The ABC's of Fine Art

IT'S ALL ABOUT STYLE
There are many styles of art and a multitude of movements within the art world. Here are a few which had an important bearing on or describe the art in early through mid-20th century America.
 

Abstract Art: A 20th century style of painting in which non-representational lines, colors, shape and forms replace accurate visual depiction of objects, landscape and figures. The subject is often stylized, blurred, repeated or broken down into basic forms so that it becomes unrecognizable. Intangible subjects such as thoughts, emotions and time are often expressed in abstract art.

Abstract Expressionism: A primarily American art style of art which emerged in New York during the 1940s and remained dominant until the late 1950s. It was neither fully abstract nor expressionist but an amalgam of surrealist ideas and American individualism, particularly freedom of expression in art. Sub-categories include Calligraphic (in which freely scribbled graphics cover a whole surface) and Iconic (where the composition is dominated by a single form). Abstract expressionism is also called Action art.

American Scene: A term used to describe the works of American artists active during the 1920s and 30s who (1) were among the first to achieve independence from 200 years of European art tradition; and (2) embraced the principles of representational art in defiance of contemporary trends in abstraction. Sub-categories include Social Realism which portrayed sociological issues such as poverty and racism; and Regionalism which presented people, places and things in a hyper-realistic manner.

Art Deco: In the 1920s, Art Deco was considered a glitzy, glamorous style featuring sharp angles, curvy curves, polished wood and flashy chrome surfaces. It included exotic designs originated by the Aztecs and ancient Egyptians. Initially, Art Deco was used in modern furniture, home and office interiors, and movie theaters. By the 1930s, the style had been widely adopted for factory-produced goods such as mirrors, lamps, hairbrushes and new electrical appliances.

Arts and Crafts: Although a product of the Victorian age, the Arts and Crafts movement extended in varying degrees deep into 20th century American Art. Indeed, it continues as hand-done arts and crafts find a growing audience in a reaction against today’s mass-production art world. Particularly appealing are the hand-pulled woodcuts, silk screens and crayon-on-stone lithographs of the mid-20th century.

Ash Can School: In 1908, a small group of American artists organized a show of “urban realism” in New York City. Many of them had been newspaper illustrators. They had a reporter’s eye for the plain facts of urban life in street scenes, parks, docks, theaters, boxing matches, tenement houses and city people. Because their paintings were realistic and gritty, they were named the Ash Can School.

Cubism: An art style developed around 1908 by Picasso and Braque whereby the artist breaks down the natural forms of subjects into simplified geometric shapes such as triangles and squares. In contrast to traditional painting styles where the perspective of subjects is fixed and two-dimensional, cubist artists often present several viewpoints of the same subject in one work of art.

Expressionism: An art movement which started in the early 20th century in which traditional adherence to realism and proportion were replaced by the artist’s emotional reaction to the subject. Expressionist paintings may be abstract, or the subject matter shown in hyper color and form. Nature served up common subject matter for many expressionists: their gargantuan mountains fill the paper and are purple one day and yellow the next depending on the artist’s mood.

Impressionism: An art movement founded in France in the late 1800s out of which came modern art. Impressionist artists sought to break up light into its component colors and render its play on various objects. The artist’s vision focused on light and the way it affects the visible world. Impressionism is characterized by short brush strokes that use bright colors to recreate visual impressions of the subject and to capture the light, climate and atmosphere surrounding a subject at a specific moment in time. The term was first used in 1874 by a journalist ridiculing a landscape by Monet called Impression-Sunrise. He should have bought it.

Modernism: A general name given to several successive styles of modern, avant-garde art and architecture which have dominated Western culture throughout most of the 20th century. Under the modernist umbrella are some of America’s fine art works.

Pop Art: A style which uses common, everyday objects as stylized subject matter. Pop Art first emerged in the late 1950s and soon became the dominant modern art form in the United States. In drawing attention to images taken from the mass media, Pop artists elevated images not usually found in museums to fine art status.

Post-Impressionism: A general term first used in 1914 to describe the work of artists who first rejected and then went beyond impressionism. Chief among them were Cezanne and Van Gogh.

Post-Modernism: Evolving in the 1970s, this term can be applied to many aspects of our lives but has particular relevance in the world of art, architecture and design. Essentially its a rejection of everything entailed in modernism. Post-Modernists rejected the modernist’s search for a universal aesthetic embracing instead a combination of older, classical styles along with the modern.

Post-Regionalism: An art movement active today in which there is strong interest in local artists favoring local subject matter. Unlike the Regionalists of the early 20th century, their works encompass abstract as well as representational styles. Just as Americans in the early 20th century shook off a deep feeling of inferiority with respect to European art, so have post-regional artists, collectors and critics ceased to consider New York or Los Angeles the only sources of culture or contemporary fine art.

Realism or Representationalism: A style of painting which depicts subject matter as it appears and which is rendered through an artist’s particular use color, form and space.

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