From Shelley Esaak,
Your Guide to Art History.
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Modern Art - 1880-Present

The Impressionists changed everything when their art was accepted. From this point on, artists had free rein to experiment. Even if the public loathed the results, it was still Art, and thus accorded a certain respect. Movements, schools and styles - in dizzying number - came, went, diverged from one another and sometimes melded.

There's no way, really, to accord all of these entities even a brief mention here, so we will now cover only a few of the better known names.

1885-1920 - Post-impressionism

This is a handy title for what wasn't a movement, but a group of artists (Cézanne, Van Gogh, Seurat and Gauguin, primarily) who moved past Impressionism and on to other, separate endeavors. They kept the light and color Impressionism bought, but tried to put some of the other elements of art - form and line, for example - back in art.

1890-1939 - The Fauves and Expressionism

The Fauves ("wild beasts") were French painters led by Matisse and Rouault. The movement they created, with its wild colors and depictions of primitive objects and people, became known as Expressionism and spread, notably, to Germany.

1905-1939 - Cubism and Futurism

Picasso and Braque, in France, invented Cubism, where organic forms were broken down into a series of geometric shapes. Their invention would prove elemental to the Bauhaus in coming years, as well as inspiring the first modern abstract sculpture.

Meanwhile, in Italy, Futurism was formed. What began as a literary movement moved into a style of art that embraced machines and the industrial age.

1922-1939 - Surrealism

Surrealism was all about uncovering the hidden meaning of dreams and expressing the subconscious. It was no coincidence that Freud had already published his ground-breaking psychoanalytical studies prior to this movement's emergence.

1945-Present - Abstract Expressionism

World War II (1939-1945) interrupted any new movements in art, but art came back with a vengeance in 1945. Emerging from a world torn apart, Abstract Expressionism discarded everything - including recognizable forms - except self expression and raw emotion.

Late 1950s-Present - Pop and Op Art

In a reaction against Abstract Expressionism, Pop Art glorified the most mundane aspects of American culture and called them art. It was fun art, though. And in the "happening" mid-60s, Op (an abbreviated term for optical illusion) Art came on the scene, just in time to mesh nicely with psychedelic music.

1970s-Present

In the last thirty-odd years, art has changed at lightning speed. We've seen the advent of performance art, conceptual art, digital art and shock art, to name but a few new offerings.

As we move toward a more global culture, our art reminds us of our collective and respective pasts. The technology with which you're reading this article will surely be improved upon and, as it is, we can all keep (nearly instantly) abreast of whatever comes next in art's history.