Art Through History

~40,000–3,000 BCE

Prehistoric Art

Artist & Example Work

Lascaux Cave Paintings (France) (Cave Wall Painting) - Anonymous

Conceptual Issues

Understanding nature, struggle for survival, coping with unknown forces, community bonds.

Key Concepts

Survival, Forces of Nature, Ritual, First Symbols, Clan/Community Identity.

~3,500 BCE–300 CE

Ancient Egyptian Art

Artist & Example Work

Tomb of Nebamun Frescoes (e.g., Garden Scene) (Wall Painting/Fresco) - Anonymous

Conceptual Issues

Death and the afterlife, maintaining order against chaos, legitimacy of divine authority, sustaining life.

Key Concepts

Quest for Immortality, Divine Order (Ma'at), Sacred Authority, Eternity, Protection/Preservation.

~1,600 BCE–31 BCE

Ancient Greek Art

Artist & Example Work

Achilles and Ajax Playing Dice (Black-figure Vase Painting) - Exekias (Vase Painter)

Conceptual Issues

Man's place in the universe, search for ideal beauty and governance, reason-emotion balance, fate.

Key Concepts

Human Ideal, Reason and Logic, Beauty and Harmony, Measure/Proportion, Democracy/Citizenship, Myth.

~500 BCE–476 CE

Ancient Roman Art

Artist & Example Work

Garden Landscape from the Villa of Livia (Wall Painting/Fresco) - Anonymous

Conceptual Issues

Governing the empire, representing power, maintaining order, practical solutions, historical memory.

Key Concepts

Power, Empire, Law/Order, Pragmatism, Historical Monument/Monumentality.

~250/300 CE–1453 CE

Early Christian & Byzantine Art

Artist & Example Work

San Vitale Basilica, Ravenna - Empress Theodora Mosaic (Mosaic) - Anonymous

Conceptual Issues

Spiritual quest against the material world, representing the unseen, protecting faith, religious authority.

Key Concepts

Spirituality, Divine Representation, Belief in Salvation, Faith and Dogma, Escape from Material, Holy Empire.

~1000 CE–1200 CE

Romanesque Art

Artist & Example Work

Sant Climent de Taüll Apse Fresco (Spain) (Wall Painting/Fresco) - Anonymous

Conceptual Issues

Fear of God, sin and salvation, power of the Church, insecurity of the feudal world.

Key Concepts

Divine Judgment, Sin and Penance, Church Authority, Protection/Refuge, Pilgrimage.

~1150 CE–1500 CE

Gothic Art

Artist & Example Work

"Très Riches Heures du Duc de Berry" (Manuscript/Miniature) - Limbourg Brothers

Conceptual Issues

Desire to reach God, uniting faith and reason, rise of cities, personal piety.

Key Concepts

Divine Light, Ascent/Transcendence, Faith and Reason (Scholasticism), Urban Identity/Pride.

~1400 CE–1600 CE

Renaissance Art

Artist & Example Work

Mona Lisa (Oil Painting) - Leonardo da Vinci

Conceptual Issues

Centrality of man, discovery of the individual, understanding the world through observation, synthesis of antiquity and Christianity.

Key Concepts

Humanism, Individualism, Scientific Observation, Return to Ancient Ideals, Human Potential, Perspective.

~1520 CE–1600 CE

Mannerism

Artist & Example Work

Madonna with the Long Neck (Oil Painting) - Parmigianino

Conceptual Issues

Post-Renaissance crisis and uncertainty, nature of art, internal conflicts, sophisticated tastes.

Key Concepts

Uncertainty/Restlessness, Artificiality/Stylization, Complexity, Internal Conflict, Elegance.

~1600 CE–1750 CE

Baroque Art

Artist & Example Work

The Calling of Saint Matthew (Oil Painting) - Caravaggio

Conceptual Issues

Need to influence the masses (religious/political), appealing to the senses, displaying the splendor of power.

Key Concepts

Persuasion/Propaganda, Emotional Intensity, Movement and Drama, Absolute Power, Infinity/Transcendence.

~1730 CE–1770 CE

Rococo Art

Artist & Example Work

The Swing (Oil Painting) - Jean-Honoré Fragonard

Conceptual Issues

Aristocracy's final pleasures, sensing impending change, search for intimacy vs. artificiality.

Key Concepts

Pleasure and Entertainment, Lightness/Transience, Sensuality, Social Rituals, Aristocratic Elegance.

~1760 CE–1850 CE

Neoclassicism

Artist & Example Work

Oath of the Horatii (Oil Painting) - Jacques-Louis David

Conceptual Issues

Organizing society through reason, search for ideal governance, public good, moral lessons.

Key Concepts

Age of Reason and Logic, Virtue and Citizenship, Order and Simplicity, Historical Examples, Enlightenment.

~1800 CE–1850 CE

Romanticism

Artist & Example Work

Wanderer above the Sea of Fog (Oil Painting) - Caspar David Friedrich

Conceptual Issues

Reaction against rationalism and industrialization, individual's alienation, broken bond with nature, freedom of expression.

Key Concepts

Emotion and Passion, Individual's Inner World, Nature (Sublime and Wild), Imagination/Escape, National Identity.

~1840 CE–1900 CE

Realism

Artist & Example Work

The Stone Breakers (Oil Painting) - Gustave Courbet

Conceptual Issues

Social injustices, condition of the working class, showing reality as it is, role of art.

Key Concepts

Social Reality/Naked Truth, Claim of Objectivity, Class Differences, Everyday Life.

~1867 CE–1886 CE

Impressionism

Artist & Example Work

Impression, Sunrise (Oil Painting) - Claude Monet

Conceptual Issues

Capturing the speed and momentary perception of modern life, debate on objective reality vs. personal perception.

Key Concepts

Momentary Perception/Impression, Light and Atmosphere, Rhythm of Modern Life, Subjectivity, Nature of Seeing.

~1886 CE–1905 CE

Post-Impressionism

Artist & Example Work

Starry Night (Oil Painting) - Vincent van Gogh

Conceptual Issues

Search for lasting form and deeper meaning beyond Impressionism, need to express the inner world.

Key Concepts

Search for Structure and Form, Emotional Expression, Symbolism, Inner Reality, Personal Style.

~1905 CE–1908 CE

Fauvism

Artist & Example Work

The Joy of Life (Le bonheur de vivre) (Oil Painting) - Henri Matisse

Conceptual Issues

Color freeing itself from representation to become an autonomous means of expression, rebellion against academic rules.

Key Concepts

Autonomy/Arbitrariness of Color, Instinctual Energy, Joy of Life, Decorative Surface.

~1905 CE–1920 CE

Expressionism

Artist & Example Work

The Scream (Oil/Pastel/Tempera) - Edvard Munch

Conceptual Issues

Spiritual turmoil created by the modern world, individual's loneliness and fears, striking inner truth.

Key Concepts

Inner Anguish/Anxiety, Alienation, Psychological Depth, Social Criticism, Deformation.

~1907 CE–1914 CE

Cubism

Artist & Example Work

Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (Oil Painting) - Pablo Picasso

Conceptual Issues

Inadequacy of traditional representation, changing perception of time-space, fragmented nature of perception.

Key Concepts

Multiple Viewpoints, Fragmented Form, Time-Space Perception, Abstraction, Analysis of the Object.

~1909 CE–1944 CE

Futurism

Artist & Example Work

The City Rises (Oil Painting) - Umberto Boccioni

Conceptual Issues

Intoxication of technological progress, rejection of old values, worship of speed and machines.

Key Concepts

Speed and Dynamism, Machine Aesthetics, Worship of Modernity, Destruction of the Past, Violence.

1916 CE–1924 CE

Dadaism

Artist & Example Work

Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 (Oil Painting) - Marcel Duchamp

Conceptual Issues

Loss of meaning created by war, bankruptcy of bourgeois values, desire to break the boundaries of art.

Key Concepts

Meaninglessness/Absurdity, Rebellion and Provocation, Randomness, Anti-Art, Rejection of Logic.

~1924 CE–1950s CE

Surrealism

Artist & Example Work

The Persistence of Memory (Melting Clocks) (Oil Painting) - Salvador Dalí

Conceptual Issues

Escaping the oppression of reason, exploring suppressed desires and the subconscious, limits of reality.

Key Concepts

Unconscious and Dreams, The Irrational/Illogical, Automatism, Desire and Instincts, Revolutionary Spirit.

~1940s CE–1960 CE

Abstract Expressionism

Artist & Example Work

No. 5, 1948 (Drip Technique/Oil Painting) - Jackson Pollock

Conceptual Issues

Post-war trauma and search for meaning, individual's existential struggle, expression of the subconscious.

Key Concepts

Existential Anxiety, Abstract Expression, Action and Gesture, Individual Mythology, Spontaneity.

~1955 CE–1970s CE

Pop Art

Artist & Example Work

Campbell's Soup Cans (Screenprint/Polymer Paint) - Andy Warhol

Conceptual Issues

Dominance of consumer culture, blurring of high/low art distinction, power of media.

Key Concepts

Mass Culture/Popular Images, Consumer Society, Irony and Superficiality, Mass Production/Repetition.

~1960 CE–1975 CE

Minimalism

Artist & Example Work

Die Fahne Hoch! (Shaped Canvas/Enamel Paint) - Frank Stella

Conceptual Issues

Rejection of subjective expression in art, focus on the object's physical presence, viewer experience.

Key Concepts

Objectivity/Objecthood, Simplicity and Reduction, Industrial Materials, Perceptual Experience.

~1965 CE–1975 CE

Conceptual Art

Artist & Example Work

One and Three Chairs (Installation/Idea - not painting) - Joseph Kosuth

Conceptual Issues

Question of what constitutes an artwork, primacy of the idea over the object, role of art institutions.

Key Concepts

Primacy of Idea/Concept, Definition/Limits of Art, Language and Text, Dematerialization.

~1970 CE–1990 CE

Postmodernism

Artist & Example Work

Betty (Oil Painting) - Gerhard Richter

Conceptual Issues

Distrust of universal truths, reinterpretation of history and cultures, fluidity of identity.

Key Concepts

Rejection of Grand Narratives, Fragmentation/Eclecticism, Irony/Pastiche/Parody, Identity Politics.

~1970 CE–Present

Contemporary Art

Artist & Example Work

Machine Hallucinations (AI Data Sculpture/Digital Art - not painting) - Refik Anadol

Conceptual Issues

Impact of technology on human life, virtual-real relationship, global issues, data overload.

Key Concepts

Globalization, Digitalization/Cyber Culture, Network Society, Ecological Awareness, Identity and Technology.