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29 Examples of Art
Styles
 John Spacey, September 16, 2019 updated on June

02, 2023

An art style is a set of distinctive

characteristics that are shared
between artworks. This allows art to
be categorized in a way that is
inherently meaningful to people as a
style is recognizable once you've got
the idea behind it. The following are
common examples of art styles.

Renaissance Art
The art of the Renaissance period of
European history between the 14th
and 17th centuries. This was a period
of change and embrace of brave new
ideas such as humanism that
prioritizes the human above all else. At
this time, Italy was the dominant force
of the art world. This would soon shift
to France in the modern-era. Italian
renaissance artists include Leonardo
da Vinci, Michelangelo and Sandro
Botticelli.

Romanticism
Romanticism was a 19th century art
movement that emphasized emotion
and individualism. It is viewed as a
reaction to the mechanization and
systematization of the industrial
revolution that was dramatically
transforming the world at this time.
Romanticism glorified the past and
tended to depict medieval history as
opposed to antiquity.

Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is art that draws on the
art, culture and history of antiquity,
particularly ancient Rome and Greece.
This was a long art movement that
lasted from the late 18th century to the
early 20th century. These works aren't
particularly popular with
contemporary art enthusiasts who
may view it as inauthentic for one age
to imitate another.

Academic Art
Academic art is 19th century art that
conformed to the standards and
expectations of the Académie des
Beaux-Arts in Paris. These were
exclusively Neoclassical and Romantic
works that painted an idealist view of
history filled with beautiful people
with a glowing, highly refined style.
Much of the best art produced in the
19th century was a reaction against
academic art with its overly nostalgic
content and lack of brave
experimentation. Academic art
enjoyed great social status in the 19th
century and many artists who were
outsiders sought to knock this down.

Ancient Art
Ancient art includes any art produced
before the Fall of the Western Roman
Empire in 476. The great civilizations
of Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece,
Ancient Egypt, Babylon, Ancient India
and Ancient China produced
significant art.

Realism
Realism is the depiction of the realities
of the world without being colored by
emotion, idealism, pessimism, ideology
or the imagination.

Hyperrealism
A contemporary style of art that uses
extremely realistic detail to produce
works that are difficult to differentiate
from reality.

Pop Art
Pop art is stylized after elements of
consumer society and pop culture
such as advertising, product design
and comic books. This is considered a
type of capitalist realism that delves
into irony, parody and allegory that
questions the direction of society and
culture.

Ukiyo-e
Ukiyo-e is Japanese art of the Edo-era
that was widely distributed to the
masses using woodblock printing
techniques such that it represented an
early form of pop culture. These
included popular topics such as travel
scenes, history, current events, sumo,
mythology and the comical faces of
kabuki actors. Ukiyo-e also included a
genre known as bijinga, literally
"beautiful person picture" that
featured depictions of geisha and
other fashionable women.

Japonism
In the 1850s, the United States Navy
essentially forced Japan to open to
American trade. The European powers
quickly followed the American lead
and soon Japan had trade agreements
with Russia, Britain, France and
Holland. This plunged Japan's society
and economy into chaos as cheap
foreign goods flooded the domestic
market and Japan scrambled to
industrialize and militarize to defend
herself. One of the first exports Japan
managed to get out to the world were
ukiyo-e prints. The sudden availability
of these otherworldly artworks in
Europe and America influenced many
artists of the time creating a
movement known as Japonism
whereby artists incorporated Japanese
themes and styles into their works.

Baroque
Baroque is a highly ornate and
extravagant style that emerged in
Europe in the 17th century. It was
encouraged by the Catholic Church as
a reaction to the simple austerity of
Protestant art. The baroque style does
everything it can to inspire a sense of
awe with emotion, detail, contrast,
chaos and rich color.

Dutch Golden Age

The Dutch Golden Age is a period in
Dutch history around the time of the
Eighty-Years War in the 17th century
where they produced a number of
extremely talented artists such as
Johannes Vermeer and Jan Steen. At
the time, the Dutch Republic was the
most prosperous nation in Europe.
The Dutch Golden Age occurred at the
same time as Baroque but has
opposing characteristics as the Dutch
tended towards realism and avoided
the garishness of Baroque. Dutch
masters also chose mostly non-
religious themes and tended to depict
everyday life. At this time, this was
somewhat rare in the entire history of
painting.

Impressionism
Impressionism seeks a realistic
depiction of the world with an
emphasis on color and light. It
captures the passing of time as
opposed to a moment resulting in a
soft fuzzy look. Technically this is
achieve by prioritizing free brush
strokes over line and form.
Impressionism shocked the art world
and was poorly received at first. The
term "impressionism" originated in a
mocking review by critic and humorist
Louis Leroy who used the term
disparagingly to voice his view that
impressionist works resembled
unfinished sketches.

Neo-impressionism
Neo-impressionism is the separation
of color into separate dots not unlike
the work of a modern printer or digital
screen. Despite its name, neo-
impressionism is essentially the
opposite of impressionism. Where
impressionism uses free flowing and
chaotic brush strokes, neo-
impressionism uses mechanical and
systematically planned dots of color.
Neo-impressionist arts made
extensive use of color theory to plan
how dots of colors close to each other
would be perceived from a viewing
distance. Although presented as
scientific, it was common for neo-
impressionist artists to have a
pseudoscientific view of color theory.

Fauvism
Fauvism is an early 20th art movement
that created paintings that looked like
paintings with obvious brush strokes
and brave use of unrealistic color. This
was a reaction to art movements at the
time such as realism and neo-
impressionism that created paintings
that looked photographic or
systematic.
Expressionism
Expressionism depicts the world in a
purely subjective way such that the
artist is free to express emotion,
imagination and abstraction. Although
expressionist artists are theoretically
free to express what they want, they
tend to express angst.

Abstract
Expressionism
An post-WWII American art
movement based on purely subjective
and abstracted works such as paint
that is thrown on a canvas in a
moment of inspiration or a painting
that consists of a single solid color.
Such works were designed to provoke
and drew criticism for being unskilled,
completely random and meaningless.
Nevertheless, abstract expressionism
became viewed as high culture.

Cubism
Cubism can be described as
abstraction in 3-dimensions.
Conceptually, this involves depicting a
subject from multiple viewpoints. This
began to emerge in 1907 with the Pablo
Picasso work Les Demoiselles
d'Avignon (below) that is considered
the first cubist work, although the
style would later emerge to be far
more abstracted. Cubism shook the art
world and inspired dozens of early
20th century art movements.

Futurism
Futurism was an early 20th century art
movement that featured themes that
were considered futuristic at the time
such as speed, youth, automobiles,
airplanes and industrial cities.
Stylistically, futurism often resembled
cubism.

Symbolism
A late 19th century art movement that
drew on mythology, iconography and
imaginative elements to produce
works that were richly symbolic.

Art Nouveau
An extremely decorative style of art
that was considered modern and
fashionable between 1890 and 1910. Art
Nouveau was often featured in
architecture, interior design,
decorative items and advertising but
nevertheless gained respect as a fine
art. The usual definition of fine art
requires that art be produced without
commercial constraint.

Surrealism
Surrealism is art that imagines
different realities that may be
purposely unnerving, dark, illogical or
paradoxical. It is also common for
surrealism to be inspired by popular
psychology with themes such as the
visual representations of the
subconscious. Although typically
considered a 20th century art
movement, surrealism is also clearly
present in the works of 15th century
Dutch Painter Hieronymus Bosch.

Anti-art
Anti-art is art that seeks to mock the
absurdities of the high culture and the
art world. This often attacks the
randomness and cult of personality
that underlies a variety of successful
art movements. For example, the Dada
movement of the early 20th century
introduced random collages made
from newspaper cuttings as art and
sculpture produced from found items
such as a public urinal. Ironically, the
world of high culture now views many
of these items as priceless works of
art. This is confirmation that high
culture values any art with the power
to provoke leading a large number of
modern and postmodern artists to
seek controversy over aesthetics.

Naive Art
Art that is produced by an artist with
little formal training or immersion in
an artistic community such that they
may develop unique styles and
methods that are independent of the
art movements of their time. For
example, Henri Rousseau was a
prominent late 19th century French
painter who worked as a tax collector
until age 49. Rousseau didn't start
painting seriously until his early 40s.

Folk Art
Art that is created for the purposes of
culture and tradition as opposed to the
free expression of fine art.

Modern Art
Modern art refers to any art produced
between 1800 and 1970. This may be
extended in the future because the
contemporary art of today may be
labeled modern in future. Some
modern art embraces the ideology of
modernism while other modern art
rejects it. For example, modern
minimalist art aligns with the
modernist ideal of less is more while
modern art movements such as
cubism, expressionism, romanticism,
impressionism and neoclassicism
clearly do not.

Contemporary Art
Contemporary art is any art produced
since 1970. This is a designation that is
meant to apply to the work of living
artists such that this period will be
relabeled in future. Nobody yet knows
what this label will be as it depends on
which artists of today will standout
from the viewpoint of the future.

Postmodern Art
Postmodern art is a collection of
contemporary movements that
embrace the ideology of
postmodernism or that generally seek
to challenge modern art. Such
movements are diverse but general
trends in postmodern art include
immersive experiences, challenges to
the elitism of high culture and works
that blur the line between art and
popular culture. Postmodern art is
often political such that it critiques
society or culture.

Stuckism
Stuckism is a contemporary art
movement that seeks authentic but
not necessarily realistic
representations of the world. This can
be viewed as a reaction against the
tendency towards abstraction, anti-art
and postmodernism in contemporary
art. Stuckism is highly stylized and
often resembles 20th century modern
art.

Movements
Many of the styles above are also
movements that are associated with a
particular period of time. This is a
reflection of the fact that art is an
artifact of the time and culture that
produced it. The following timeline
indicates the approximate dates of
movements related to the styles above.

Movement Time Period Associated

(approximate) With

Ancient Art Before 476 The great

civilizations
history suc
as Ancient
Rome.

Renaissance 1300 - 1600 Italy

France
Germany

Baroque 1600 - 1750 Initially

sponsored
the Catholi
Church as
part of the
Counter-
Reformatio

Dutch Golden 1620 - 1672 Dutch

Age Republic

Ukiyo-e 1661 - 1868 Edo-era Jap

Popular
artwork for
the mercha
class first
appeared
around 166

Neoclassicism 1760 - 1900 A broad

movement
art,
architectur
literature,
fashion and
music. Bega
with art
around 1760
and continu
in
architectur
into the 20t
century.

Romanticism 1790 - 1850 Europe

United Stat

Modern Art 1800 - 1970 Modern art

defined by
time and is
necessarily
aligned to t
ideology of
modernism

Realism 1840 - 1900 France

United Stat

Impressionism 1860 - 1900 France

Claude Mon
Eugène
Delacroix
J. M. W.
Turner

Japonism 1860 - 1890 Europe

United Stat

Neo- 1886 - 1910 France

impressionism Georges
Seurat

Symbolism 1890 - 1918 Gustav Klim

Expressionism 1893 - 1930 A German

movement
that was
largely
inspired by
Norwegian
painter
Edvard
Munch.

Fauvism 1904-1910 France

Henri Matis

Cubism 1907-1918 Pablo Picas

Georges
Braque

Futurism 1909-1930 Italy

A second w
of futurism
occurred in
the 1960s.

Dada 1914 - 1922 Considered

anti-art tha
 was
nevertheles
viewed as h
culture.

Surrealism 1917 - 1950 Remarkably

surrealism
also appear
in the work
Hieronymu
Bosch in th
15th centur

Abstract 1946 - 1970 New York

Expressionism

Pop Art 1950 ~ America

Andy Warh

Contemporary 1970 ~ Living Artis

Art

Postmodern 1970 ~ Mostly app

Art to
contempor
works and
artists.
However,
artists such
Expression
embraced
certain
postmoder
ideals as ea
as the late
19th centur
proving tha
artists are
often ahead
broad cultu
trends.

Stuckism 1999 ~ United

Kingdom

Overview: Art Styles

Type Art

Definition A set of distinctive

characteristics that are
shared between
artworks.

Related Art »
Concepts
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