Fractured Art Movements Trivia Quiz

Answer: Romanticism

Romantic painters of the 19th century included Germans such as Carl Gustav Carus, Johan Christian Dahl, and Caspar David Friedrich; English artists such as John Constable, Sir Edwin Landseer, and Joseph M.W. Turner; and Frenchman Eugene Delacroix. Romantics depicted shipwrecks, lone twisted trees, ancient ruins, and vulnerable-looking figures perched on craggy mountainsides. Romanticism emphasized spirituality and Nature-with-a-capital-N.

It was a reaction against the Enlightenment and the bloody (and unsuccessful) French revolution.

Answer: Rococo

Rococo, a reaction against Baroque, began--and perhaps ended--in 18th century France. The name comes from two French words: rocaille ("little stones") and coquille ("seashell"). Some Rococo works were pastoral scenes filled with frolicking shepherds and shepherdesses in silk finery.

Others were humorous and/or erotic--e.g., unclothed ladies and their fluffy little dogs. Rococo painters included Jean Antoine Watteau, Francois Boucher, and Jean-Honoré Fragonard. Rococo was a decorative style, too: it was characterized by S-shaped table and chair legs, elaborate floral and seashell patterns, and scrollwork.

Answer: Baroque

The name Baroque was originally derogatory. It derives from either the Italian word barocco, meaning "grotesque," or the Portuguese word barocco, meaning "irregularly-shaped pearl." If you see a 17th century painting with dark, dark edges and one brightly-lit area in the middle, it is probably Baroque.

This style may have been invented in order to help the foundering Catholic Church defend itself against the Reformation. Baroque painters took Bible stories and made them VERY dramatic and sometimes gory, too, e.g., David holding up Goliath's severed head. Baroque painters include Michelangelo Merisi de Caravaggio, Artemisia Gentileschi, and Diego Velaquez. Kinder, gentler Dutch Baroque painters include Rembrandt van Rijn, Judith Leyster, and Jan Vermeer.

Answer: German Expressionism

In an art textbook I learned that early 20th century German Expressionists such as Ernst Ludwig Kirchner and Kathe Kollwitz borrowed from 19th century German Romantics--the Expressionists' works are grimmer, though, because they were reacting to World War I.

Answer: Post Impressionist

As you know, these were the guys who came after the Impressionists. Probably the most famous ones were Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin. I learned from Sister Wendy (the nun who's an art historian on PBS) that Gauguin once told people he was going to commit suicide in order to get some publicity for his "final" work, a beautiful mural-type work that depicted birth, mid-life, and death.

He did not die, however. It was to get Gauguin's attention that poor loony van Gogh cut off his ear. So the Post-Impressionists (at least the two most famous ones) were not a happy bunch. Sure made some wonderful artworks, though.

Answer: Cubism

The Cubists included Georges Braque and of course Pablo Picasso. Some people think that Paul Cezanne was one, too, or that his works were the catalyst for Cubism. Cubists wanted to see all sides of a 3-D object at once, so they basically took objects and people apart and put them back together in interesting ways. Like German Expressionism, Cubism was an early 20th century movement.

Answer: Hudson River School

I love these roomy, awe-inspiring 19th century landscapes by American painters (and emigres from other lands, such as Thomas Cole and Albert Bierstadt). Other Hudson River School painters include Frederic Church, Jasper Francis Cropsey, Asher B. Durand, Sanford Robinson Gifford, Martin Johnson Heade, John F. Kensett, Jervis McEntee, and Worthington Whittredge. Pretty fancy names.

They were named so (the Hudson River School) because most had studios in New York City and traveled up the Hudson to paint scenery upstate.

Some of the more successful ones (notably Church and Bierstadt) built baronial mansions along the Hudson, too.

Answer: Italian Renaissance

Well, everyone knows about da Vinci, Michelangelo, Raphael, and Botticelli. But have you ever seen any works by Fra Filippo Lippi? He was a former monk who kidnapped a nun with whom he was in love, married her, and made her his model. She is Saint Mary in most of Lippi's works--and he painted Saint Mary many, many times.

Other Fras (friars) such as Fra Carnevale, made beautiful Renaissance paintings, too.

Answer: Photo Realism

This 20th century style is sometimes called Super-Realism. Photo-Realism is just what it sounds like: painters like Richard Estes blew up photos and copied them meticulously with thinned oil paint--so there wouldn't be any "painterly" surface.

Answer: Pop Art

Andy Warhol is probably the best-known Pop (popular culture) artist. Others include Jasper Johns, Roy Lichtenstein, Robert Rauschenberg, James Rosenquist, and Wayne Thiebaud (he's the one who used to paint rows of pastries and rows of shoes). Pop artists spotlighted everyday images--such as soup cans and celebrity photos--whose omnipresence had rendered them invisible.

Answer: Neoclassicism

This was--in my opinion--a boring style, another reaction against the Enlightenment and the French Revolution--and against the light and frothy Rococo style, too. Late 18th and early 19th century painters such as Jacques-Louis David borrowed imagery from Greek and Roman history and mythology.

Answer: Surrealism

Two words: Salvador Dali. Other Surrealist artists include Giorgio de Chiroco and Joan Miro. In the early 20th century, art movements came thick and fast. The Surrealists painted the subconscious world of dreams--and nightmares.

Answer: Abstract Expressionism

The point of this mid-20th movement was to express one's feelings without painting anything recognizable. So Abstract Expressionist works tend to look like big multi-colored fur rugs made of thick, thick oil paint. Jackson Pollock is the most famous U.S. painter in this movement. Armenian Arshile Gorky was one of the first Abstract Expressionists. To me, these guys do not seem like happy campers, judging from their work.

However, I knew one (a Canadian named Bob Steele) when I was little, and he was very sweet and cheerful.

Answer: Fauvism

Henri Matisse was the main Fauve (the name means "wild beast") and he does not seem at all beastly--only playful and imaginative. Fauves used bold colors at a time (the early 1900s) when that was considered shocking. Other Fauves included André Derain and Maurice de Vlaminck, who shared a defunct restaurant-turned-studio as young men.

Although their styles were distinct, Derain and de Vlaminck both painted landscapes and figures in brilliant reds, blues, yellows, and greens.

Answer: Gothic architecture

Think Chartres--or any cathedral built in the 1200s. Towers, spires, arches, gargoyles, tall stone statues, gigantic doorways, flying buttresses, stained glass windows, lofty interiors. If you ever have an opportunity to visit Chartres, don't pass it up! You'll never forget that place. Thanks for taking the quiz. Sorry that my descriptions are somewhat subjective, but hey, it's art.