So when we look at the first painters to paint outside the lines, we are not seeing a time when art broke free from the boundaries set by society. We are seeing the beginning of a new set of rules, one that would become even more confining than the old ones.

The idea that modern art broke free from the past is a myth created by later artists who wanted to seem daring and original. In fact, they were just following where earlier artists had led them.

When you see something new, it’s hard to remember that it’s really not that new at all. This is true whether you’re talking about an artist or a scientist or an entrepreneur. If you want to understand something that seems new, figure out how it’s related to things you already know.

The greatest art movements of our lifetime were all started by a single person.

This is not true of all art movements in history. The Impressionists were a group of artists who got together in protest of the way that people were painting at the time. But in most cases, the people who started the movement were working independently.

The way that art movements are created is a mystery to most people, but it is actually quite simple. Take the Cubism movement, for example. This is how it happened: Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque went to a restaurant one night and decided to paint some food and put it on their table. When they presented this project to their friends, everyone was very impressed. The next day, they painted some more food and put that on their table as well, again being very impressed with themselves when they showed it to their friends. When this became a regular thing for them, they started adding other things to the paintings as well, like bottles and chairs and the people eating there. Soon everyone was talking about how good Picasso’s work was getting, which made him feel very proud. He started painting still more things in his paintings, until soon he had moved completely outside of the lines that define what an artist is supposed to

Modern Art was created by a few people in the late 19th and early 20th century. It has since become the dominant art form around the globe, and almost entirely supplanted traditional painting.

I call it Modern Art because it is less than 100 years old, but I could just as well have called it Postmodern Art, or Contemporary Art, or Neo-Expressionism. It is a very young movement with no central authority to speak of. The most common name for it – “Modern Art” – is even contested: some people like to differentiate their work from that of the first generation of Modernists (1910-30) and call their work Postmodern instead.

This article will use “Modern Art”, but for simplicity’s sake I’ll also refer to it as “Abstract Expressionism”. Abstract Expressionism (and its predecessors) made Modern Art possible; this article explains how.

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In 1510, Michelangelo painted the Sistine Chapel. In 1508, Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa. Both were among the greatest paintings ever produced by mankind. They were also both still lifes. In fact, most of the greatest paintings ever produced were still lifes.*

Modern art came into being as an art movement of the late 19th century. It was a response to the cramped, conventional styles that preceded it, and brought a new sense of freedom, experimentation and expression to the visual arts.

Here are some examples of art from the period:

This represents a departure from traditional styles of painting in several ways. First is the freedom with which he applies paint; note how he uses the canvas itself as part of his composition. Second is his use of the center vertical axis; this kind of composition was often used for portraits and religious scenes, but here he has used it for a still life. Third is his use of color; this kind is rarely seen in contemporary artwork, but was very common in earlier medieval paintings. And finally, note how he uses light to create drama and depth; this was often used in religious paintings to symbolize divinity or holiness, but here it adds to our sense of mystery.”

An important part of understanding something is knowing where it came from. So I thought it would be fun to write a series based on the premise that each piece of art is a time capsule containing clues to the time period in which it was created. It’s sort of like a scavenger hunt, but with more art history knowledge required.

Just as time capsules are buried for future generations to discover, this series will be hidden here on my blog for you to find and enjoy. Each post will be its own little self-contained treasure hunt, complete with directions and hints at what you should be looking for. The goal is not just to teach you about art, but also the process of piecing together its backstory. After all, research is a big part of what an artist does!

Each treasure hunt post will begin with an embedded image by some famous artist from the past. Your job is to figure out: (1) who painted it; (2) when it was painted; and (3) where it was painted. Once you figure all three out, you’ll have found your treasure!

You can start either here or at the very first post in the series, which describes how this whole thing got started in more detail: https://www.artsy

When I was in high school, one of my biggest disappointments was that my parents didn’t buy a painting by Andy Warhol. It was this big painting of a Campbell’s soup can, and I thought it was the coolest thing I’d ever seen.

I didn’t know anything about modern art at the time. You see, just a few short months earlier I had been an aspiring painter myself, and so when I learned that great artists were selling their paintings to museums for millions of dollars, I couldn’t help but think that one of my own paintings would be worth so much more than the soup can painting.

The problem was that I hadn’t done any paintings lately, because my parents had told me not to waste my time on such foolishness. They said that if there really were millions of dollars to be made in art, then why weren’t people buying my paintings?

Since when do millionaires listen to teenagers?