Even art has to explain things sometimes
Why Dadaism? 10 artistic movement’s names decoded
Published on December 6, 2024
Image: Amauri Mejía
While some names can be self-explanatory, there are countless art movements with names that only make sense when put in context. What is Abstract Expressionism? Or Dadaism? In the following lines, we attempt to shed light on the origins of some of these names. Scroll down and learn a thing or two about the world of art!
Renaissance
Image: TE LUN OU YANG
The Renaissance was a period of history and a European cultural movement covering the 15th and 16th centuries that marked the transition from the Middle Ages to modernity and was characterized by an effort to revive and surpass the ideas and achievements of classical antiquity.
The movement's name comes from the Italian word rinascita, which translates to "rebirth." The corresponding French word renaissance was adopted into English for this period during the 1830s.
Baroque
Image: Daniel Posthuma
A movement that came after the Renaissance, Baroque was very much influenced by the former. So much so that many scholars argue that Baroque art was simply the end of the Renaissance and never existed as a cultural or historical phenomenon.
The term "Baroque" itself is derived from the Portuguese barocco which means "irregular pearl or stone." Due to its exuberant irregularities, Baroque art has often been defined as being bizarre, or uneven.
Rococo
Image: Igor Shalyminov
As it happened with the Baroque and the Renaissance, Rococo has often been described as the final expression of the Baroque movement. It was exceptionally ornamental and theatrical, and it was seen as superficial, degenerate, and illogical.
Rococo takes its name from the French word rocaille, which means "rock" or "broken shell", both natural motifs that often formed part of the designs, along with fish and other marine decorations.
Impressionism
Image: Alina Grubnyak
An art movement characterized by relatively small, thin, yet visible brush strokes, open composition, and emphasis on accurate depiction of light, Impressionism originated with a group of Paris-based artists whose independent exhibitions brought them to prominence during the late 1800s.
The style’s name comes from the title of a Claude Monet work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which caused the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical review of the First Impressionist Exhibition.
Dadaism
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Dadaism was created as an artistic response to the undoing of many social, scientific, and artistic notions. In 1916, German writer Hugo Ball reflected on the state of contemporary art: "The image of the human form is gradually disappearing from the painting of these times and all objects appear only in fragments… The next step is for poetry to decide to do away with language."
This new, irrational art movement would be named "Dada." It got its name, according to Richard Huelsenbeck, a German artist living in Zurich when he and Ball came upon the word in a French-German dictionary. "Dada is ‘yes, yes’ in Rumanian, ‘rocking horse’ and ‘hobby horse’ in French," he wrote in his diary.
Cubism
Image: Birmingham Museums Trust
One of the most influential styles of the twentieth century, Cubism is generally agreed to have begun with Picasso’s painting Demoiselles D’Avignon which included elements of Cubist style.
The name "Cubism" seems to have originated in a comment made by the critic Louis Vauxcelles who, after seeing some of Georges Braque’s paintings exhibited in Paris in 1908, described them as reducing everything to "geometric outlines, to cubes."
Futurism
Image: Birmingham Museums Trust
A country filled with museums, like Italy, gave birth to a movement that rejected the past, in favor of the future. Futurism was launched by the Italian poet Filippo Tommaso Marinetti in 1909.
What the Futurists proposed instead was an art that celebrated the modern world of industry and technology: "We declare… a new beauty, the beauty of speed. A racing motor car… is more beautiful than the Victory of Samothrace."
Constructivism
Image: Conmongt
Abstract and austere, Constructivism aimed to reflect modern industrial society and urban space. Being associated with Soviet socialism, the Bolsheviks, and the Russian avant-garde, Constructivists were in favor of art for propaganda and social purposes.
The term itself was invented by the sculptors Antoine Pevsner and Naum Gabo, who developed an industrial, angular style of work. "Constructivism" first appears as a term in Gabo's Realistic Manifesto of 1920.
Abstract Expressionism
Image: the blowup
Abstract Expressionism originated as a distinct art movement after World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s. Abstract Expressionism was influenced by the spontaneous and subconscious creation methods of Surrealist artists.
The term "abstract expressionism" is believed to have first been used in Germany in 1919 in the magazine Der Sturm about German Expressionism. It was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates.
Postmodernism
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As the name implies, "Postmodernism" is a term used to mark a break with Modernism. What both these movements have in common is the conviction that it is no longer possible to rely upon previous ways of representing reality.
The term began to acquire its current range of meanings during the 1950s. In opposition to Modernism's alleged self-seriousness, Postmodernism is characterized by its playful use of irony and pastiche, among other features. Critics claim it supplants moral, political, and aesthetic ideals with mere style and spectacle.
