At last, all those 'isms' explained...

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Isms: Understanding Modern Art

By Sam Phillips

It is quite easy to forget about or confuse some of the less frequently mentioned or less well-known art movements. Or one may even be blinded by similar terms that actually have distinct meanings. For example, although Dadaism is known for its love for the irrational and the absurd, it is easy to confuse Dadaists with Neo-Dadaists who, although having a similar name and making use of readymades, in fact related their work to everyday experiences and inspired another ‘ism’: Conceptualism.

This book is not designed to be read from cover to cover. It should be seen more as an reference book. It is described as ‘pocket sized’ – not so, unless unbeknown to me pocket sizes have actually increased to A5 capacity. Yet it would be painless to throw into any bag, not weighing you down, so in contrast to the general trend for art books to be large and heavy, this is definitely an easily portable book.

The book is simple to navigate owing to its eye-catching colour-coding of eras. At the beginning the author clearly explains how the book is laid out and how to use it. Each ‘ism’ or art movement is initially broken down into different sections. These start with a short paragraph giving an initial understanding of the movement. Then the author lists significant artists who contributed to the movement. Although more artists could be mentioned, this book gives only the crucial names, the artists who best epitomize and encapsulate the ‘ism’ concerned. From this checklist the reader will still gain a good understanding of each of the ‘isms’.

Next is a short index of key words that best describe the movement. A more in-depth definition, description and context are provided along with several illustrations. Lastly, names of significant works of art and links to similar or contrasting visual movements are given.

At the back of the book there is an index of artists and art movements, in case the reader wishes to search via artist rather than movement. There is also a short directory of museums and galleries to visit and a glossary of art terms, so no prior knowledge of art or art terms is required.

One of my personal favourite features is the colour-coded timeline. It is most enlightening to see the wider context and time frame of the ‘isms’ and how they over-lapped, or to show how prolonged and significant they were. This makes it quite easy to see the connections they had with each other as well as the differences between them. The book is perfect for those who are starting out on their exploration of art. I would recommend it for the great range of ‘isms’ explored, starting from the more well known, such as Impressionism, Surrealism and Conceptualism, to those that may be unfamiliar, such as Synthetism, Kitchen Sink Realism, Arte Povera, and some more recent movements such as Street Art and Internationalism.

Overall, the book is a practical, useful, visually engaging and succinct perspective on modern art movements. It inspired me to look further into lesser-known ‘isms’ and gave me a better understanding of how they relate to each other. There are many books that are more focused on specific movements, collections or countries or are written in more complex, academic styles that are not always clear and concise for the general reader. By contrast, Isms: Understanding Modern Art  is suitable for any reader interested in art. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone beginning to study art or visual culture, to use as a starting point to introduce themselves to different modern art movements.

Isms: Understanding Modern Art  by Sam Phillips is published by Bloomsbury Publishing 2012. 160pp., 100+ colour illus. ISBN: 9781408171783