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Is there a way to tell what movement inspired a work of art?
Art, Culture, and Politics
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Many works of art in museum and galleries blur the lines between multiple art movements and styles. Nevertheless, here is a quick-and-dirty guide to recognizing some common forms of modern and contemporary Art.
Is there a way to tell what movement inspired a work of art?
Many works of art in museum and galleries blur the lines between multiple art movements and styles. Nevertheless, here is a quick-and-dirty guide to recognizing some common forms of modern and contemporary Art.
Movement or Style | Description of Artwork |
The painting is enormous, with thick brushstrokes, paint splatters, and bold colors. | This is most likely an example of Abstract Expressionism, which is often large, abstract, and brightly colored. |
It’s not clear if the artwork is a painting or a sculpture, but it is a painted square that sticks out of the wall. | Minimalist art is geometric, simple, and often blurs the line between painting and sculpture. |
This piece of art is a telephone with a lobster for a handle. | This example could be a number of things, but it is likely either Dada or Surrealist. Both movements make art out of normal, everyday objects—transforming them from functional objects to works of visual art. |
This is a photograph of a Depression-era farmer with his family. | During the Great Depression, social realism was a movement that highlighted the realities of American life in paintings and photographs. Similarly, American Regionalism depicted rural American life. |
A sculpture hangs from the center of a gallery display, slowly rotating. | Kinetic art, such as the mobiles made by Alexander Calder, is always moving, and meant to be seen from multiple perspectives. |
This painting is glossy and large, and depicts logos and brand names of familiar products. | This sounds like pop art, which often depicts mass media and consumer images. |
This work of art is composed of random materials such as trash, children’s toys, or old clothes. | Arte Povera is often composed of non-art materials. This type of art could also be an assemblage, or one of Robert Rauschenberg’s combines. |
The entire room seems to be a work of art. | This is an example of installation art, art that encompasses a whole environment. |
The painting depicts a violin, but the image is repeated multiple times, is partially abstract, and is made up of jagged, geometric lines. | This sounds like an example of Cubism. Cubists like Picasso and Braque were interested in depicting an object from multiple viewpoints and often accomplished this through fragmentation and collage. |