What Does Your Favorite Artistic Movement Say About You?

Image:  Marc Chagall, I and the Village, 1911.

Everything we like can be traced back to qualities inherent in our personalities. Everything we enjoy is an outward representation of who we are. From our favorite music or artistic movement, our preferred clothes and food to the TV shows we watch, everything we love is a part of us. The world of Art is absolutely representative of this, and throughout time, the idea of the artist and their art is inextricably linked in our minds. Each artistic movement has a temperament, and each can be linked to a type of personality that creates it. Of course, this means that the art we love can say a lot about ourselves! So just what does your favorite art say about you?

Realism is the artistic movement which, like its name implies, attempts to truthfully represent the given subject without any kind of artistic artificiality.

It is one of the longest-standing forms of art, being contained within art movements dating back all the way to the 15th century and beyond. It is characterized by its unflinching dedication to the actual and to proper form and technique. Everyone from Medieval tapestry makers to photo-realistic artists of our time has a foot in the realism movement, and it has been one of the longest, most enduring ways to express ourselves and our talent.

You love the classics and the artistic tradition. You are probably very interested in aesthetics and design in your own life, and you most likely appreciate vintage aesthetics and stories. You’re nostalgic at heart and love reminiscing about other time periods, even if you aren’t necessarily blinded by the past. You have a great appreciation for technique and composition and love seeing a skillful hand creating something beautiful.

Best known artists: Michelangelo, Da Vinci, Vermeer, Rembrandt.

This form has created artists of all stripes from all kinds of time periods, but important, immortal figures like Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinci, Johannes Vermeer, Rembrandt, and more are all good representations of the artistic movement and Realist artwork.

The 19th-century artistic movement, this form was characterized primarily by light colors, open compositions, small brushstrokes, and depictions of the passage of time through light (e.g., dawn or dusk motifs) all in an attempt to capture the essence of scenes (the impression) without the literal. In pointing our attention to more ephemeral aspects of scenes, we can understand the implicit truth through them.

You are probably much more inclined to be a quiet and introspective artistic individual. You love reading books and using your smarts to deal with people and social situations. “Brevity is the soul of wit” is your motto, and you’re much more likely to love and appreciate Buddhist koans than you are to listen to a long-winded political speech. You love playful trickster characters in your stories compared to the outgoing, extroverted ones.

You can’t talk about Impressionism without mentioning first Claude Monet, who basically defines the form. However, some other artists remain very popular and are all exceptional examples of the artistic movement as well. We will mention painters such as:

• Claude Monet

• Edouard Manet

• Edgar Degas

• Paul Cezanne

• Pierre-Auguste Renoir

• Vincent van Gogh (post-impressionism)

Originating in Germany in the early 20th century, Expressionism is the ultimate in subjective art. Deriving inspiration by depicting the world from the inside out, it fully puts the subjective, interior reality of the artist on display. It is important to Expressionists to express the truth contained in subjective emotional experience by distorting the “real” world radically in order to visualize their realities.

Expressionism is an artistic movement that comes in many artistic forms. From architecture to music, the unifying theme is the emotional landscape of the artist themselves.

You’re the consummate artist – you are very interested in your emotions and your emotional wellbeing, and you love viewing the world with your life’s subjective lens fully in view. You love colorful and passionate art, music, and stories, and your aesthetic is probably one of the loudest of the people you know. You’re opinionated and experienced and wouldn’t have it any other way!

Best known artists: Kandinsky, Munch, Modigliani, Macke.

The Expressionist movement is a wide-ranging movement from all corners of the world, but some of the most famous artists are:

• Munch

• Kandinsky

• Kirchner

• Modigliani

• Macke

Surrealism is a famous and brilliant artistic movement starting in the early 1920s. This form is typified by its complete departure from traditional compositions and conventional subject matter. Illogic and the strange run this medium from the bottom up and give the form its impact and its beauty. Surprising juxtapositions and non-sequiturs run rampant over the canvas and completely asymmetrical ideas abound.

You probably love being playful and strange and use every opportunity to challenge people and be unique. Your dreams and ideas and your way of looking at the world is most likely unique. You enjoy having opera DVDs alongside Rambo, and you probably play Devil’s advocate more than you should. You most likely love Monty Python.

Best known artists: Kahlo, Magritte, Dali, and Miro

As one of the most famous art forms in terms of popularity and recognition, Surrealist artists have enjoyed a very high level of fame. Icons like Dali and Magritte are two of the best examples of this brilliant and vibrant art form. But also artists such as:

• Frida Kahlo

• Joan Miró

• André Breton

Abstract art was a form that took reality itself and condensed it down to its absolute minimal and quintessential elements – to the point of creating a piece that is almost absolutely without grounding in the original vision.

It is the form that exists to display the world that is independent of reality; a sculpture of the idea of Flight, for instance (a concept, not a literal reality). Bringing to light that which is imperceptible is the primary aim of abstraction.

You love thinking outside the box and gleaning implicit meanings from things. You probably live in your head and use all kinds of things in unique and creative ways. Just because something is real doesn’t mean that’s the end of the story, and that’s where you thrive!

From Jackson Pollock to Picasso, to Mondrian and beyond, the varied and unique ways this artistic movement has represented. Abstract art has been around for almost a hundred years and still has strength in the art scene to this day. Best known artists: Pollock, Rothko, Krasner, Mondrian, and Picasso.

Taking cues from popular culture, Pop Art is the artistic movement that most firmly thumbs its nose at the more established, traditional forms, because of its reliance on pop culture content and imagery. Advertising, comic books, mundane objects, and more are all prime examples of subject matter for Pop Artists. It is the artistic movement that fully embraces the popular and the superficial, and thereby lifts it up and gives it even greater relevance.

You probably love all kinds of television and advertising as a concept – Mad Men wasn’t so much a drama for you as a master class of technique and concept. You’re interested in trends and hitting the pulse of what’s new and interesting. You love pop culture in all its forms and love going out and seeing the newest Star Wars movie.

The most famous Pop artists are also some of the most famous artists of all time. Everyone knows who Andy Warhol is, and likewise, Keith Haring and Jean-Michel Basquiat are also household names.

One of the beautiful things about art is how well it represents the concerns and struggles of human beings across time and space. From the beginning and to the very end, it will remain one of the best methods we have of finding out who we are and what we believe in. Each artistic movement offers a unique lens through which we can view the world and ourselves. Whether you resonate with the meticulous detail of Realism, the fleeting beauty of Impressionism, the emotional intensity of Expressionism, the dreamlike qualities of Surrealism, the abstract ideas of Abstract Art, or the bold statements of Pop Art, your favorite art says a lot about your personality.