(1) Impressionism (1870s, 1880s)

Exemplified by the landscape paintings of Claude Monet (1840-1926), Impressionism focused on the
almost impossible task of capturing fleeting moments of light and colour. Introduced non-naturalist
colour schemes, and loose - often highly textured - brushwork. Close-up many Impressionist paintings
were unrecognizable. Highly unpopular with the general public and the arts authorities, although highly
rated by other modern artists, dealers and collectors. Eventually became the world's most famous painting
movement. See: Characteristics of Impressionist Painting (1870-1910). The main contribution of
Impressionism to "modern art" was to legitimize the use of non-naturalist colours, thus paving the way for
the wholly non-naturalist abstract art of the 20th century.

Impressionism is perhaps the most important movement in the whole of modern painting. At some point
in the 1860s, a group of young artists decided to paint, very simply, what they saw, thought, and felt.
They weren’t interested in painting history, mythology, or the lives of great men, and they didn’t seek
perfection in visual appearances. Instead, as their name suggests, the Impressionists tried to get down on
canvas an “impression” of how a landscape, thing, or person appeared to them at a certain moment in
time. This often meant using much lighter and looser brushwork than painters had up until that point, and
painting out of doors, en plein air. The Impressionists also rejected official exhibitions and painting
competitions set up by the French government, instead organizing their own group exhibitions, which the
public were initially very hostile to. All of these moves predicted the emergence of modern art, and the
whole associated philosophy of the avant-garde.

The Development of Photography

Impressionism was indebted to the science of photography. The origins of this medium are complex,
spanning across nations, but one key event was the French inventor Louis Daguerre's unveiling of the
Daguerreotype, in Paris in 1839. Daguerre had developed a technology by which images of the world
could be transferred onto a copper sheet treated with silver which reacted to light. This allowed for a
direct imprint of reality to be recorded on a two-dimensional surface, a process which revolutionized the
ability to visually record the world and their own lives. By 1849, 100,000 Parisians per year were having
their photos taken.

The influence of photography on Impressionism was perhaps twofold. On the one hand, it revolutionized
perceptions of what was worthy of visual recreation. Academic painting in France had traditionally
focused on mythical and historical subject-matter, and portraiture of national leaders and heroes. But
photography made it possible for all kinds of people, scenes, buildings, landscapes, to be preserved in
pictorial form. This, in turn, altered some painters' sense of who and what was deserving of their
attention; the café scenes, side streets, and bustling squares of Impressionist paintings reflect not only a
newly vibrant urban realm, but a newfound sense that this world was worth recording.
On the other hand, photography taught painters the art of spontaneous composition, and the related sense
that a picture could capture a moment in time as well as a location in space. A work such as Degas's
Place de la Concorde is not so much a painting of a public square in Paris as a painting of that square,
and of the people and animals that happened to be crossing over it, at a particular point in time. The
carefully haphazard arrangement of bodies in motion in this and many other Impressionist paintings could
only have been learned via engagement with a technology that had the capacity to freeze and visually
convey a millisecond of time. There was a less pronounced sense of what the world might look like in this
temporally specific condition prior to the science of photographic reproduction.

Impressionism in Music and Literature

It is also important to remember that, while Impressionism was a movement of the visual arts, it
responded to, and helped to influence, a range of other media and genres. These included music - as in
the dreamy, romantic work of Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel - and, most importantly, literary
prose. The French writer Émile Zola was not only an impassioned defender of the Impressionist painters
but brought a representative impulse very similar to Impressionism to his writing, trying to recreate the
complexity of human perception and sensation through his prose. Indeed, his novels were produced
across a period of time that coincides almost exactly with the lifespan of the Impressionist movement.

Whereas the Impressionist sought to convey the visual appearance of a particular scene at a particular
time, the writing style which Zola developed, known as Naturalism, sought to convey the way in which
the world appeared mentally and emotionally to a particular individual. In his 1886 book The
Masterpiece, Zola even narrated the struggle of the Impressionist movement in allegorical form. The
novel tells the story of a young artist based in Paris struggling for recognition and acceptance of a bold
new style, but who falls foul of poverty and disinterest. The story is told in a style that transposes the
visual logic of Impressionism into the world of subjective perception, thought, and feeling.

(2) NEO-IMPRESSIONISM

The term Neo-Impressionism was first used in 1886 by the French art critic Felix Feneon to describe a
style of 19th-century Post-Impressionist painting, pioneered by Georges Seurat (1859-1891). This style of
Post-Impressionism used a new technique of "colour-mixing" known as Pointillism (a specific form of
Divisionism). In simple terms, instead of mixing different colours on a palette and then applying them to
the canvas, Neo-Impressionist artists applied different primary colours to the canvas - in groups of tiny
dots (points) - and then allowed the viewer's eye to do the "mixing." This Pointillist painting method was
used to boost the luminosity of the colour pigments. From a distance, the dots of separate pigment came
together as a whole in the viewer's eye, and glowed with maximum brilliance. Seurat himself called the
technique Chromoluminarism (colour luminousness) rather than Pointillism or Divisionism. (Note:
Although used interchangeably, Divisionism refers to the general method of applying small strokes or
dabs of separate primary colours, while pointillism refers to the size/type of dab, in this case, dots.)

In the latter part of the 19th century, Neo-Impressionism foregrounded the science of optics and color to
forge a new and methodical technique of painting that eschewed the spontaneity and romanticism that
many Impressionists celebrated. Relying on the viewer's capacity to optically blend the dots of color on
the canvas, the Neo-Impressionists strove to create more luminous paintings that depicted modern life.
With urban centers growing and technology advancing, the artists sought to capture people's changing
relationship with the city and countryside. Many artists in the following years adopted the Neo-
Impressionist technique of Pointillism, the application of tiny dots of pigment, which opened the door to
further explorations of color and eventually abstract art.

(2) Fauvism (1905-7)

Short-lived, dramatic and highly influential, Led by Henri Matisse (1869-1954), Fauvism was 'the'
fashionable style during the mid-1900s in Paris. The new style was launched at the Salon d'Automne, and
became instantly famous for its vivid, garish, non-naturalist colours that made Impressionism appear
almost monochrome! A key precursor of expressionism. See: History of Expressionist Painting (1880-
1930). The main contribution of Fauvism to "modern art" was to demonstrate the independent power of
colour. This highly subjective approach to art was in contrast to the classical content-oriented outlook of
the academies.

Fauvism, the first 20th-century movement in modern art, was initially inspired by the examples of
Vincent van Gogh, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, and Paul Cézanne. The Fauves ("wild beasts") were a
loosely allied group of French painters with shared interests. Several of them, including Henri Matisse,
Albert Marquet, and Georges Rouault, had been pupils of the Symbolist artist Gustave Moreau and
admired the older artist's emphasis on personal expression. Matisse emerged as the leader of the group,
whose members shared the use of intense color as a vehicle for describing light and space, and who
redefined pure color and form as means of communicating the artist's emotional state. In these regards,
Fauvism proved to be an important precursor to Cubism and Expressionism as well as a touchstone for
future modes of abstraction.

This famous avant-garde movement is credited with being one of the first of its kind to prosper at the start
of the 20th century. Pioneered by Henri Matisse, Fauvism owed a significant debt to Impressionism, as it
exhibited vibrant colors in order to capture landscapes and still-lifes. However, it became its own
movement as Fauvists, such as Matisse, instilled a heightened sense of emotionalism into their paintings,
often utilizing crude and blatant brushstrokes and vivid colors straight from their tubes that at first
appalled audiences. It was the overly expressiveness of these raw and basic techniques that led art critic
Louis Vauxcelles to christen such painters fauves (“wild beasts”). Other notable Fauvists include André
Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, and Georges Braque, the latter evolving from the unclad emotionalism of
Fauvism to create the more structured and logical focuses of Cubism, which is viewed as being a direct
descendent of Fauvism.

(3) Cubism (fl.1908-14)

An austere and challenging style of painting, Cubism introduced a compositional system of flat splintered
planes as an alternative to Renaissance-inspired linear perspective and rounded volumes. Developed by
Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) in two variants - Analytical Cubism and
later Synthetic Cubism - it influenced abstract art for the next 50 years, although its popular appeal has
been limited. The main contribution of Cubism to "modern art" was to offer a whole new alternative to
conventional perspective, based on the inescapable fact of the flat picture plane.

Possibly the best-known art movement of the Modernist era, Cubism has come to be associated with one
name in particular, Pablo Picasso. However, it should be duly noted that Georges Braque was also a
leader of the movement and that he and Picasso worked so well off of one another that, at the height of
Cubism’s reign, their paintings are practically indistinguishable from one another. It’s often noted that
Cubism was ushered in a definitive movement with the revelation of Picasso’s Les Demoiselles
d’Avignon (1907), which shows nude women in a fractured perspective and which demonstrates a
significant African influence. However, the movement did not receive its name until 1908, when, art critic
Louis Vauxcelles (again!) depicted Braque’s House at L’Estaque as being fashioned from cubes.The
central aims of Cubists were to discard the conventions of the past to merely mimic nature and to start in
a new vein to highlight the flat dimensionality of the canvas. This effect was achieved through the use of
various conflicting vantage points the paint pictures of common objects such as musical instruments,
pitchers, bottles, and the human figure. As they progressed in their work, Braque and Picasso adopted the
use of a monochromatic scale to emphasize their focus on the inherent structure of their works. Though
commonly associated with painting, Cubism had lasting effects on many sculptors and architects of the
time.

(4) Futurism (fl.1909-14)

Founded by Filippo Tommaso Marinetti (1876-1944), Futurist art glorified speed, technology, the
automobile, the airplane and scientific achievement. Although very influential, it borrowed heavily from
Neo-Impressionism and Italian Divisionism, as well as Cubism, especially its fragmented forms and
multiple viewpoints. The main contribution of Futurism to "modern art" was to introduce movement into
the canvas, and to link beauty with scientific advancement.
Perhaps one of the most controversial movements of the Modernist era was Futurism, which, at a cursory
glance, likened humans to machines and vice versa in order to embrace change, speed, and innovation in
society while discarding artistic and cultural forms and traditions of the past. However, at the center of the
Futurist platform was an endorsement of war and misogyny. Futurism—coined in a 1909 manifesto by
Filippo Marinetti—was not limited to just one art form, but in fact was embraced by sculptors, architects,
painters, and writers. Paintings were typically of automobiles, trains, animals, dancers, and large crowds;
and painters borrowed the fragmented and intersecting planes from Cubism in combination with the
vibrant and expressive colors of Fauvism in order to glorify the virtues of speed and dynamic movement.
Writers focused on ridding their poetry of what they saw as unnecessary elements such as adjectives and
adverbs so that the emphasis could rest on the action of infinitive verbs. This technique in conjunction
with the integration of mathematical symbols allowed them to make more declarative statements with a
great sense of audacity. Although originally ardent in their affirmation of the virtues of war, the Futurists
lost steam as the devastation of WWI became realized.

Futurism was an avant-garde art movement which was launched in Italy, in 1909, although parallel
movements arose in Russia, England and elsewhere. It was one of the first important modern art
movements not centred in Paris - one reason why it is not taken seriously in France. Futurism exalted
the dynamism of the modern world, especially its science and technology. Futurist ideology
influenced all types of art. It began in literature but spread to every medium, including painting, sculpture,
industrial design, architecture, cinema and music. However, most of its major exponents were painters
and the movement produced several important 20th century paintings. It ceased to be an aesthetic force in
1915, shortly after the start of the First World War, but lingered in Italy until the 1930s.

Focusing on progress and modernity, the Futurists sought to sweep away traditional artistic notions and
replace them with an energetic celebration of the machine age. Focus was placed on creating a unique and
dynamic vision of the future and artists incorporated portrayals of urban landscapes as well as new
technologies such as trains, cars, and airplanes into their depictions. Speed, violence, and the working
classes were all glorified by the group as ways to advance change and their work covered a wide variety
of artforms, including architecture, sculpture, literature, theatre, music, and even food.

Futurism was invented, and predominantly based, in Italy, led by the charismatic poet Marinetti. The
group was at its most influential and active between 1909 and 1914 but was re-started by Marinetti after
the end of the First World War. This revival attracted new artists and became known as second generation
Futurism. Although most prominent in Italy, Futurist ideas were utilized by artists in Britain (informing
Vorticism), the US and Japan and Futurist works were displayed all over Europe. Russian Futurism is
usually considered a separate movement, although some Russian Futurists did engage with the earlier
Italian movement. Futurism anticipated the aesthetics of Art Deco as well as influencing Dada and
German Expressionism.

Photography and Film

The Futurist fascination with movement led to their interest in photography. Influenced by the motion
studies of Eadweard Muybridge and Etienne-Jules Marey, the three Bragaglia brothers invented what they
called photodynamism, photographs that showed a figure in motion from right to left with sections
blurred to demonstrate movement. This is seen in Anton Giulio Bragaglia's Waving (1911). Balla was
particularly enthusiastic about the technology, and some of his paintings evoke these photographs, with
objects blurred by movement. This technique is reflected in the Technical Manifesto of Futurist Painting,
which noted that "On account of the persistency of an image upon the retina, moving objects constantly
multiply themselves; their form changes like rapid vibrations in their mad career. Thus a running horse
has not four legs, but twenty, and their movements are triangular". Rather than perceiving an action as a
performance of a single limb, Futurists viewed action as the convergence in time and space of multiple
extremities.

The Bragaglia brothers were removed from the Futurists in 1913, primarily due to their promotion of
photodynamism as an independent movement, although both brothers continued to work in a similar style
from outside the official group. As a result of the explusion, Futurism ignored photography until the
1930s when a new generation of photographers emerged, emphasizing photomontage and multilayered
negatives. The most prominent of these, Tato (Guglielmo Sansoni) wrote the Futurist Photography:
Manifesto (1930) in conjunction with Marinetti. This suggested that "photographic science" should invade
"pure art" and theoretically associated it with Fascism.

The Futurist obsession with movement made film an ideal medium for experimentation as well as
fulfilling the group's criteria in terms of exploring new technology. The Futurists made a handful of films
between 1916 and 1919, but unfortunately only Thais, filmed in 1916 by Anton Giulio Bragaglia,
survives. Despite telling a conventional story of the period, the Futurist influence can be seen in the
heavily stylized aesthetic and inclusion of significant abstract elements. The film sets, designed by Enrico
Prampolini, utilized strong black and white geometric shapes as well as including symbolic elements and
their appearance influenced the cinematic style of German Expressionism.

Literature

Futurism was a leading avant-garde movement in poetry and literature, as Marinetti explored new modes
of literary expression, developing poetry that he called parole in libertà, or "words in freedom". Parole in
libertà works eliminated punctuation, syntax, and adjectives, used only the infinitive form of verbs, and
incorporated symbols. Marinetti put these ideas into practice in Zang Tumb Tuuum: Adrianople October
(1914), an account of the pre-World War I Battle of Adrianople, which he covered as a journalist. As
scholars Caroline Tisdall and Angelo Bozzola explain, "as an extended sound poem it stands as one of the
monuments of experimental literature, its telegraphic barrage of nouns, colors, exclamations and
directions pouring out in the screeching of trains, the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire, and the clatter of telegraphic
messages". The poem also influenced graphic design, as Tisdall and Bozzola note, "through the
revolutionary use of different typefaces, forms and graphic arrangements and sizes." Following on from
Marinetti's work, Balla created phonovisual constructions and, later, Fortunato Depero created
onomalingua, an abstract language of sounds.

(5) Expressionism (from 1905)

Although anticipated by artists like JMW Turner (Interior at Petworth, 1837), Van Gogh (Wheat Field
with Crows, 1890) and Paul Gauguin (Anna The Javanese, 1893), expressionism was made famous by
two groups in pre-war Germany: Die Brucke (Dresden/Berlin) and Der Blaue Reiter (Munich), led by
Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) and Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944) respectively. In sculpture, the
forms of the Duisburg-born artist Wilhelm Lehmbruck (1881-1919) were (and still are) sublime. The
main contribution of expressionism to "modern art" was to popularize the idea of subjectivity in painting
and sculpture, and to show that representational art may legitimately include subjective distortion.

Expressionism emerged simultaneously in various cities across Germany as a response to a widespread

anxiety about humanity's increasingly discordant relationship with the world and accompanying lost
feelings of authenticity and spirituality. In part a reaction against Impressionism and academic art,
Expressionism was inspired most heavily by the Symbolist currents in late-19th-century art. Vincent van
Gogh, Edvard Munch, and James Ensor proved particularly influential to the Expressionists, encouraging
the distortion of form and the deployment of strong colors to convey a variety of anxieties and yearnings.

The classic phase of the Expressionist movement lasted from approximately 1905 to 1920 and spread
throughout Europe. Its example would later powerfully inform many individuals, and groups such as:
Abstract Expressionism, Neo-Expressionism, and The School of London.

(6) Dada (1916-24)

The first anti-art movement, Dada was a revolt against the system which had allowed the carnage of The
First World War (1914-18). It rapidly became an anarchistic tendency whose aim was to subvert the arts
establishment. Launched in neutral Switzerland in 1916, its leaders were in their early twenties, and most
had "opted out", avoiding conscription in the shelter of neutral cities such as New York, Zurich and
Barcelona. Founders included the sculptor Jean Arp (1887-1966) and the Romanian poet and demonic
activist Tristan Tzara (1896-1963). The main contribution of Dada was to shake up the arts world and to
widen the concept of "modern art", by embracing totally new types of creativity (performance art and
readymades) as well as new materials (junk art) and themes. Its seditious sense of humour endured in the
Surrealist movement.

Perhaps best summed up by the famous Dadaist poet Hugo Ball, the Dadaist goal of art was not to have
art be “an end in itself, but [to be] an opportunity for the true perception and criticism of the times we live
in.” And surely enough the times of Dadaism were filled with grief, destruction, and chaos, as they
witnessed the rampant mass devastation of WWI. The movement was a loosely knit international network
that was prominent in Zürich, Switzerland; New York City; Berlin, Cologne, and Hanover, Germany; and
Paris. Dadaists were not connected by their styles, mediums, or techniques. Instead, they were connected
by their uniform practices and beliefs. They saw themselves as crusaders against rational thought, which
they believed to be responsible for the declination of social structures, the growth of corrupt and
nationalist politics, and the spread of violence and war. They challenged and mocked the definition of art
and its elitist establishment with such works as Marcel Duchamps Fountain (1917), which was a
porcelain urinal, and they utilized photomontages, as well as a plethora other artistic mediums, in their
public meetings to protest against the nascent Nazi party in Germany. Dadaists fought strongly across the
globe against such repressive social institutions, though were written-off by some as merely absurdist and
inconsequential baDada was an artistic and literary movement that began in Zürich, Switzerland. It arose
as a reaction to World War I and the nationalism that many thought had led to the war. Influenced by
other avant-garde movements - Cubism, Futurism, Constructivism, and Expressionism - its output was
wildly diverse, ranging from performance art to poetry, photography, sculpture, painting, and collage.
Dada's aesthetic, marked by its mockery of materialistic and nationalistic attitudes, proved a powerful
influence on artists in many cities, including Berlin, Hanover, Paris, New York, and Cologne, all of which
generated their own groups. The movement dissipated with the establishment of Surrealism, but the ideas
it gave rise to have become the cornerstones of various categories of modern and contemporary art.sed on
their plentiful antics and scattered network.

he first major anti-art movement, Dada was a revolt against the culture and values which - it was
believed - had caused and supported the carnage of The First World War (1914-18). It quickly developed
into an anarchistic type of highly avant-garde art whose aim was to subvert and undermine the value
system of the ruling establishment which had allowed the war to happen, including the arts establishment
which they viewed as inextricably linked to the discredited socio-political status quo. Errupting
simultaneously in 1916, in Europe and America, its leaders were typically very young, in their early
twenties, and most had "opted out", avoiding conscription in the shelter of neutral cities such as New
York, Zurich and Barcelona.

(7) Surrealism (from 1924)

Founded in Paris by writer Andre Breton (1896-1966), Surrealism was 'the' fashionable art movement of
the inter-war years, although the style is still seen today. Composed of abstract and figurative wings, it
evolved out of the nihilistic Dada movement, most of whose members metamorphosed into surrealists,
but unlike Dada it was neither anti-art nor political. Surrealist painters used various methods - including
dreams, hallucinations, automatic or random image generation - to circumvent rational thought processes
in creating works of art. (For more, please see Automatism in Art.) The main contribution of Surrealism
to "modern art" was to generate a refreshingly new set of images. Whether these images were uniquely
non-rational is doubtful. But Surrealist art is definitely fun!

As one of the most famous art movements of the Modernist era, thanks mainly to the indelible work The
Persistence of Memory (1931) by Salvador Dalí, Surrealism has come to be remembered for its
production of visceral, eye-grabbing and aesthetic images. Leaping off from the absurdist inclinations of
the Dadaists and the psychoanalytical writings of Sigmund Freud, André Breton, a well-known poet and
critic of his time, published “The Surrealist Manifesto” in 1924, in which he declared the group’s
intention to unite consciousness with unconsciousness so that the realms of dream and fancy could merge
with everyday reality in an “absolute reality, a surreality.” Although they were best-remembered for the
work of their painters—such as Jean Arp, Max Ernst, and André Masson—Surrealists worked with a
variety of mediums, including poetry, literature, sculpture, and the then-new medium of film. Because
Breton was militant in the adherence to his manifesto by the members of the movement, many members
splintered off into new art forms, though still incorporating techniques and motifs of Surrealism.

Surrealism was "the" fashionable art movement of the inter-war years, and the last major art movement to
be associated with the Ecole de Paris, from where it spread across Europe, becoming one of the most
influential schools or styles of avant-garde art. Its name derived from the phrase Drame surrealiste, the
sub-title of a 1917 play by the writer and art critic Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918). Surrealism
evolved out of the nihilistic "anti-art" Dada movement, most of whose members became surrealists.
However, while every bit as "revolutionery" as Dada, Surrealism was less overtly political and advocated
a more positive philosophy - summed up by André Breton as "thought expressed in the absense of any
control exerted by reason, and outside all moral and aesthetic considerations."

Initially, the main focus of the movement was literature but this rapidly broadened to encompass painting,
sculpture and other forms of contemporary visual art. Surrealist artists aimed to generate an entirely new
set of imagery by liberating the creative power of the unconscious mind.

The Surrealists sought to channel the unconscious as a means to unlock the power of the imagination.
Disdaining rationalism and literary realism, and powerfully influenced by psychoanalysis, the Surrealists
believed the rational mind repressed the power of the imagination, weighing it down with taboos.
Influenced also by Karl Marx, they hoped that the psyche had the power to reveal the contradictions in the
everyday world and spur on revolution. Their emphasis on the power of personal imagination puts them
in the tradition of Romanticism, but unlike their forebears, they believed that revelations could be found
on the street and in everyday life. The Surrealist impulse to tap the unconscious mind, and their interests
in myth and primitivism, went on to shape many later movements, and the style remains influential to this
today.

Surrealist Film

Surrealism was the first artistic movement to experiment with cinema in part because it offered more
opportunity than theatre to create the bizarre or the unreal. The first film characterized as Surrealist was
the 1924 Entr'acte, a 22-minute, silent film, written by Rene Clair and Francis Picabia, and directed by
Clair. But, the most famous Surrealist filmmaker was of course Luis Buñuel. Working with Dalí, Buñuel
made the classic films Un Chien Andalou (1929) and L'Age d'Or (1930), both of which were
characterized by narrative disjunction and their peculiar, sometimes disturbing imagery. In the 1930s
Joseph Cornell produced surrealist films in the United States, such as Rose Hobart (1936). Salvador Dalí
designed a dream sequence for Alfred Hitchcock's Spellbound (1945).

(9)Realism
Realism is recognized as the first modern movement in art, which rejected traditional forms of art,
literature, and social organization as outmoded in the wake of the Enlightenment and the Industrial
Revolution. Beginning in France in the 1840s, Realism revolutionized painting, expanding conceptions of
what constituted art. Working in a chaotic era marked by revolution and widespread social change,
Realist painters replaced the idealistic images and literary conceits of traditional art with real-life events,
giving the margins of society similar weight to grand history paintings and allegories. Their choice to
bring everyday life into their canvases was an early manifestation of the avant-garde desire to merge art
and life, and their rejection of pictorial techniques, like perspective, prefigured the many 20th-century
definitions and redefinitions of modernism.

Realism is broadly considered the beginning of modern art. Literally, this is due to its conviction that
everyday life and the modern world were suitable subjects for art. Philosophically, Realism embraced the
progressive aims of modernism, seeking new truths through the reexamination and overturning of
traditional systems of values and beliefs.

Following the explosion of newspaper printing and mass media in the wake of the Industrial Revolution,
Realism brought in a new conception of the artist as self-publicist. Gustave Courbet, Édouard Manet, and
others purposefully courted controversy and used the media to enhance their celebrity in a manner that
continues among artists to this day.

From 1400 to 1800, Western art was dominated by Renaissance-inspired academic theories of idealized
painting and high art executed in the Grand Manner. Thereafter, caused partly by the huge social changes
triggered by the Industrial Revolution, there was a greater focus on realism of subject - that is, subject
matter outside the high art tradition. The term Realism was promoted by the French novelist Champfleury
during the 1840s, although it began in earnest in 1855, with an Exposition by the French painter Gustave
Courbet (1819-77), after one of his paintings (The Artist's Studio) had been rejected by the World Fair in
Paris. Courbet set up his own marquee nearby and issued a manifesto to accompany his personal
exhibition. It was entitled "Le Realisme".

Realist artists, strongly associated with the 19th century movement include: Jean-Francois Millet (1814-
75), Gustave Courbet (1819-77), Honore Daumier (1808-79).
Realism in Literature

The Realist painting movement ran parallel to the Realist movement in literature, exemplified in the work
of writers like Honore de Balzac, Champfleury, and Emile Zola. Realist authors recognized in the artistic
movement the shared desire to divorce from tradition and celebrated it, contributing to its success.
Balzac's witty and incisive representation of society in the early-19th century contrasted with the
emotional grandeur of his Romantic counterparts much as Courbet's painting would in the visual arts.

Champfleury promoted Courbet's work as early as 1848, continuing to do so for decades, and Courbet
painted him among his supporters in the 1855 masterwork The Painter's Studio (1854-55). Of Courbet's
Pavilion of Realism, Champfleury wrote: "It is an incredibly audacious act, it is the subversion of all
institutions associated with the jury, it is a direct appeal to the public, some are saying it is freedom."

Zola was one of Manet's earliest and most devoted defenders, recognizing his importance to modern art
and declaring him a master of the future. By 1868, Zola could write: "I don't need to plead for modern
subjects here. This cause was won a long time ago. After those remarkable works by Manet and Courbet,
no one would dare now say that the present day is unworthy of being painted."

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https://www.britannica.com/list/10-modernist-art-movements