Art Movements Explained: Cubism, Impressionism and Dada

Art movements are often taught as a row of labels: one style ends, another begins. In practice, looking at real work is less tidy. Artists borrow from one another, disagree with the ideas around them and keep changing their approach. A label can help you notice a choice, but it rarely explains the whole picture.

Try starting with three questions instead: What has the artist chosen to show? How have they changed the way it looks? What does that choice make you notice first? Those questions work whether you are looking at a gallery wall, a print or a sketch on your desk.

This guide compares Impressionism, Cubism and Dada. They emerged in different circumstances and did not share one style. The short version: Impressionists studied modern life and changing light; Cubists reworked space and viewpoint; Dada artists tested what art could be made from and how it could be presented.

Impressionism: notice what light does

The name grew out of a review of the independent 1874 Paris exhibition that included Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise. Critics first used “Impressionist” as a put-down; the artists later adopted it. Their work varied, but many paid close attention to modern life, visible brushwork and the way light and colour change what a scene feels like. The National Gallery of Art’s account of the 1874 show is a useful reminder that this was a group of artists, not a single recipe.

When you look at an Impressionist painting, move back and then closer. From a distance, colour patches may settle into a street, garden or person. Close up, the marks can stay visible instead of blending into a smooth finish. Look for what the artist decided to leave quick or open, as well as what they made clear.

• Where is the strongest light, and how is it shown?
• Does the scene capture a passing moment or a carefully staged story?
• Which colours sit beside each other instead of being blended?

“Impressionist” does not mean every artist worked outdoors or painted in the same way. Treat these cues as things to look for, not a pass-or-fail checklist.

Cubism: look around the object, not through a fixed window

Cubism developed in Paris in the early twentieth century through a close exchange between Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso, beginning around 1907. Rather than treating a painting as a window with one stable viewpoint, Cubist artists broke subjects into geometric planes, compressed space and sometimes let several views sit together. A violin, cup or figure might remain partly recognisable, but the picture asks you to rebuild it as you look.

Notice how a table edge, curve or shadow changes direction. Shapes may overlap without creating ordinary depth. Colour can be restrained or vivid; Cubism is not only a brown palette or a puzzle of triangles. Its artists explored different approaches over time, and the movement did not replace every other kind of painting.

• Can you identify the subject from more than one clue?
• Where do outlines break, overlap or shift angle?
• Does the picture invite you to scan across it rather than settle on one focal point?

For a closer look at geometry and everyday subjects, MoMA’s Cubism overview links the visual choices to works in its collection.

Dada: change the context

Dada took shape during the First World War, with activity in places including Zurich and New York before the movement spread to other cities. Artists and writers responded to a world that had made familiar ideas of order and progress feel unstable. There was no single Dada look. Collage, photomontage, performance, chance and ordinary objects could all become ways to question who gets to define art and what a finished work should be.

A spoon or scrap of paper does not become meaningful just because it is unusual. Context matters: where it is placed, what it is paired with and what the viewer expects to see. Dada artists used humour and disruption, but reducing the movement to “nonsense” misses its experimentation and its response to its time.

• What changes when an ordinary object is isolated or paired with something unexpected?
• Does the work rely on chance, wit, awkwardness or a deliberate break with convention?
• What assumptions about art or daily life is it asking you to notice?

MoMA’s Dada overview describes how the movement used collage, photomontage, performance and everyday materials across an international network.

Try the ideas with one ordinary object

Put a cup, pear or small box on a table. Give yourself ten minutes for each pass; the aim is to notice choices, not produce a polished imitation.

1. Study light. Make a quick colour sketch. Record the largest light and shadow shapes first, then add a few marks that suggest texture. If the light changes, let the drawing change too.
2. Shift viewpoint. Walk around the object. Sketch it from two angles, then combine a couple of shapes from each view on one page. Keep enough clues that you can still tell what the object is.
3. Reframe it. Draw or cut out a few plain shapes. Place the object beside them in an unexpected way, take one step back and decide whether the new arrangement suggests a question or a joke.

You can repeat the same exercise with a tablet: use separate layers for the light study, geometric planes and collage shapes, so each experiment stays easy to adjust. Our digital art tools guide covers tablet, pen and software setup, while these beginner sketching exercises offer more ways to warm up. If you want to compare another movement, continue with Surrealism and Dreams.

Look for choices, not a label

These movements do not form a neat ladder of progress. They offer different ways to make and read pictures: notice changing sensation, unsettle space or change an object’s context. Start with what you can see, then ask why that choice matters in its time.

Different viewers notice different things, and artists rarely fit every convention. Ask what this work makes you see differently, not only which movement label applies.