Impressionists purposely went against the realism of the 1800’s.  They were young, rebellious, and very anti-establishment.  They chose everyday life as their subject matter, working from real life more than with models and props. Their subjects were often people caught in action, not posed.

Ballet Rehearsal, Degas

Noted impressionists: Degas, Manet, Monet, Renoir, Cassatt

Sunday Afternoon on La Grande Jatte, Seurat

A successor, and in some ways a companion movement to Impressionism, involving a move away from representation and experimentation with brushwork, especially in the case of pointillism.

Noted Post-impressionists: Cezanne, Gauguin, Van Gogh, Seurat

Fauvists were artists determined to break away from the existing conventions of the art world, primarily by being bolder and less realistic with color.  Henri Matisse said he wanted to “liberate color from its descriptive function”.

Red Room, Matisse

Noted Fauvists: Matisse, Derain

A reaction to the evils of the world in the troubled times around World War I, expecially in Germany.  Completely breaking with representation, the expressionists created non-objective art in which colors and forms represent emotions and ideas more than physical objects.

Improvisation #28, Kandinsky 

Noted expressionists:  Kandinsky, Marc

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, Picasso

A term most frequently applied to the depiction of objects from different angles in the same painting, "cubism" implies a high degree of abstraction through fragmentation of form.  Closely related to Futurism.

Noted Cubists: Picasso, Balla

Primarily an Italian movement of early 1900’s, Futurism often depicts rapid motion through repetition and blur.  The style reflects the rise of cities and their fast pace.

Dynamism of a Dog, Balla

Noted Futurists: Boccioni, Balla, Carra

Fountain, Duchamp

One of the most rebellious movements of all.  The dadaists rejected society, and in fact turned their backs on art itself.  Prominent in Dada were “Ready-mades”:  art involving ordinary objects found anywhere.

Noted Dadaists:  Duchamp, Ernst, Arp, Man Ray