The Evolution of Modern Art: Major Movements and Artists

The Evolution of Modern Art: Major Movements and Artists

Modern art is defined as the period from around the late 19th century to the middle of the 20th century. It was a culture in which artists completely broke away from the traditional way of doing things by experimenting with new techniques, materials, and ideas in abstraction, surrealism, expressionism, and so on. This period was strongly innovative in terms of ideas relating to both form and subject matter, so much in contrast with the forms and topic material of old. This therefore led to it setting itself apart as a foundation towards the modern art movement. Let us now take a look into a few movements and artists which helped develop modern art.

1. Impressionism
Impressionism, first developing within the late 19th century, is one of the first western movements to be classified strictly as "modern art.". Impressionist artists such as Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Pierre-Auguste Renoir tried to capture the transient impressions of light and color rather than minute details in their subjects. Their loose strokes and vivid palettes hinted at ending the strong realism of previous academic art. Monet's water lilies and Degas' energetic ballerina pictures are typical cases of this kind.

2. Post-Impressionism
Building from the foundation of Impressionism, Post-Impressionist artists like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, and Georges Seurat went further than where Impressionism stopped - adding more emotional depth and structured basis to their work. The grand sweeping brushstrokes in "Starry Night" transcended the momentary impressions of Impressionism; so did the composing construction in landscapes of Paul Cézanne. This period represented a grand stride toward abstraction.

3. Cubism
Perhaps one of the most revolutionary movements of the 20th century, Cubism, initiated by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, broke subjects down into geometric shapes. Rather than describing an object from a single point of view, the Cubists showed several at the same time. Cubism's further exploration in the fragmented forms and representations was led by the case of Picasso's "Les Demoiselles d'Avignon," which scandalized the art world.

4. Surrealism
In protest against the rationalism of the modern world, Surrealism emerged in the 1920s. Artists influenced by Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories began to go into the unconscious mind, dreams, and the irrational. Salvador Dalí, René Magritte, and Max Ernst are some of the most famous surrealist artists. Dalí's "The Persistence of Memory" with melting clocks is probably one of the most famous images emerging from the movement that blurs reality with its bizarre, dream-like elements.

5. Abstract Expressionism
Abstract Expressionism would eventually be the hallmark of American art by the mid 20th century. Drips painting energetic paintings, and large color fields paintings by Mark Rothko abandoned the representational art forms. Abandoning representation, their works are focused on emotion and spontaneity through abstract forms and bold gestures emphasizing the very act of creation.

6. Pop Art
Where the artists of the 1950s and 1960s, including Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, challenged the concept of high art vs. mass culture. Pop Art drew from such commodified sources as advertisements, comic strips, and consumer products to challenge what high art is meant to be against lowly commercial imagery; examples include Warhol's serial Campbell's Soup Can paintings and Lichtenstein's comic book-style paintings sum up the trend of embracing popular culture and irony.

Conclusion
It has been marked by the diversity of movements in its tapestry of expression, created according to certain worldviews and landscapes at each time. Then there are the atmospheric brushstrokes of the Impressionists, the bold abstractions of the Abstract Expressionists - each movement pushed boundaries beyond what art could be. In fact, amongst these movements and artists, key to giving birth to the modern art era, it paved the road to the innovations of contemporary art as well.

The Evolution of Modern Art: Major Movements and Artists