Famous Non-American Artists

The term "western art" is usually used to define art works that were created in Europe and the Americas. It is often divided into different art eras or movements that show how changing styles of art are a reflection of social history. Movements include:

Gothic Art (c.1150-1400) began in Italy and centered around rigid religious conventions; breaks from past art with more naturalistic figures and expressive lines, color, and pattern; ex. of artist--Cimabue

Early Renaissance (c.1400-1450) developed in Italy; unlike the Gothic era, it uses even more naturalism in its drawings by the way its figures are organized through perspective in landscapes; ex. of artists--Masaccio, Uccello

High Renaissance (c.1480-1520) began in Italy; brought an anatomical accuracy and a sensual quality to composition and color; ex. of artists--Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, Titian, Raphael

Baroque (c.1600-1700) was a European style usually showing realistic figures in powerful action to provoke deep viewer emotion; ex. of artists--Rembrandt, Rubens, Velazquez, Bernini

Rococo (c.1700-1775) was essentially a French style and spread across Europe; breaks from Baroque's realism and is full of scrolls, curves, and swirls of interior decoration; ex. of artists--Roucher, Guardi,

Romanticism (c.1765-1850) gave more value to emotional expression over realism through painting techniques and sensual subjects; often show dramatic events in time; ex. of artists--Goya, Delacroix

Impressionism (c.1870-1890) was the beginning of modern art and began in France; gives more attention to light and color over exact form in nature; ex. of artists--Renoir, Degas, Pissarro, Monet

Post Impressionism (c.1885-1905) was a break away from Impressionism by a few artists whose personal styles would go on to influence twentieth-century art; ex. of artists--Van Gogh, Gauguin, Seurat, Cézanne

Abstract Art (c.1907-today) is a nonrealistic art style in which part (texture, tone, shape, form) of the subject matter is missing to show the "essence" of the subject; ex. of artist--George Braque

Cubism (c. 1907-1915) was created by Picasso and Braque; it shows many different perspectives of a subject in a single art work

Surrealism (c.1924-1939) was created out of an artist's unconscious mind and used dream images to portray a superior reality (a sur-reality); ex. of artists--Magritte, Miró, Ernst, Dali