Periods in Western art history

This is a chronological list of periods in Western art history. An art period is a phase in the development of the work of an artist, groups of artists or art movement.

Ancient Classical art

Medieval art

Early Christian 260–525

Migration Period 300–900

Anglo-Saxon 400–1066

Visigothic 415–711

Pre-Romanesque 500–1000

Insular 600–1200

Viking 700–1100

Romanesque 1000–1200

Norman-Sicilian 1100–1200

Gothic 1100–1400 (International Gothic)

Renaissance

Renaissance c. 1300 – c. 1602, began in Florence

Italian Renaissance – late 13th century – c. 1600 – late 15th century – late 16th century

Renaissance Classicism

Early Netherlandish painting – 1400 – 1500

Early Cretan School - post-Byzantine art or Cretan Renaissance 1400-1500

Renaissance to Neoclassicism

Mannerism and Late Renaissance – 1520 – 1600, began in central Italy

Baroque – 1600 – 1730, began in Rome

Dutch Golden Age painting – 1585 – 1702

Flemish Baroque painting – 1585 – 1700

Caravaggisti – 1590 – 1650

Rococo – 1720 – 1780, began in France

Neoclassicism – 1750 – 1830, began in Rome

Later Cretan School - Cretan Renaissance 1500-1700

Heptanese School 1650-1830 began on Ionian Islands

Romanticism

Romanticism − 1780 – 1850

Nazarene movement – c. 1820 – late 1840s

The Ancients – 1820s – 1840s

Purismo – c. 1820 – 1860s

Düsseldorf school – mid-1820s – 1860s

Hudson River School – 1850s – c. 1880

Luminism (American art style) – 1850s – 1870s

Modern Greek art 1830–1930s began in Modern Greece

Romanticism to modern art

Norwich school – 1803 – 1833, England

Biedermeier – 1815 – 1848, Germany

Photography – Since 1826

Realism – 1830 – 1870, began in France

Barbizon school – 1830 – 1870, France

Peredvizhniki – 1870 – 1890, Russia

Abramtsevo Colony 1870s, Russia

Hague School – 1870 – 1900, Netherlands

American Barbizon school 1850–1890s – United States

Spanish Eclecticism – 1845 – 1890, Spain

Macchiaioli – 1850s, Tuscany, Italy

Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood – 1848 – 1854, England

Modern art

Modern art – 1860 – 1945

Note: The countries listed are the country in which the movement or group started. Most modern art movements were international in scope.

Impressionism – 1860 – 1890, France

American Impressionism 1880, United States

Cos Cob Art Colony 1890s, United States

Heidelberg School late 1880s, Australia

Luminism (Impressionism)

Arts and Crafts movement – 1880 – 1910, United Kingdom

Tonalism – 1880 – 1920, United States

Symbolism (arts) – 1880 – 1910, France/Belgium

Russian Symbolism 1884 – c. 1910, Russia

Aesthetic movement 1868 – 1901, United Kingdom

Post-impressionism – 1886 – 1905, France

Les Nabis 1888 – 1900, France

Cloisonnism c. 1885, France

Synthetism late 1880s – early 1890s, France

Neo-impressionism 1886 – 1906, France

Pointillism 1879, France

Divisionism 1880s, France

Art Nouveau – 1890 – 1914, France

Vienna Secession (or Secessionstil) 1897, Austria

Mir iskusstva 1899, Russia

Jugendstil Germany, Scandinavia

Modernisme – 1890 to 1910, Spain

Russian avant-garde – 1890 – 1930, Russia/Soviet Union

Art à la Rue 1890s – 1905, Belgium/France

Young Poland 1890 – 1918, Poland

Hagenbund 1900 – 1930, Austria

Fauvism – 1904 – 1909, France

Expressionism – 1905 – 1930, Germany

Die Brücke 1905 – 1913, Germany

Der Blaue Reiter 1911, Germany

Flemish Expressionism 1911–1940, Belgium

Bloomsbury Group – 1905 – c. 1945, England

Cubism – 1907 – 1914, France

Jack of Diamonds 1909 – 1917, Russia

Orphism – 1912, France

Purism – 1918 – 1926, France

Ashcan School 1907, United States

Art Deco – 1909 – 1939, France

Futurism (art) – 1910 – 1930, Italy

Russian Futurism 1912 – 1920s, Russia

Cubo-Futurism 1912 – 1915, Russia

Rayonism 1911, Russia

Synchromism 1912, United States

Universal Flowering 1913, Russia

Vorticism 1914 – 1920, United Kingdom

Biomorphism 1915 – 1940s

Suprematism 1915 – 1925, Russia

UNOVIS 1919 – 1922, Russia

Dada – 1916 – 1930, Switzerland

Proletkult 1917 – 1925, Russia

Productijism after 1917, Russia

De Stijl (Neoplasticism) 1917 – 1931, Netherlands (Utrecht)

Pittura Metafisica 1917, Italy

Arbeitsrat für Kunst 1918 – 1921

Bauhaus – 1919 – 1933, Germany

Others group of artists 1919, United States

Constructivism 1920s, Russia/Soviet Union

Vkhutemas 1920 – 1926, Russia

Precisionism c. 1920, United States

Surrealism Since 1920s, France

Acéphale France

Lettrism 1942 –

Les Automatistes 1946 – 1951, Quebec, Canada

Devetsil 1920 – 1931

Group of Seven 1920 – 1933, Canada

Harlem renaissance 1920 – 1930s, United States

American scene painting c. 1920 – 1945, United States

New Objectivity (Neue Sachlichkeit) 1920s, Germany

Grupo Montparnasse 1922, France

Northwest School 1930s – 1940s, United States

Social realism, 1929, international

Socialist realism – c. 1920 – 1960, began in Soviet Union

Leningrad School of Painting 1930s – 1950s, Soviet Union

Socrealism, 1949–1955, Poland

Abstraction-Création 1931 – 1936, France

Allianz (arts) 1937 – 1950s, Switzerland

Abstract Expressionism – 1940s, Post WWII, United States

Action painting United States

Color field painting

Lyrical Abstraction

COBRA (avant-garde movement) 1946 – 1952, Denmark/Belgium/The Netherlands

Tachisme late-1940s – mid-1950s, France

Abstract Imagists United States

Art informel mid-1940s – 1950s

Outsider art (Art brut) mid-1940s, United Kingdom/United States

Contemporary art

Contemporary art – 1946–present

Note: there is overlap with what is considered "contemporary art" and "modern art."

Contemporary Greek art -1945 Greece

Vienna School of Fantastic Realism – 1946, Austria

Neo-Dada 1950s, international

International Typographic Style 1950s, Switzerland

Soviet Nonconformist Art 1953 – 1986, Soviet Union

Painters Eleven 1954–1960, Canada

Pop Art mid-1950s, United Kingdom/United States

Woodlands School 1958–1962, Canada

Situationism 1957 – early 1970s, Italy

New realism 1960 –

Magic realism 1960s, Germany

Minimalism – 1960 –

Hard-edge painting – early 1960s, United States

Fluxus – early 1960s – late-1970s

Happening – early 1960 –

Video art – early 1960 –

Psychedelic art early 1960s –

Conceptual art – 1960s –

Graffiti 1960s-

Junk art 1960s –

Performance art – 1960s –

Op Art 1964 –

Post-painterly abstraction 1964 –

Lyrical Abstraction mid-1960s –

Process art mid-1960s – 1970s

Arte Povera 1967 –

Art and Language 1968, United Kingdom

Photorealism – Late 1960s – early 1970s

Land art – late-1960s – early 1970s

Post-minimalism late-1960s – 1970s

Postmodern art 1970 – present

Deconstructivism

Metarealism – 1970 -1980, Soviet Union

Sots Art 1972 – 1990s, Soviet Union/Russia

Installation art – 1970s –

Mail art – 1970s –

Maximalism 1970s –

Neo-expressionism late 1970s –

Neoism 1979

Figuration Libre early 1980s

Street art early 1980s

Young British Artists 1988 –

Digital art 1990 – present

Toyism 1992 – present

Transgressive art

Massurrealism 1992 –

Stuckism 1999 –

Remodernism 1999 –

Excessivism 2015 –