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What is it? -

Not to be confused with contemporary art, modern art encompasses the period from roughly the 1860s to the 1970s. It includes most of the crazy movements that turned art on its head. We will go through each movement in detail. Pictured: painting by Paul Gauguin (1849-1900).

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What was the goal? - You can consider modern art as a backlash against the strict techniques and rules that made up traditional art. The artists wanted to question what we consider beauty and art. Pictured: painting by Jackson Pollock (1912-1956).

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A little history - You need to roughly understand the modern art movements to comprehend their radical strokes and techniques. You do not need to memorize anything, but it will help to just have a vague idea of what modern art actually is.

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Impressionism - In 1872, the first movement of modern art arose. Impressionism went against the traditional convention of having lots of detail and technical perfection. Pictured: painting by Edgar Degas (1834-1917).

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Impressionism - The style is characterized by an emphasis on light, normal subject matters, and thin, slightly blurred brush strokes. The father of Impressionism was Claude Monet (1840-1926).

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Impressionism - Edgar Degas was a monumental painter in the Impressionist movement. He used pastels as well as paints. He actually did not like being associated with the Impressionist movement, but was associated with it anyway because of his style.

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Post-Impressionism - An offshoot of Impressionism, Post-Impressionism ran from 1886 to 1905. The movement sought to show color and light in a different way from the Impressionists. Pictured: painting by Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890).

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Post-Impressionism - There was more emphasis placed on the artist’s feelings about the subject rather than accurate depictions. Vincent van Gogh was part of this movement. He placed much more importance on the colors and emotions of the scene.

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Post-Impressionism - Paul Cézanne (1839-1906) did intense studies on the same subject matter in order to play around with different layers of color, and interpretations of light. The result is paintings that are bolder and less realistic, but perhaps more emotive.

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Post-Impressionism - Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1865-1901) specialized in the crazy theater scene of Paris. He experimented with colors and materials. For example, this painting is done on a piece of cardboard.

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Fauvism - In the early 20th century, a group called les Fauves pushed the art boat out further. They wanted to create art that was even less related to reality in shape, color, and form. Pictured: painting by André Derain (1880-1954).

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Fauvism - These movements were not comprised of exclusively paintings. Georges Rouault (1871-1858) even did stained glass windows, for instance. As you can see, he still kept using strong colors and slightly cartoonish outlines.

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Expressionism -

Perhaps you can guess from the name that this is where emotion takes the spotlight, and forms true to life are no longer important in the least. Expressionism started in Germany and Austria just before WWI. Pictured: painting by Henri Matisse (1869-1954).

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Expressionism - You may recognize Edvard Munch’s (1863-1944) ‘Shrik’ (1893). You can see that the anxiety the figure is experiencing is reflected in the red, angry sky. Color relationships and symbolic meanings are very important in expressionist paintings.

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Expressionism - Ernst Ludwig Kirchner (1880-1938) was the founder of a group called Die Brucke that pioneered expressionist painting. As you can see, the painting is all about Kirchner’s own interpretation of the mountains and snow, hence its pinkness.

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Cubism - From expressionism, the path continued to more abstract styles. The world in painting strove to be a deconstructed version of what we see. Throughout the 1910s and ‘20s, Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) and Georges Braque (1882-1963) worked hard at this new style in France. Pictured: painting by Wladimir Baranoff-Rossine (1888-1944).

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Cubism - Few are regarded as such an artistic genius as Pablo Picasso. His painting 'Guernica' shocked crowds with its chaos and distortion. It was a piece created to depict the bombing of the Spanish town of Guernica during the Spanish Civil War.

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Cubism - Although his brilliance was slightly overshadowed by Picasso, if you want to learn more about cubism, Georges Braque was its pioneer. As you can see, this painting focuses more on geometric shapes and color to convey the artist’s feeling.

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Surrealism - The really crazy art came in the Roaring Twenties. Everything in surrealism is meant to contradict the rules of reality. It seems logical to assume it was heavily influenced by the social effects of WWI. All the artists considered their work exempt from moral and aesthetic obligations. Pictured: painting by René Magritte (1898-1967).

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Surrealism - The founder of surrealism was André Breton (1896-1966). He was a writer and a poet. He created the group that brought together artists from all fields to embark on a journey into the dreamlike and distorted world of irreality.

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Surrealism - Salvador Dalí (1904-1989) is a key player in the surrealist movement. He had an incredible technical skill that makes his surreal scenes extremely unnerving. You can see this disturbing nature in ‘Swans reflecting Elephants’ (1937).

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Abstract expressionism - In the mid-20th century, it seems like art lost the plot. Abstract surrealism is the most difficult art to decipher as a viewer because we often feel like we should see a deeper meaning but this is not necessarily the case. Pictured: painting by Mark Rothko (1903-1970).

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Abstract expressionism - In New York, after WWII, artists changed their artistic process. Painting was no longer just about conveying emotion through color and shapes, but through the artist's creative method as well. Pictured: painting by Jackson Pollock.

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Abstract expressionism - Clyfford Still (1904-1980) was one of the foundational painters in the abstract expressionist movement. His paintings almost look torn because of the large splashes of color. He thought more about juxtapositions rather than depicting any kind of object.

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Tips - Now that we have gone through all the movements and you have been introduced to various important modernist artists, we can proceed with how to read them. The thing is, there is really no standard way to understand modern art. Pictured: painting by Pablo Picasso.

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Feelings - The key to looking at modern art is to just listen to how it makes you feel. The whole point of these artists going against convention was to provoke thought and emotion without overtly showing it to the viewer. Pictured: painting by Claude Monet.

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Deeper meaning - You may want to search for deeper meanings, and maybe sometimes there are some, but many a time the concept of the painting is not important. Instead, consider how the artist went about creating the painting, and your immediate reaction to it. Pictured: painting by Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944).

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Time - With modern art, it often takes time to develop an emotion about it. It will typically not just grab you in the museum. Take some time to look at the painting close up and far away, with squinted eyes. Modern art is meant to be visually playful, so experiment with your view. Pictured: painting by Paul Klee (1879-1940).

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Experts -

When going around the museum, you may hear an expert extolling one artist or another. The whole point of subjective art is that it is what you like, not what other people consider good. Don’t listen to the 'expert' advice, Use your own intuition. Pictured: painting by Henri Matisse.

Sources: (My Modern Met) (Tate)

See also: The hidden secrets in famous works of art

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