Art is ever present in human life, dating from the ancient times of cavemen to modern day. Almost every human civilization has had a particular style of art within a cultural context. Some cultures have focused on sculpture, others on architecture, and many others on paintings.

However, an attempt to study art in all the human cultures throughout history could take years. In general, art has been categorized into different movements. A movement is a particular style of art in which painters of a given time period use similar styles and themes in their art. Usually these painters live in the same area of the world, though in the past century, art movements have begun to span the entire world rather than just a small region. In this web site, we focus on five art movements and briefly discuss these types and selected examples of artwork. These movements are primarily European in nature, but some of the artists are Americans.

The five movements discussed in this web site are Ancient/Classical art, Renaissance (ren-a-sans) art, Baroque (ber-oak) art, Impressionism (im-presh-en-ism), and Modern art.