Arts have a long history, and it can be traced back to the prehistoric times, as there are cave paintings and sculptures that are believed to be created by early humans. Till today, the era of what we call the Contemporary Art period, arts have already undergone various changes with different opinions on its nature, definition, form, or function. The nineteenth century can be regarded as one of the important watershed moments in art history. With the occurrence of the Industrial Revolution and the invention of photography technology, human civilization has undergone remarkable changes, making arts go from classic to modern, and it has a profound impact on the development of arts today. To understand contemporary art, it is not necessary to be familiar with famous paintings and artists from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance, yet it is crucial for us to understand Modern Art during the 19th to the 20th century.

Due to the Industrial Revolution and the great progress of industry, science and technology development, Western countries at that time began to move towards modernization and urbanization, which changed the social structure and greatly affected the economic system. Culture and education became more accessible, so as Information circulation. Therefore, unlike Classicism and the Renaissance, Modern Art is no longer limited to religion and mythology, nor is it the pursuit of realism and beauty. At the same time, it is not restricted by the patronage and collection of churches and aristocrats. Art has become a public aspect, such as the establishment of public museums and the emergence of public art. More importantly, modern art focuses on the reflection of traditional art, exploration, and experiment of the boundaries of art media and methods. It also describes the transformation brought about by industrialization and modern urban life.

Here are some of the factions in modern art we often mention:

寫實主義 (Realism)

The Industrial Revolution drastically changed the social structure and urban style in the nineteenth century, and the realist paintings truthfully record the life at that time. Based on the principle of truthfulness and subjectivity, the realists did not process the paintings with the beauty of traditional academy yet giving people a simple and unpretentious feeling. They also focused on describing the working life of the peasant class who went to work in the cities due to urbanization.

Representatives: Gustave Courbet, Jean-François Millet

印象派 (Impressionism)

Impressionism can be described as the starting point of art beginning to deviate from the traditional academic school, because it opposed the academic tradition and challenged the academic principle of pursuing realism at that time. It stressed on the changes of light and colour and emphasised the “self” as the impression of what the painters saw and felt. Impressionist painters do not immerse themselves in studio creation, but to go outside and sketch from life, capturing the natural scene in an instant. The time, environment and light of each moment will affect the appearance of things. The painters capture the image presented in their eyes at that moment, which is the artist's "impression" of the moment.

Representatives: Claude Monet, Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Edgar Degas, Camille Pissarro

後印象派 (Post-Impressionism)

Post-Impressionism, based on Impressionism, is not an extension of the latter. Instead, it reflects on and opposes the emphasis only on objective colour and light performance. It believes that arts should stress on the subjective emotions of the painter and give symbolic meanings to the composition of the picture, such as colours, lines, and shapes. Using these elements to symbolise the artist's thoughts and feelings and emphasise the ideas expressed in the artwork more than the subject matter and content. Inspired by Post-Impressionism, Fauvism and Expressionism have pushed the subjective expression of arts to the extreme.

Representatives: Paul Cezanne, Vincent Van Gogh, Paul Gauguin

野獸派 (Fauvism)

The use of colours by Fauvist painters is brighter and bolder than that of Post-Impressionists. The bright and strong colour contrast can even be called wild, especially the use of red, yellow, and green, which symbolise the strong emotions of the painter and bring visual impacts to the viewers, thereby resonate the emotions of the viewers and the painter.

Representatives: Henri Matisse, Georges Rouault

表現主義 (Expressionism)

Expressionism, referring to German Expressionism here, further advances the purpose of Post-impressionist and Fauvist to express the painters’ insides and emotions. It aims to describe the inner spirit of people, especially the pessimism and loneliness, rather than the scenes and specific themes of the external world. The use of colour is still a symbol of the painter's emotions, and at the same time the deliberately created lines and brushstrokes can bring out the painter's psychological state.

Representatives: Edvard Munch, Wassily Kandinsky

立體主義 (Cubism)

Cubism is a revolutionary art movement in the history, not only because of the use of multiple viewpoints to describe the appearance of objects at different angles, but also the emphasis of the use of geometric patterns such as cylinders, cubes, and other three-dimensional figures to stack and collage into objects, or even human figures. The composition of portraits and pictures is more fragmented and abstract, further breaking through the traditional academic aesthetics.

Representatives: Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque

未來主義 (Futurism)

Futurism incorporates elements of Neo-Impressionism and Cubism to show movement and speed with colour stacking and geometric patterns in the artwork. Paintings and sculptures, though still and static, can present objects or people moving, in an attempt to break the Italian cultural and artistic traditions of the time and to celebrate the achievements of industrialization, mechanization and labour.

Representatives: Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla

達達主義 (Dada)

As one of the art genres, Dadaism in fact centers on "anti-art". It disregards the appearance of artworks with traditional aesthetics and challenges the established concepts of traditional arts. It attaches importance to language and concepts above the objects themselves, giving new context through artworks, also appreciates that arts give viewers more intellectual satisfaction than pleasing feelings.

Representatives: Marcel Duchamp, Max Ernst

超現實主義 (Surrealism)

Deeply influenced by Dadaism’s pursuit of irrational state principle and psychologist Freud’s theory, Surrealism explores the inner world of mankind. The paintings often with dreamlike images, and scenes that seem to be uncanny to describe human intuition and subconsciousness.

Representatives: Salvador Dalí, René Magritte

References

BAILEY, Gauvin, et al. Art in Time: A World History of Styles and Movements. Phaidon Press, 2014.
BERGER, John. Ways of Seeing. Penguin Books, 1990.
DANCHEV, Alex. 100 Artists' Manifestos: From The Futurists To The Stuckists. Penguin Classic, 2011.
HARRIS, Jonathan. Art History: The Key Concepts. Routledge, 2006.
MORLEY, Simon. Seven Keys to Modern Art. Thames & Hudson, 2019.
ALBERS, Josef. Interaction of Color. Yale University Press, 2015.