Trivium Art History

Timeline of Art

Vienna Secession

"To every age its art. To art its freedom."

Art Nouveau

Out with the old, in with the sexy

Symbolism

A mystic search for meaning and psychological truth.

Fauvism

"A pot of paint has been flung in the face of the public"

Expressionism

A more authentic, anxious, and grotesque reality

Futurism

Blood, speed and violence.

Cubism

"We only wanted to express what was in us..."

Suprematism

Taking refuge in the square.

Dada

Dada is anti-dada!

De Stijl

The art of the perfectly straight line

Constructivism

Art should only serve society.

Surrealism

Art without reason, aesthetics or morality

Art Deco

Geometry, ornamentation, and lots and lots of money

Minimalism

What you see is what you see

Abstract Expressionism

It's not a picture, it's an event

Hanoi School

Colonialism vs Tradition

Social Realism

Realism as a weapon

Post Modernism

For those who didn't like the Modern

Harlem Renaissance

An explosion of black culture in America

Zaire School of Popular Painting

Art as history, protest and education in the DRC

Shona Sculpture

Open the rocks to discover the fruit inside

Romanticism

Artistic revolt against the Age of Enlightenment

Barbizon School

A small village in France, a gathering of artists.

Pre Raphaelites

Love-lorn teenagers drag art back to the future

Hudson River School

An American fraternity of mountain worshipers

Early Photography

Nature's pencil: light!

Realism

Truth, accuracy, and the absence of personal bias

Meiji Art

The end of feudalism begins with the search for knowledge

Oceanic Art

10,000 islands, 1800 cultures and languages

Impressionism

Light and movement as the crux of human perception

Post-Impressionism

Beyond nature, toward emotional simplicity.

Early Modernism

Tradition be damned.

Italian Renaissance

Cultural rebirth though intellectual inquiry

Northern Renaissance

How Humanism beats down Feudalism with the printing press

Spanish Renaissance

Religion and the laws of perspective.

Mughal Art

Power, sophistication, luxury and might.

Mannerism

Tension, distortion and ice-cold style

Edo Period

Art, culture, and NO OUTSIDERS

Qing Dynasty

Benevolent emperors and the height of literature and art

The Enlightenment

Dare to Know

Western Esoteric Art

The best truth is secret truth

Baroque

The drama of deep color and shadow

Academic Art

Allegory, craft, and the unrelenting dictatorship of the Academy

Rococo

Opulent, playful embrace of the ornate — 18th century swag.

Neoclassicism

Classical imagery, democratic ideals, and the bloody hands of change.

Ming Dynasty

Orderly government and social stability

Kingdom of Kongo

500 years of spirit objects and power plays

Byzantine Art

The proliferation of Christian art

Medieval Art

Religion, feudalism and lots of gold leaf.

Medieval Persian Art

Persia brings a wealth of art, poetry, and mysticism to Islam.

Islamic Dynastic Art

When you don't paint people, things get beautifully, powerfully decorative.

Viking Age

Wolves among sheep

Khmer Art

The God-kings and stone cities of Cambodia

Gothic Art

The race for height

Song Dynasty

Finding the sublime in nature's power

Yuan Dynasty

Inca Empire

The original American Empire

The Aztecs

Blood and conquest

Classical Oceania

Floating cities and stone heads facing the sea

Ancient Egypt

Super power of all super powers.

4000 BCE-30 BCE

Mesopotamia

Poetry, war, and the invention of law

3500 BCE-1000 BCE

Aegean Civilizations

The lost faces of the ancient world

3000 BCE-1200 BCE

Ancient China

Three dynasties birth Chinese art and philosophy.

2070 BCE-256 BCE

Ancient Greece

Know Thyself

The Etruscans

A mysteriously happy people at the fringes of the classical world

768 BCE-100 BCE

Ancient Rome

The roads make the empire

The Celts

Death & Gold

Classical India

The largest economy in the world for 1500 years

The Iberians

Human-animal hybrids in the melting pot of ancient cultures

Kingdom of Kush

A Nubian Empire rivals Egypt for 1000 years

2000 BCE-400 CE

Lapita Expansion

History's greatest navigators

2000 BCE-500 CE

Upper Paleolithic

The mysterious line between pre human and post human

40000 BCE-10000 BCE

Neolithic

Tools, livestock, farming — and big, big rocks

12000 BCE-2000 BCE

Bronze Age

A new metal catapults humanity out of the stone age

3200 BCE-600 BCE

Iron Age

When you have iron you have power

1200 BCE-800 CE

Norte Chico Civilization

The oldest civilization in the Americas

3500 BCE-1800 BCE

Indus Valley Civilization

No pyramids, but great plumbing

3300 BCE-1300 BCE