1.

EGYPTIAN ART (from 3100 BCE)

 The greatest civilization in the history of ancient art, was the first culture to adopt a
recognizable style of art.

2. ANCIENT GREEK ART (c. 1100-100 BCE)

 Ancient Greek art is traditionally divided into the following periods: (1) the Dark Ages
(c.1100-900 BCE). (2) The Geometric Period (c.900-700 BCE). (3) The Oriental Style
Period (c.700-625 BCE). (4) The Archaic Period (c.625-500 BCE). (5) The Classical Period
(c.500-323 BCE). (6) The Hellenistic Period (c.323-100 BCE).

3. ROMAN ART
 Unlike their intellectual Greek neighbors, the Romans were primarily practical people with a
natural affinity for engineering, military matters, and Empire building. Roman architecture
was designed to awe, entertain and cater for a growing population both in Italy and
throughout their Empire.

4. MEDIEVAL ART
 With the death in 395 CE, of the Emperor Theodosius, the Roman empire was divided into
two halves: a Western half based initially in Rome, until it was sacked in the 5th century CE,
then Ravenna; and an eastern half located in the more secure city of Constantinople. At the
same time, Christianity was made the exclusive official religion of the empire. These two
political developments had a huge impact on the history of Western art. First, relocation to
Constantinople helped to prolong Greco-Roman civilization and culture; second, the growth
of Christianity led to an entirely new category of Christian art which provided architects,
painters, sculptors and other craftsmen with what became the dominant theme in the visual
arts for the next 1,200 years. As well as prototype forms of early Christian art, much of
which came from the catacombs, it also led directly to the emergence of Byzantine art. See
also: Christian Art, Byzantine Period.

5. A WORD ABOUT ASIAN ART

 In contrast to Christianity which permits figurative representation of Prophets, Saints and the
Holy family, Islam forbids all forms of human iconography. Thus, Islamic art focused
instead on the development of complex geometric patterns, illuminated texts and calligraphy.
In East Asia, the visual arts of India and Tibet incorporated the use of highly colored figures
(due to their wide range of pigments) and strong outlines. Painting in India was extremely
diverse, as were materials (textiles being more durable often replaced paper) and size (Indian
miniatures were a specialty). Chinese art specialized in ceremonial bronze sculpture,
calligraphic and brush painting and jade carving, as well as lacquerware and Chinese pottery.
In Japan, Buddhist temple art, Zen Ink-Painting, Yamato-e and Ukiyo-e woodblock prints
were four of the main types of Japanese art.

6. RENAISSANCE ART (c. 1300-1620)

 Renaissance art was founded on classicism - an appreciation of the arts of Classical
Antiquity, a belief in the nobility of Man, as well as artistic advances in both linear
perspective and realism. It evolved in three main Italian cities: first Florence, then Rome, and
lastly Venice.

7. POST-RENAISSANCE ART
 It was during this period that the Catholic Counter-Reformation got going in an attempt to
attract the masses away from Protestantism. Renewed patronage of the visual arts and
architecture was a key feature of this propaganda campaign, and led to a grander, more
theatrical style in both areas. This new style, known as Baroque art was effectively the
highpoint of dramatic Mannerism.

8. ROCOCO ART
 This new style of decorative art, known as Rococo, impacted most on interior design,
 although architecture, painting and sculpture were also affected. Essentially a reaction
against the seriousness of the Baroque, Rococo was a light-hearted, almost whimsical style
which grew up in the French court at the Palace of Versailles before spreading across
Europe.

9. NEOCLASSICAL ART
 In architecture, Neoclassicism derived from the more restrained "classical" forms of Baroque
practiced in England by Sir Christopher Wren (1632-1723), who designed St Paul's
Cathedral. Yet another return to the Classical Orders of Greco-Roman Antiquity, the style
was characterized by monumental structures, supported by columns of pillars, and topped
with classical Renaissance domes. Employing innovations like layered cupolas, it lent added
grandeur to palaces, churches, and other public structures.

10. ROMANTICISM MOVEMENT

 In contrast to the universal values espoused by Neo-Classicism, Romantic artists expressed a
more personal response to life, relying more on their senses and emotions rather than reason
and intellect. This idealism, like Neoclassism, was encouraged by the French Revolution,
thus some artists were affected by both styles. Nature was an important subject for
Romantics, and the style is exemplified, by the English School of Landscape Painting, the
plein air painting of John Constable (1776-1837), Corot (1796- 1875) along with members of
the French Barbizon School and the American Hudson River School of landscape painting,
as well as the more expressionistic JMW Turner (1775-1851).

11. REALISM (c. 1845 onwards)

 As the 19th century progressed, growing awareness of the rights of man plus the
social impact of the Industrial Revolution caused some artists to move away from
idealistic or romantic subjects in favor of more mundane subjects, depicted in a more
true-life, style of naturalism. This new focus (to some extent anticipated by William
Hogarth in the 18th century, see English Figurative Painting) was exemplified by the
Realism style which emerged in France during the 1840s, before spreading across
Europe.

12. MODERN ART

 French Impressionism, championed above all by Claude Monet (1840-1926), was a
spontaneous color-sensitive style of pleinairism whose origins derived from Jean Baptiste
Camille Corot and the techniques of the Barbizon school - whose quest was to depict the
momentary effects of natural light.

13. POST IMPRESSIONISM (c. 1885 onwards)

 Post-Impressionism involved artists who employed Impressionist-type colour
schemes, but were dissatisfied with the limitations imposed by merely reproducing
nature. Neo-Impressionism with its technique of Pointillism was pioneered by
Georges Seurat and Paul Signac (1863-1935), while major Post Impressionists
include Paul Gauguin, Vincent Van Gogh and Paul Cezanne. Inspired by Gauguin's
synthetism and Bernard's cloisonnism, the Post-Impressionist group Les Nabis
promoted a wider form of decorative art; another style, known as Intimisme,
concerned itself with genre scenes of domestic, intimate interiors.

14. COLOURISM: FAUVISM (1900 onwards)

 The term "Fauves" (wild beasts) was first used by the art critic Louis Vauxcelles at
the 1905 Salon d'Automne exhibition in Paris when describing the vividly coloured
paintings of Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Andre Derain (1880-1954), and Maurice de
Vlaminck (1876-1958). Other Fauvists included the later Cubist Georges Braque
(1882- 1963), Raoul Dufy (1877-1953), Albert Marquet (1875-1947) and Georges
Rouault (1871- 1958). Most followers of Fauvism moved on to Expressionism or
other movements associated with the Ecole de Paris.
15. EXPRESSIONIST ART (c. 1900 onwards)
 Expressionism is a general style of painting that aims to express a personal interpretation of a
scene or object, rather than depict its true-life features, it is often characterized by energetic
brushwork, impastoed paint, intense colours and bold lines.

16. DECORATIVE ARTS: ART NOUVEAU (1890-1910) AND ART DECO (1920s-30s)
 Art Nouveau (promoted as Jugendstil by the Munich Secession (1892) and Berlin
Secession (1898), as Sezessionstil in the Vienna Secession (1897), and as Stile
Liberty in Italy, and Modernista in Spain) derived from William Morris and the Arts
and Crafts Movement in Britain, and was also influenced by both the Celtic Revival
arts movement and Japanonisme. Its popularity stemmed from the 1900 Exposition
Universelle in Paris, from where it spread across Europe and the United States. It was
noted for its intricate flowing patterns of sinuous asymmetrical lines, based on plant-
forms (dating back to the Celtic Hallstatt and La Tene cultures), as well as female
silhouettes and forms. Art Nouveau had a major influence on poster art, design and
illustration, interior design, metalwork, glassware, jewellery, as well as painting and
sculpture.

17. CUBISM (c. 1908-12)

 Invented by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) and
considered to be "the" revolutionary movement of modern art, Cubism was a more
intellectual style of painting that explored the full potential of the two-dimensional
picture plane by offering different views of the same object, typically arranged in a
series of overlapping fragments: rather like a photographer might take several photos
of an object from different angles, before cutting them up with scissors and
rearranging them in haphazard fashion on a flat surface.

18. SURREALISM (1924 onwards)

 Largely rooted in the anti-art traditions of the Dada movement (1916-24), as well as the
psychoanalytical ideas of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung, Surrealism was the most influential
art style of the inter-war years. According to its chief theorist, Andre Breton, it sought to
combine the unconscious with the conscious, in order to create a new "superreality" - a
"surrealisme". The movement spanned a huge range of styles, from abstraction to true-life
realism, typically punctuated with "unreal" imagery.
 The movement had a major impact across Europe during the 1930s, was the major
precursor to Conceptualism, and continues to find adherents in fine art, literature and
cinematography.

19. ABSTRACT EXPRESSIONISM (1945-60)

 The first international modern art movement to come out of America (it is sometimes referred to
as The New York School - see also American art), it was a predominantly abstract style of
painting which followed an expressionist colour-driven direction, rather than a Cubist idiom,
although it also includes a number of other styles, making it more of a general movement.
 Abstract Expressionist painting continued to influence later artists for over two decades. It was
introduced to Paris during the 1950s by Jean-Paul Riopelle (1923-2002), assisted by Michel
Tapie's book, Un Art Autre (1952). At the same time, a number of new sub-movements emerged
in America, such as Hard-edge painting, exemplified by Frank Stella. In the late 1950s/early
1960s, a purely abstract form of Color Field painting appeared in works by Helen Frankenthaler
and others, while in 1964, the famous art critic Clement Greenberg helped to introduce a further
stylistic development known as "Post-Painterly Abstraction". Abstract Expressionism went on to
influence a variety of different schools, including Op Art, Fluxus, Pop Art, Minimalism, Neo-
expressionism, and others.

20. POP ART (late 1950s-60s)

 Pop art employed popular imagery and modern forms of graphic art, to create a lively,
high-impact idiom, which could be understood and appreciated by Joe Public. It
appeared simultaneously in America and Britain, during the late 1950s, while a European
form (Nouveau Realisme) emerged in 1960. Pioneered in America by Robert
 Rauschenberg (1925-2008) and Jasper Johns (b.1930), Pop had close links with early
20th century movements like Surrealism. It was a clear reaction against the closed
intellectualism of Abstract Expressionism, from which Pop artists sought to distance
themselves by adopting simple, easily recognized imagery (from TV, cartoons, comic
strips and the like), as well as modern technology like screen printing.

21. INSTALLATION ART

 Installation art is a modern movement characterized by immersive, larger-than-life works
of art. Usually, installation artists create these pieces for specific locations, enabling them
to expertly transform any space into a customized, interactive environment.