One of the longest-running movements in art history, it\u00a0combined poetry and painting into a single image. \u201cThe\u00a0very idea of a movement that acknowledged the equivalence of poetry, drawing and calligraphy\u201d is \u201cunique,\u201d says Chika Okeke-Agulu, 59, a professor of art history at\u00a0Princeton University. The Chinese literati painters\u2019 fusion of text and image inspired artistic movements around the\u00a0world, from the Japanese Bunjinga painting of the 18th\u00a0century to the Nsukka School in Nigeria in the 1960s.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
mid-900s<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cDongtian Mountain Hall\u201d by Dong Yuan<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>Collection of the National Palace Museum<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/p>\n
1690<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cReading Under an Autumnal Tree\u201d by Cheng Sui<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Italian Renaissance<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
1400s-1600s<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Western culture\u2019s obsession with the painter as\u00a0a\u00a0singular genius comes straight from the Renaissance. While earlier eras prized stained-glass makers and sculptors, the Renaissance saw \u201cthe rise of the painter \u2014 they [became] In addition to traditional patrons such as the nobility and clergy, Italy’s newly wealthy merchant and banker classes commissioned artists such as Masaccio, Andrea Mantegna, and Piero della Francesca to create ambitious paintings that recalled the aesthetics of ancient Greece and Rome, incorporating then-novel techniques and materials such as oil, canvas, and linear perspective.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
circa 1427<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Tribute Money\u201d by Masaccio<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1472-74<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Brera Madonna\u201d by Piero della Francesca<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
1520-23<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBacchus and Ariadne\u201d by Titian<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Mughal Miniature Painting<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Mid-1500s-Mid-1800s<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Many artistic movements are defined by their heroic scale. But Mughal painters were distinguished by their \u201cpower to make it all so tiny and yet so\u00a0conceptually, magnificently grand,\u201d says Anne Higonnet, 67, a professor of art history at\u00a0Barnard College and Columbia University. In the mid-1500s, the Mughals arrived in what is now India from Central Asia. The fusion of\u00a0Persian Islamic and Hindu traditions created a new and profoundly cosmopolitan form of art. Painted with fine brushes made from squirrel hair, miniature paintings the size of paperbacks combined elegant Persian line work with Indian artists\u2019 vibrant menagerie of\u00a0animals. Their subjects ranged from the emperor and his court to hunting scenes to\u00a0stories from Persian and Indian literature.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1590-95<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cKrishna Holds Up Mount Govardhan to Shelter the Villagers of Braj,\u201d folio from a Harivamsa (The Legend of Hari [Krishna])<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>\u00a9 The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Image source: Art Resource, N.Y.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/p>\n
1627-28<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cShah Jahan on a Terrace, Holding a Pendant Set With His Portrait,\u201d by Chitarman, folio from the Shah Jahan Album<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
17th-Century Dutch Painting<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
1600s<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The Frick Collection in New York\u2019s chief curator, Aimee Ng, 44, describes 17th-century Dutch painting as more of a\u00a0\u201cbubble\u201d than a movement. But despite its narrow geographic scope, it was deeply influential: Artists, including Johannes Vermeer and Rembrandt van Rijn, created sumptuous portraits and domestic scenes that appeared to\u00a0glow from within by\u00a0building up thin, transparent layers of oil\u00a0paint. Their work was\u00a0funded by a rising merchant class in Amsterdam and Delft. For the first time, Ng notes, \u201cit [wasn\u2019t] Only aristocrats can have their portraits painted. \u201d<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1624<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Laughing Cavalier\u201d by Frans Hals<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1659<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cSelf-Portrait\u201d by Rembrandt van Rijn<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>National Gallery of Art, Washington<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/p>\n
circa 1665<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cGirl With a Pearl Earring\u201d by Johannes Vermeer<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
French Impressionism<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
1860s-1880s<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Led by eight original members, including Edgar Degas, Pierre-Auguste Renoir and Berthe Morisot, the Impressionists were rejected by France\u2019s academic institutions for painting \u201csubjects that were of interest to the modern middle class\u201d \u2014 domestic scenes, children, streetscapes \u2014 says Higonnet. Their brightly colored, sun-dappled style also ruffled feathers. \u201cThey were no longer abiding by academic rules about proportion, blending brushstrokes, making volume,\u201d says the art\u00a0educator and curator Sarah Urist\u00a0Green,\u00a046.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1872<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Cradle\u201d by Berthe Morisot<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1873-76<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Ballet Class\u201d by Edgar Degas<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1875<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Skiff\u201d by Pierre-Auguste Renoir<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>\u00a9 National Gallery, London\/Art Resource, N.Y. Digital image \u00a9 The Museum of Modern Art\/Licensed by Scala\/Art Resource, N.Y.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Cubism<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
1907-1920<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
The impact of Cubism is\u00a0inversely proportional to\u00a0its\u00a0duration. In unheated Parisian ateliers, Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque developed a style that, in a significant break from tradition, had nothing to do with faithfully representing nature. Instead, they reimagined the world as discrete geometric units and planes. \u201cOne might wonder why this revolution in painting lasted for such a short period of time,\u201d says Laura Hoptman, 64, the director of\u00a0the Drawing Center in New York. \u201cIt\u2019s because artists found more direct ways to\u00a0express dimensionality and\u00a0movement \u2014 through film, for\u00a0example.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1910<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Table (Still Life With Fan)\u201d by Georges Braque<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1914<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Village\u201d by Fernand L\u00e9ger<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1921<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThree Musicians\u201d by Pablo Picasso<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>\u00a9 2026 Estate of Pablo Picasso\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital image \u00a9 The Museum of Modern Art\/Licensed by Scala\/Art Resource, N.Y.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Suprematism<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
1913-34<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Some movements are more influential in retrospect \u2014 like Suprematism, so named by the\u00a0Russian artist Kazimir Malevich. Its defining painting is his \u201cBlack Square\u201d (1915), which is exactly what the title suggests: a black square on\u00a0a white background. The artist hung the canvas in the upper corner of a gallery like a\u00a0Russian icon. The implication was that pure color, form and thought could connect us to\u00a0something greater; art was no longer about craft, execution or imitation. \u201cIt was a bold statement,\u201d Kemp says. \u201cIt didn\u2019t stick.\u201d In\u00a01934, Stalin mandated that artists paint in\u00a0a\u00a0realistic style that celebrated Soviet life. Nevertheless, the impact of Suprematism, and of the broader Russian avant-garde, was internationally known, as artists in Europe, the United States, Japan, Brazil and elsewhere sought in the 1960s to\u00a0redefine what a painting could be.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1915<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cBlack Square\u201d by Kazimir Malevich<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/figure>\n<\/p>\n
1923<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cProun Room\u201d by El Lissitzky<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Abstract Expressionism<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Early 1940s-Early 1960s<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
After World War II, a\u00a0group of artists primarily based in\u00a0New\u00a0York made painting more psychologically intense by introducing chance into their craft. Mark Rothko rendered haunting, feathery voids on billboard-size surfaces; Jackson Pollock splashed skeins of paint across canvases laid on the floor. Abstract Expressionism \u201cgoes beyond Cubism in\u00a0saying all that matters is the picture as an entity, an\u00a0object in itself,\u201d Kemp says. The movement\u2019s gravitational pull was strong enough to relocate the mainstream art world\u2019s energy from Paris to New York.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1950<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cOne: Number 31, 1950\u201d by Jackson Pollock<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>\u00a9 Pollock-Krasner Foundation\/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. Digital image \u00a9 The Museum of Modern Art\/Licensed by Scala\/Art Resource, N.Y.<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/p>\n
1957<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Seasons\u201d by Lee Krasner<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1958<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cNo. 16 (Red, Brown and Black)\u201d by Mark Rothko<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Pop Art<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Mid-1950s-Early 1970s<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
When images are endlessly reproduced on TV and\u00a0in magazines, how should art respond? Pop Art\u00a0offered an answer. The British artist Richard Hamilton devised the first definition of the movement in 1957: \u201cPopular (designed for a mass\u00a0audience), Transient (short-term solution), Expendable (easily forgotten), Low-cost, Mass-produced, Young (aimed at youth), Witty, Sexy, Gimmicky, Glamorous, Big Business.\u201d Although Pop is most famously associated with the United States \u2014 chiefly Andy Warhol \u2014 artists from Latin America, Asia, Europe and the Middle East also explored the impact of consumer culture in their art.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1956<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cJust What Is It That Makes Today\u2019s Homes So Different, So Appealing?\u201d by Richard Hamilton<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1964<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cCampbell\u2019s Soup Can\u201d by Andy Warhol<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>\u00a9 2026 The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Inc.\/Licensed by Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Gutai<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
1954-72<\/h3>\n<\/p>\n <\/p>\n
Can art inspire an entire country to\u00a0challenge authority? That was the aim\u00a0of\u00a0Gutai, a radical movement that emerged in Japan after World War II. By\u00a0using unconventional methods like\u00a0painting with their feet or ripping through paper, Gutai artists sought to\u00a0teach \u201ca population that had become so passive that they had followed their leaders into an unjust war to think critically,\u201d says the curator Ming Tiampo, 52, who co-organized the Guggenheim\u2019s 2013 show on Gutai.<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
1954<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cHoles\u201d by Shozo Shimamoto<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/p>\n[-1–> <\/p>\n\n
[–><\/p>\n
[-1–>[-1–>[0–>\u00a9 Shozo Shimamoto. Photo: Tate<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n<\/div>\n
<\/figure>\n
<\/p>\n
1958<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cUntitled\u201d by Kazuo Shiraga<\/p>\n
<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
These interviews have been edited and condensed.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
<\/p>\n