 So, you've never been trained in traditional art but you'd really like to broaden your understanding. Not a problem. Here are the 25 fundamental art styles that you should be familiar with. Ancient Art is basically any art that predates the fall of the Western Roman Empire. This also includes the great works from Ancient Greece, Egypt, Babylon, India, China and the rest. Folk art is any art that is created specifically for the purpose of culture and tradition. It's not about expressing individualism or personal feelings and emotions. Renaissance. It's a distinct style of Italy in the 1400s. This included the works from all the classics that you would expect like Michelangelo, DaVinci, Botticelli, Titian and Raphael. The Sarah took a lot of inspiration from the incredible Greek and Roman art that came before it. Baroque. This style is a fan favorite for the Catholic Church and emerged in Europe in the 17th century. It's often extremely beautiful and detailed and does its best to inspire awe with emotion, contrast, chaos and rich color. Baroque Co. An extremely ornamental and theatrical style of art. It's often super decorated with nature, curves, gliding and light pastel colors to create surprise in the illusion of motion and drama. It's kind of like Baroque but a little less serious and a much lighter and happier tone. Line art. It's generally any image consisting of a distinct straight or curved line against a usually plain background. It's one of the oldest styles but it's still one of everyone's favorites. Geometric. Geometric and often mathematical shapes from points, lines and angles. It often includes simple shapes like triangles, squares and circles and unlike the natural form of organic shapes, geometric art styles favor precision and may even require using tools like a straight edge or a compass to create. Pointillism. Also known as dot art is the technique of creating art by dotting a bunch of colors. Famously used by George Surratt but it's also quite popular and fun due to the simplicity of the technique. Cubism. Right around the 1900s, popularized by Picasso and Brouquet, despite kinda looking abstract it's actually more related to realism because even if the dimensions look off, you can still identify things in Cubist art. For example, despite the sharp geometry and multicolored shapes, you know that these are eyes, these are lips and this is a face. Compared to actual abstract art where you really can't describe anything that you're seeing. Minimalism. This art tries to express an idea with the fewest amount of visual cues. Picasso was awesome at this. For example, this is how he depicted a bull. This is how he depicted an owl. This is his fox. I think you get the idea. It's also an extremely popular architectural style because it makes room seem a lot more modern and spacious. Romanticism. Started in the 19th century when industrialization was taking over. This art style emphasized emotions and individualism glorifying the past. Often depicting things in medieval history, works in this style often depicted intense feelings of beauty, love, anger and horror. Fantasy. This style often originates from folk and mythology and is commonly born from stories and illustrating narratives. It's a favorite for people to escape to the mystical and magical lands with monsters, fairies, dragons, spirits and anything else you can really imagine. Art Nouveau. It's an international style for decorative and intricate design. Often inspired by the natural forms of plants and flowers, this beautiful style is characterized by curvy shapes, mustard olive, deep red hues and a lot of asymmetrical patterns. This style is an effort to rebel against the harsh blocky structures of industrialization. Ukiyo-e is the Japanese art of the Edo era. My personal favorite version of this art style is called bejinga, which literally means beautiful person art, which often depicts the gejas and other beautiful Japanese ornate fashionable women. Impressionist art. Formalized in Paris in the 1860s, this kind of art is largely identified with light brush strokes and often seems dream-like. It does not concern itself with the sharp clear details and you can often just barely recognize what is trying to be depicted. But somehow your brain knows that these are people, and that's a tree, even though people and trees don't look anything like that. This is a lot of people's favorite art style. Post-Impressionism. This was similar to Impressionism, however, it took the extra liberty of removing the need to stay faithful and true to realistic lighting and colors. The most famous of this style was Vincent Van Gogh, who used his color and brush strokes to convey his own emotions and the state of his mind rather than the qualities of the actual landscape he was painting, realism. This is basically any art that depicts reality, and it attempts to depict the subject as it really is without any interpretation or stylization or abstraction. Artists who work in this style often spend substantial amounts of time replicating the feel of depth, light, and shadows as they are depicted in real life. It's also a common style throughout history when it comes to depicting everyday life without any attempt to glorify or undercut the subject at hand. Surrealism. Just remember that this is the weird art that looks like stuff you would imagine on a dream or an acid trip. The name comes from surpassing realism. It often takes real world ideas and objects and puts them in an unrealistic depiction. Expressionism. Appearing at the turn of the 20th century, this style aims to represent life as it feels or appears to the artist. Unlike realism where the depth, light, shadows, and colors are intended to reflect reality, Expressionism often uses the color and shape as a tool to express emotions and feelings. This often results in bold and unrealistic styles. Pop art. Started around the 1950s is fun and pops out at you. It takes full advantage of extremely popular images, characters, comics, books, and cultural events that everyone recognizes. Modern art. Contrary to the name, modern art refers to what created from the 1860s to the 1970s. Basically refers to art that started to deviate from the traditional real life depictions of paintings of the real world. Generally it's much more experimental and colorful. This is the kind of stuff that you'll see if you walk into any MoMA museum around the world. Contemporary. This is the actual art term for quote unquote new art. Art that was created within the last 10 years or this generation. Because of this, contemporary art is a category that is constantly changing depending on the new art that comes out. Contemporary art is also affected by the limitations of modern technology and rendering abilities of the era. But because of this, it's often one of the most exciting styles because you really don't know what to expect from it. Graffiti. While generally known for being painted on public walls and considered vandalism by many, it's often colorful, unrefined, and raw. Regardless of the legality of it, it's a popular style and is constantly evolving. This tends to be any art that retains strong references to the real world. When you're looking at this kind of art, you can easily identify what the shapes are supposed to be and what they're supposed to represent. And finally, we have abstract. This is the kind of art that you think is dumb when you're a kid, but as you get older you really appreciate it. Abstract art is when you try and convey an idea without drawing the idea directly. Let's say you were tasked to paint happiness. A figurative artist would probably draw something like a smiley face or a happy person. An abstract artist, on the other hand, would draw something like a warm collage of yellow and orange shapes or some combination of color and shape that triggers the emotion of happiness for the audience. Abstract art is extremely difficult for most people. And if you ever have the chance to meet a professional abstract artist in person, I highly recommend you take them out for coffee because they're usually really deep. And you'll have an amazing conversation. So those are the 25 styles that I think everyone should know. Hope that helps. And as always, hope you have a fantastic day. Now, see you around.