Likely the best known art movement that emerged from Russia in the 20th century, it is synonymous with communism as it sought to analyze modern materials for mass production. "Tatlin's Tower" is likely the best known piece of this period and "Zuev Workers' Club" in Moscow was a building based on similar principles.
Constructivism
Short-lived artist group formed in Paris after WWII and named for three European capital cities all of which saw Nazi occupation. Karel Appel's "Questioning Children" was a noted output.
CoBrA Group (Copenhagen, Brussels, Amsterdam)
Meaning "concreteness", it is a radical art-group from post-war Japan founded by Jiro Yoshihara in Osaka. Artists emphasized individuality and the need to physically engage with their subjects. Prime examples are Laceration of Paper by Saburo Murakami in which the artist goes through paper screens and Challenge To The Mud in which Kazuo Shiraga writhed in mud attempting to shape it with his own body.
Gutai
Movement encompassing several genres that emerged out of Cabaret Voltaire in Zurich as a reaction to the nationalism that caused World War I. Artists were known for using everyday objects which were manipulated - like scribbling on a urinal or attaching a moustache to the Mona Lisa. Name purportedly comes from a word that means "yes, yes" in Rumanian, or a "hobby horse" in French.
Dada
This worldwide style that sought to modernize design emphasizing linear contours and muted colors had various names like Glasgow Style and Jugendstil. Paved the way for Art Deco and experienced a revival in the 1960s. Arthur Mackmurdo, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Aubrey Beardsley produced noted art associated with this style.
Art Nouveau
This art movement is based on the idea that color and sound are similar phenomena. Morgan Russell is an important artist of this genre.
Synchromism
(from symphony and chrome)
George Maciunas is considered to the founder of this 60s group/movement that emphasized the process of creating art over the final product and whose ideals were influenced by the ideas of composer John Cage.
Fluxus
The name for this distinct American group noted for their landscapes has been attributed to either the art critic Clarence Cook or the artist Homer Dodge Martin and was coined as a derision. Thomas Cole, Thomas Moran, Albert Bierstadt, and Frederic Edwin Church were some key members.
Hudson River School
Likely the most influential modern movement, it existed from 1919-33 and sought to fuse art with technology. It was founded by architect Walter Gropius in Weimar and also existed in Dessau and Berlin before it was shut down by the Nazis.
Bauhaus
The formation of this offshoot of Art Nouveau in 1897 initially led by Klimt is said to be the beginning of modern art in Austria. Its HQ colloquially called "The Golden Cabbage" was designed by Joseph Maria Olbrich.
Vienna Secession
An entire quiz can be written about this movement that started around 1600 in Italy and spread throughout Europe and was fueled by Counter-Reformation. Name comes from a word meaning a pearl of bizarre color/shape and the techniques of chiaroscuro, tenebrism, quadro riportato (frescos that look like a series of framed paintings), quadrature (ceiling painting), and trompe l'oeil all have their origin in this period.
Baroque
The poet Guillaume Apollinaire coined the name of this movement, after the Greek god who was renowned for his musical talents. Its artists sought to break free of Cubism by using bright colors.
Orphism (from Orpheus)
Art movement active from 1830-1870 that gets its name from a village in France near the Forest of Fontainebleau. Since the early artists of this movement were influenced by John Constable, it is no surprise that most of their work was landscape paintings.
Barbizon School
Period that existed from 1905-30 that loosely reflected the ideals of Mannerism and was particularly popular in Germany. Artists of this movement employed exaggerated brushstrokes inspired by works like Munch's The Scream. Both the Blue Rider and Die Brücke groups are part of this period/movement.
Expressionism
Group of artists in the 19th century who took inspiration from William Blake and who are considered a part of British Romantic landscape genre. Samuel Palmer is the best known among them.
The Ancients
The groups Les XX and L'Essor that were active in the later part of the 19th century were based in this country.
Belgium
Group of artists in the American west coast who rejected Abstract Expressionism and painted in range of genres from landscape painting to portraiture. The movement is broken down into three groups: the First Generation, the Bridge Generation, and the Second Generation.
Bay Area Figurative Movement
Jean Tinguely, who pioneered this movement said "The only stable thing is movement".
Kinetic Art
Three word movement that originated in the 19th century as a reaction to the monotony and degradation of human spirit due to industrialization. Red House of William Morris in the UK and Hull House of Jane Addams in the US were the hubs.
Arts and Crafts Movement
Group of Dutch artists named for a city who were active between 1860-90 and who were influenced by the French Barbizon School. Known for their landscapes, they painted in muted colors and hence are also known as the Gray School.
Hague School
Called as Japanese form of Pop Art, this term was coined by Takashi Murakami in 2001. The artwork 727 represents his iconic Mr. DOB.
Superflat
French artist Jean Dubuffet coined this term to describe the style of art that is independent and not connected to mainstream institutions.
Art Brut
A subset of the Art Nouveau movement in Germany, its name means "Young Style" and displayed floral motifs in the initial stages. Had a significant influence on Expressionists and later Bauhaus.
Jugendstil
This style/movement originated in Paris and went beyond art and influenced designs in many areas and created works that were geometric and symmetric. Chrysler Building in NYC is a prime example.
Art Deco
This movement of the 1960s/70s of which Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson is a crowning example has its parallel in Stonehenge, Native American mounds and Nazca Lines.
Earth Art Movement/ Earthworks
The artists of this wide-ranging movement emphasized feeling over rules or tenets. An early advocate was Goethe and William Blake's artworks as well as The Third of May 1808 by Goya, La Grande Odalisque by Ingres and Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog by Caspar David Friedrich all fall under this movement.
Romanticism
Along with Die Brücke who formed in Dresden, this other German expressionist group of the same period was found in Munich by a number of Russian emigrants notably Wassily Kandinsky and native German artists like Franz Marc and Paul Klee.
Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider)
Artists American landscape painting style of the 1850s to 1870s sought to capture the effects of light and conceal brushstrokes.
Luminism
Describes a genre of American art focused on depicting landscape that emphasizes poetic feeling like music does. James McNeill Whistler came to be identified with it and the movement faded after more abstract forms came into vogue in the beginning of the 20th century.
Tonalism
New York of the 1940s and 50s was the heartbeat of this movement considered America's avant-garde and whose artists were influenced by Surrealism. Clyfford Still is credited with pioneering the movement following WWII with contributions from Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Mark Rothko and women like Helen Frankenthaler and Elaine de Kooning. Tachisme (French for stain) is considered its European equivalent.
Abstract Expressionism
Frank Stella with his Black Paintings were foundational in the development of this 1960s movement which sought to move away from Abstract Expressionism.
Minimalism
French art collector and dealer Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler was one of the first patrons of this major 20th art movement of which "Houses at L'Estaque" and "Violin and Palette" are major examples.
Cubism
This mid-19th century British movement was a reaction to the conservative ideals of the Victorian-era. Artists emphasized quality craftsmanship and worked on a "art for art's sake" principle eschewing hidden messages. Going beyond art, it influenced other spheres like literature and was even supported by Oscar Wilde. Nocturne: Blue and Gold - Old Battersea Bridge (Whistler), La Ghirlandata (Rosetti) and The Peacock Room (Rosetti) applied to interior design are all noted examples of this period.
Aestheticism
The artists of this informal group, which took its name from a derisive comment about how the paintings contained too many trash bins, portrayed the grit of early 20th century New York. A group called "The Eight" are linked to this movement and a couple of paintings associated with this period are Portrait of Willie Gee by Robert Henri and Stag at Sharkey’s by George Bellows.
Ashcan School
Group of German expressionist artists from Dresden who took their ideas from the earlier Jugendstil movement. Rejected abstraction and sought to use high-keyed, unnatural colors and are compared to their contemporary French Fauves.
Die Brücke
Japanese paintings that subscribed to tradition as opposed to "Yoga" genre that had western influence
Nihonga
"Chaste" movement led by Amédée Ozenfant and Le Corbusier that took place between 1918 and 1925. Born from a criticism of Cubism is sought to depict objects as elementary forms devoid of detail. The magazine L'Esprit Nouveau was established to carry out its ideals.
Purism
This distinctive genre from a certain country originally combined words that meant "sadness" and "life" until another symbol that meant "to float" came into usage and became prevalent.
Ukiyo-e
Critic Louis Leroy used the word "Impressionism" in a negative sense while criticizing an artwork of this great.
Monet (Impression, Sunrise)
Projected as a futuristic as well as Russian by founders Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova, this abstract art movement drew inspiration from other movements like Cubism, Orphism, German Expressionism, and Futurism.
Rayonism
French term for the iconography/concepts of a certain Asian country that was an influence in the second half of the 19th century. Had a significant influence on the artists of Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism and those of the Aesthetic movement. Artworks influenced by it featured bright patterns of juxtaposed colors rendered in flat planes reminiscent of woodblock prints.
Japonisme
This Dutch art movement founded in Leiden and active in the period 1917-30 has two names. Its proponents favored abstraction and reduced artworks to their essence of form and color. Piet Mondrian was a noted member of this group whose magazine was run by Theo van Doesburg (who later originated Concrete Art).
De Stijl/ Neoplasticism
Over-the-top early 1700s movement that is from the French for "shell work, pebble-work".
Rococo
Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams (1899) was significantly influential to this seminal 20th century art movement whose manifesto was written by Andre Breton.
Surrealism
Early 20th century Italian movement that used elements of modern living like automobiles and technology. Filippo Marinetti wrote the first manifesto in which he famously stated that an automobile is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace sculpture. Giacomo Balla, Primo Conti and Umberto Boccioni were the leading exponents.
Futurism
The name of this movement was originated by critic Louis Vauxcelles when he said that the bold colored canvasses he viewed at the Salon d'Automne 1905 were like "Donatello among ..." a certain untamed group.
Fauvism ("wild beasts")
This movement shares its field with Kinetic Art and while Kinetic artists are attracted by the possibility of real motion, the artists of this movement are concerned with virtual motion. Some critics continue to characterize its designs as "retinal titillations".
Op Art
In this two-word 1940s style that is a subset of Abstract Expressionism, color itself became a subject devoid of meaning or context. Mark Rothko, Barnett Newman, and Clyfford Still were the pioneers.
Color Field
One of the earliest developments in abstract art, it was coined by Russian artist Kazimir Malevich from his ideal that it would be better than everything that came before. Black Square is an iconic art-piece of this movement.
Suprematism
The group, whose main artists were Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard, took their name from the Hebrew for "Prophets" and was an influence in the transition from impressionism to modernism. Grew out of the work of Paul Gauguin with the ethos that color and shape represents experience.
Les Nabis
Opposed the dominance of the British Royal Academy and believed that painters before the Renaissance provided a model for depicting nature and the human body realistically. Dante Gabriel Rossetti's The Girlhood of Mary Virgin from 1848 is the first artwork from this group t appear in public.
The Pre-Raphaelites
The Group of Seven with artists like Tom Thompson and J.E.H. MacDonald is the first recognized art group from this country. Paintings of this group like "Red Maple" and "The Jack Pine" focus on the remarkable landscapes of that country.
Canada
A group of Impressionists centered on Édouard Manet who used to gather at Café Guerbois in Paris in the late 19th century went by this name.
The Batignolles Group
Literally "poor art", this movement that started in Italy in 1967 with the exhibition "Im Spazio" (The Space of Thoughts) was distinct for the use of common materials like earth, rocks, and clothing. Piero Manzoni who (in)famously canned his own excrement and sold it as art is said to be an influence.
Arte Povera
16th century movement that originated in Italy during High Renaissance and spread through the continent and held its own throughout the 1500s until it was supplanted by Baroque. Works created during this period exaggerated the ideal proportions depicted during High Renaissance and hence long necks and extended limbs are seen in the artworks.
Mannerism