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20th Century Art Quizzes, Trivia and Puzzles
20th Century Art Quizzes, Trivia

20th Century Art Trivia

20th Century Art Trivia Quizzes

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In 500 years, perhaps the 20th century will be known as the second renaissance. The art movements of the 20th century have changed the face of art forever...which of these movements do you find the most profound? Enjoy some of these quizzes while you contemplate this.
23 quizzes and 215 trivia questions.
1.
  Surreal!   great trivia quiz  
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
Surrealism was a cultural movement in the first half of the 20th century. Match ten outstanding examples of surreal paintings with their creators.
Average, 10 Qns, wellenbrecher, Dec 04 23
Average
wellenbrecher gold member
Dec 04 23
97 plays
2.
From Nouveau to Deco Three Amazing Decades of Art The social and political turmoil of the first 30 years of the 20th century did not prevent the flourishing of artistic movements such as Art Nouveau and Art Deco, which left their mark on those troubled times.
Easier, 10 Qns, LadyNym, Sep 03 21
Easier
LadyNym gold member
Sep 03 21
1489 plays
3.
  Who Painted That?   top quiz  
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
Art in the 20th century covered a multitude of styles and genres. We've selected ten famous 20th century paintings, but can you match the work to the person that produced it?
Easier, 10 Qns, Red_John, Mar 20 23
Easier
Red_John
Mar 20 23
385 plays
4.
  Modern Art Enthusiast    
Multiple Choice
 15 Qns
A compilation of modern art questions. This is an adopted quiz of an original by author artquiz77. I made it shorter and added the missing interesting information.
Average, 15 Qns, tiye, Aug 22 23
Average
tiye gold member
Aug 22 23
205 plays
5.
  "Ceci n'est pas une pipe"   top quiz  
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
The painting of a pipe on which René Magritte inscribed this iconic statement is one of ten 20th century works waiting here for you to identify the artist who painted them.
Easier, 10 Qns, looney_tunes, Jan 02 24
Easier
looney_tunes editor
Jan 02 24
582 plays
6.
  Square, Circle, Triangle   best quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
To some people, modern art explores the human condition in novel ways. To others, like me, it's just a bunch of squares, circles, and triangles. Oh well. This quiz is about some of the more prominent "artists" of the 20th century.
Easier, 10 Qns, adams627, Oct 17 11
Easier
adams627
1296 plays
7.
  The Fascinating World of Modern Art   great trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
These questions have been randomly selected to tantalize the tastebuds of all and sundry fans of modern art. Please have a look if this sounds intriguing...
Tough, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Jun 11 18
Tough
thejazzkickazz gold member
Jun 11 18
1711 plays
8.
  20th Century British Female Artists    
Match Quiz
 10 Qns
The challenge - match ten British female artists who were active in the twentieth century with their descriptions.
Average, 10 Qns, Upstart3, Dec 16 18
Average
Upstart3 gold member
Dec 16 18
203 plays
9.
  Modern Art - Painting to Painter    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Pretty basic game. I'll give you the title of the painting and the movement of the artist - you name the artist.
Average, 10 Qns, DesertFox, Oct 21 01
Average
DesertFox
4838 plays
10.
  Performance, Art, and the Body    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Each question is written as if the artist were telling you of their work. Also, the possible answers for each question are names of famous modern artists - Research is fun, check them out! Enjoy!
Tough, 10 Qns, KatieK54, Sep 21 08
Tough
KatieK54 gold member
714 plays
trivia question Quick Question
Still Life with Apples and Oranges (Post-Impressionism)

From Quiz "Modern Art - Painting to Painter"




11.
  Gaga on Dada    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Dada was the 20th-Century 'anti-art' art movement that foreshadowed Surrealism, Pop Art and many other movements.
Average, 10 Qns, tjoebigham, Jun 11 18
Average
tjoebigham
Jun 11 18
1471 plays
12.
  Contemporary Art and Artists    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
From the 1960s to the 2000s, a group of artists challenged the accepted styles of sculpture, installations and multi-media pieces. Try your hand at this quiz about some of the people and works of 'contemporary art.'
Difficult, 10 Qns, neon000, Jun 20 21
Difficult
neon000 gold member
Jun 20 21
1230 plays
13.
  Pop Art and Minimalism    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Welcome to the exciting world of "Pop Art and Minimalism." We will go back to an era where simple and mundane objects worked hand in hand with some complex thoughts from some extraordinary people to produce brilliant works of art.
Tough, 10 Qns, Yankeegirl742, May 04 09
Tough
Yankeegirl742
597 plays
14.
  Semi-Abstract and Purely Abstract    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Abstract art helps wrench our imagination from the literal, material world into another realm or dimension...or else it's simply a collection of odd shapes...it depends on your perspective...
Tough, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, May 05 22
Tough
thejazzkickazz gold member
May 05 22
1038 plays
15.
  Bad Modern Art    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
The cartoonist Al Capp once defined abstract art as "a product of the untalented sold by the unprincipled to the utterly bewildered." This quiz will examine some of the more bizarre items that qualify "art" in these perplexing times.
Average, 10 Qns, daver852, Jun 16 15
Average
daver852 gold member
251 plays
16.
  Modern Art Questions   popular trivia quiz  
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Here are some random questions on modern artists and their works.
Tough, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Feb 20 21
Tough
thejazzkickazz gold member
Feb 20 21
2031 plays
17.
  More Modern Art Randomness    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Please indulge in these queries if your right brain feels so inclined...
Difficult, 10 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Oct 21 01
Difficult
thejazzkickazz gold member
1259 plays
18.
  20th Century Art    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
A little quiz on 20th century art and artists
Difficult, 10 Qns, dorian, Dec 21 10
Difficult
dorian
2193 plays
19.
  Tough Modern Art Trivia    
Multiple Choice
 10 Qns
Random questions about modern art.
Tough, 10 Qns, artquiz77, Dec 27 08
Tough
artquiz77
1703 plays
20.
  Kala's Cubism Collection    
Multiple Choice
 5 Qns
Here is my easy quiz on the 20th century art movement Cubism. Hope you enjoy it!
Average, 5 Qns, GeneralKala, Dec 25 23
Average
GeneralKala
Dec 25 23
971 plays
21.
  Pin-Up Girls & the Art of Illustration    
Multiple Choice
 5 Qns
The illustrated Pin-up girl was an American institution from 1920 to 1970. How much do you know about these playful girls?
Difficult, 5 Qns, nicnic, Sep 26 13
Difficult
nicnic
524 plays
22.
  Modern Art Potpourri    
Multiple Choice
 5 Qns
More modern art questions for the art lovers out there.
Difficult, 5 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Oct 21 01
Difficult
thejazzkickazz gold member
1174 plays
23.
  Random Modern Art Questions    
Multiple Choice
 5 Qns
Here are some art questions to sooth your artistic desires...
Difficult, 5 Qns, thejazzkickazz, Oct 21 01
Difficult
thejazzkickazz gold member
1185 plays
Related Topics
  Chicago, Judy [Humanities] (3 quizzes)


20th Century Art Trivia Questions

1. What artist created a picture of a muscleman pointing a giant tootsie pop at a semi-nude woman on a couch?

From Quiz
Pop Art and Minimalism

Answer: Richard Hamilton

Richard Hamilton created "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different, so appealing?" in 1956. There are numerous historical references to be found throughout the picture. Richard Hamilton was an admirer of Marcel Duchamp.

2. This artist worked with fluorescent light bulbs. His first displays resembled picture frames, but he progressed to structures that illuminated entire rooms. Who was he?

From Quiz Contemporary Art and Artists

Answer: Dan Flavin

There is a museum dedicated to him in Bridgehampton, New York.

3. There were three main categories of illustration revolving around pin-up type illustrations, including the pin-up, what were the other two?

From Quiz Pin-Up Girls & the Art of Illustration

Answer: glamour art and pretty girl

The most well known of the three categories, the pin-up was a full length view of the model, generally with a slight narrative tone to it, and of course, the model was dressed in form-revealing clothing, if dressed at all. Glamour art did not require a full-length view of the model, and as the name suggests, the women were generally dressed in eveningwear. A pretty girl was a either glamour art or a pin-up created by a mainstream illustrator as opposed to someone who worked solely in the pin-up genre.

4. Which two painters were prominent figures in the Cubism movement?

From Quiz Kala's Cubism Collection

Answer: Picasso and Braque

Picasso and Braque began working together in around 1907. Although there have been many other Cubists, these two were among the earliest and were critical to the movement's development.

5. His most well-known works are paintings of square and rectangular shapes, often colored red, blue or yellow, and bordered with black lines made with tape strips....who is he?

From Quiz Semi-Abstract and Purely Abstract

Answer: Mondrian

Mondrian was a Dutch artist who helped found the De Stijl movement.

6. Which writer is considered the 'daddy of Dada'?

From Quiz Gaga on Dada

Answer: Tristan Tzara

This European poet was the main driving force behind the movement.

7. Which modern artist is famous for their minimalist horses?

From Quiz Modern Art Potpourri

Answer: Susan Rothenberg

Marisol did some hobby horses, but she was certainly not a minimalist.

8. Marc Chagall, the famous painter, was also a master of which other medium?

From Quiz The Fascinating World of Modern Art

Answer: Stained glass

When I think of Chagall's work I imagine people floating above odd looking landscapes, something like a dream. In fact, Chagall's often bizarre paintings were often inspired by dreams. I sometimes consider his work to be even more surreal than the work of the self-named Surrealists...

9. What unusual pair of names have modern British artists Michael Baldwin and Mel Ramsden taken?

From Quiz Modern Art Questions

Answer: Art and Language

10. Dan Flavin, who was associated with Donald Judd, used what sort of medium?

From Quiz Modern Art

Answer: lights

11. Who is considered the father of modern African American art?

From Quiz Random Modern Art Questions

Answer: Douglas

Aaron Douglas...the father of modern African American art.

12. The Persistence of Memory - Surrealism

From Quiz Modern Art - Painting to Painter

Answer: Salvador Dali

13. Andy Warhol was born in

From Quiz 20th Century Art

Answer: Pittsburgh

His parents were emigrants from the former Austro-Hungarian empire; his father emigrated in 1914 before the dissolution of the dual monarchy, and his mother followed later in 1921.

14. What school of art was created by Paul Jordan-Smith in 1924?

From Quiz Bad Modern Art

Answer: Disumbrationism

Paul Jordan-Smith was a journalist who took offense that some of his artist wife's still life paintings had been panned by critics as "too realistic", so he did what any man would do: grabbing a few tubes of paint and an old brush, he whipped out a painting of a bare-breasted native woman holding something in her hand. According to Jordan-Smith it was supposed to be a starfish, but ended up looking more like a bunch of bananas (here it should be noted that Jordan-Smith had neither artistic training nor natural talent). So he called it "Yes, We Have No Bananas" (after a popular song of the day), and submitted it to the New York Exhibition of the Independents under the name "Pavel Jerdanowitch." The critics raved about the painting (which was terrible beyond description), and soon the world was clamoring for more work by Pavel Jerdanowitch. So Jordan-Smith kept cranking out paintings, each more awful than the one preceding it. He even invented a biography for Jerdanowitch, stating he had been born in Russia and and had studied at the Chicago Art Institute. He called his style "disumbrationism," because he couldn't figure out how to paint shadows ("umbra" is Latin for shadow). He published fictitious interviews with the equally fictitious Jerdanowitch, in which he expounded on the philosophy of "disumbrationism." And he kept this up for four years, without arousing the suspicions of anyone in the artistic community! One of his paintings, "Aspiration", which showed a black woman doing laundry, was even included in a prestigious reference work, "The Golden Book of Modern Art". In a pamphlet prepared for a 1928 exhibition at Boston's famous Vose Galleries, the artist explained that: "The entire painting affords a marvelous illustration of the law of dynamic symmetry; everything directs the eye of the beholder towards the central symbol, so that at first we are like the washer woman (who stares at the cosmic rooster: this is why the painting is called 'Aspiration') and fail to notice the hand of greed reaching for her purse." Eventually Jordan-Smith tired of the joke, and confessed to being a fraud. This created something of a cause célèbre in the art world; the critics eventually decided that they had not been fooled at all, and that Jordan-Smith was a natural genius who had actually created great art while attempting to create bad art. It's hard to argue with reasoning like that.

15. Which artist's 1967 work is a set of rectangular green boxes hanging from a wall?

From Quiz Pop Art and Minimalism

Answer: Donald Judd

Those green boxes are really green lacquer on galvanized iron. Donald Judd was the creator of the work, which was dubbed "Untitled."

16. What was Picasso's earliest work that could be called Cubist, or a forerunner to Cubism, called?

From Quiz Kala's Cubism Collection

Answer: Les Demoiselles d'Avignon

This painting relates directly to the prostitution district of Paris. The faces of the women have been greatly influenced by African tribal masks.

17. Which fellow has made a career out of painting with white monochrome?

From Quiz Semi-Abstract and Purely Abstract

Answer: Ryman

Robert Ryman isn't so philosophical about his paintings, but questions rather 'how to paint'...

18. What other two poets were involved in Dada?

From Quiz Gaga on Dada

Answer: Apollinaire, Breton

Many of their works fall in the Dada-Surrealist mode.

19. On one of French artist Ben Vautier's paintings, what does it say?

From Quiz Modern Art Potpourri

Answer: 'Art is useless, go home.'

'L'art est inutile rentrez chez vous' Somehow, I don't think he really felt this way. Then again, maybe he did!

20. Which modern artist from California expanded the two-dimensional limitations of the canvas by including additional three dimensional objects to accompany her painting in a work called 'Yellow and Black Boats'?

From Quiz Modern Art Questions

Answer: Jennifer Bartlett

21. Who took the most famous photograph of Rodin?

From Quiz Modern Art

Answer: Edward Steichen

22. To what modern American artist was Helen Frankenthaler married?

From Quiz Random Modern Art Questions

Answer: Motherwell

23. Who was a founding member of the Vienna Sezession?

From Quiz More Modern Art Randomness

Answer: Gustav Klimt

24. Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte - Pointillism (Divisionism)

From Quiz Modern Art - Painting to Painter

Answer: Georges Seurat

25. Which artist created a work by erasing a drawing by Willem de Kooning?

From Quiz 20th Century Art

Answer: Robert Rauschenberg

It took him two months.

26. In 2012, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art spent $10 million on artist Michael Heizer's "Levitated Mass". What is it?

From Quiz Bad Modern Art

Answer: A rock

It's just a rock. Or, to be more precise, a 340 ton granite boulder. Now, mind you, while Heizer didn't actually do anything to the rock, he did find it, so that alone should be an adequate testament to his artistic genius. It's not clear how much Heizer pocketed from the deal; most of the costs were involved in transporting the rock some 63 miles from Jurupa Valley to Los Angeles; the rock itself cost "only" $70,000. The rock is mounted on the walls of a 456-foot long concrete trench, and people can walk underneath it. Some of us without the delicate sensibilities to appreciate the magnitude of this achievement can turn to the experts for enlightenment. For example, Michael Govan, the CEO of the museum, went on record as saying: "To me, it's better than the ancient sculptures because it's not about the power of the gods. It's a monument of our time and of our own place." Well, Michelangelo moved a lot of big rocks around, too, so there's not that much difference between him and Heizer, except that Michelangelo had such an inflated ego that he actually thought that he could improve upon what nature had already created.

27. What artist was inspired by comic books?

From Quiz Pop Art and Minimalism

Answer: Roy Lichtenstein

When Roy Lichtenstein passed away in 1997 the art world mourned. Roy loved the comics. So many of his works, while appearing simplistic creations, were really quite difficult to develop. My favorite Lichtenstein is "Torpedo....Los!" which was created in 1963.

28. Charles Dana Gibson was famous for creating "The Gibson Girl" whose popularity surpassed that of every other pin-up, and went on to inspire songs and Broadway shows. In what year was the first Gibson Girl published?

From Quiz Pin-Up Girls & the Art of Illustration

Answer: 1887

1867 marked the birth of Charles Dana Gibson, who died in 1944. In 1900 "Collier's" magazine offered Gibson $100,000 over a period of four years to create one hundred centrefold drawings. Gibson also created the "Gibson Man", the first male pin-up, who often appeared in illustrations with the "Gibson Girl".

29. Which artist specifically inspired the two main figures of this movement?

From Quiz Kala's Cubism Collection

Answer: Cezanne

This influence can be seen mainly in the landscapes, where you can see similarities in the colour and feel. Cezanne also rendered perspective by using colour.

30. What female Dadaist is known for a teacup and saucer covered in fur?

From Quiz Gaga on Dada

Answer: Oppenheim

Meret Oppenheim's 'Luncheon in Fur' was the template for all the art objects to follow.

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