Art History Timelines

Art History Timelines from Pre-History to the Present

Ancient Art

Visual Arts Movements - ca. 30,000 B.C.-ca. 400 A.D.

Prehistory
Paleolithic (Old Stone Age) Art - 30,000-10,000 B.C.
Mesolithic (Middle Stone Age) Art - 10,000-8000 B.C.
Neolithic (New Stone Age) Art - 8000-3000 B.C.
Bronze Age Art - 2500-800 B.C.
Iron Age Art - 750-50 B.C.
Ancient Civilizations
Mesopotamia


Sumerian Art - 3000-2300 B.C.
Akkadian Art - 2300-2150 B.C.
Neo-Sumerian Art - 2150-2000 B.C.
Babylonian Art - 1900-1600 B.C.
Assyrian Art - 900-612 B.C.
Neo-Babylonian Art - 625-539 B.C.


Egypt
Early Dynastic Art - 3500-2686 B.C.
Old Kingdom Art - 2686-2185 B.C.
Middle Kingdom Art - 2133-1750 B.C.
Early New Kingdom Art - 1570-1353 B.C.
Amarna Art - 1353-1332 B.C.
Late New Kingdom Art - 1332-1075 B.C.
Late Period Art - 750-332 B.C.
Macedonian Dynasty Art - 332-304 B.C.
Ptolemaic Dynasty Art - 304-30 B.C.
Art under the Roman Emperors - 30 B.C.-395 A.D.


The Cycladic Islands/Crete
Early Minoan Art - 2800-2000 B.C.
Middle Minoan Art - 2000-1700 B.C.
Late Minoan Art - 1550-1400 B.C.


Phoenician Art - 1500-500 B.C.


Nomadic Tribes


Luristan Art - 700-500 B.C.
Scythian Art - 600-300 B.C.


Persian Empire Art - 539-331 B.C.
Classical Civilizations
Greek Art


Mycenaean Art - 1550-1200 B.C.
Sub-Mycenaean Art - 1100-1025 B.C.
Proto-Geometric Art - 1025-900 B.C.
Geometric Art - 900-700 B.C.
Archaic Art - 700-480 B.C.


Orientalizing Phase - 735-650 B.C.
Early Archaic - 700-600 B.C.
High Archaic - 600-520 B.C.
Late Archaic - 520-480 B.C.


Classical Art - 480-323 B.C.


Early Classical - 480-450 B.C.
High Classical - 450-400 B.C.
Late Classical - 400-323 B.C.


Hellenistic Art - 323-31 B.C.


Early Hellenistic - 323-250 B.C.
High Hellenistic - 250-100 B.C.
Late Hellenistic - 100 -31 B.C.


Etruscan Art


Early Iron Age Art - 9th century-ca. 675 B.C.
Orientalizing Phase - ca. 675-ca. 575 B.C.
Archaic Period Art - ca. 575-ca. 480 B.C.
Classical Period Art - ca. 480-ca. 300 B.C.
Hellenistic Period Art - ca. 300-ca. 50 B.C.


Roman Art


Republican Art - 510-27 B.C.
Early Roman Empire Art - 27 B.C.-235 A.D.


Augustan - 27 B.C.-14 A.D.
Julio-Claudian - 14-68
Flavian - 69-96
Trajanic - 98-117
Hadrianic - 117-138
Antonine - 138-192
Severin - 193-235


Late Roman Empire/Late Antique Art - 235-476


Judean Art - 600 B.C.-135 A.D.


Celtic Art


Early Style - ca. 450-ca. 350 B.C.
Waldalgesheim Style - ca. 350-ca. 250 B.C.
Sword and Plastic Styles - ca. 250-ca. 125 B.C.
Oppida Period Art - ca. 125-ca. 50 B.C.
Britain and Ireland before 600 A.D.


Parthian and Sassanidic Art - 238 B.C.-637 A.D.
Non-Western Ancient Art
China


Neolithic – ca. 6,000–ca. 1,600 B.C.
Shang Dynasty – 1,766–1,045 B.C.
Zhou Dynasty – 1,045–256 B.C.
Qin Dynasty – 221–206 B.C.
Han Dynasty – 206 B.C.–220 A.D.
Three Kingdoms Period – 220–280
Western Jin Dynasty – 265–316
Six Dynasties Period – 222–589
Northern and Southern Dynasties Period – 310–589


Japan


Jomon – 4,500–200 B.C.
Yayoi – 200 B.C.–200 A.D.
Kofun – 200–500


Indian Subcontinent


Indus Valley – 4,000–1,800 B.C.
Sarasvati-Sindhu Civilization - 3,000–1,500 B.C.
Aryan India - 1,500–500 B.C.
The Mauryan Empire - 321–233 B.C.
Gandhara and Kushan School – 1st–3rd centuries A.D.
The Gupta Dynasty - 320–510


Africa


Rock Art in Southern Africa
Sahara - Bubalus Period – ca. 6,000–ca. 3,500 B.C.
Lower Nubia – ca. 3,500–2,000 B.C.
Kush – 2,000 B.C.–325 A.D.
Pre-dynastic Kemet – to 3,050 B.C.
The Nok Culture - 400 B.C.–200 A.D.
Aksum - 350 B.C.–1,000 A.D.


North America


Mexico


Olmec Art - 1,200–350 B.C.
Zapotec Art – 1,400 B.C.–400 A.D.
Huastec Art - ca. 1000 B.C.-1521 A.D.
Mayan Art - 300 B.C.–800 A.D.


South America


Valdivian Art - ca. 4,000-ca. 1,500 B.C.
Chavin Art - ca. 2,600-ca. 200 B.C.
San Agustin - ca. 800 B.C.-ca. 1630 A.D.
Moche and Nasca Art - ca. 200 B.C.-ca. 600 A.D.

Medieval to Early Renaissance Art
Visual Arts Movements - 400-1400
Early Christian–Late Antique Art
Period of Persecution - 1st-century A.D.-325
Period of Recognition - 325-ca. 526
Byzantine Art
Early Byzantine Art


Justinian Era - First Flowering - ca. 526-ca. 725
Iconoclasm - 726-843


Late Byzantine Art


Second Flowering - ca. 843-ca. 1100
Third Flowering - ca. 1297-ca. 1390
Islamic Art - 622 -1492
Early Medieval Art
Art of the Migration Period in Europe


The Visigoths - 1st-8th-centuries
The Picts - mid 1st-9th-centuries
The Franks (Merovingian Art) - 5th-8th-centuries
The Anglo-Saxons - 5th-century-1066
The Burgundians - 413-532
The Ostrogoths - ca. 488-526
The Lombards - 568-774


Non-Migratory/Pre-Romanesque Art


Hiberno-Saxon (Insular) Art - ca. 500-ca. 1000
Carolingian Art - 750-900
Ottonian Art - 900-1002
Romanesque Art - ca. 1000–ca. 1150
Gothic Art
French Gothic Art


Early Gothic - 1140-1194
High Gothic - 1194-1300
Rayonnant Gothic - 13th-14th-centuries
Flamboyant Gothic - 14th-16th centuries


German Gothic - 13th-14th-centuries
English Gothic - 1179-16th-century
The Proto-Renaissance in Italy - ca. 1200–ca. 1400
Non-Western Art - 1400-1880
China


Six Dynasties Period - 222-589
Northern and Southern Dynasties Period - 310-589
Sui Dynasty - 581-618
T'ang Dynasty - 618-907
Five Dynasties Period - 907-960
Liao Dynasty - 907-1125
Sung (Song) Dynasty - 960-1279
Jin Dynasty - 1115-1234
Yuan Dynasty - 1279-1368


Japan


Kofun - 200-500
Asuka - 552-645
Hakuho or Early Nara - 645-710
Nara - 710-794
Heian - 794-1185
Kamakura - 1185-1333
Muromachi-Ashikaga - 1392-1573


Kose School - 9th-15th-centuries


Indian Subcontinent


Chalukyan Art in the Deccan - 500-650
Rashtrakuta Dynasty - mid 8th-late 10th-century
Pallavas
Cholas - 897-mid 13th-century
Hoysalas - 12th-14th-centuries


North America


Toltec Art - ca. 900-ca. 1200
Mixtec Art - ca. 1200-1521
Tarascan Art - ca. 1300-1521


South America


Huari-Tiahuanaco - ca. 600-ca. 1000
Manteño Art - ca. 800-1500


Renaissance to Early Modern Art
Visual Arts Movements - 1400-1880
Fifteenth Century Italian Art - 1400-1500
The Early Renaissance
Sixteenth Century Italian Art - 1475–1590
The High Renaissance - 1495-1527
Mannerism in the Late Renaissance -1520-1600
The Renaissance in Venice - 1450-1600
The Renaissance in Northern Europe - ca. 1325-1600
The Northern Renaissance - ca. 1325-1600
International Gothic - 1380-1430
Bohemian School - 1350
Mälardal School - ca. 1400-1460s
Tierp School - ca. 1460-1500
Ghent-Bruges School - 1475-1550
Antwerp Mannerism - 1500-1530
Danube School - ca. 1500-1550
The Little Masters - ca. 1500-1550
Fontainebleau School - 1530-ca. 1610
Frankenthal School - ca. 1586-1620s
Mannerism in the Late Renaissance - 1520-1600
Baroque Art - 1600-1750
Utrecht Caravaggisti - 1620-1630
The Schildersbent - 1620-1720
Leiden 'Fine' Painters - ca. 1630-ca. 1760
Delft School - 1650-1700
Rubénisme - ca. 1670-1680
18th Century Western Art
Rococo - 1700-1750
Neo-Classicism - 1750-1880
19th Century Western Art
Les Primitifs - 1797-1803
Romanticism - 1800-1880
The Nazarenes - ca. 1820-late 1840s
Purismo - ca. 1820-1860s
The Ancients - 1820s-1830s
Düsseldorf School - mid 1820s-1860s
Realism - 1830s-1870
The Pre-Raphaelites - 1848-1854
The Hudson River School - 1850s-ca. 1880
Impressionism - 1863-ca. 1885
Aesthetic Movement - 1870s-1880s
The Hague School - 1870-1900
Non-Western Art - 1400-1880
China


Ming Dynasty - 1368-1662
Southern School - ca. late 16th-early 17th centuries
Qing (Ch'ing) Dynasty - 1662-1912


Japan


Muromachi-Ashikaga - 1392-1573
Momoyama Period - 1573-1603
Edo Period - 1603-1868


Indian Subcontinent


Art under Muslim Rule - ca. 1000-1757


North America


Aztec Art - ca. 1400-1520


South America


Inca Art - ca. 1400-1534
Cuzco School - late 16th-century-early 1800s

Modern Art
Visual Arts Movements - 1880-1970


After Impressionism proved it only took a handful of artists to band together and create a lasting impact, Art got very busy proving this concept again and again. And again. (Who knew so much could happen in a mere 90 years?) 

Here are listed movements, schools, groups, colonies and other descriptive plural nouns from around the globe that got their respective starts during the years between 1880-1970, or the Early Modern and Contemporary eras as we have so classified them. Each has been sorted according to the decade in which it was formed. 

Tip: This is a seriously long list.

Every available item is listed alphabetically within any given decade, but, still. Long! Use Ctrl+F (Windows) or Cmd+F (Mac) and type in your search term to locate the movement, group or school you seek more quickly. 



1880
Cloisonnism - late 1880s

Etruscan School - 1883-84

(The) Glasgow Boys - 1880-1900

(The) Heidelberg School - mid-1880s - mid-1890s

Japonism - 1880-1895
Nabis - ca. 1888-1900

Neo-Impressionism - 1886-1906

Newlyn School - early 1880s-ca. 1900

Post-Impressionism - 1886-1905

Symbolism - 1880-early 1900s

Synthetism - late 1880s-early 1890s

Tonalism - 1880-1920

1890
Art à la Rue - 1890s-early 1900s

Bande Noire (or "the Nubians") - 1890s

Expressionism - 1890-1939

Fauvism - ca. 1898-ca. 1908

Glasgow Style - ca. 1890-ca. 1920

Nagybánya Colony - 1896-1930s

Pintura de la luz - 1890s-early 20th Century

Secession - 1890s-early 1900s

Ten American Painters (or "The Ten") - 1898-1918

1900
Abbaye de Créteil - 1906-1908

Art Nouveau - 1905-1939

(The) Ashcan School - early 1900s-early 1920s

Beautiful Indies - early 20th Century-ca. early 1930s

Bloomsbury Group - 1904-late 1930s

Blue Rose (or "Golubaya Roza") - 1904-1908

Cubism - 1907-Present

Cubo-Expressionism - 1909-1921

Die Brücke - 1905-1913

(The) Eight - 1907-early 1920s

(The) Friday Club - 1905-1922

Futurism - 1909-1939

Hagenbund - 1900-1930

Luminism - 1904-early 1910s

Scuola Labronica - ca. 1908-ca. 1950

Septem Group - 1909-ca. 1930

Young Estonia (or "Noor Eesti") - ca. 1902-1917

1910
Arbeitsrat für Kunst - 1918-1921

Bauhaus - 1919-1933

Biomorphism - 1915-1940s

Blaue Reiter (or "Blue Rider") - 1911-1914

Brabant Fauvism - ca. 1910-1923

Camden Town Group - 1911-1914

(Russian) Constructivism - 1914-early 1930s

Cubo-Futurism - 1912-1915

Cumberland Market Group - 1914-1919

Dada - Dadaism - 1916-1923

Donkey's Tail (or "Oslinyy Khvost") - 1911-1915

École de Paris (or "School of Paris") - 1915-1935

Escuelas de Pintura al Aire Libre - ca. 1913-1932

Formism - 1917-1922

Jack of Diamonds (or "Bubnovy Valet") - 1910-1917

Kecskemét Colony - 1911-ca. 1920

London Group - 1913-1930s

Neo-primitivism - 1910-1914

November Group - 1917-1924

Orphism - ca. 1912-13

Pittura Metafisica - 1911-ca. 1930

Purism - 1918-1926

Puteaux Group - 1910s

Rayism - 1912-15

Revolt Group - 1918-1920

Scottish Colorists - 1910-ca. 1930

Sōdosha (or "Grass and Earth Society") - ca. 1915-1922

Suprematism - 1915- mid-1920s

Synchronism - 1913-ca. 1916

Union of Youth (or "Soyuz Molodyozhi") - 1910-1914

Vorticism - 1914-1920

1920
a. r. group - 1929-1936

American Scene Painting - ca. 1920-early 1940s

Art Deco - 1920s-1930s
Artes / Neoartes - 1929-1935

(The) Blue Four (or "Blauen Vier") - 1924-1936

Circle of Artists (or "Krug Khudozhnikov") - 1926-1932

Constructivism - 1920s-Present

(International) Constructivism - 1922-1939

de Stijl - 1920s-1932

(The) Degenerates / Entartete Kunst - 1920s- mid-1940s

Devetsil - 1920-1931

Earth Group (or "Serbo-Croat Zemlja") - 1929-1935

Eesti Kunstnikkude Rūhm - 1923-ca. 1930

(The) Fellowship of St. Luke - 1925-1939

Group of Seven - 1920-1933
Group X - 1920

Halmstad Group (or "Halmstadgruppen") - 1929-early 1980s

Harlem Renaissance - 1920-1930s
Inkhuk - 1920-26

(The) Kapists - 1924-ca. late 1950s

Magic Realism - 1920s-1940s

Makovets - 1921-1926

Neue Sachlichkeit - 1920s-ca. 1930

Néo-Réalisme - 1920s-1930s

Precisionism - 1920s-1940s

Rhythm Group - 1922-1932

Riga Artists' Group - 1920-1940

Scuola Romana - 1927-1940

Surrealism - 1922-1939

Szentendre Colony - 1928-ca. 1940

Verism - 1920s-ca. 1930

Vkhutemas - 1920-1930

Workshop 17 - 1927-1965

1930 - WWII
Abstraction-Création - 1931-1936

Alaskan Movement - 1930s-Present

Allianz - 1937-1950s

Arantist School - 1930s-Present

Art and Freedom - 1939- mid-1940s

Concrete Art - 1930-ca. 1960

(The) Euston Road School - 1937- mid-1970s

Färg och Form - 1932-ca. 1940

Forces Nouvelles - 1935-39

Group of Five - 1930s

Hlebine School - ca. 1932-ca. early 1960s

Neo-Romanticism - 1930s-1950s

Persatuan Ahli Gambar - 1937-1942

Regionalism - 1930s

Socialist Realism - ca. 1930-1950

Unit One - 1933-35

1945 - Post-War
Abstract Expressionism - mid-1940s -Present

Art brut - mid-1940s -Present

Art informel (or Informalism, or Lyrical Abstraction) - mid-1940s -1950s

Arte Concreto Invención - 1940s

Arte Madí - 1940s

(Les) Automatistes - 1946-1951

CoBrA - 1948-1951

Fronte Nuovo delle Arti - 1946-1952

Groupe Espace - 1949-1951

Homme-Témoin - 1948- mid-1950s

Jeune Peinture Belge - 1945-48

Movimiento Madí - 1940s

New Horizons (or "Ofakim Hadashim") - 1948-1960s

(The) New York School - 1940s-1950s

Perceptismo - 1940s

Prisme d'Yeux - 1948-1950

Spazialismo (or "Spatialism") - ca. 1947- mid-1960s

Tachism - late 1940s- mid-1950s

Young Indonesian Artists - 1946

1950
Action Painting - 1950s

Antipodean Group - 1959-1960

Arte generativo - 1959-Present

Arte nucleare - 1950s

Color Field Painting - 1950s-Present

(The) Concretists - early 1950s

Funk Art - late 1950s-1970s

Gruppe 53 - 1953-1959

Gruppo degli Otto Pittori Italiani - 1952-ca. 1960

Gutai - 1954-1972

Hard-Edge Painting - late 1950s-Present

Junk Art - mid-1950s -Present

(The) Kitchen Sink School - 1950s

Matter Painting - 1950s-Present

Neo-Dada - 1950s

Painters Eleven - 1953-58

(Les) Plasticiens - 1955-59

Pop Art - mid-1950s –Present

Quadriga - 1952-54

Situationism - 1957-early 1970s

Washington Color Painters - mid-1950s -Present

Zero - 1958-1965

1960
Arte Povera - late 1960s-1970s

Black Expressionism - 1960s-1970s

Conceptual Art - 1960s–Present

(The) Contemporary Artists Group - 1966

Continuità - 1961-ca. 1970

Fluxus - early 1960s-late 1970s

Grupo Hondo - 1961-1964

Land Art - late 1960s-early 1970s

Mechanical Art - 1962-65

Minimalism - 1960s-Present
Monoha - 1960s

Neofiguración - second half 1960s

Nouveau Réalisme - 1960-63
Op Art - 1964-Present

Performance Art - 1960s–Present

Photorealism - mid-1960s -Present

Post-Minimalism - late 1960s-1970s

Post Painterly Abstraction - 1964-Present

Praxis - 1963-1972

Process Art - mid-1960s -1970s

Psychedelic Art - early 1960s-early 1970s

Saqqakhaneh - 1960s

Solentiname Primitivist Painting - 1968-Present

Support-Surface - 1967-1974

(The) Sydney 9 - 1961
Syn - 1965-1970

Video Art - 1965-Present

Woodland School - 1962-Present


Contemporary Art
Visual Arts Movements - 1970s-Present

1970
Post-Modernism - 1970s-mid 1980s

Ugly Realism - 1970s

Feminist Art - 1970s-Present

Yunnan School - late 1970s-Present

Neo-Conceptualism - late 1970s-Present

Neo-Expressionism - late 1970s-1980s

Bad Painting - late 1970s-early 1980s

Demoscene - late 1970s-Present

New Image Painting - late 1970s-Present

Nuovi Nuovi - late 1970s-Present

Mühlheimer Liberty - 1979-1984

Transavantgarde - 1979-Present

1980
Free Figuration (Figuration Libre) - early 1980s-Present

Neue Wilde - early 1980s-Present

Neo-Geo - mid-1980s

Multiculturalism - 1980s-Present

Graffiti Movement - 1980s-Present

BritArt / Young British Artists ("yBa") - 1988-Present

Neo-Pop - late 1980s-Present

1990
Net Art - early 1990s-Present

Massurrealism - early 1990s-Present

Artefactoria - 1990/91-Present

Toyism - 1992-Present

Lowbrow - ca. 1994-Present

New Leipzig School - mid-1990s-Present

Tiki Art - 1996-Present

Bitterism - 1998-Present

Stuckism - 1999-Present

2000
Thinkism - September 12, 2001-Present

Funism - ca. 2002-Present