UNIT 2: Western
Art History
UNIT 2: Western Art History
By the end of this lesson, the students should be able to:
1. Discuss how art was used by prehistoric people to depict
everyday life;
2. Discuss the importance of their chosen art to the history and
development of art and
3. Explain the relevance of their art work to their chosen topic
4. Discuss the brief background of the original painter/creator
Find your best art buddy and describe the following briefly in a yellow paper.
1.Stone Age 11.Mannerism arts
2.Pre-historic Arts 12.Baroque and Rococo
3.Paleolithic arts arts
4.Neolithic arts 13.Neoclassicism 19.Cubism
5.Egyptian arts 14.Romanticism 20.Futurism
6.Geometric arts 21.Minimalism
15.Realism
7.Archaic art 22.Expressionism
16.Impressionism
8.Classical art
17.Art Nouveau 23.Pop Art
9.Hellenistic art
10.Renaissance art 18.Fauvism
LESSON 7:
ART IN EARLY CIVILIZATIONS
• Stone Age is a term used to
describe a period of history when
stones were used to make tools for
survival.
• The unearthing of archeological
artifacts and remains provides
modern society a glimpse of the
beliefs, practices, and activities of
early civilizations.
Pre-Historic Art
• Archeological explorations
reveal that there has been a
gradual shift from a nomadic
lifestyle of early humans to that
of permanent settlements,
paving the way for the rise of
early civilizations.
Pre-Historic Art
1. Paleolithic Art is a product of
climate change.
Artworks can be considered
ornamental but there is little
evidence to fully back up this
notion, that early humans created
these cave paintings for that very
purpose.
Pre-Historic Art
2. Neolithic art has developed
especially when life for the
early humans has become
more stable.
Egyptian Art:
• The Egyptian civilization can be
divided into three periods: Old,
Middle, and New Kingdoms.
• Looking at the three periods, it
can be noticed that for the
Egyptians, art should be
something religious and spiritual.
Egyptian Art:
• During the Old Kingdom, it was evident
that religion was bound to the afterlife.
• One of the key features of the Middle
Kingdom is a shift in the political
hierarchy. There is an emergence of
powerful groups of landlords that
threatened the authority and rule of the
pharaoh.
Egyptian Art:
• Because of the internal struggle
between these two influential
sides, art has taken a back seat
during the Middle Kingdom. In
order for art to reemerge and
flourish, Egypt needed to have a
more stable situation.
LESSON 8:
ART OF EMERGING
EUROPE
Ancient Greece:
The development of Greek art can be
divided into four periods:
1. Geometric
2. Archaic
3. Classical
4. Hellenistic
Ancient Greece:
1. The Geometric Period was when
geometric shapes and patterns have
taken the spotlight in most of the
artworks.
2. The Archaic Period placed
importance on human figures. This
was primarily a result of Greece’s
trading activities with other
civilizations.
Ancient Greece:
3. The Classical Period - The peak of
Greek sculpture and architecture
4. The Hellenistic Period - The time of
Alexander the Great. During this time,
art was primarily focused on
showcasing emotions and depicting
reality.
Ancient Rome:
• The Romans were fond of
the Greeks and their
achievements in the arts.
The fusion of Greek and
Roman cultures can be seen
in most Roman artworks.
Middle Ages:
• Since the Church was the
most important figure,
the most important
products of the early
Middle Ages would have
to be copies of the
Christian scriptures.
Renaissance Art:
• During the Renaissance Period, artists valued the “individual” as
a subject of arts. The influence of humanism shifted the focus of
some artworks during the Renaissance Period to empower the
“individual.” Most artworks emphasized naturalism, which was
also an influence of humanism since there was a great emphasis
on the proportionality of the human body.
Mannerism:
• Mannerism was a period in art history,
which was a product of the Renaissance
Period. During the Renaissance, artists
would observe nature and try their best
to emulate it based on their observations
• It is named after maniera, an Italian term
for “style” or “manner,” and refers to a
stylized, exaggerated approach to
painting and sculpture.
Baroque and Rococo:
• The term “baroque” is derived from
the Portuguese term barocco which
is translated as “irregularly shaped
pearl.” This is a suitable description
that Rome was the birthplace of the
Baroque Period, which according to
some historians was a response to
Protestantism.
Neoclassicism:
• Neoclassicism was a movement in
Europe that transpired during the
late 18th and early 19th centuries. It
was the dominant art movement
that time which basically aimed to
revive and rekindle the influences
of Greek and Roman into art and
architecture.
Romanticism:
• Romanticism, as an art
movement, used the central
themes of Neoclassicist
artworks as a springboard.
Romanticists have highlighted
heroic elements into their work.
• Strongly emphasis on emotion
and individualism
Romanticism:
• characterized by a heightened
interest in nature, emphasis on
the individual's expression of
emotion and imagination,
departure from the attitudes
and forms of classicism, and
rebellion against established
social rules .
Realism:
• Realism as a style of work focuses
on the accuracy of details that
depicts and somehow mirrors
reality.
• Realism as a modern movement in
art veered away from traditional
forms of art.
Impressionism:
• The Impressionism movement started
in France, which led to a break from
the tradition in European painting.
Impressionism is a style of painting
that emerged in the mid- to late 1800s.
Impressionist artists incorporated
scientific principles to achieve a more
distinct representation of color.
Post-Impressionism:
• It is an art movement that emerged in
France, which is a result of both the
influence and rejection of
Impressionism.
Neo-Impressionism:
• As an art movement, neo-impressionism is considered as a response to
empirical realism of impressionism.
• Most painters who subscribe to such movement rely on a systematic and
scientific techniques that have a predetermined visual effects not only on
the artwork itself but also how the audience perceive the art.
Art Nouveau:
• Between 1890 and 1910, countries from
Europe and the United States witnessed
the emergence and flourishing of a new
art style.
• This ornamental style of art was a break
from the conservative historicism, which
was the prevailing and dominant theme of
most Western artworks.
Fauvism:
• This is a style of painting that emerged
in France around the turn of the 20 th
century.
• they used pure and vibrant colors by
applying straight from the paint tubes
directly to the canvas.
• which is characterized by strong
colors and fierce brushwork.
Cubism:
• Between 1907 and 1914, French artists Pablo
Picasso and Georges Braque introduced a
new visual arts style called cubism.
• Cubists highlighted the two- dimensional
surface of the picture plane.
• the style is characterized by fragmented
subject matter deconstructed in such a way
that it can be viewed from multiple angles
simultaneously.
Futurism:
• It is an early 20th century art movement
that started in Italy, which highlighted
the speed, energy, dynamism, and power
of machines.
• common themes for works in this
movement are restlessness and the fast-
pace of modern life.
• an Italian art movement that defined
modernity as motion, speed and
dynamism.
LESSON 9:
CAUGHT IN BETWEEN:
MODERN AND
CONTEMPORARY ART
Defining Contemporary:
• The complexity of defining the term is attributed to the fact that
people have dissenting views on the interpretation of the
“present,” of “today,” or what the “now” means— these are often
ideas that follow the word contemporary.
• Even more so, is when it is hinged on the word “art” and suddenly
it becomes a bit fuzzy.
• Another source of confusion is the fact that in the colloquial,
“modern” and “contemporary” are considered synonymous.
• Modern art saw the digression of artists away from past
conventions and traditions and toward freedom. There is the
famous adage of “anything goes.” With the world becoming
increasingly complex, it required an art that could accommodate
such range and breadth.
Contemporary Art:
• Contemporary art was heavily driven by ideas
and theories, and even the blurring of notions
of what is and can be considered as “art”.
• Reeling after the war, one of the early
movements was abstract expressionism (early
1940s to mid-1960s) which took the basic
tenets of abstraction and combined with it with
gestural techniques, mark-making, and a
rugged spontaneity in its visual articulation.
Contemporary Art:
• Creating energy was at the center of
"op art" or optical art (early 1960s
onward), which relied on creating
an illusion to inform the experience
of the artwork using color, pattern,
and other perspective tricks that
artists had on their sleeves.
Contemporary Art:
• The quest for actual movement in the
works created were responded to by
kinetic art (early 1950s onward).
Harnessing the current and direction of
the wind, components of the artwork
which was predominantly sculptural,
most were mobiles and even motor-
driven machines, was an example of how
art and technology can be brought
together.
Minimalism
cropped up in the early 1960s in
New York, and saw artists testing
the boundaries of various media. It
was seen as an extreme type of
abstraction that favored geometric
shapes, color fields, and the use of
objects and materials that had an
“industrial” sparse.
Contemporary Art:
• Pop art first emerged in the 1950s
but found its footing in the 1960s.
It drew inspiration, sources, and
even materials from commercial
culture, making it one of the most
identifiable and relatable
movements in art history.
Contemporary Art:
• But perhaps the most pertinent
movement that solidified the
move to contemporary art was
postmodernism. By the very
name, it was a nudge to formalize
the critique toward modernism
and its claim over art for the better
of the 20th century.
Photorealism:
• The resurgence of figurative art,
where realistic depictions is a
choice, is a proof how varied and
fragmented postmodernism is.
• In photorealism, a painstaking
attention to detail is aimed, without
asserting an artist’s personal style.
Conceptualism:
As opposed to celebrating
commodities as references to real
life, conceptualism fought against
the idea that art is a commodity.
is art in which the concept(s) or
idea(s) involved in the work take
precedence over traditional
aesthetic, technical, and material
concerns.
