Art · Curated list
Renaissance, Romanticism, Baroque and 27 more, ranked by how much of the world has written about each one.
Most written-about first. Each description summarises the movement's Wikipedia article, which its name links to.
1
European cultural period of the 14th to 17th centuries
A period of European history and a cultural movement at the close of the Late Middle Ages and the start of the early modern era. It is defined variously as the 15th and 16th centuries or, more broadly, as the 14th century to the 17th.
Wikidata · Photo: Leonardo da Vinci, Public domain
2
Artistic and intellectual movement
An artistic and intellectual movement that began in Europe late in the 18th century. In response to the Industrial Revolution and the Age of Enlightenment, it argued for the importance, in culture and society, of imagination, subjectivity and appreciation of nature.
Wikidata · Photo: Caspar David Friedrich, Public domain
3
Artistic style in Europe and colonies, c. 1600–1750
A Western style of painting, sculpture, architecture, music, dance, poetry and other arts, at its height from the early 1600s to the 1750s. It came after Mannerism and Renaissance art, and before the Neoclassical and Rococo styles.
4
International cultural movement (1920s–1950s)
An art and cultural movement that grew up in Europe after World War I, in which artists tried to let the unconscious mind express itself, often producing illogical or dreamlike scenes and ideas. Its aim, in the words of its leader André Breton, was to "resolve the previously contradictory conditions of dream and reality into an absolute reality, a super-reality", or surreality.
Wikidata · Photo: Robert Delaunay, Public domain
5
19th-century art movement
An art movement of the 19th century marked by visible brush strokes, open composition, a stress on showing light accurately in its changing qualities, everyday subjects, unusual angles of view, and movement treated as a key part of human perception and experience. It began with a group of artists based in Paris whose independent exhibitions made them prominent in the 1870s and 1880s.
Wikidata · Photo: Pierre-Auguste Renoir, Public domain
6
7
Cultural and artistic movement
A movement of the early 20th century in literature, music, and the visual and performing arts that put weight on subjective experience, abstraction and experiment. It also took in social issues, architecture, politics and philosophy.
8
Artistic, cultural, and theoretical movement
A range of artistic, cultural and philosophical movements that arose in the mid-20th century as a sceptical reaction to modernism, stressing that meaning is unstable, rejecting universal truths and criticising grand narratives.
Wikidata · Photo: Steve Morgan, CC BY-SA 3.0
9
Avant-garde art movement in the early 20th century
Also called Dadaism, an international art movement that grew out of World War I, its aftermath and the Futurist movement. First set up in Zürich, Switzerland, it soon spread to Berlin, Paris, New York City and various other artistic centres in Asia and Europe.
Wikidata · Photo: Inconnu. Travail collectif. Fonds Ullstein Bild Dtl. via Getty Images., Public domain
10
Style of medieval art
A style of medieval art that grew out of Romanesque art in Northern France in the 12th century, driven by the rise of Gothic architecture at the same time. It spread through all of Western Europe and much of Northern, Southern and Central Europe, though in Italy it never fully displaced more classical styles.
Wikidata · Photo: bodoklecksel, CC BY-SA 3.0
Modernist art movement
A modernist movement, first in painting and poetry, that began in Northern Europe around the start of the 20th century. It typically shows the world purely from a subjective point of view, distorting it sharply for emotional effect to call up moods or ideas.
12
Artistic and social movement
An artistic and social movement of the early 20th century that began in Italy and, less strongly, elsewhere. It put the stress on speed, dynamism, youth, violence and technology, and on objects such as the airplane, the car and the industrial city.
Wikidata · Photo: Mario Nunes Vais, Public domain
13
Art with a degree of independence from visual references
Art that uses the visual language of line, colour, form and shape to make compositions that may stand somewhat apart from visual references in the world. Closely related terms include non-representational, non-objective and non-figurative art.
Wikidata · Photo: Hilma af Klint, Public domain
14
1890–1911 European style of art and architecture
An international style of architecture, art and applied art, especially decorative art, often inspired by forms from nature, such as the curving lines of flowers and plants.
Wikidata · Photo: Alphonse Mucha, Public domain
.jpg?width=800)
15
Art movement and architectural style
In the arts, generally, a high regard for a classical period, in the Western tradition classical antiquity, as the model of taste that classicists try to match. At its purest it is an aesthetic attitude founded on the art, literature and culture of ancient Rome and Greece, stressing form, simplicity, proportion, clear structure, perfection and restrained feeling, and appealing openly to the intellect.
16
German art school and art movement
The Staatliches Bauhaus, usually called the Bauhaus, a German art school active from 1919 to 1933 that brought together the fine arts and crafts. Its approach to design made it famous: it tried to combine the individual artist's vision with mass production and a stress on function.
17
Works that are experimental or innovative
In the arts and literature, a term for experimental work, and for the artist behind it, that is usually new in its aesthetics and at first unacceptable in its ideas to the artistic establishment of its time. The military image of an advance guard stands for artists and writers whose innovations of style, form and subject challenge the artistic and aesthetic standing of the accepted art forms and literary traditions of their day; so the creators of surrealism and the anti-novel were seen by some of their contemporaries as ahead of their time.
Wikidata · Photo: Unknown author, Public domain
18
Late 19th-century art movement in Europe
An art movement of the late 19th century that began in France and Belgium, in poetry and in other arts. Mostly reacting against realism and naturalism, it sought to convey absolute truths by symbols, in language and in images used as metaphors.
Wikidata · Photo: Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Public domain
.jpg?width=800)
19
Art movement emerging in the mid-1950s
An art movement that arose in the United States and the United Kingdom in the mid-to-late 1950s. It challenged fine-art traditions by bringing images from mass and popular culture, such as advertising, comics, packaging, celebrities and everyday consumer goods, into printmaking, sculpture and painting.
Wikidata · Photo: James GILL, CC BY 3.0
20
Western cultural movement
Also spelled Neo-classicism, a Western cultural movement in the visual and decorative arts, literature, theatre, music and architecture that looked to classical antiquity, its art and its culture, for inspiration. It was born in Rome, largely through the writings of Johann Joachim Winckelmann at the time when Herculaneum and Pompeii were being rediscovered.
Wikidata · Photo: Jacques-Louis David, Public domain
Artistic style of representing subjects realistically
In art, generally, the attempt to show a subject truthfully, without artifice or exaggeration and without speculative or supernatural elements. It is often used interchangeably with naturalism, though the two terms do not necessarily mean the same.
%20-%20A%20Centennial%20of%20Independence%20-%20Google%20Art%20Project.jpg?width=800)
22
Predominantly French art movement, 1886–1905
A mostly French art movement that developed roughly between 1886 and 1905, from the final Impressionist exhibition to the birth of Fauvism. It arose in reaction against the Impressionists' concern with depicting light and colour naturalistically.
Wikidata · Photo: Henri Rousseau (French, 1844 - 1910) (1844 - 1910) – artist (French) Details on Google Art Project, Public domain
23
20th-century architectural and art style
Short for the French Arts décoratifs, a style of architecture, visual arts and product design that emerged in Paris in the 1910s, on the eve of World War I, and thrived around the world from the 1920s into the early 1930s, shaping the inside and outside of everything from large structures to small objects, clothing, fashion and jewellery included. Its influence shows in skyscrapers and cinemas, in bridges, ocean liners and trains, in cars, buses and trucks, in furniture, and in everyday objects such as vacuum cleaners and radios.
Wikidata · Photo: Creator:Charles Loupot Johann von Stein, Public domain
24
Artistic style in Europe and colonies, c. 1550–1600
A style of European art that arose around 1520, in the later years of the Italian High Renaissance, spread by about 1530 and in Italy lasted until about the end of the 16th century, when the Baroque largely took its place. Northern Mannerism went on into the early 17th century.
Wikidata · Photo: Parmigianino, Public domain
25
Movement in various forms of art and design
An art movement that strips art down to its essentials, concentrating on the object itself and on the viewer's experience, with the artist intervening as little as possible. It arose in Western art after World War II, and is often read as a reaction to modernism and abstract expressionism.
Wikidata · Photo: Kazimir Malevich, Public domain
Early 20th-century artistic style
A style of painting and art movement that arose in France at the start of the 20th century. It was the manner of les Fauves, modern artists who put strong colour and painterly qualities ahead of the realistic or representational values that Impressionism had kept.
.jpg?width=800)
27
Soviet style of realistic art depicting communist values
Also called socrealism, a style of idealised realistic art developed in the Soviet Union, where it was official cultural doctrine, and in other socialist countries after World War II. Unlike avant-garde art that was non-representational, stylised or symbolic, it rested on idealised, photorealistic recreations of historic events, meant to advance the socialist mission through inspiring images.
Wikidata · Photo: Kuzma Petrov-Vodkin, Public domain
28
Genre of Japanese art
A genre of Japanese art that flourished from the 17th to the 19th centuries. Its artists made paintings and woodblock prints of subjects such as beautiful women; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from folk tales and history; landscapes and travel scenes; plants and animals; and erotica.
29
Style of literary fiction and art
Also called magic realism or marvellous realism, a style or genre of art and fiction that shows a realistic world while bringing in magical elements, often blurring the line between reality and speculation. Magical realism, the most used of the three terms, refers especially to literature in which magical or supernatural events occur in an otherwise ordinary, real-world setting, and it is common in drama and novels.
Wikidata · Photo: ChatGPT/Open AI, Public domain
30
Artistic style of Europe from 1000 AD to the 13c
The art of Europe from about 1000 AD until the Gothic style arose in the 12th century, or later in some regions. The period before it is called the Pre-Romanesque.
Every Wikidata item that is an art movement, and that has its own English Wikipedia article, ranked by the number of Wikimedia sites with a page about it — Wikipedia's language editions, mostly, and sister projects such as Wikiquote. That counts how many communities independently thought it worth describing, and nobody can buy a place on it. The top 30 are shown.
Wikidata files these under this list's query, but they are not what the list is about:
Fetched from Wikidata on 2026-09-25. Each description is this site's summary of the entry's Wikipedia article, which its name links to: the wording is ours, the facts are Wikipedia's, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. To correct an entry, correct it there; the next refresh carries the change.
If you are reading this on the way somewhere: Computatus eSIM sells prepaid data eSIMs for 190 countries, installed by QR code before you leave, so maps, tickets and messages work without a roaming bill.
| Country | Cheapest plan | Price | Order |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States | 1GB per day | $2.33 | Get it → |
| France | 2GB per day | $2.15 | Get it → |
| Italy | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| United Kingdom | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| Germany | 2GB per day | $1.81 | Get it → |
| Canada | 1GB per day | $2.47 | Get it → |
| India | 1GB per day | $3.26 | Get it → |
| Australia | 1GB per day | $1.79 | Get it → |
See all Computatus eSIM plans →
A commission on plans bought through these links is what pays for this site. Nothing above depends on it: every entry is chosen and ranked before any price is looked up.
.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
_-_A_Centennial_of_Independence_-_Google_Art_Project.jpg){kind=link}
.jpg){kind=link}
