16/19 16. Modernism and the Transformation of Visual Language Free Online FlashCards

What did Impressionism seek to represent?

Impressionism emerged in France during the 1870s and 1880s, emphasizing changing conditions of light, weather, movement, and time.

How did Impressionism get its name?

Louis Leroy derived the name from Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872), using it mockingly; the artists later adopted it as their public identity.

How did Impressionist brushwork and shadows differ from academic convention?

Impressionists often used visible, broken brushstrokes and shadows containing reflected or complementary colors instead of black.

What is central to Monet’s Impression, Sunrise?

Monet presents the harbor through hazy blue-gray tones, orange light, loose brushwork, and indistinct forms, making the act of looking through mist the subject.

What is Post-Impressionism?

Post-Impressionism is a later critical category, popularized by Roger Fry in 1910, for artists who moved beyond Impressionism’s emphasis on naturalistic light and color.

How did Cézanne rethink visual structure?

Cézanne organized nature through underlying geometric relationships, using planes, color relations, and repeated adjustments rather than a single stable viewpoint.

How did Van Gogh use color and brushwork expressively?

Van Gogh used thick directional brushstrokes and intense, often non-naturalistic colors to communicate emotional and psychological states.

What is Pointillism?

Pointillism places small, distinct marks of unmixed color beside one another so the viewer’s eye optically combines them at a distance.

What did Symbolist artists try to express?

Symbolism sought to express dreams, desires, spiritual states, myths, fears, and private associations through suggestion rather than literal description.

What defines Art Nouveau?

Art Nouveau was an international style, approximately 1890–1914, that used flowing lines, stylized natural forms, asymmetry, and decorative unity across art and design.

How did Fauvism treat color?

Fauvist artists used saturated, unnatural colors as independent expressive elements that could communicate intensity, rhythm, or structure.

How does Cubism challenge traditional perspective?

Cubism breaks objects into geometric facets and presents multiple viewpoints within one composition, rejecting a single stable perspective.