Modernism Exam Study Guide
Movement When Where
Artist
Key Characteristics
Modernist Topic
Pictorialism
Julia Margaret Cameron
Louis Daguerre
The use or creation of pictures or visual images a movement or technique in photography emphasizing artificial often romanticized
Pictorial qualities
Used as representation of people and historical events
Machine aesthetic
Impressionism
1870 - 1890
France
Alfred Sisley
A theory or style of painting originating and developed in France during the 1870s,
Characterized by concentration on the immediate visual impression produced by a scene
The use of unmixed primary colours and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.
Pointillism
1880 – 1890
France
Georges Seurat
Paintings made of small, distinct dots of pure paint.
Dots of unmixed colour are juxtaposed on a white ground so that from a distance they fuse in the viewer's eye into appropriate intermediate tones
Also called divisionism.
Post Impressionism
1880 - 1905
France
Van Gogh
Henri Rousseau
A late 19th-century reaction to Impressionism,
Emphasizing on one hand the emotional aspect of painting and on the other a return to formal structure
The first led to Expressionism; the second, to Cubism.
Art Nouveau
1890 - 1910
France
Alphonse Mucha
Jules Cheret
Henri Toulouse
Subtle light, feminine figures, fluent dresses, geometric details, colorful new shapes.
Decorative art form, consumer mentality instead of necessity.
A style of decoration and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized particularly by the depiction of leaves and flowers in flowing, sinuous lines.
Marry art with industry
Industrialization/
Machine aesthetic
Expressionism
1890 - 1934
Germany
Wassily Kandinsky,
Franz marc,
Sidney Nolan
Sought to express emotions rather than to represent external reality
Characterized by the use of symbolism and of exaggeration and distortion
Emphasized subjective expression of
Artist
Key Characteristics
Modernist Topic
Pictorialism
Julia Margaret Cameron
Louis Daguerre
The use or creation of pictures or visual images a movement or technique in photography emphasizing artificial often romanticized
Pictorial qualities
Used as representation of people and historical events
Machine aesthetic
Impressionism
1870 - 1890
France
Alfred Sisley
A theory or style of painting originating and developed in France during the 1870s,
Characterized by concentration on the immediate visual impression produced by a scene
The use of unmixed primary colours and small strokes to simulate actual reflected light.
Pointillism
1880 – 1890
France
Georges Seurat
Paintings made of small, distinct dots of pure paint.
Dots of unmixed colour are juxtaposed on a white ground so that from a distance they fuse in the viewer's eye into appropriate intermediate tones
Also called divisionism.
Post Impressionism
1880 - 1905
France
Van Gogh
Henri Rousseau
A late 19th-century reaction to Impressionism,
Emphasizing on one hand the emotional aspect of painting and on the other a return to formal structure
The first led to Expressionism; the second, to Cubism.
Art Nouveau
1890 - 1910
France
Alphonse Mucha
Jules Cheret
Henri Toulouse
Subtle light, feminine figures, fluent dresses, geometric details, colorful new shapes.
Decorative art form, consumer mentality instead of necessity.
A style of decoration and architecture of the late 19th and early 20th centuries, characterized particularly by the depiction of leaves and flowers in flowing, sinuous lines.
Marry art with industry
Industrialization/
Machine aesthetic
Expressionism
1890 - 1934
Germany
Wassily Kandinsky,
Franz marc,
Sidney Nolan
Sought to express emotions rather than to represent external reality
Characterized by the use of symbolism and of exaggeration and distortion
Emphasized subjective expression of