Our ancestors first sought to understand themselves and their surroundings through the invention of myths and the worshipping of gods. The Greeks, for example, created gods like Athena and Aries to explain the concept of wisdom and war respectively. I would like to think, contrary to common thought...

Both Cézanne and Pollock understood that although their art was turning away from traditional forms, art is continuity. Never disregarding the Old Master, Cézanne is said to be the father of modernism and Pollock the man who brought art from Paris to America. These two men, both known as avant-...

Plato's belief was that art is fundamentally based on imitation. It was this imitation which made art inferior, combined with the unsuitable moral content of some art. Plato's condemnation of art is seen by some as too rationalist and "depriving it of all its charms" (Otto Apelt). Modern obje...

The reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901), experienced an emphasis on public righteousness and moral propriety. Victorian society was largely highlighted by the industrial revolution which had been rapidly transforming rural areas into industrialized landscapes. However, this development pushed the lo...

The twentieth century brought WWI, Hitler, and the Great Depression to the world. It was a time of turmoil and out of turmoil comes change. The art world would also be turned upside down and forever changed. Fauves, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Fantasy, Dada, Surrealism, and early Abstract...

Manet's painting, "A Bar at the Folies-Bergère," was an integral factor in the rise of a new era in art; through the emergence of a contemporary Parisian city, modern art began to flourish during the late 1800s. Being a painting of extreme complexity and ambiguity, many art critics have comment...

Vincent Van Gogh was born in Brabant, Holland in 1853. His 'bizarre' sense of colour disallowed his access to any art school. It was however this unique 'impressionism' that made his work so popular and valuable to this very day. Van Gogh moved to Paris later on in his life to join his brothe...

The Russian Avant-Garde began in Russia in about 1915. It was the year that Malevich revealed his Suprematist compositions that reduced painting to total abstraction and rid the pictures of any reference to the visual world. He is credited with being the first artist to do this; that is, forsake the...

Paul Cezanne: Impressionist of Life ART 293(306) Mr. Stevenson Cynthia Winters January 20, 2004 Paul Cezanne, although misunderstood as an artist, definitely made a huge impact upon the art world. With his use of true to life hues and tones, Cezanne brought ...

Edvard Munch was an influential Norwegian painter and printmaker whose evocative painting "The Scream" meant to imply existential anguish and fear. However, as mass production and technology have made advances the perspective placed in a post-modernistic setting when viewing the painting can be s...