Our constantly expanding art dictionary provides answers to questions such as “What is Pop Art or Dada?”, “Which works of art made the artists from the group Die Brücke famous?”, or “Where does the term ‘readymade’ come from?”. In addition, the dictionary contains interesting background information on many different styles of art and eras, artists, and significant events in art history.

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

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Commencing in Italy, the Renaissance developed a fresh vision of the world, and with it, a new kind of art, whose influence on later generations was overwhelming.

Biedermeier (Germany, early nineteenth century) is on its way to no longer being considered a stuffy product conforming to middle-class taste; instead, it is being rediscovered as a highly cultivated art movement.

One name in particular is associated with Abstract Expressionism: Jackson Pollock. With his daring techniques, such as action painting, this American painter continues to influence the art scene to this very day.

No other epoch in the history of European art is as fraught with contradictions as the Baroque period. Nevertheless, this style of art—often denigrated as »bombastic«—is once again receiving increased attention.

The Bauhaus was founded in Weimar, Germany, in 1919. Despite the brevity of its existence, it is still the most important school ever for art, design, and architecture.

Venice has held a biennial every two years since 1895. Today it is one of the world´s most important exhibitions of international contemporary art.

On June 7, 1905, four young students from Dresden founded the artists´ group Die Brücke (The Bridge). Their goal was to discover new forms of visual expression, using bold strokes and ecstatic colors; this was the birth of German Expressionism.

In their rebellion against bourgeois standards of art, they preferred incomprehensible and frequently shocking artistic methods: they were known as the Dadaists.

The documenta (Kassel, Germany) is regarded as the world´s most important exhibition of contemporary art today. Ever since the first show in 1955, the documenta has made considerable contributions to the history of art.

An exhibition in Paris in 1874 gave birth to what was probably, at the time, the most exciting and newest style in nineteenth-century art: Impressionism.

This art movement, which was especially strong in early twentieth-century France, formed the beginning of abstract and non-objected-related art: Cubism.

Reflection of human sensibilities or soulful rendering of nature: these were common aspects of landscape painting during the 18th and 19th centuries. However, this genre of object-related painting did not always occupy such a highly respected position.

Light Art, which began in the 1960s, is mainly concerned with exploring artificial light; it is a relatively young, but increasingly independent genre of art.

Whether it´s Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein, or Robert Rauschenberg, no other conceptual movement in modern twentieth-century art history has been such a crucial influence on our ideas of aesthetics, design, and the American way of life as Pop Art.

Considered a reactionary movement opposed to modernism, which is increasingly thought of as sterile and totalitarian, Postmodernism is an intellectual, cultural movement, whose beginnings are rooted in the latter half of the twentieth century.

Plaything for the Dadaist and Surrealists, the icon of Pop Art, Nouveau Réalisme, and conceptual art, this is a small group of works comprised of ordinary objects that have been elevated to the status of art.

Romanticism can be understood as a basic intellectual attitude whose focus is on the imagination and the individual´s experience of nature as a mode of artistic expression.

For centuries artists and viewers alike have been fascinated by careful arrangements of »still« objects, such as flowers, exotic fruits, wild game, plates, carafes, or musical instruments.

René Magritte and Salvador Dalí are probably the most famous of the Surrealist painters; in this movement the subconscious, the paradoxical, and the dreamlike played significant roles.

From its beginnings as an art form in the early 1960s in Germany and America, video art advanced, in the meantime, to become one of the twentieth century´s most influential genres of art.

The nude is one of the oldest, most fascinating motifs in art. After all, as a motif, the unclothed body presents an almost infinite number of opportunities to depict the way that people see themselves, their ideals, fears, and dreams.

Expressionism is a way of articulating the soul: during this period, paintings of the real world were often distorted, abstract, and rendered in powerful colors.

In the late 1960s began a form of art, reaching its zenith in the 1970s: Body Art.

For a long time its status in the art world was controversial; it has only been recently that photography has begun to be accepted as a full-fledged form of art.

The portrait of the human figure has long been one of the oldest motifs in the history of painting. Yet it was not until the late classical / early modern era that artists realized that the head was the most distinctly characteristic part of the body.

The end of painting, a new beginning for art: Zero marks the point at which new kinds of art can begin.

If color photography had been invented first, would anyone have missed black-and-white?

Artists

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Evidence of our times: succinct portraits and melancholy landscapes

Between documentary photography and the constructivist aesthetic

Between verisimilitude and seductive illusion

Leading figures from the world of film, music, and literature, as well as numerous artists, have posed for Nabil´s camera

The abysses behind the idyllic façades of life

Striking a balance between political comment and painterly aesethetic

A celebrated new star in today´s figurative painting scene

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Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Action-Painting

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Body Art

Artists

Michaël Borremans

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Cubism

Color photography

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Dada

Documenta

Artists

Goran Djurovic

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Expressionism

Artists

Anton Henning

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Impressionism

Artists

Nadav Kander

Karin Kneffel

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Landscape

Light Art

Artists

Just Loomis

David Lynch

Artists

Mariko Mori

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Nudes in Art

Artists

Youssef Nabil

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Renaissance Painting

Readymade

Romanticism

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Still Lifes

Surrealism

Artists

Nedko Solakov

Christian von Steffelin

NOH Suntag

Artists

Philip Taaffe

Styles of Art, Eras, & Significant Events

Zero

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