artists like Francis Newton Souza
and Tyeb Mehta were more western in their approach, there were
others like Ganesh Pyne and Maqbool Fida Husain who developed
thoroughly indigenous styles of work. Today after the process of Bharat Mata by Abanindranath
liberalization of market in India, the artists are experiencing more Tagore (1871–1951), a nephew of the
poet Rabindranath Tagore, and a
exposure to the international art-scene which is helping them in
pioneer of the movement
emerging with newer forms of art which were hitherto not seen in
India. Jitish Kallat had shot to fame in the late 1990s with his
paintings which were both modern and beyond the scope of generic definition. However, while artists in
India in the new century are trying out new styles, themes and metaphors, it would not have been possible
to get such quick recognition without the aid of the business houses which are now entering the art field like
they had never before.

Modern Indian
Amrita Sher-Gil was an Indian painter, sometimes known as India's Frida Kahlo,[29] and today considered
an important woman painter of 20th-century India, whose legacy stands at par with that of the Masters of
Bengal Renaissance;[30][31] she is also the 'most expensive' woman painter of India.[32]

Today, she is amongst Nine Masters, whose work was declared as art treasures by The Archaeological
Survey of India, in 1976 and 1979,[33] and over 100 of her paintings are now displayed at National Gallery
of Modern Art, New Delhi.[34]

During the colonial era, Western influences started to make an impact on Indian art. Some artists developed
a style that used Western ideas of composition, perspective and realism to illustrate Indian themes. Others,
like Jamini Roy, consciously drew inspiration from folk art.

By the time of Independence in 1947, several schools of art in India provided access to modern techniques
and ideas. Galleries were established to showcase these artists. Modern Indian art typically shows the
influence of Western styles, but is often inspired by Indian themes and images. Major artists are beginning
to gain international recognition, initially among the Indian diaspora, but also among non-Indian audiences.
The Progressive Artists' Group, established shortly after India became independent in 1947, was intended to
establish new ways of expressing India in the post-colonial era. The founders were six eminent artists – K.
H. Ara, S. K. Bakre, H. A. Gade, M.F. Husain, S.H. Raza and F. N. Souza, though the group was
dissolved in 1956, it was profoundly influential in changing the idiom of Indian art. Almost all India's major
artists in the 1950s were associated with the group. Some of those who are well-known today are Bal
Chabda, Manishi Dey, Mukul Dey, V. S. Gaitonde, Ram Kumar, Tyeb Mehta, and Akbar Padamsee. Other
famous painters like Jahar Dasgupta, Prokash Karmakar, John Wilkins, Narayanan Ramachandran, and
Bijon Choudhuri enriched the art culture of India. They have become the icons of modern Indian art. Art
historians like Prof. Rai Anand Krishna have also referred to those works of modern artistes that reflect
Indian ethos. Geeta Vadhera has had acclaim in translating complex, Indian spiritual themes onto canvas
like Sufi thought, the Upanishads and the Bhagwad Geeta.

Indian art got a boost with the economic liberalization of the country since the early 1990s. Artists from
various fields now started bringing in varied styles of work. In post-liberalization India, many artists have
established themselves in the international art market like the abstract painter Natvar Bhavsar, figurative
artist Devajyoti Ray and sculptor Anish Kapoor whose mammoth postminimalist artworks have acquired
attention for their sheer size. Many art houses and galleries have also opened in USA and Europe to
showcase Indian artworks.

South-East Asia

Indonesian
The oldest known cave paintings are more than 44,000–50,000 years old,
found in the caves in the district of Maros (Sulawesi, Indonesia). The oldest
type of cave paintings are hand stencils and simple geometric shapes; the
oldest undisputed examples of figurative cave paintings are somewhat
younger, close to 35,000 years old.[11]

The discovery of the then-oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000
(perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of
Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo. In December 2019,
however, figurative cave paintings depicting pig hunting in the Maros-
Pangkep karst in Sulawesi were estimated to be even older, at at least
Hand stencils in the "Tree of 43,900 years old. The finding was noted to be "the oldest pictorial record of
Life" cave painting in Gua
storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world".[14][15]
Tewet, Kalimantan,
Indonesia
Other examples of Indonesian
paintings are the Kenyah decorative
art, based on endemic natural motifs such as ferns and hornbills,
found decorating the walls of Kenyah longhouses. Other notable
traditional art is the geometric Toraja wood carvings. Balinese
paintings are initially the narrative images to depict scenes of
Balinese legends and religious scripts. The classical Balinese
paintings are often decorating the lontar manuscripts and also the Wayang beber, 17th century
ceilings of temples pavilion. Notable modern Indonesian painters in the European tradition include Raden
Saleh, Jan Toorop, Basuki Abdullah and Abdullah Suriosubroto, their themes explore landscape and portrait
painting.

Traditional Balinese Capture of Prince Javanese Landscape,

painting depicting Diponegoro, 1857. with Tigers Listening to
cockfighting. the Sound of a Travelling
Group, 1849.

The Wheel of Life, I Ketut Pre-1920 Kamasan Mask Dancer (by A.A.
Murtika (b. 1952), Palindon Painting detail, Gde Anom Sukawati) in
Gouache on canvas an example of Kamasan- Puri Lukisan Museum.
style classical painting.

Legong dancer. Indonesian Temple

painting.

Filipino
Filipino painting as a whole can be seen as an amalgamation of many cultural influences, though it tends to
be more Western in its current form with Eastern roots.
 Early Filipino painting can be found in red slip (clay mixed with water)
designs embellished on the ritual pottery of the Philippines such as the
Manunggul Jar. Evidence of Philippine pottery-making dated as early as
6000 BC has been found in Sanga-sanga Cave, Sulu and Laurente Cave,
Cagayan. By 5000 BC the making of pottery was practiced throughout the
country. Early Filipinos started making pottery before their Cambodian
neighbors and at about the same time as the Thais as part of what appears to
be a widespread Ice Age development of pottery technology. Further
evidences of painting are manifested in the tattoo tradition of early Filipinos,
in particular the Visayans, whom Spanish explorers referred to as Pintados
or the 'Painted People'.[35] They decorated their bodies in various colored
pigmentations with designs referencing flora and fauna and heavenly
bodies. Some of the most elaborate painting done by early Filipinos that
survives to the present day is manifested among the arts and architecture of
the Maranao who are well known for the Nāga Dragons and the Sarimanok
carved and painted in the beautiful Panolong of their Torogan or King's
House.

Juan Luna, La Bulaqueña, Filipinos began creating paintings in

1895 the European tradition during the
17th-century Spanish period.[36]
The earliest of these paintings were
Church frescoes and religious imagery from Biblical sources as well
as engravings, sculptures and lithographs featuring Christian icons
and European nobility. Most of the paintings and sculptures
between the 19th and 20th century were a mixture of religious,
political, and landscape artwork, with qualities of sweetness, dark, Juan Luna, The Parisian Life, 1892
and light. Early modernist painters such as Damián Domingo were
associated with religious and secular paintings. The art of Juan
Luna and Félix Hidalgo showed a trend toward political statement. Artists such as Fernando Amorsolo used
post-modernism to produce paintings that illustrated Philippine culture, nature, and harmony. Other artists
such as Fernando Zóbel used reality and abstraction in their work.
 Juan Luna, The Death of Juan Luna, Spoliarium, Nuestra Senora de la
Cleopatra, 1881 c. 1884 Soledad de Porta Vaga

Lila Church ceiling Lorenzo de la Rocha Fabián de la Rosa,

painting Icaza, Mujer filipina, 1895 Women Working in rice
field, 1902

Juan Luna, Tampuhan, José Honorato Lozano,

1895 Indios, 1847

Western

Egypt, Greece and Rome

Ancient Egypt, a civilization with very strong traditions of architecture and sculpture (both originally
painted in bright colours) also had many mural paintings in temples and buildings, and painted illustrations
on papyrus manuscripts. Egyptian wall painting and decorative painting is often graphic, sometimes more
symbolic than realistic. Egyptian painting depicts figures in bold outline and flat silhouette, in which
symmetry is a constant characteristic. Egyptian painting has close connection with its written language –
called Egyptian hieroglyphs. Painted symbols are found amongst the first forms of written language. The
Egyptians also painted on linen, remnants of which survive today.
Ancient Egyptian paintings survived due to the extremely dry
climate. The ancient Egyptians created paintings to make the
afterlife of the deceased a pleasant place. The themes included
journey through the afterworld or their protective deities introducing
the deceased to the gods of the underworld. Some examples of such
paintings are paintings of the gods and goddesses Ra, Horus,
Anubis, Nut, Osiris and Isis. Some tomb paintings show activities
that the deceased were involved in when they were alive and
wished to carry on doing for eternity. In the New Kingdom and
later, the Book of the Dead was buried with the entombed person. It
was considered important for an introduction to the afterlife.

Hellenistic Greek terracotta funerary

wall painting, 3rd century BC

Sennedjem plows his Ancient Egypt,The

fields with a pair of oxen, Goddess Isis, wall
c. 1200 BC painting, c. 1360 BC

Ancient Egypt, Queen Ancient Egypt, papyrus Ancient Egypt

Nefertari
Ancient Egypt Knossos, Minoan Pitsa panels, one of the
civilization, Bronze Age few surviving panel
Crete paintings from Archaic
Greece, c. 540–530 BC

Symposium scene in the Mural of soldiers from A Greek fighting an

Tomb of the Diver at Agios Athanasios, Amazon. Detail from
Paestum, circa 480 BC Thessaloniki, Ancient painted sarcophagus
Greek art Macedonia, 4th century found in Italy, 350-325 BC
BC

Fresco of an ancient Fresco depicting sacrifice Roman art showing

Macedonian soldier of Iphigenia Hercules and Telephus
(thorakitai) wearing
chainmail armor and
bearing a thureos shield,
3rd century BC
Roman art showing Roman art showing Roman art showing
Meleager and Atalanta Dirce's punishment Pirithous and Hippodamia

Roman art, Pompeii, Villa Roman art, Villa Roman art, Pompeii
of the Mysteries, c. 60-50 Boscoreale frescos, c. 40
BC BC

The Three Graces, The Fall of Icarus, fresco Roman art, Pompeii
fresco from Pompeii from Pompeii, 40-79 AD
 Roman art, Fayum Roman art from the Cupids playing with a
mummy portraits from House of the Vettii, lyre, Roman fresco from
Roman Egypt Pompeii, 1st century AD Herculaneum

Roman fresco with a

seated Venus, the so-
called "Dea Barberini",
4th century AD

To the north of Egypt was the Minoan civilization centered on the island of Crete. The wall paintings found
in the palace of Knossos are similar to that of the Egyptians but much more free in style. Mycenaean
Greece, beginning around 1600 BC, produced similar art to that of Minoan Crete. Ancient Greek art during
the Greek Dark Age became far less complex, but the renewal of Greek civilization throughout the
Mediterranean during Archaic Greece brought about new forms of Greek art with the Orientalizing style.

Ancient Greece had skilled painters, sculptors (though

both endeavours were regarded as mere manual labour
at the time), and architects. The Parthenon is an
example of their architecture that has lasted to modern
days. Greek marble sculpture is often described as the
highest form of Classical art. Painting on pottery of
Ancient Greece and ceramics gives a particularly
informative glimpse into the way society in Ancient
Greece functioned. Black-figure vase painting and
A fresco showing Hades and Persephone riding in
Red-figure vase painting gives many surviving
a chariot, from the tomb of Queen Eurydice I of
examples of what Greek painting was. Some famous
Macedon at Vergina, Greece, 4th century BC
Greek painters on wooden panels who are mentioned
in texts are Apelles, Zeuxis and Parrhasius, however
few examples of Ancient Greek panel painting survive, mostly just written descriptions by their
contemporaries or later Romans. Zeuxis lived in 5–6 BC and was said to be the first to use sfumato.
According to Pliny the Elder, the realism of his paintings was such that birds tried to eat the painted grapes.
Apelles is described as the greatest painter of Antiquity for perfect technique in drawing, brilliant color and
modeling.

Roman art was influenced by Greece and can in part be taken as a descendant of ancient Greek painting.
However, Roman painting does have important unique characteristics. Surviving Roman paintings include
wall paintings and frescoes, many from villas in Campania, in Southern Italy at sites such as Pompeii and
Herculaneum. Such painting can be grouped into four main "styles" or periods[37] and may contain the first
examples of trompe-l'œil, pseudo-perspective, and pure landscape.[38] Almost the only painted portraits
surviving from the Ancient world are a large number of coffin-portraits of bust form found in the Late
Antique cemetery of Al-Fayum. Although these were neither of the best period nor the highest quality, they
are impressive in themselves, and give an idea of the quality that the finest ancient work must have had. A
very small number of miniatures from Late Antique illustrated books also survive, and a rather larger
number of copies of them from the Early Medieval period.

Middle Ages

Cotton Genesis A Byzantine icon, 6th Byzantine art mosaics in

miniature of Abraham century Ravenna
Meeting Angels

Byzantine, 6th century Book of Kells Book of Kells

Limbourg Brothers Limbourg Brothers Book of Hours

The Capture of The Morgan Leaf, from Yaroslavl Gospels c.

Jerusalem during the the Winchester Bible 1220s
First Crusade, c. 1099 1160–75, Scenes from
the life of David

Carolingian Carolingian Saint Mark Evangelist portrait

Giottino Vitale da Bologna Simone Martini

Simone Martini Cimabue Giotto

Giotto Giotto Andrei Rublev

Andrei Rublev Ambrogio Lorenzetti Pietro Lorenzetti

Duccio Bonaventura Berlinghieri, Chora Church

St Francis of Assisi, 1235
 Cathedral of the Rogier van der Weyden, Rogier van der Weyden,
Archangel (c. 1435) St Ivo (c. 1450)

Voronet Monastery

The rise of Christianity imparted a different spirit and aim to painting styles. Byzantine art, once its style
was established by the 6th century, placed great emphasis on retaining traditional iconography and style,
and gradually evolved during the thousand years of the Byzantine Empire and the living traditions of Greek
and Russian Orthodox icon-painting. Byzantine painting has a hieratic feeling and icons were and still are
seen as a representation of divine revelation. There were many frescos, but fewer of these have survived
than mosaics. Byzantine art has been compared to contemporary abstraction, in its flatness and highly
stylised depictions of figures and landscape. Some periods of Byzantine art, especially the so-called
Macedonian art of around the 10th century, are more flexible in approach. Frescos of the Palaeologian
Renaissance of the early 14th century survive in the Chora Church in Istanbul.

In post-Antique Catholic Europe the first distinctive artistic style to emerge

that included painting was the Insular art of the British Isles, where the only
surviving examples are miniatures in Illuminated manuscripts such as the
Book of Kells.[39] These are most famous for their abstract decoration,
although figures, and sometimes scenes, were also depicted, especially in
Evangelist portraits. Carolingian and Ottonian art also survives mostly in
manuscripts, although some wall-painting remain, and more are
documented. The art of this period combines Insular and "barbarian"
influences with a strong Byzantine influence and an aspiration to recover
classical monumentality and poise.

Walls of Romanesque and Gothic churches were decorated with frescoes as

well as sculpture and many of the few remaining murals have great Book of Hours
intensity, and combine the decorative energy of Insular art with a new
monumentality in the treatment of figures. Far more miniatures in Illuminated manuscripts survive from the
period, showing the same characteristics, which continue into the Gothic period.

Panel painting becomes more common during the Romanesque period, under the heavy influence of
Byzantine icons. Towards the middle of the 13th century, Medieval art and Gothic painting became more
realistic, with the beginnings of interest in the depiction of volume and perspective in Italy with Cimabue
and then his pupil Giotto. From Giotto on, the treatment of composition by the best painters also became
much more free and innovative. They are considered to be the two great medieval masters of painting in
western culture. Cimabue, within the Byzantine tradition, used a more realistic and dramatic approach to his
art. His pupil, Giotto, took these innovations to a higher level which in turn set the foundations for the
western painting tradition. Both artists were pioneers in the move towards naturalism.

Churches were built with more and more windows and the use of colorful stained glass become a staple in
decoration. One of the most famous examples of this is found in the cathedral of Notre Dame de Paris. By
the 14th century Western societies were both richer and more cultivated and painters found new patrons in
the nobility and even the bourgeoisie. Illuminated manuscripts took on a new character and slim,
fashionably dressed court women were shown in their landscapes. This style soon became known as
International style and tempera panel paintings and altarpieces gained importance.

Renaissance and Mannerism

Robert Campin, c. 1425 Jan van Eyck, 1434 Rogier van der Weyden,
c. 1435

Hugo van der Goes, Dieric Bouts, 1464–1467 Hans Memling, c. 1466–
c. 1470 1473
Petrus Christus, c. 1470 Hieronymus Bosch, Fra Angelico, 1425–1428
c. 1480–1505

Paolo Uccello, c. 1470 Masaccio, 1426–1427 Jean Fouquet, 1450

Andrea Mantegna, c. Piero della Francesca, Sandro Botticelli, 1483–

1458–1460 1463–1465 1485

Leonardo da Vinci, 1503– Raphael, 1505–1506 Michelangelo, c. 1511

1506
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Albrecht Dürer, 1500 Matthias Grünewald,
c. 1530 1512–1516

Giovanni Bellini, c. 1480 Giorgione, c. 1505 Titian, 1520–1523

École de Fontainebleau, Bronzino, 1540–1545 Pieter Bruegel, 1565

1530
 Hans Holbein the Jacopo Tintoretto, 1582 Paolo Veronese, 1562–
Younger, 1527 1563

Joachim Wtewael, 1595 El Greco, 1596–1600

The Renaissance (French for 'rebirth'), a cultural movement roughly spanning the 14th through the mid-
17th century, heralded the study of classical sources, as well as advances in science which profoundly
influenced European intellectual and artistic life. In the Low Countries, especially in modern day Flanders,
a new way of painting was established in the beginning of the 15th century. In the footsteps of the
developments made in the illumination of manuscripts, especially by the Limbourg Brothers, artists became
fascinated by the tangible in the visible world and began representing objects in an extremely naturalistic
way.[40] The adoption of oil painting whose invention was traditionally, but erroneously, credited to Jan van
Eyck, made possible a new verisimilitude in depicting this naturalism. The medium of oil paint was already
present in the work of Melchior Broederlam, but painters like Jan van Eyck and Robert Campin brought its
use to new heights and employed it to represent the naturalism they were aiming for. With this new medium
the painters of this period were capable of creating richer colors with a deep intense tonality. The illusion of
glowing light with a porcelain-like finish characterized Early Netherlandish painting and was a major
difference to the matte surface of tempera paint used in Italy.[40] Unlike the Italians, whose work drew
heavily from the art of Ancient Greece and Rome, the northerners retained a stylistic residue of the sculpture
and illuminated manuscripts of the Middle Ages (especially its naturalism). The most important artist of this
time was Jan van Eyck, whose work ranks among the finest made by artists who are now known as Early
Netherlandish painters or Flemish Primitives (since most artists were active in cities in modern day
Flanders). The first painter of this period was the Master of Flémalle, nowadays identified as Robert
Campin, whose work follows the art of the International Gothic. Another important painter of this period
was Rogier van der Weyden, whose compositions stressed human emotion and drama, demonstrated for
instance in his Descent from the Cross, which ranks among the most famous works of the 15th century and
was the most influential Netherlandish painting of Christ's crucifixion. Other important artists from this
period are Hugo van der Goes (whose work was highly influential in Italy), Dieric Bouts (who was among
the first northern painters to demonstrate the use of a single vanishing point),[40] Petrus Christus, Hans
Memling and Gerard David.

In Italy, the art of Classical antiquity inspired a style of painting that emphasized the ideal. Artists such as
Paolo Uccello, Masaccio, Fra Angelico, Piero della Francesca, Andrea Mantegna, Filippo Lippi, Sandro
Botticelli, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo Buonarroti, and Raphael took painting to a higher level
through the use of perspective, the study of human anatomy and proportion, and through their development
of an unprecedented refinement in drawing and painting techniques. A somewhat more naturalistic style
emerged in Venice. Painters of the Venetian school, such as Giovanni Bellini, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto,
and Veronese, were less concerned with precision in their drawing than with the richness of color and unity
of effect that could be achieved by a more spontaneous approach to painting.

Flemish, Dutch and German painters of the Renaissance such as Hans Holbein the Younger, Albrecht
Dürer, Lucas Cranach, Matthias Grünewald, Hieronymus Bosch, and Pieter Bruegel represent a different
approach from their Italian colleagues, one that is more realistic and less idealized. Genre painting became a
popular idiom amongst the Northern painters like Pieter Bruegel.

The French tradition of International Gothic, will develop a new style by integrating the strong chromatic
tones of Gothic with the Italian perspective and volumes of the Quattrocento, as well as the naturalistic
innovations of the Flemish primitives, called the École de Tours. Its main representatives are Jean Fouquet,
Barthélemy d'Eyck from the Netherlands, Jean and François Clouet, Jean Perreal, Nicolas Froment and the
École de Fontainebleau.

Renaissance painting reflects the revolution of ideas and science (astronomy, geography) that occurred in
this period, the Reformation, and the invention of the printing press. Dürer, considered one of the greatest of
printmakers, states that painters are not mere artisans but thinkers as well. With the development of easel
painting in the Renaissance, painting gained independence from architecture. Easel paintings—movable
pictures which could be hung easily on walls—became a popular alternative to paintings fixed to furniture,
walls or other structures. Following centuries dominated by religious imagery, secular subject matter slowly
returned to Western painting. Artists included visions of the world around them, or the products of their own
imaginations in their paintings. Those who could afford the expense could become patrons and commission
portraits of themselves or their family.

The High Renaissance gave rise to a stylized art known as Mannerism. In place of the balanced
compositions and rational approach to perspective that characterized art at the dawn of the 16th century, the
Mannerists sought instability, artifice, and doubt. The unperturbed faces and gestures of Piero della
Francesca and the calm Virgins of Raphael are replaced by the troubled expressions of Pontormo and the
emotional intensity of El Greco. Restless and unstable compositions, often extreme or disjunctive effects of
perspective, and stylized poses are characteristic of Italian Mannerists such as Tintoretto, Pontormo, and
Bronzino, and appeared later in the work of Northern Mannerists such as Hendrick Goltzius, Bartholomeus
Spranger, and Joachim Wtewael.

Baroque and Rococo

Caravaggio, 1595–1597 Artemisia Gentileschi, Peter Paul Rubens,

1614–1620 1632–1635

Frans Hals, 1624 Judith Leyster, 1630 Rembrandt van Rijn,

1642

Pieter de Hooch, 1658 Johannes Vermeer, Jan Steen, c. 1665

c. 1660
Jacob van Ruisdael, Willem Claesz. Heda, Diego Velázquez, 1656–
1670 1631 1657

Jusepe de Ribera, 1620– Nicolas Poussin, c. Georges de La Tour,

1624 1637–1638 1640s

Guido Reni, 1625 Salvator Rosa, c. 1645 Bartolomé Esteban

Murillo, c. 1650–1655

Claude Lorrain, 1648 Anthony van Dyck, Canaletto, 1723

1635–1636
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Antoine Watteau, c. 1720 Jean-Honoré Fragonard,
c. 1752–1753 c. 1767–1768

François Boucher, 1751 Élisabeth Louise Vigée- Maurice Quentin de La

Le Brun, after 1782 Tour, c. 1761

Thomas Gainsborough, Joshua Reynolds, 1769 Jean-Baptiste-Siméon

c. 1770 Chardin, c. 1728

William Hogarth, c. 1757 Angelica Kauffman,

c. 1780
Baroque painting is associated with the Baroque cultural movement, a movement often identified with
Absolutism and the Counter Reformation or Catholic Revival;[41][42] the existence of important Baroque
painting in non-absolutist and Protestant states also, however, underscores its popularity, as the style spread
throughout Western Europe.[43]

Baroque painting is characterized by great drama, rich, deep color, and intense light and dark shadows.
Baroque art was meant to evoke emotion and passion instead of the calm rationality that had been prized
during the Renaissance. During the period beginning around 1600 and continuing throughout the 17th
century, painting is characterized as Baroque. Among the greatest painters of the Baroque are Caravaggio,
Rembrandt, Frans Hals, Rubens, Velázquez, Poussin, and Johannes Vermeer. Caravaggio is an heir of the
humanist painting of the High Renaissance. His realistic approach to the human figure, painted directly
from life and dramatically spotlit against a dark background, shocked his contemporaries and opened a new
chapter in the history of painting. Baroque painting often dramatizes scenes using light effects; this can be
seen in works by Rembrandt, Vermeer, Le Nain, La Tour, and Jusepe de Ribera.

In Italy, the Baroque style is epitomized by religious and

mythological paintings in the Grand Manner by artists such as the
Carracci, Guido Reni, and Luca Giordano. Illusionistic church
ceiling frescoes by Pietro da Cortona seemed to open to the sky. A
much quieter type of Baroque emerged in the Dutch Republic,
where easel paintings of everyday subjects were popular with
middle-class collectors, and many painters became specialists in
genre, others in landscape or seascape or still life. Vermeer, Gerard
ter Borch, and Pieter de Hooch brought great technical refinement Rembrandt van Rijn, The Jewish
to the painting of domestic scenes, as did Willem Claesz. Heda to Bride, ca. 1665–1669
still life. In contrast, Rembrandt excelled in painting every type of
subject, and developed an individual painterly style in which the
chiaroscuro and dark backgrounds derived from Caravaggio and the Utrecht Caravaggists lose their
theatrical quality.

During the 18th century, Rococo followed as a lighter extension of Baroque, often frivolous and erotic.
Rococo developed first in the decorative arts and interior design in France. Louis XV's succession brought
a change in the court artists and general artistic fashion. The 1730s represented the height of Rococo
development in France exemplified by the works of Antoine Watteau and François Boucher. Rococo still
maintained the Baroque taste for complex forms and intricate patterns, but by this point, it had begun to
integrate a variety of diverse characteristics, including a taste for Oriental designs and asymmetric
compositions.

The Rococo style spread with French artists and engraved publications. It was readily received in the
Catholic parts of Germany, Bohemia, and Austria, where it was merged with the lively German Baroque
traditions. German Rococo was applied with enthusiasm to churches and palaces, particularly in the south,
while Frederician Rococo developed in the Kingdom of Prussia.

The French masters Watteau, Boucher and Fragonard represent the style, as do Giovanni Battista Tiepolo
and Jean-Baptiste-Siméon Chardin who was considered by some as the best French painter of the 18th
century – the Anti-Rococo. Portraiture was an important component of painting in all countries, but
especially in England, where the leaders were William Hogarth, in a blunt realist style, and Francis
Hayman, Angelica Kauffman (who was Swiss), Thomas Gainsborough and Joshua Reynolds in more
flattering styles influenced by Anthony van Dyck. In France during the Rococo era Jean-Baptiste Greuze
(the favorite painter of Denis Diderot),[44] excelled in portraits and history paintings, and Maurice Quentin
de La Tour and Élisabeth Vigée-Lebrun were highly accomplished portrait painters. La Tour specialized in
pastel painting, which became a popular medium during this period.

William Hogarth helped develop a theoretical foundation for Rococo beauty. Though not intentionally
referencing the movement, he argued in his Analysis of Beauty (1753) that the undulating lines and S-curves
prominent in Rococo were the basis for grace and beauty in art or nature (unlike the straight line or the
circle in Classicism). The beginning of the end for Rococo came in the early 1760s as figures like Voltaire
and Jacques-François Blondel began to voice their criticism of the superficiality and degeneracy of the art.
Blondel decried the "ridiculous jumble of shells, dragons, reeds, palm-trees and plants" in contemporary
interiors.[45]

By 1785, Rococo had passed out of fashion in France, replaced by the order and seriousness of
Neoclassical artists like Jacques-Louis David.

19th century: Neo-classicism, History painting, Romanticism,

Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Symbolism

Jacques-Louis David John Singleton Copley John Constable 1802

1787 1778

Antoine-Jean Gros, 1804 Jean Auguste Dominique Francisco de Goya 1814

Ingres 1814
Théodore Géricault 1819 Caspar David Friedrich Eugène Delacroix 1830
c.1822

J. M. W. Turner 1838 Gustave Courbet 1849– Ivan Aivazovsky 1850

1850

Albert Bierstadt 1866 Camille Corot c.1867 Ilya Repin 1870–1873

Camille Pissarro 1872 Claude Monet 1872 Pierre-Auguste Renoir

1876
Edgar Degas 1876 Édouard Manet 1882 Thomas Eakins 1884–
1885

Georges Seurat 1884– Valentin Serov 1887 Vincent van Gogh 1889
1886

Albert Pinkham Ryder Paul Gauguin 1897–1898 Winslow Homer 1899

1890

Paul Cézanne 1906

After Rococo there arose in the late 18th century, in architecture, and then in painting severe neo-classicism,
best represented by such artists as David and his heir Ingres. Ingres' work already contains much of the
sensuality, but none of the spontaneity, that was to characterize Romanticism. This movement turned its
attention toward landscape and nature as well as the human figure and the supremacy of natural order above
mankind's will. There is opposition to Enlightenment ideals, as humanity is seen being at the whim of
nature's chaos. The idea that human beings are not above the forces of Nature is in contradiction to Ancient
Greek and Renaissance ideals where mankind was above all things and owned his fate. This thinking led
romantic artists to depict the sublime, ruined churches, shipwrecks, massacres and madness.

By the mid-19th-century painters became liberated from the demands of their patronage to only depict
scenes from religion, mythology, portraiture or history. The idea "art for art's sake" began to find expression
in the work of painters like Francisco de Goya, John Constable, and J.M.W. Turner. Romantic painters saw
landscape painting as an important genre to express the vanity of mankind in opposition to the grandeur of
nature. Until then, landscape painting wasn't considered the most important genre for painters (like
portraiture or history painting). But painters like J.M.W. Turner and Caspar David Friedrich managed to
elevate landscape painting to an eminence rivalling history painting. Some of the major painters of this
period are Eugène Delacroix, Théodore Géricault, J. M. W. Turner, Caspar David Friedrich and John
Constable. Francisco de Goya's late work demonstrates the Romantic interest in the irrational, while the
work of Arnold Böcklin evokes mystery and the paintings of Aesthetic movement artist James McNeill
Whistler evoke both sophistication and decadence. In the United States the Romantic tradition of landscape
painting was known as the Hudson River School:[46] exponents include Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin
Church, Albert Bierstadt, Thomas Moran, and John Frederick Kensett. Luminism was a movement in
American landscape painting related to the Hudson River School.

The leading Barbizon School painter Camille Corot painted in both

a romantic and a realistic vein; his work prefigures Impressionism,
as does the paintings of Eugène Boudin who was one of the first
French landscape painters to paint outdoors. Boudin was also an
important influence on the young Claude Monet, whom in 1857 he
introduced to Plein air painting. A major force in the turn towards
Realism at mid-century was Gustave Courbet. In the latter third of
the century Impressionists like Édouard Manet, Claude Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Camille Pissarro, Alfred Sisley, Berthe
Morisot, Mary Cassatt, and Edgar Degas worked in a more direct
approach than had previously been exhibited publicly. They
eschewed allegory and narrative in favor of individualized
responses to the modern world, sometimes painted with little or no
preparatory study, relying on deftness of drawing and a highly
Young Mother Sewing, Mary Cassatt
chromatic pallette. Manet, Degas, Renoir, Morisot, and Cassatt
concentrated primarily on the human subject. Both Manet and
Degas reinterpreted classical figurative canons within contemporary situations; in Manet's case the re-
imaginings met with hostile public reception. Renoir, Morisot, and Cassatt turned to domestic life for
inspiration, with Renoir focusing on the female nude. Monet, Pissarro, and Sisley used the landscape as
their primary motif, the transience of light and weather playing a major role in their work. While Sisley most
closely adhered to the original principals of the Impressionist perception of the landscape, Monet sought
challenges in increasingly chromatic and changeable conditions, culminating in his series of monumental
works of Water Lilies painted in Giverny.
Pissarro adopted some of the experiments of Post-Impressionism. Slightly
younger Post-Impressionists like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, and
Georges Seurat, along with Paul Cézanne led art to the edge of modernism;
for Gauguin Impressionism gave way to a personal symbolism; Seurat
transformed Impressionism's broken color into a scientific optical study,
structured on frieze-like compositions; Van Gogh's turbulent method of
paint application, coupled with a sonorous use of color, predicted
Expressionism and Fauvism, and Cézanne, desiring to unite classical
composition with a revolutionary abstraction of natural forms, would come
to be seen as a precursor of 20th-century art. The spell of Impressionism
was felt throughout the world, including in the United States, where it
became integral to the painting of American Impressionists such as Childe Edvard Munch, 1893, early
example of Expressionism
Hassam, John Twachtman, and Theodore Robinson; and in Australia where
painters of the Heidelberg School such as Arthur Streeton, Frederick
McCubbin and Charles Conder painted en plein air and were particularly interested in the Australian
landscape and light. It also exerted influence on painters who were not primarily Impressionistic in theory,
like the portrait and landscape painter John Singer Sargent. At the same time in America at the turn of the
20th century there existed a native and nearly insular realism, as richly embodied in the figurative work of
Thomas Eakins, the Ashcan School, and the landscapes and seascapes of Winslow Homer, all of whose
paintings were deeply invested in the solidity of natural forms. The visionary landscape, a motive largely
dependent on the ambiguity of the nocturne, found its advocates in Albert Pinkham Ryder and Ralph Albert
Blakelock.

In the late 19th century there also were several, rather dissimilar, groups of Symbolist painters whose works
resonated with younger artists of the 20th century, especially with the Fauvists and the Surrealists. Among
them were Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Henri Fantin-Latour, Arnold
Böcklin, Edvard Munch, Félicien Rops, and Jan Toorop, and Gustav Klimt amongst others including the
Russian Symbolists like Mikhail Vrubel.

Symbolist painters mined mythology and dream imagery for a visual language of the soul, seeking
evocative paintings that brought to mind a static world of silence. The symbols used in Symbolism are not
the familiar emblems of mainstream iconography but intensely personal, private, obscure and ambiguous
references. More a philosophy than an actual style of art, the Symbolist painters influenced the
contemporary Art Nouveau movement and Les Nabis. In their exploration of dreamlike subjects, symbolist
painters are found across centuries and cultures, as they are still today; Bernard Delvaille has described
René Magritte's surrealism as "Symbolism plus Freud".[47]

20th-century modern and contemporary

The heritage of painters like Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, and Seurat was essential for the development of
modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists
revolutionized the Paris art world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive, landscapes and figure paintings
that the critics called Fauvism. Pablo Picasso made his first cubist paintings based on Cézanne's idea that all
depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone.

Pioneers of the 20th century

Henri Matisse 1905, Pablo Picasso 1907, Georges Braque 1910,

Fauvism Proto-Cubism Analytic Cubism

Henri Rousseau 1910

Primitive Surrealism

The heritage of painters like Van Gogh, Cézanne, Gauguin, and

Seurat was essential for the development of modern art. At the
beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other
young artists including the pre-cubist Georges Braque, André
Derain, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the
Paris art world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive, landscapes
and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism. Henri Matisse's
second version of The Dance signifies a key point in his career and Henri Matisse 1909, late Fauvism
in the development of modern painting.[48] It reflects Matisse's
incipient fascination with primitive art: the intense warm colors
against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of dancing nudes convey the feelings
of emotional liberation and hedonism. Pablo Picasso made his first cubist paintings based on Cézanne's idea
that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les
Demoiselles d'Avignon 1907, Picasso dramatically created a new and radical picture depicting a raw and
primitive brothel scene with five prostitutes, violently painted women, reminiscent of African tribal masks
and his own new Cubist inventions. analytic Cubism was jointly developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges
Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about 1908 through 1912. Analytic cubism, the
first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed by synthetic cubism, practised by Braque, Picasso,
Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and countless other artists into the 1920s.
Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier
collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.

Les Fauves (French for The Wild Beasts) were early-20th-century

painters, experimenting with freedom of expression through color.
The name was given, humorously and not as a compliment, to the
group by art critic Louis Vauxcelles. Fauvism was a short-lived and
loose grouping of early-20th-century artists whose works
emphasized painterly qualities, and the imaginative use of deep
color over the representational values. Fauvists made the subject of
the painting easy to read, exaggerated perspectives and an
interesting prescient prediction of the Fauves was expressed in 1888
Pierre Bonnard, 1913, European by Paul Gauguin to Paul Sérusier,
modernist Narrative painting

How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in
yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure
ultramarine; these red leaves? Put in vermilion.

The leaders of the movement were Henri Matisse and André Derain – friendly rivals of a sort, each with his
own followers. Ultimately Matisse became the yang to Picasso's yin in the 20th century. Fauvist painters
included Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, Maurice de Vlaminck, Raoul Dufy, Othon Friesz, the Dutch
painter Kees van Dongen, and Picasso's partner in Cubism, Georges Braque amongst others.[49]

Fauvism, as a movement, had no concrete theories, and was short

lived, beginning in 1905 and ending in 1907, they only had three
exhibitions. Matisse was seen as the leader of the movement, due to
his seniority in age and prior self-establishment in the academic art
world. His 1905 portrait of Mme. Matisse The Green Line, (above),
caused a sensation in Paris when it was first exhibited. He said he
wanted to create art to delight; art as a decoration was his purpose
and it can be said that his use of bright colors tries to maintain
serenity of composition. In 1906 at the suggestion of his dealer
Ambroise Vollard, André Derain went to London and produced a
series of paintings like Charing Cross Bridge, London (above) in
the Fauvist style, paraphrasing the famous series by the
Impressionist painter Claude Monet. Masters like Henri Matisse and
Pierre Bonnard continued developing their narrative styles Giorgio de Chirico 1914, pre-
independent of any movement throughout the 20th century. Surrealism

By 1907 Fauvism no longer was a shocking new movement, soon

it was replaced by Cubism on the critics' radar screen as the latest new development in Contemporary Art of
the time. In 1907 Appolinaire, commenting about Matisse in an article published in La Falange, said, "We
are not here in the presence of an extravagant or an extremist undertaking: Matisse's art is eminently
reasonable."[50] Analytic cubism was jointly developed by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque from about
1908 through 1912. Analytic cubism, the first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed by Synthetic
cubism, practised by Braque, Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and
countless other artists into the 1920s. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different
textures, surfaces, collage elements, papier collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.

During the years between 1910 and the end of World War I and after the heyday of cubism, several
movements emerged in Paris. Giorgio de Chirico moved to Paris in July 1911, where he joined his brother
Andrea (the poet and painter known as Alberto Savinio). Through his brother he met Pierre Laprade a
member of the jury at the Salon d'Automne, where he exhibited three of his dreamlike works: Enigma of
the Oracle, Enigma of an Afternoon and Self-Portrait. During 1913 he exhibited his work at the Salon des
Indépendants and Salon d'Automne, his work was noticed by Pablo Picasso and Guillaume Apollinaire and
several others. His compelling and mysterious paintings are considered instrumental to the early beginnings
of Surrealism. During the first half of the 20th century in Europe masters like Georges Braque, André
Derain, and Giorgio de Chirico continued painting independent of any movement.

Pioneers of Modern art

André Derain, 1905, Le Henri Matisse, 1905, Jean Metzinger, c.1905,

séchage des voiles (The Woman with a Hat, Two Nudes in an Exotic
Drying Sails), Fauvism Fauvism Landscape, Divisionism,
Proto-Cubism

Edvard Munch, Death of Gustav Klimt, Pablo Picasso, 1908,

Marat I (1907), an expressionism, 1907– Dryad, Proto-Cubism
example of 1908
Expressionism
Marc Chagall 1911, Marcel Duchamp, 1911– Albert Gleizes, 1912,
expressionism and 1912, Cubism and Dada l'Homme au Balcon, Man
surrealism on a Balcony (Portrait of
Dr. Théo Morinaud),
Cubism

Jean Metzinger, 1912, Franz Marc 1912, Der Robert Delaunay, 1911,
Danseuse au café Blaue Reiter Orphism
(Dancer in a café),
Cubism
 Francis Picabia, 1912, La Wassily Kandinsky 1913, Amedeo Modigliani,
Source (The Spring), birth of abstract art Portrait of Soutine 1916,
Abstract art example of
Expressionism

Fernand Léger 1919,

synthetic Cubism, tubism

In the first two decades of the 20th century and after Cubism, several other important movements emerged;
futurism (Balla), abstract art (Kandinsky), Der Blaue Reiter), Bauhaus, (Kandinsky) and (Klee), Orphism,
(Robert Delaunay and František Kupka), Synchromism (Morgan Russell), De Stijl (Mondrian),
Suprematism (Malevich), Constructivism (Tatlin), Dadaism (Duchamp, Picabia, Arp) and Surrealism (De
Chirico, André Breton, Miró, Magritte, Dalí, Ernst). Modern painting influenced all the visual arts, from
Modernist architecture and design, to avant-garde film, theatre and modern dance and became an
experimental laboratory for the expression of visual experience, from photography and concrete poetry to
advertising art and fashion. Van Gogh's painting exerted great influence upon 20th-century Expressionism,
as can be seen in the work of the Fauves, Die Brücke (a group led by German painter Ernst Kirchner), and
the Expressionism of Edvard Munch, Egon Schiele, Marc Chagall, Amedeo Modigliani, Chaïm Soutine
and others..

Wassily Kandinsky a Russian painter, printmaker and art theorist, one of the most famous 20th-century
artists is generally considered the first important painter of modern abstract art. As an early Modernist, in
search of new modes of visual expression, and spiritual expression, he theorized as did contemporary
occultists and theosophists, that pure visual abstraction had corollary vibrations with sound and music. They
posited that pure abstraction could express pure spirituality. His earliest abstractions were generally titled as
the example in the (above gallery) Composition VII, making connection to the work of the composers of
music. Kandinsky included many of his theories about abstract art in his book Concerning the Spiritual in
Art. Robert Delaunay was a French artist who is associated with Orphism, (reminiscent of a link between
pure abstraction and cubism). His later works were more abstract, reminiscent of Paul Klee. His key
contributions to abstract painting refer to his bold use of color, and a clear love of experimentation of both
depth and tone. At the invitation of Wassily Kandinsky, Delaunay and his wife the artist Sonia Delaunay,
joined The Blue Rider (Der Blaue Reiter), a Munich-based group of abstract artists, in 1911, and his art
took a turn to the abstract.[51]

Other major pioneers of early abstraction include Russian painter Kasimir Malevich, who after the Russian
Revolution in 1917, and after pressure from the Stalinist regime in 1924 returned to painting imagery and
Peasants and Workers in the field, and Swiss painter Paul Klee whose masterful color experiments made
him an important pioneer of abstract painting at the Bauhaus. Still other important pioneers of abstract
painting include the Swedish artist Hilma af Klint, Czech painter František Kupka as well as American
artists Stanton Macdonald-Wright and Morgan Russell who, in 1912, founded Synchromism, an art
movement that closely resembles Orphism.

Expressionism and Symbolism are broad rubrics that involve several important and related movements in
20th-century painting that dominated much of the avant-garde art being made in Western, Eastern and
Northern Europe. Expressionist works were painted largely between World War I and World War II, mostly
in France, Germany, Norway, Russia, Belgium, and Austria. Expressionist artists are related to both
Surrealism and Symbolism and are each uniquely and somewhat eccentrically personal. Fauvism, Die
Brücke, and Der Blaue Reiter are three of the best known groups of Expressionist and Symbolist painters.

Artists as interesting and diverse as Marc Chagall, whose painting I and the Village, (above) tells an
autobiographical story that examines the relationship between the artist and his origins, with a lexicon of
artistic Symbolism. Gustav Klimt, Egon Schiele, Edvard Munch, Emil Nolde, Chaïm Soutine, James Ensor,
Oskar Kokoschka, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Max Beckmann, Franz Marc, Käthe Schmidt Kollwitz,
Georges Rouault, Amedeo Modigliani and some of the Americans abroad like Marsden Hartley, and Stuart
Davis, were considered influential expressionist painters. Although Alberto Giacometti is primarily thought
of as an intense Surrealist sculptor, he made intense expressionist paintings as well.

Pioneers of abstraction

Piet Mondrian, 1912, Kasimir Malevich 1916, Theo van Doesburg

early De Stijl Suprematism 1917, De Stijl, Neo-
Plasticism

Stanton Macdonald-
Wright 1920,
Synchromism

Piet Mondrian's art was also related to his spiritual and philosophical studies. In 1908 he became interested
in the theosophical movement launched by Helena Petrovna Blavatsky in the late 19th century. Blavatsky
believed that it was possible to attain a knowledge of nature more profound than that provided by empirical
means, and much of Mondrian's work for the rest of his life was inspired by his search for that spiritual
knowledge.

De Stijl also known as neoplasticism, was a Dutch artistic movement founded in 1917. The term De Stijl is
used to refer to a body of work from 1917 to 1931 founded in the Netherlands.[52][53]

De Stijl is also the name of a journal that was published by the Dutch painter, designer, writer, and critic
Theo van Doesburg propagating the group's theories. Next to van Doesburg, the group's principal members
were the painters Piet Mondrian, Vilmos Huszár, and Bart van der Leck, and the architects Gerrit Rietveld,
Robert van 't Hoff, and J. J. P. Oud. The artistic philosophy that formed a basis for the group's work is
known as neoplasticism – the new plastic art (or Nieuwe Beelding in Dutch).
 Proponents of De Stijl sought to express a
new utopian ideal of spiritual harmony and
order. They advocated pure abstraction and
universality by a reduction to the essentials
of form and colour; they simplified visual
compositions to the vertical and horizontal
directions, and used only primary colors
along with black and white. Indeed,
according to the Tate Gallery's online article
on neoplasticism, Mondrian himself sets
Piet Mondrian, "Composition
forth these delimitations in his essay "Neo- Morgan Russell, Cosmic
No. 10" 1939–1942, De Stijl
Plasticism in Pictorial Art". He writes, Synchromy (1913–14),
"... this new plastic idea will ignore the Synchromism
particulars of appearance, that is to say, natural form and colour. On the
contrary, it should find its expression in the abstraction of form and colour,
that is to say, in the straight line and the clearly defined primary colour." The Tate article further summarizes
that this art allows "only primary colours and non-colours, only squares and rectangles, only straight and
horizontal or vertical line."[54] The Guggenheim Museum's online article on De Stijl summarizes these traits
in similar terms: "It [De Stijl] was posited on the fundamental principle of the geometry of the straight line,
the square, and the rectangle, combined with a strong asymmetricality; the predominant use of pure primary
colors with black and white; and the relationship between positive and negative elements in an arrangement
of non-objective forms and lines."[55]

De Stijl movement was influenced by Cubist painting as well as by the mysticism and the ideas about
"ideal" geometric forms (such as the "perfect straight line") in the neoplatonic philosophy of mathematician
M. H. J. Schoenmaekers. The works of De Stijl would influence the Bauhaus style and the international
style of architecture as well as clothing and interior design. However, it did not follow the general
guidelines of an "ism" (Cubism, Futurism, Surrealism), nor did it adhere to the principles of art schools like
Bauhaus; it was a collective project, a joint enterprise.

Dada and Surrealism

Francis Picabia 1916, Dada Kurt Schwitters, 1919, Max Ernst, 1921, Surrealism
painted collage, Dada

André Masson, 1922, early

Surrealism

Marcel Duchamp, came to international prominence in the wake of

his notorious success at the New York City Armory Show in 1913,
(soon after he denounced artmaking for chess). After Duchamp's
Nude Descending a Staircase became the international cause
celebre at the 1913 Armory show in New York he created The
Bride Stripped Bare by Her Bachelors, Even, Large Glass. The
Francis Picabia, (Left) Le saint des
Large Glass pushed the art of painting to radical new limits being
saints c'est de moi qu'il s'agit dans
part painting, part collage, part construction. Duchamp became
ce portrait, 1 July 1915; (center)
closely associated with the Dada movement that began in neutral Portrait d'une jeune fille americaine
Zürich, Switzerland, during World War I and peaked from 1916 to dans l'état de nudité, 5 July 1915:
1920. The movement primarily involved visual arts, literature (right) J'ai vu et c'est de toi qu'il
(poetry, art manifestoes, art theory), theatre, and graphic design, and s'agit, De Zayas! De Zayas! Je suis
concentrated its anti war politic through a rejection of the prevailing venu sur les rivages du Pont-Euxin,
New York, 1915
standards in art through anti-art cultural works. Francis Picabia,
Man Ray, Kurt Schwitters, Tristan Tzara, Hans Richter, Jean Arp,
 Sophie Taeuber-Arp, along with Duchamp
and many others are associated with the
Dadaist movement. Duchamp and several
Dadaists are also associated with
Surrealism, the movement that dominated
European painting in the 1920s and 1930s.

In 1924 André Breton published the

Surrealist Manifesto. The Surrealist
movement in painting became synonymous
Joan Miró, Horse, Pipe and
with the avant-garde and which featured
Red Flower, 1920, abstract
artists whose works varied from the abstract Surrealism, Philadelphia
to the super-realist. With works on paper Museum of Art
like Machine Turn Quickly, (above) Francis
Marcel Duchamp, Nude Picabia continued his involvement in the
Descending a Staircase, No. Dada movement through 1919 in Zürich and Paris, before breaking away
2, 1912, Philadelphia from it after developing an interest in Surrealist art. Yves Tanguy, René
Museum of Art
Magritte and Salvador Dalí are particularly known for their realistic
depictions of dream imagery and fantastic manifestations of the imagination.
Joan Miró's The Tilled Field of 1923–1924 verges on abstraction, this early painting of a complex of objects
and figures, and arrangements of sexually active characters; was Miró's first Surrealist masterpiece.[56]
Miró's The Tilled Field also contains several parallels to Bosch's Garden of Earthly Delights: similar flocks
of birds; pools from which living creatures emerge; and oversize disembodied ears all echo the Dutch
master's work that Miró saw as a young painter in The Prado. The more abstract Joan Miró, Jean Arp,
André Masson, and Max Ernst were very influential, especially in the United States during the 1940s.
Throughout the 1930s, Surrealism continued to become more visible to the public at large. A Surrealist
group developed in Britain and, according to Breton, their 1936 London International Surrealist Exhibition
was a high water mark of the period and became the model for international exhibitions. Surrealist groups in
Japan, and especially in Latin America, the Caribbean and in Mexico produced innovative and original
works.

Dalí and Magritte created some of the most widely recognized images of the movement. The 1928/1929
painting This Is Not A Pipe, by Magritte is the subject of a Michel Foucault 1973 book, This is not a Pipe
(English edition, 1991), that discusses the painting and its paradox. Dalí joined the group in 1929, and
participated in the rapid establishment of the visual style between 1930 and 1935.

Surrealism as a visual movement had found a method: to expose psychological truth by stripping ordinary
objects of their normal significance, in order to create a compelling image that was beyond ordinary formal
organization, and perception, sometimes evoking empathy from the viewer, sometimes laughter and
sometimes outrage and bewilderment.

1931 marked a year when several Surrealist painters produced works which marked turning points in their
stylistic evolution: in one example, liquid shapes become the trademark of Dalí, particularly in his The
Persistence of Memory, which features the image of watches that sag as if they are melting. Evocations of
time and its compelling mystery and absurdity.[57]
The characteristics of this style – a combination of the depictive, the abstract, and the psychological – came
to stand for the alienation which many people felt in the modernist period, combined with the sense of
reaching more deeply into the psyche, to be "made whole with one's individuality."

Max Ernst whose 1920 painting Murdering Airplane, studied

philosophy and psychology in Bonn and was interested in the
alternative realities experienced by the insane. His paintings may
have been inspired by the psychoanalyst Sigmund Freud's study of
the delusions of a paranoiac, Daniel Paul Schreber. Freud identified
Max Ernst, 1920, early Surrealism
Schreber's fantasy of becoming a woman as a castration complex.
The central image of two pairs of legs refers to Schreber's
hermaphroditic desires. Ernst's inscription on the back of the painting reads: The picture is curious because
of its symmetry. The two sexes balance one another.[58]

During the 1920s André Masson's work was enormously influential in helping the newly arrived in Paris
and young artist Joan Miró find his roots in the new Surrealist painting. Miró acknowledged in letters to his
dealer Pierre Matisse the importance of Masson as an example to him in his early years in Paris.
Long after personal, political and professional tensions have fragmented the Surrealist group into thin air
and ether, Magritte, Miró, Dalí and the other Surrealists continue to define a visual program in the arts.
Other prominent surrealist artists include Giorgio de Chirico, Méret Oppenheim, Toyen, Grégoire
Michonze, Roberto Matta, Kay Sage, Leonora Carrington, Dorothea Tanning, and Leonor Fini among
others.

Before and after the war

Egon Schiele, Ernst Kirchner, Die Amedeo Modigliani

Symbolism and Brücke 1913 Symbolism and
Expressionism 1912 Expressionism 1917

Georgia O'Keeffe, Stuart Davis, American Chaïm Soutine,

American Modernism, Modernism 1922 Expressionism, c. 1920
1921

Der Blaue Reiter was a German movement lasting from 1911 to 1914,
fundamental to Expressionism, along with Die Brücke which was founded
the previous decade in 1905 and was a group of German expressionist
artists formed in Dresden in 1905. Founding members of Die Brücke were
Fritz Bleyl, Erich Heckel, Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Karl Schmidt-
Rottluff. Later members included Max Pechstein, Otto Mueller and others.
The group was one of the seminal ones, which in due course had a major
impact on the evolution of modern art in the 20th century and created the
style of Expressionism.[59]

Wassily Kandinsky, Franz Marc, August Macke, Alexej von Jawlensky,

whose psychically expressive painting of the Russian dancer Portrait of
Paul Klee, 1922, Bauhaus
Alexander Sakharoff, 1909 is in the gallery above, Marianne von Werefkin,
Lyonel Feininger and others founded the Der Blaue Reiter group in
response to the rejection of Kandinsky's painting Last Judgement from an exhibition. Der Blaue Reiter
lacked a central artistic manifesto, but was centered around Kandinsky and Marc. Artists Gabriele Münter
and Paul Klee were also involved.

The name of the movement comes from a painting by Kandinsky

created in 1903. It is also claimed that the name could have derived
from Marc's enthusiasm for horses and Kandinsky's love of the
colour blue. For Kandinsky, blue is the colour of spirituality: the
darker the blue, the more it awakens human desire for the eternal.

In the USA during the period between World War I and World War
II painters tended to go to Europe for recognition. Artists like
Marsden Hartley, Patrick Henry Bruce, Gerald Murphy and Stuart
Davis, created reputations abroad. In New York City, Albert Patrick Henry Bruce, American
Pinkham Ryder and Ralph Blakelock were influential and important modernism, 1924
figures in advanced American painting between 1900 and 1920.
During the 1920s photographer Alfred Stieglitz exhibited Georgia
O'Keeffe, Arthur Dove, Alfred Henry Maurer, Charles Demuth, John Marin and other artists including
European Masters Henri Matisse, Auguste Rodin, Henri Rousseau, Paul Cézanne, and Pablo Picasso, at his
gallery the 291.

Social consciousness

George Grosz, 1920, Thomas Hart Benton George Bellows, 1924,

Neue Sachlichkeit 1920, Regionalism American realism

Charles Demuth Spring,

1921, American
Precisionism (proto Pop
Art)
During the 1920s and the 1930s and the Great Depression,
Surrealism, late Cubism, the Bauhaus, De Stijl, Dada, German
Expressionism, Expressionism, and modernist and masterful color
painters like Henri Matisse and Pierre Bonnard characterized the
European art scene. In Germany Max Beckmann, Otto Dix, George
Grosz and others politicized their paintings, foreshadowing the
coming of World War II. While in America American Scene
painting and the social realism and regionalism movements that
contained both political and social commentary dominated the art Diego Rivera, Recreation of Man at
world. Artists like Ben Shahn, Thomas Hart Benton, Grant Wood, the Crossroads (renamed Man,
George Tooker, John Steuart Curry, Reginald Marsh, and others Controller of the Universe), originally
became prominent. In Latin America besides the Uruguayan painter created in 1934, Mexican muralism
Joaquín Torres García and Rufino Tamayo from Mexico, the movement
muralist movement with Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, José
Orozco, Pedro Nel Gómez and Santiago Martinez Delgado and the
Symbolist paintings by Frida Kahlo began a renaissance of the arts for the region, with a use of color and
historic, and political messages. Frida Kahlo's Symbolist works also relate strongly to Surrealism and to the
Magic Realism movement in literature. The psychological drama in many of Kahlo's self portraits (above)
underscore the vitality and relevance of her paintings to artists in the 21st century.

American Gothic is a painting by Grant Wood from 1930. Portraying a

pitchfork-holding farmer and a younger woman in front of a house of
Carpenter Gothic style, it is one of the most familiar images in 20th-century
American art. Art critics had favorable opinions about the painting, like
Gertrude Stein and Christopher Morley, they assumed the painting was
meant to be a satire of rural small-town life. It was thus seen as part of the
trend towards increasingly critical depictions of rural America, along the
lines of Sherwood Anderson's 1919 Winesburg, Ohio, Sinclair Lewis' 1920
Main Street, and Carl Van Vechten's The Tattooed Countess in literature.[60]
However, with the onset of the Great Depression, the painting came to be
seen as a depiction of steadfast American pioneer spirit. Grant Wood, 1930, social
realism
Diego Rivera is perhaps best known by the public world for his 1933
mural, "Man at the Crossroads", in the lobby of the RCA Building at
Rockefeller Center. When his patron Nelson Rockefeller discovered that the mural included a portrait of
Vladimir Lenin and other communist imagery, he fired Rivera, and the unfinished work was eventually
destroyed by Rockefeller's staff. The film Cradle Will Rock includes a dramatization of the controversy.
Frida Kahlo (Rivera's wife's) works are often characterized by their stark portrayals of pain. Of her 143
paintings 55 are self-portraits, which frequently incorporate symbolic portrayals of her physical and
psychological wounds. Kahlo was deeply influenced by indigenous Mexican culture, which is apparent in
her paintings' bright colors and dramatic symbolism. Christian and Jewish themes are often depicted in her
work as well; she combined elements of the classic religious Mexican tradition—which were often bloody
and violent—with surrealist renderings. While her paintings are not overtly Christian they certainly contain
elements of the macabre Mexican Christian style of religious paintings.
Political activism was an important piece of David Siqueiros' life, and frequently inspired him to set aside
his artistic career. His art was deeply rooted in the Mexican Revolution, a violent and chaotic period in
Mexican history in which various social and political factions fought for recognition and power. The period
from the 1920s to the 1950s is known as the Mexican Renaissance, and Siqueiros was active in the attempt
to create an art that was at once Mexican and universal. He briefly gave up painting to focus on organizing
miners in Jalisco.

World conflict

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Wassily Kandinsky

1935–1937, German Composition X 1939,
Expressionism Geometric abstraction

During the 1930s radical leftist politics characterized many of the artists connected to Surrealism, including
Pablo Picasso.[61] On 26 April 1937, during the Spanish Civil War, the Basque town of Gernika was the
scene of the "Bombing of Gernika" by the Condor Legion of Nazi Germany's Luftwaffe. The Germans
were attacking to support the efforts of Francisco Franco to overthrow the Basque Government and the
Spanish Republican government. The town was devastated, though the Biscayan assembly and the Oak of
Gernika survived. Pablo Picasso painted his mural sized Guernica to commemorate the horrors of the
bombing.

In its final form, Guernica is an immense black and

white, 3.5 metres (11 feet) tall and 7.8 metres (26 feet)
wide mural painted in oil. The mural presents a scene of
death, violence, brutality, suffering, and helplessness
without portraying their immediate causes. The choice to
paint in black and white contrasts with the intensity of
the scene depicted and invokes the immediacy of a
Pablo Picasso, Guernica, 1937, protest against newspaper photograph.[62] Picasso painted the mural
Fascism
sized painting called Guernica in protest of the bombing.
The painting was first exhibited in Paris in 1937, then
Scandinavia, then London in 1938 and finally in 1939 at Picasso's request the painting was sent to the
United States in an extended loan (for safekeeping) at MoMA. The painting went on a tour of museums
throughout the USA until its final return to the Museum of Modern Art in New York City where it was
exhibited for nearly thirty years. Finally in accord with Pablo Picasso's wish to give the painting to the
people of Spain as a gift, it was sent to Spain in 1981.
During the Great Depression of the 1930s, through the years of
World War II American art was characterized by Social Realism
and American Scene Painting in the work of Grant Wood, Edward
Hopper, Ben Shahn, Thomas Hart Benton, and several others.
Nighthawks (1942) is a painting by Edward Hopper that portrays
people sitting in a downtown diner late at night. It is not only
Hopper's most famous painting, but one of the most recognizable in
American art. It is currently in the collection of the Art Institute of
Chicago. The scene was inspired by a diner (since demolished) in
Greenwich Village, Hopper's home neighborhood in Manhattan.
Max Beckmann, The Night (Die
Hopper began painting it immediately after the attack on Pearl
Nacht), 1918–1919, Kunstsammlung
Harbor. After this event there was a large feeling of gloominess Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf
over the country, a feeling that is portrayed in the painting. The
urban street is empty outside the diner, and inside none of the three
patrons is apparently looking or talking to the others but instead is lost in their own thoughts. This portrayal
of modern urban life as empty or lonely is a common theme throughout Hopper's work.

The Dynamic for artists in Europe during the 1930s deteriorated rapidly as the Nazi's power in Germany
and across Eastern Europe increased. The climate became so hostile for artists and art associated with
Modernism and abstraction that many left for the Americas. Degenerate art was a term adopted by the Nazi
regime in Germany for virtually all modern art. Such art was banned on the grounds that it was un-German
or Jewish Bolshevist in nature, and those identified as degenerate artists were subjected to sanctions. These
included being dismissed from teaching positions, being forbidden to exhibit or to sell their art, and in some
cases being forbidden to produce art entirely.

Degenerate Art was also the title of an exhibition, mounted by the Nazis in Munich in 1937, consisting of
modernist artworks chaotically hung and accompanied by text labels deriding the art. Designed to inflame
public opinion against modernism, the exhibition subsequently traveled to several other cities in Germany
and Austria. German artist Max Beckmann and scores of others fled Europe for New York. In New York
City a new generation of young and exciting Modernist painters led by Arshile Gorky, Willem de Kooning,
and others were just beginning to come of age.

Arshile Gorky's portrait of someone who might be Willem de Kooning (above) is an example of the
evolution of abstract expressionism from the context of figure painting, cubism and surrealism. Along with
his friends de Kooning and John D. Graham Gorky created bio-morphically shaped and abstracted
figurative compositions that by the 1940s evolved into totally abstract paintings. Gorky's work seems to be
a careful analysis of memory, emotion and shape, using line and color to express feeling and nature.

Towards mid-century
The 1940s in New York City heralded the triumph of American abstract expressionism, a modernist
movement that combined lessons learned from Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso, Surrealism, Joan Miró,
Cubism, Fauvism, and early Modernism via great teachers in America like Hans Hofmann and John D.
Graham. American artists benefited from the presence of Piet Mondrian, Fernand Léger, Max Ernst and the
André Breton group, Pierre Matisse's gallery, and Peggy Guggenheim's gallery The Art of This Century, as
well as other factors. The figurative work of Francis Bacon, Frida Kahlo, Edward Hopper, Lucian Freud,
Andrew Wyeth and others served as a kind of alternative to abstract expressionism.
 Post-Second World War American painting called Abstract
expressionism included artists like Jackson Pollock, Willem de
Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Mark Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Clyfford
Still, Franz Kline, Adolph Gottlieb, Mark Tobey, Barnett Newman,
James Brooks, Philip Guston, Robert Motherwell, Conrad Marca-
Relli, Jack Tworkov, William Baziotes, Richard Pousette-Dart, Ad
Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, Reinhardt, Hedda Sterne, Jimmy Ernst, Esteban Vicente, Bradley
an American Scene painting Walker Tomlin, and Theodoros Stamos, among others. American
Abstract expressionism got its name in 1946 from the art critic
Robert Coates. It is seen as combining the emotional intensity and
self-denial of the German Expressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools
such as futurism, the Bauhaus and synthetic cubism. Abstract expressionism, action painting, and Color
Field painting are synonymous with the New York School.

Technically Surrealism was an important predecessor for abstract expressionism with its emphasis on
spontaneous, automatic or subconscious creation. Jackson Pollock's dripping paint onto a canvas laid on the
floor is a technique that has its roots in the work of André Masson. Another important early manifestation of
what came to be abstract expressionism is the work of American Northwest artist Mark Tobey, especially
his "white writing" canvases, which, though generally not large in scale, anticipate the "all over" look of
Pollock's drip paintings.

Abstract expressionism
Additionally, Abstract expressionism has an image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and,
some feel, rather nihilistic. In practice, the term is applied to any number of artists working (mostly) in New
York who had quite different styles, and even applied to work which is not especially abstract nor
expressionist. Pollock's energetic "action paintings", with their "busy" feel, are different both technically
and aesthetically, to the violent and grotesque Women series of Willem de Kooning. As seen above in the
gallery Woman V is one of a series of six paintings made by de Kooning between 1950 and 1953 that depict
a three-quarter-length female figure. He began the first of these paintings, Woman I collection: The Museum
of Modern Art, New York City, in June 1950, repeatedly changing and painting out the image until January
or February 1952, when the painting was abandoned unfinished. The art historian Meyer Schapiro saw the
painting in de Kooning's studio soon afterwards and encouraged the artist to persist. De Kooning's response
was to begin three other paintings on the same theme; Woman II collection: The Museum of Modern Art,
New York City, Woman III, Tehran Museum of Contemporary Art, Woman IV, Nelson-Atkins Museum of
Art, Kansas City, Missouri. During the summer of 1952, spent at East Hampton, de Kooning further
explored the theme through drawings and pastels. He may have finished work on Woman I by the end of
June, or possibly as late as November 1952, and probably the other three women pictures were concluded
at much the same time.[63] The Woman series are decidedly figurative paintings. Another important artist is
Franz Kline, as demonstrated by his painting High Street, 1950 as with Jackson Pollock and other Abstract
Expressionists, was labelled an "action painter" because of his seemingly spontaneous and intense style,
focusing less, or not at all, on figures or imagery, but on the actual brush strokes and use of
canvas.[64][65][66][67]

Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, Adolph Gottlieb, and the serenely shimmering blocks of color in Mark
Rothko's work (which is not what would usually be called expressionist and which Rothko denied was
abstract), are classified as abstract expressionists, albeit from what Clement Greenberg termed the Color
Field direction of abstract expressionism. Both Hans Hofmann and Robert Motherwell (gallery) can be
comfortably described as practitioners of action painting and Color Field painting.

Abstract expressionism has many stylistic similarities to the Russian artists of the early 20th century such as
Wassily Kandinsky. Although it is true that spontaneity or of the impression of spontaneity characterized
many of the abstract expressionists works, most of these paintings involved careful planning, especially
since their large size demanded it. An exception might be the drip paintings of Pollock.

Why this style gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s is a matter of debate. American Social realism
had been the mainstream in the 1930s. It had been influenced not only by the Great Depression but also by
the Social Realists of Mexico such as David Alfaro Siqueiros and Diego Rivera. The political climate after
World War II did not long tolerate the social protests of those painters. Abstract expressionism arose during
World War II and began to be showcased during the early 1940s at galleries in New York like The Art of
This Century Gallery. The late 1940s through the mid-1950s ushered in the McCarthy era. It was after
World War II and a time of political conservatism and extreme artistic censorship in the United States. Some
people have conjectured that since the subject matter was often totally abstract, Abstract expressionism
became a safe strategy for artists to pursue this style. Abstract art could be seen as apolitical. Or if the art
was political, the message was largely for the insiders. However, those theorists are in the minority. As the
first truly original school of painting in America, Abstract expressionism demonstrated the vitality and
creativity of the country in the post-war years, as well as its ability (or need) to develop an aesthetic sense
that was not constrained by the European standards of beauty.

Although Abstract expressionism spread quickly throughout the United States, the major centers of this
style were New York City and California, especially in the New York School, and the San Francisco Bay
area. Abstract expressionist paintings share certain characteristics, including the use of large canvases, an
"all-over" approach, in which the whole canvas is treated with equal importance (as opposed to the center
being of more interest than the edges). The canvas as the arena became a credo of action painting, while the
integrity of the picture plane became a credo of the Color Field painters. Many other artists began exhibiting
their abstract expressionist related paintings during the 1950s including Alfred Leslie, Sam Francis, Joan
Mitchell, Helen Frankenthaler, Cy Twombly, Milton Resnick, Michael Goldberg, Norman Bluhm, Ray
Parker, Nicolas Carone, Grace Hartigan, Friedel Dzubas, and Robert Goodnough among others.

During the 1950s Color Field painting initially referred to a particular type of abstract expressionism,
especially the work of Mark Rothko, Clyfford Still, Barnett Newman, Robert Motherwell and Adolph
Gottlieb. It essentially involved abstract paintings with large, flat expanses of color that expressed the
sensual, and visual feelings and properties of large areas of nuanced surface. Art critic Clement Greenberg
perceived Color Field painting as related to but different from Action painting. The overall expanse and
gestalt of the work of the early color field painters speaks of an almost religious experience, awestruck in
the face of an expanding universe of sensuality, color and surface. During the early-to-mid-1960s, Color
Field painting came to refer to the styles of artists like Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, and Helen
Frankenthaler, whose works were related to second-generation abstract expressionism, and to younger
artists like Larry Zox, and Frank Stella, – all moving in a new direction. Artists like Clyfford Still, Mark
Rothko, Hans Hofmann, Morris Louis, Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, Larry Zox,
and others often used greatly reduced references to nature, and they painted with a highly articulated and
psychological use of color. In general these artists eliminated recognizable imagery. In Mountains and Sea,
from 1952, a seminal work of Color Field painting by Helen Frankenthaler the artist used the stain
technique for the first time.
In Europe there was the continuation of Surrealism, Cubism, Dada and the works of Matisse. Also in
Europe, Tachisme (the European equivalent to Abstract expressionism) took hold of the newest generation.
Serge Poliakoff, Nicolas de Staël, Georges Mathieu, Vieira da Silva, Jean Dubuffet, Yves Klein and Pierre
Soulages among others are considered important figures in post-war European painting.

Eventually abstract painting in America evolved into movements such as Neo-Dada, Color Field painting,
Post painterly abstraction, Op art, hard-edge painting, Minimal art, shaped canvas painting, lyrical
abstraction, Neo-expressionism and the continuation of Abstract expressionism. As a response to the
tendency toward abstraction imagery emerged through various new movements, notably Pop art.

Pop art
Earlier in England in 1956 the term Pop Art was used by Lawrence Alloway for paintings that celebrated
consumerism of the post World War II era. This movement rejected abstract expressionism and its focus on
the hermeneutic and psychological interior, in favor of art which depicted, and often celebrated material
consumer culture, advertising, and iconography of the mass production age.[68] The early works of David
Hockney and the works of Richard Hamilton Peter Blake and Eduardo Paolozzi were considered seminal
examples in the movement.

Pop art in America was to a large degree initially inspired by the works of Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers, and
Robert Rauschenberg. Although the paintings of Gerald Murphy, Stuart Davis and Charles Demuth during
the 1920s and 1930s set the table for pop art in America. In New York City during the mid-1950s Robert
Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns created works of art that at first seemed to be continuations of Abstract
expressionist painting. Actually their works and the work of Larry Rivers, were radical departures from
abstract expressionism especially in the use of banal and literal imagery and the inclusion and the combining
of mundane materials into their work. The innovations of Johns' specific use of various images and objects
like chairs, numbers, targets, beer cans and the American flag; Rivers paintings of subjects drawn from
popular culture such as George Washington crossing the Delaware, and his inclusions of images from
advertisements like the camel from Camel cigarettes, and Rauschenberg's surprising constructions using
inclusions of objects and pictures taken from popular culture, hardware stores, junkyards, the city streets,
and taxidermy gave rise to a radical new movement in American art. Eventually by 1963 the movement
came to be known worldwide as pop art.

American pop art is exemplified by artists: Andy Warhol, Claes Oldenburg, Wayne Thiebaud, James
Rosenquist, Jim Dine, Tom Wesselmann and Roy Lichtenstein among others. Lichtenstein's most important
work is arguably Whaam! (1963, Tate Modern, London[69]), one of the earliest known examples of pop art,
adapted a comic-book panel from a 1962 issue of DC Comics' All-American Men of War.[70] The painting
depicts a fighter aircraft firing a rocket into an enemy plane, with a red-and-yellow explosion. The cartoon
style is heightened by the use of the onomatopoeic lettering "Whaam!" and the boxed caption "I pressed the
fire control... and ahead of me rockets blazed through the sky..."[69] Pop art merges popular and mass
culture with fine art, while injecting humor, irony, and recognizable imagery and content into the mix. In
October 1962 the Sidney Janis Gallery mounted The New Realists the first major pop art group exhibition
in an uptown art gallery in New York City. Sidney Janis mounted the exhibition in a 57th Street storefront
near his gallery at 15 E. 57th Street. The show sent shockwaves through the New York School and
reverberated worldwide. Earlier in the fall of 1962 an historically important and ground-breaking New
Painting of Common Objects exhibition of pop art, curated by Walter Hopps at the Pasadena Art Museum
sent shock waves across the Western United States.
While in the downtown scene in New York City's East Village 10th Street galleries artists were formulating
an American version of Pop Art. Claes Oldenburg had his storefront and made painted objects, and the
Green Gallery on 57th Street began to show Tom Wesselmann and James Rosenquist. Later Leo Castelli
exhibited other American artists including the bulk of the careers of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and
his use of Benday dots, a technique used in commercial reproduction. There is a connection between the
radical works of Duchamp, and Man Ray, the rebellious Dadaists – with a sense of humor; and pop artists
like Alex Katz (who became known for his parodies of portrait photography and suburban life), Claes
Oldenburg, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein and the others.

While throughout the 20th century many painters continued to practice landscape and figurative painting
with contemporary subjects and solid technique, like Milton Avery, John D. Graham, Fairfield Porter,
Edward Hopper, Balthus, Francis Bacon, Nicolas de Staël, Andrew Wyeth, Lucian Freud, Frank Auerbach,
Philip Pearlstein, David Park, Nathan Oliveira, David Hockney, Malcolm Morley, Richard Estes, Ralph
Goings, Audrey Flack, Chuck Close, Susan Rothenberg, Eric Fischl, Vija Celmins and Richard
Diebenkorn.

Figurative, landscape, still-Life, seascape, and Realism

During the 1930s through the 1960s abstract painting in America and Europe evolved into movements such
as abstract expressionism, Color Field painting, Post painterly abstraction, Op art, hard-edge painting,
Minimal art, shaped canvas painting, and lyrical abstraction. Other artists reacted as a response to the
tendency toward abstraction, allowing figurative imagery to continue through various new contexts like the
Bay Area Figurative Movement in the 1950s and new forms of expressionism from the 1940s through the
1960s. In Italy during this time, Giorgio Morandi was the foremost still life painter, exploring a wide variety
of approaches to depicting everyday bottles and kitchen implements.[71] Throughout the 20th century many
painters practiced Realism and used expressive imagery; practicing landscape and figurative painting with
contemporary subjects and solid technique, and unique expressivity like still-life painter Giorgio Morandi,
Milton Avery, John D. Graham, Fairfield Porter, Edward Hopper, Andrew Wyeth, Balthus, Francis Bacon,
Leon Kossoff, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Philip Pearlstein, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Grace
Hartigan, Robert De Niro, Sr., Elaine de Kooning and others. Along with Henri Matisse, Pablo Picasso,
Pierre Bonnard, Georges Braque, and other 20th-century masters. In particular Milton Avery through his
use of color and his interest in seascape and landscape paintings connected with the Color field aspect of
Abstract expressionism as manifested by Adolph Gottlieb and Mark Rothko as well as the lessons American
painters took from the work of Henri Matisse.[72][73]

Head VI, 1949 is a painting by the Irish born artist Francis Bacon and is an example of Post World War II
European Expressionism. The work shows a distorted version of the Portrait of Innocent X painted by the
Spanish artist Diego Velázquez in 1650. The work is one of a series of variants of the Velázquez painting
which Bacon executed throughout the 1950s and early 1960s, over a total of forty-five works.[74] When
asked why he was compelled to revisit the subject so often, Bacon replied that he had nothing against the
Popes, that he merely "wanted an excuse to use these colours, and you can't give ordinary clothes that
purple colour without getting into a sort of false fauve manner."[75] The Pope in this version seethes with
anger and aggression, and the dark colors give the image a grotesque and nightmarish appearance.[76] The
pleated curtains of the backdrop are rendered transparent, and seem to fall through the Pope's face.[77]
Italian painter Giorgio Morandi was an important 20th-century early pioneer of Minimalism. Born in
Bologna, Italy, in 1890, throughout his career, Morandi concentrated almost exclusively on still lifes and
landscapes, except for a few self-portraits. With great sensitivity to tone, color, and compositional balance,
he would depict the same familiar bottles and vases again and again in paintings notable for their simplicity
of execution. Morandi executed 133 etchings, a significant body of work in its own right, and his drawings
and watercolors often approach abstraction in their economy of means. Through his simple and repetitive
motifs and economical use of color, value and surface, Morandi became a prescient and important
forerunner of Minimalism. He died in Bologna in 1964.

After World War II the term School of Paris often referred to Tachisme, the European equivalent of
American Abstract expressionism and those artists are also related to Cobra. Important proponents being
Jean Dubuffet, Pierre Soulages, Nicolas de Staël, Hans Hartung, Serge Poliakoff, and Georges Mathieu,
among several others. During the early 1950s Dubuffet (who was always a figurative artist), and de Staël,
abandoned abstraction, and returned to imagery via figuration and landscape. De Staël 's work was quickly
recognised within the post-war art world, and he became one of the most influential artists of the 1950s. His
return to representation (seascapes, footballers, jazz musicians, seagulls) during the early 1950s can be seen
as an influential precedent for the American Bay Area Figurative Movement, as many of those abstract
painters like Richard Diebenkorn, David Park, Elmer Bischoff, Wayne Thiebaud, Nathan Oliveira, Joan
Brown and others made a similar move; returning to imagery during the mid-1950s. Much of de Staël 's late
work – in particular his thinned, and diluted oil on canvas abstract landscapes of the mid-1950s predicts
Color Field painting and Lyrical Abstraction of the 1960s and 1970s. Nicolas de Staël's bold and intensely
vivid color in his last paintings predict the direction of much of contemporary painting that came after him
including Pop art of the 1960s.

Art brut, New Realism, Bay Area Figurative Movement, neo-Dada, photorealism

John Baeder, Photorealism

During the 1950s and 1960s as abstract painting in America and Europe evolved into movements such as
Color Field painting, post-painterly abstraction, op art, hard-edge painting, minimal art, shaped canvas
painting, lyrical abstraction, and the continuation of Abstract expressionism. Other artists reacted as a
response to the tendency toward abstraction with art brut,[78] as seen in Court les rues, 1962, by Jean
Dubuffet, fluxus, neo-Dada, New Realism, allowing imagery to re-emerge through various new contexts
like pop art, the Bay Area Figurative Movement (a prime example is Diebenkorn's Cityscape I, (Landscape
No. 1), 1963, Oil on canvas, 60 1/4 x 50 1/2 inches, collection: San Francisco Museum of Modern Art) and
later in the 1970s Neo-expressionism. The Bay Area Figurative Movement of whom David Park, Elmer
Bischoff, Nathan Oliveira and Richard Diebenkorn whose painting Cityscape 1, 1963 is a typical example
were influential members flourished during the 1950s and 1960s in California. Although throughout the
20th century painters continued to practice Realism and use imagery, practicing landscape and figurative
painting with contemporary subjects and solid technique, and unique expressivity like Milton Avery,
Edward Hopper, Jean Dubuffet, Francis Bacon, Frank Auerbach, Lucian Freud, Philip Pearlstein, and
others. Younger painters practiced the use of imagery in new and radical ways. Yves Klein, Martial Raysse,
Niki de Saint Phalle, Wolf Vostell, David Hockney, Alex Katz, Malcolm Morley, Ralph Goings, Audrey
Flack, Richard Estes, Chuck Close, Susan Rothenberg, Eric Fischl, John Baeder and Vija Celmins were a
few who became prominent between the 1960s and the 1980s. Fairfield Porter was largely self-taught, and
produced representational work in the midst of the Abstract Expressionist movement. His subjects were
primarily landscapes, domestic interiors and portraits of family, friends and fellow artists, many of them
affiliated with the New York School of writers, including John Ashbery, Frank O'Hara, and James Schuyler.
Many of his paintings were set in or around the family summer house on Great Spruce Head Island, Maine.

Also during the 1960s and 1970s, there was a reaction against painting. Critics like Douglas Crimp viewed
the work of artists like Ad Reinhardt, and declared the "death of painting". Artists began to practice new
ways of making art. New movements gained prominence some of which are: Fluxus, Happening, Video art,
Installation art Mail art, the situationists, Conceptual art, Postminimalism, Earth art, arte povera,
performance art and body art among others.[79][80]

Neo-Dada is also a movement that started in the 1950s and 1960s and was related to Abstract expressionism
only with imagery. Featuring the emergence of combined manufactured items, with artist materials, moving
away from previous conventions of painting. This trend in art is exemplified by the work of Jasper Johns
and Robert Rauschenberg, whose "combines" in the 1950s were forerunners of Pop Art and Installation art,
and made use of the assemblage of large physical objects, including stuffed animals, birds and commercial
photography. Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Larry Rivers, John Chamberlain, Claes Oldenburg,
George Segal, Jim Dine, and Edward Kienholz among others were important pioneers of both abstraction
and Pop Art; creating new conventions of art-making; they made acceptable in serious contemporary art
circles the radical inclusion of unlikely materials as parts of their works of art.

New abstraction from the 1950s through the 1980s

Yves Klein, 1962,

Monochrome painting

Color Field painting clearly pointed toward a new direction in American painting, away from abstract
expressionism. Color Field painting is related to post-painterly abstraction, suprematism, abstract
expressionism, hard-edge painting and Lyrical Abstraction. During the 1960s and 1970s abstract painting
continued to develop in America through varied styles. Geometric abstraction, Op art, hard-edge painting,
Color Field painting and minimal painting, were some interrelated directions for advanced abstract painting
as well as some other new movements. Morris Louis was an important pioneer in advanced Color Field
painting, his work can serve as a bridge between abstract expressionism, Color Field painting, and minimal
art. Two influential teachers Josef Albers and Hans Hofmann introduced a new generation of American
artists to their advanced theories of color and space. Josef Albers is best remembered for his work as a
Geometric abstractionist painter and theorist. Most famous of all are the hundreds of paintings and prints
that make up the series Homage to the Square. In this rigorous series, begun in 1949, Albers explored
chromatic interactions with flat colored squares arranged concentrically on the canvas. Albers' theories on
art and education were formative for the next generation of artists. His own paintings form the foundation of
both hard-edge painting and Op art.

Josef Albers, Hans Hofmann, Ilya Bolotowsky, Burgoyne Diller, Victor Vasarely, Bridget Riley, Richard
Anuszkiewicz, Frank Stella, Morris Louis, Kenneth Noland,[81] Ellsworth Kelly, Barnett Newman, Larry
Poons, Ronald Davis, Larry Zox, Al Held and some others like Mino Argento,[82] are artists closely
associated with Geometric abstraction, Op art, Color Field painting, and in the case of Hofmann and
Newman Abstract expressionism as well.

In 1965, an exhibition called The Responsive Eye, curated by William C. Seitz, was held at the Museum of
Modern Art, in New York City. The works shown were wide-ranging, encompassing the Minimalism of
Frank Stella, the Op art of Larry Poons, the work of Alexander Liberman, alongside the masters of the Op
Art movement: Victor Vasarely, Richard Anuszkiewicz, Bridget Riley and others. The exhibition focused
on the perceptual aspects of art, which result both from the illusion of movement and the interaction of color
relationships. Op art, also known as optical art, is a style present in some paintings and other works of art
that use optical illusions. Op art is also closely akin to geometric abstraction and hard-edge painting.
Although sometimes the term used for it is perceptual abstraction.

Op art is a method of painting concerning the interaction between illusion and picture plane, between
understanding and seeing.[83] Op art works are abstract, with many of the better known pieces made in only
black and white. When the viewer looks at them, the impression is given of movement, hidden images,
flashing and vibration, patterns, or alternatively, of swelling or warping.

Color Field painting sought to rid art of superfluous rhetoric. Artists like Clyfford Still, Mark Rothko, Hans
Hofmann, Morris Louis, Jules Olitski, Kenneth Noland, Helen Frankenthaler, John Hoyland, Larry Zox,
and others often used greatly reduced references to nature, and they painted with a highly articulated and
psychological use of color. In general these artists eliminated recognizable imagery. Certain artists quoted
references to past or present art, but in general color field painting presents abstraction as an end in itself. In
pursuing this direction of modern art, artists wanted to present each painting as one unified, cohesive,
monolithic image.

Washington Color School, Shaped canvas, Abstract illusionism, Lyrical abstraction

The Washington Color School, also known as the Washington,
D.C., Color School,[84] was an art movement starting during the
1950s–1970s in Washington, D.C., in the United States, built of
abstract expressionist artists. The movement emerged during a time
when society, the arts, and people were changing quickly. The
founders of this movement are Morris Louis and Kenneth
Noland,[85][86] however four more artists were part of the initial art
Ronald Davis 1968, Abstract exhibition in 1965.[87]
Illusionism
Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Ellsworth Kelly, Barnett Newman,
Ronald Davis, Neil Williams, Robert Mangold, Charles Hinman,
Richard Tuttle, David Novros, and Al Loving are examples of artists associated with the use of the shaped
canvas during the period beginning in the early 1960s. Many Geometric abstract artists, minimalists, and
Hard-edge painters elected to use the edges of the image to define the shape of the painting rather than
accepting the rectangular format. In fact, the use of the shaped canvas is primarily associated with paintings
of the 1960s and 1970s that are coolly abstract, formalistic, geometrical, objective, rationalistic, clean-lined,
brashly sharp-edged, or minimalist in character. The Andre Emmerich Gallery, the Leo Castelli Gallery, the
Richard Feigen Gallery, and the Park Place Gallery were important showcases for Color Field painting,
shaped canvas painting and Lyrical Abstraction in New York City during the 1960s. There is a connection
with post-painterly abstraction, which reacted against abstract expressionisms' mysticism, hyper-subjectivity,
and emphasis on making the act of painting itself dramatically visible – as well as the solemn acceptance of
the flat rectangle as an almost ritual prerequisite for serious painting. During the 1960s Color Field painting
and Minimal art were often closely associated with each other. In actuality by the early 1970s both
movements became decidedly diverse.

Another related movement of the late 1960s, Lyrical Abstraction (the term being coined by Larry Aldrich,
the founder of the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum, Ridgefield Connecticut), encompassed what Aldrich
said he saw in the studios of many artists at that time.[88] It is also the name of an exhibition that originated
in the Aldrich Museum and traveled to the Whitney Museum of American Art and other museums
throughout the United States between 1969 and 1971.[89]

Lyrical Abstraction in the late 1960s is characterized by the

paintings of Dan Christensen, Ronnie Landfield, Peter Young and
others, and along with the fluxus movement and postminimalism (a
term first coined by Robert Pincus-Witten in the pages of Artforum
in 1969)[90] sought to expand the boundaries of abstract painting
and minimalism by focusing on process, new materials and new Ronnie Landfield, 1968, Lyrical
ways of expression. Postminimalism often incorporating industrial Abstraction
materials, raw materials, fabrications, found objects, installation,
serial repetition, and often with references to Dada and Surrealism
is best exemplified in the sculptures of Eva Hesse.[90] Lyrical Abstraction, conceptual art, postminimalism,
Earth art, video, performance art, installation art, along with the continuation of fluxus, abstract
expressionism, Color Field painting, hard-edge painting, minimal art, op art, pop art, photorealism and New
Realism extended the boundaries of contemporary art in the mid-1960s through the 1970s.[91] Lyrical
Abstraction is a type of freewheeling abstract painting that emerged in the mid-1960s when abstract painters
returned to various forms of painterly, pictorial, expressionism with a predominate focus on process, gestalt
and repetitive compositional strategies in general.

Lyrical Abstraction shares similarities with color field painting and abstract expressionism, Lyrical
Abstraction as exemplified by the 1968 Ronnie Landfield painting For William Blake, (above) especially in
the freewheeling usage of paint – texture and surface. Direct drawing, calligraphic use of line, the effects of
brushed, splattered, stained, squeegeed, poured, and splashed paint superficially resemble the effects seen in
abstract expressionism and color field painting. However, the styles are markedly different. Setting it apart
from abstract expressionism and action painting of the 1940s and 1950s is the approach to composition and
drama. As seen in action painting there is an emphasis on brushstrokes, high compositional drama, dynamic
compositional tension. While in Lyrical Abstraction there is a sense of compositional randomness, all over
composition, low key and relaxed compositional drama and an emphasis on process, repetition, and an all
over sensibility.,[92][93]

Hard-edge painting, minimalism, postminimalism, monochrome painting

Agnes Martin, Robert Mangold, Brice Marden, Jo Baer, Robert
Ryman, Richard Tuttle, Neil Williams, David Novros, Paul
Mogenson, Charles Hinman are examples of artists associated with
Minimalism and (exceptions of Martin, Baer and Marden) the use
of the shaped canvas also during the period beginning in the early
1960s. Many Geometric abstract artists, minimalists, and hard-edge
painters elected to use the edges of the image to define the shape of Brice Marden, 1966/1986,
Monochrome painting
the painting rather than accepting the rectangular format. In fact, the
use of the shaped canvas is primarily associated with paintings of
the 1960s and 1970s that are coolly abstract, formalistic, geometrical, objective, rationalistic, clean-lined,
brashly sharp-edged, or minimalist in character. The Bykert Gallery, and the Park Place Gallery were
important showcases for Minimalism and shaped canvas painting in New York City during the 1960s.

During the 1960s and 1970s artists such as Robert Motherwell, Adolph Gottlieb, Phillip Guston, Lee
Krasner, Cy Twombly, Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, Richard Diebenkorn, Josef Albers, Elmer
Bischoff, Agnes Martin, Al Held, Sam Francis, Ellsworth Kelly, Morris Louis, Helen Frankenthaler, Gene
Davis, Frank Stella, Kenneth Noland, Joan Mitchell, Friedel Dzubas, and younger artists like Brice
Marden, Robert Mangold, Sam Gilliam,[94] John Hoyland, Sean Scully, Pat Steir, Elizabeth Murray, Larry
Poons, Walter Darby Bannard, Larry Zox, Ronnie Landfield, Ronald Davis, Dan Christensen, Joan Snyder,
Ross Bleckner, Archie Rand, Susan Crile, and dozens of others produced a wide variety of paintings.

During the 1960s and 1970s, there was a reaction against abstract
painting. Some critics viewed the work of artists like Ad Reinhardt,
and declared the 'death of painting'. Artists began to practice new
ways of making art. New movements gained prominence some of
which are: postminimalism, Earth art, video art, installation art, arte
povera, performance art, body art, fluxus, happening, mail art, the
situationists and conceptual art among others.
Barnett Newman, Untitled Etching 1
(First Version), 1968, Minimalism However still other important innovations in abstract painting took
place during the 1960s and the 1970s characterized by
monochrome painting and hard-edge painting inspired by Ad
Reinhardt, Barnett Newman, Milton Resnick, and Ellsworth Kelly. Artists as diverse as Agnes Martin, Al
Held, Larry Zox, Frank Stella, Larry Poons, Brice Marden and others explored the power of simplification.
The convergence of Color Field painting, minimal art, hard-edge painting, Lyrical Abstraction, and
postminimalism blurred the distinction between movements that became more apparent in the 1980s and
1990s. The neo-expressionism movement is related to earlier developments in abstract expressionism, neo-
Dada, Lyrical Abstraction and postminimal painting.

Neo Expressionism
In the late 1960s an abstract expressionist painter Philip Guston helped to lead a transition from abstract
expressionism to Neo-expressionism in painting, abandoning the so-called "pure abstraction" of abstract
expressionism in favor of more cartoonish renderings of various personal symbols and objects. These works
were inspirational to a new generation of painters interested in a revival of expressive imagery. His painting
Painting, Smoking, Eating 1973, seen above in the gallery is an example of Guston's final and conclusive
return to representation.

In the late 1970s and early 1980s, there was also a return to painting that occurred almost simultaneously in
Italy, Germany, France and Britain. These movements were called Transavantguardia, Neue Wilde,
Figuration Libre,[95] Neo-expressionism, the school of London, and in the late 1980s the Stuckists
respectively. These paintings were characterized by large formats, free expressive mark making, figuration,
myth and imagination. All work in this genre came to be labeled neo-expressionism. Critical reaction was
divided. Some critics regarded it as driven by profit motivations by large commercial galleries. This type of
art continues in popularity into the 21st century, even after the art crash of the late 1980s. Anselm Kiefer is a
leading figure in European Neo-expressionism by the 1980s, Kiefer's themes widened from a focus on
Germany's role in civilization to the fate of art and culture in general. His work became more sculptural and
involves not only national identity and collective memory, but also occult symbolism, theology and
mysticism. The theme of all the work is the trauma experienced by entire societies, and the continual rebirth
and renewal in life.

During the late 1970s in the United States painters who began working with invigorated surfaces and who
returned to imagery like Susan Rothenberg gained in popularity, especially as seen above in paintings like
Horse 2, 1979. During the 1980s American artists like Eric Fischl, David Salle, Jean-Michel Basquiat (who
began as a graffiti artist), Julian Schnabel, and Keith Haring, and Italian painters like Mimmo Paladino,
Sandro Chia, and Enzo Cucchi, among others defined the idea of Neo-expressionism in America.

Neo-expressionism was a style of modern painting that became popular in the late 1970s and dominated the
art market until the mid-1980s. It developed in Europe as a reaction against the conceptual and minimalistic
art of the 1960s and 1970s. Neo-expressionists returned to portraying recognizable objects, such as the
human body (although sometimes in a virtually abstract manner), in a rough and violently emotional way
using vivid colours and banal colour harmonies. The veteran painters Philip Guston, Frank Auerbach, Leon
Kossoff, Gerhard Richter, A. R. Penck and Georg Baselitz, along with slightly younger artists like Anselm
Kiefer, Eric Fischl, Susan Rothenberg, Francesco Clemente, Jean-Michel Basquiat, Julian Schnabel, Keith
Haring, and many others became known for working in this intense expressionist vein of painting.

Painting still holds a respected position in contemporary art. Art is an open field no longer divided by the
objective versus non-objective dichotomy. Artists can achieve critical success whether their images are
representational or abstract. What has currency is content, exploring the boundaries of the medium, and a
refusal to recapitulate the works of the past as an end goal.

Contemporary painting into the 21st century

At the beginning of the 21st century Contemporary painting and Contemporary art in general continues in
several contiguous modes, characterized by the idea of pluralism. The "crisis" in painting and current art
and current art criticism today is brought about by pluralism. There is no consensus, nor need there be, as to
a representative style of the age. There is an anything goes attitude that prevails; an "everything going on",
and consequently "nothing going on" syndrome; this creates an aesthetic traffic jam with no firm and clear
direction and with every lane on the artistic superhighway filled to capacity. Consequently magnificent and
important works of art continue to be made albeit in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic temperaments, the
marketplace being left to judge merit.

Hard-edge painting, geometric abstraction, appropriation, hyperrealism, photorealism, expressionism,

minimalism, Lyrical Abstraction, pop art, op art, abstract expressionism, Color Field painting, monochrome
painting, neo-expressionism, collage, intermedia painting, assemblage painting, digital painting, postmodern
painting, neo-Dada painting, shaped canvas painting, environmental mural painting, traditional figure
painting, landscape painting, portrait painting, are a few continuing and current directions in painting at the
beginning of the 21st century.

Americas
During the period before and after European exploration and
settlement of the Americas, including North America, Central
America, South America and the Islands of the Caribbean, the
Antilles, the Lesser Antilles and other island groups, indigenous
native cultures produced creative works including architecture,
pottery, ceramics, weaving, carving, sculpture, painting and murals
as well as other religious and utilitarian objects. Each continent of
the Americas hosted societies that were unique and individually
developed cultures; that produced totems, works of religious
symbolism, and decorative and expressive painted works. African
influence was especially strong in the art of the Caribbean and
South America. The arts of the indigenous people of the Americas
had an enormous impact and influence on European art and vice
versa during and after the Age of Exploration. Spain, Portugal,
France, The Netherlands, and England were all powerful and The Eternal Father Painting the
Virgin of Guadalupe. Attributed to
Joaquín Villegas (1713 – active in
1753) (Mexican) (painter, Museo
Nacional de Arte.
influential colonial powers in the Americas during and after the 15th century. By the 19th century cultural
influence began to flow both ways across the Atlantic

Mexico and Central America

Great Goddess of Mural from the Complex A portion of the mural

Teotihuacan mural from of Tepantitla in from the Complex of
the site at Tetitla, Mexico Teotihuacan, a Tepantitla, represent the
reproduction in the Tlalocan one of the levels
National Museum of in the Underworld,
Anthropology in Mexico Mexico
City

Mural of the Jaguars Portic A from Cacaxtla, Detail from the Red
compound in represent the Man-jaguar Temple, c.600–700,
Teotihuacan. Cacaxtla, Mexico

Reconstruction of the A Mayan mural from A Mayan mural from

Tomb 105 from Monte Bonampak, Mexico, 580– Bonampak, 580–800 AD
Alban. 800 AD.
A Mayan mural from San Painting on the Lord of Painting on a Maya vase
Bartolo, Pre-Classical the jaguar pelt throne from the Late Classical
period (1–250 AD) vase, a scene of the Period (600–900)
Maya court, 700–800 AD.

Painted pottery figurine of Painted relief of the Maya Painting from a Dresden
a King from the burial site site Palenque, featuring Codex.
at Jaina Island, Mayan the son of K'inich Ahkal
art, 400–800 AD Mo' Naab' III (678–730s?,
r. 722–729).
A Mixtec painting from An Aztec painting from An Aztec painting from
the Codex Zouche- the Codex Borgia, the Codex Borbonicus,
Nuttall. represent a represent a Tlaloc.
Mictlantecuhtli and
Quetzalcoatl.

A painting from Matrícula A painting from Codex

de Tributos showing the Mendoza showing the
Ichcahuipilli, Mexico. Aztec legend of the
foundation of
Tenochtitlán, c.1553

South America

Moche murals from the A Moche mural of a Mural in Huaca Cao

Huaca de la Luna site, decapitator from the Viejo, Peru
Peru, 100–700 AD. Huaca de la Luna site,
Peru, 100–700 AD.
 Painted pottery from the Killer Whale, painted Painted pottery from the
Moche culture of Peru pottery, Nazca culture, Huari culture of Peru,
300 BC–800 AD, Larco 500–1200 AD
Museum. Lima, Peru

Body painting, Indigenous

peoples in Brazil, Pataxo
tribe.

North America

United States

The Great Gallery, Pictograph, southeastern Painted pottery, Anasazi,

Pictographs, Utah, c. 1200 BC Pueblo North America: A canteen
Canyonlands National culture (pot) excavated from the
Park, Horseshoe ruins in Chaco Canyon,
Canyon, Utah, 15 by 200 New Mexico, c. 700 AD–
feet (4.6 by 61.0 m), c. 1100 AD
1500 BCE
Painted ceramic jug A Haida wolf mask, 1880. A Hopi jar by Nampeyo
showing the underwater (c.1860–1942), made in
panther from the Arizona, 1880.
Mississippian culture,
found at Rose Mound in
Cross County, Arkansas,
c. 1400–1600.

A girl from the Zuni tribe Edward S. Curtis, Navajo Navajo man in
of New Mexico with a sandpainting, sepia ceremonial dress with
painted pottery jar, photogravure c. 1907 mask and body paint, c.
photographed in c. 1903. 1904

Ledger art of Haokah (ca. Kiowa ledger art, possibly Detail of ledger painting
1880) by Black Hawk of the 1874 Buffalo on muslin by Silver Horn
(Lakota). Wallow battle, Red River (1860–1940), ca. 1880,
War. Oklahoma History Center
Work on Paper, by An Uncompaghre Ute, Tlingit totem pole in
Arapaho painter, Carl Shaved Beaver Hide Ketchikan, Alaska, circa
Sweezy (1881–1953), Painting. The Northern 1901.
1904 Ute would trap beavers,
shave images into the
animals' stretched and
cured hides, and use
them to decorate their
personal and ceremonial
dwellings, c. 19th
century.

The K'alyaan Totem Pole A totem pole in From Saxman Totem

of the Tlingit Kiks.ádi Ketchikan, Alaska, in the Park, Ketchikan, Alaska
Clan, erected at Sitka Tlingit style.
National Historical Park
to commemorate the
lives lost in the 1804
Battle of Sitka.

From Saxman Totem

Park, Ketchikan, Alaska
Canada

A totem pole in Totem From Totem Park,

Park, Victoria, British Victoria, British
Columbia. Columbia.

Caribbean

Rock petroglyph overlaid

with chalk, Caguana
Indigenous Ceremonial
Center. Utuado, Puerto
Rico.

Islamic

Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al- Yahyâ ibn Mahmûd al- Syrian painter, 1315
Wâsitî, Iraq, 1237 Wâsitî, Iraq, 1237 Metropolitan Museum of
Art
Ilkhanid Shahnameh, ca. Kamal-ud-din Bihzad (c. Persian miniature
1330–1340, Smithsonian 1450 – c. 1535), The painting, CE 1550
construction of castle
Khavarnaq (‫ )الخورنق‬in
al-Hira, c. 1494–1495
C.E. British Museum

Reza Abbasi, 1609 Razmnama, 1616, British Two Lovers by Reza

Museum Abbasi, 1630

Persian miniature Harun Reza Abbasi (1565– Adam and Eve, Safavid
al-Rashid in Thousand 1635), Prince Iran, from a Falnama
and One Nights Muhammad-Beik of (book of Omens) c. 1550
Georgia, 1620 AD.
 A painting depicting Abû A scene from the book of The angel Isrâfîl, Iraq,
Zayd, 1335 AD. Ahmad ibn al-Husayn ibn 1280 AD.
al-Ahnaf, showing two
galloping horsemen, 1210
AD.

The Clerk, Iraq, 1287. An ornamental Qur'an, by Mehmet II, from the Sarai
al-Bawwâb, 11th century Albums of Istanbul,
AD. Turkey, 15th century AD

Maiden in a fur cap, by Youth and Suitors,

Muhammad 'Alî, Isfahan, Mashhad, Iran, 1556–
Iran, mid-17th century 1565 AD

The depiction of humans, animals or any other figurative subjects is forbidden within Islam to prevent
believers from idolatry so there is no religiously motivated painting (or sculpture) tradition within Muslim
culture. Pictorial activity was reduced to Arabesque, mainly abstract, with geometrical configuration or
floral and plant-like patterns. Strongly connected to architecture and calligraphy, it can be widely seen as
used for the painting of tiles in mosques or in illuminations around the text of the Koran and other books. In
fact, abstract art is not an invention of modern art but it is present in pre-classical, barbarian and non-
western cultures many centuries before it and is essentially a decorative or applied art. Notable illustrator M.
C. Escher was influenced by this geometrical and pattern-based art. Art Nouveau (Aubrey Beardsley and
the architect Antonio Gaudí) re-introduced abstract floral patterns into western art.
Note that despite the taboo of figurative visualization, some Muslim countries did cultivate a rich tradition in
painting, though not in its own right, but as a companion to the written word. Iranian or Persian art, widely
known as Persian miniature, concentrates on the illustration of epic or romantic works of literature. Persian
illustrators deliberately avoided the use of shading and perspective, though familiar with it in their pre-
Islamic history, in order to abide by the rule of not creating any lifelike illusion of the real world. Their aim
was not to depict the world as it is, but to create images of an ideal world of timeless beauty and perfect
order.

Iran
Oriental historian Basil Gray believes "Iran has offered a particularly unique [sic] art to the world which is
excellent in its kind". Caves in Iran's Lorestan province exhibit painted imagery of animals and hunting
scenes. Some such as those in Fars Province and Sialk are at least 5,000 years old. Painting in Iran is
thought to have reached a climax during the Tamerlane era, when outstanding masters such as Kamaleddin
Behzad gave birth to a new style of painting.

Paintings of the Qajar period are a combination of European influences and Safavid miniature schools of
painting such as those introduced by Reza Abbasi and classical works by Mihr 'Ali. Masters such as Kamal-
ol-molk further pushed forward the European influence in Iran. It was during the Qajar era when "Coffee
House painting" emerged. Subjects of this style were often religious in nature depicting scenes from Shia
epics and the like.
Farrukh Beg (ca. 1545 – Mihr 'Ali (fl. 1795–1830), Kamal-ol-molk (1847–
ca. 1615), A Drunken Fat'h Ali Shah Qajar 1940), Predictor of the
Babur Returns to Camp (1813–14) Future, 1892, Museum of
at Night, Lahore, Sadabad, Tehran
Pakistan, 1589

Pakistan

Lubna Agha, Star – a AR Chughtai, Anarkali

painting inspired by the
artisans of Morocco

Oceania

Australia

New Zealand

Africa
 Himba woman covered A Kĩkũyũ woman in Young Maasai Warrior,
with traditional red ochre traditional dress. with head-dress and face
pigment. Traditional body Ceremonial face painting. painting.
paint symbolic of the
earth and of blood, and
also worn for protection
from the sun.

Dogon, circumcision
cave, with paintings Mali
c. contemporary

African traditional culture and tribes do not seem to have great interest in two-dimensional representations
in favour of sculpture and relief. However, decorative painting in African culture is often abstract and
geometrical. Another pictorial manifestation is body painting, and face painting present for example in
Maasai and Kĩkũyũ culture in their ceremony rituals. Ceremonial cave painting in certain villages can be
found to be still in use. Note that Pablo Picasso and other modern artists were influenced by African
sculpture and masks in their varied styles. Contemporary African artists follow western art movements and
their paintings have little difference from occidental art works.

Sudanese
The Kingdom of Kush in ancient Nubia (i.e. modern Sudan), bordering Ancient Egypt, produced a wide
variety of arts, including wall paintings and painted objects. At the Sudanese site of Kerma, center of the
Kerma culture that predated the Kingdom of Kush, a circa 1700 BC fragmentary painting from a royal
tomb depicts a sailing ship and houses with ladders that are similar to scenes in reliefs from the reign of
Egyptian queen Hatshepsut (c. 1479–1458 BC).[96][97] The ancient tradition of wall paintings, first
described by Abu Salih during the 12th century AD, continued into the period of medieval Nubia.[98]

Ethiopian
The Christian tradition of painting in Ethiopia dates back to the 4th
century AD, during the ancient Kingdom of Aksum.[99] During
their exile to Axum, the 7th-century followers of Muhammad
described paintings decorating the Church of Our Lady Mary of
Zion.[100] However, the earliest surviving examples of church
paintings in Ethiopia come from the church of Debre Selam Mikael
in the Tigray Region, dated to the 11th century AD.[100] Ethiopian
paintings in illuminated manuscripts predate the earliest surviving
church paintings. For instance, the Ethiopian Garima Gospels of the
4th-6th centuries AD contain illuminated scenes imitating the
Baptism of Christ on a medieval
contemporary Byzantine illuminated style.[101] Nubian painting from Old Dongola

An illuminated Bible A 15th-century

from a monastery on Ethiopian painting of
Lake Tana, Ethiopia, the Solomonic
12th-13th century AD dynasty depicting the
Zagwe dynasty ruler
Gebre Mesqel Lalibela
(r. 1181–1221 AD)
An Ethiopian illuminated
Evangelist portrait of Mark
the Evangelist, from the
Ethiopian Garima Gospels,
6th century AD, Kingdom of
Aksum

A 17th-century A 1748 portrait of the

Gondarene-style Ethiopian Empress
Ethiopian painting Mentewab, an
depicting Saint important figure of the
Mercurius, originally Zemene Mesafint,
from Lalibela, now prostrating herself
housed in the National before Mary and
Museum of Ethiopia in Jesus, from the Narga
Addis Ababa Selassie church.

Influence on Western art

At the start of the 20th century, artists like Picasso, Matisse, Paul Gauguin and Modigliani became aware of,
and were inspired by, African art.[102] In a situation where the established avant garde was straining against
the constraints imposed by serving the world of appearances, African Art demonstrated the power of
supremely well organised forms; produced not only by responding to the faculty of sight, but also and often
primarily, the faculty of imagination, emotion and mystical and religious experience. These artists saw in
African art a formal perfection and sophistication unified with phenomenal expressive
power.[103][104][105][106][107]

See also
painting portal

history portal

20th-century Western painting

Art periods
Hierarchy of genres
List of painters
Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects
Timeline of Italian artists to 1800

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Further reading
Clement Greenberg, Art and Culture, Beacon Press, 1961
Lyrical Abstraction, Exhibition Catalogue, Whitney Museum of American Art, NYC, 1971.
O'Connor, Francis V. Jackson Pollock Exhibition Catalogue, (New York, Museum of Modern
Art, [1967]) OCLC 165852 (https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/165852)
Pictures of Nothing: Abstract Art since Pollock (A.W. Mellon Lectures in the Fine Arts), Kirk
Varnedoe, 2003
The Triumph of Modernism: The Art World, 1985–2005, Hilton Kramer, 2006, ISBN 0-15-
666370-8
Piper, David (1986). The Illustrated Library of Art: History, Appreciation, and Tradition (https://
archive.org/details/illustratedlibra03pipe). Portland House. ISBN 978-0-517-62336-7.

External links
History of Art: From Paleolithic Age to Contemporary Art (http://www.all-art.org) Archived (http
s://web.archive.org/web/20201119110530/http://www.all-art.org/) 19 November 2020 at the
Wayback Machine
Kandinsky Kandinsky (translated by Michael T. H. Sadler), Wassily. "Concerning the
Spiritual in Art" (https://web.archive.org/web/20100528150354/http://www.mnstate.edu/gracy
 k/courses/phil%20of%20art/kandinskytext.htm). mnstate.edu. Archived from the original (htt
p://www.mnstate.edu/gracyk/courses/phil%20of%20art/kandinskytext.htm) on 28 May 2010.
Retrieved 30 November 2010.
Metropolitan Museum of Art Timeline of Art History (http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/)
Ancient Roman Wall-Painting (http://creadm.solent.ac.uk/custom/rwpainting/cover/contentsp
age.html)

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