American artists first won international attention with the landscapes of the Hudson River School. After 1945, Abstract Expressionism made New York a world centre of art, followed by Pop Art, Minimalism and Photorealism. These are the movements on Art Movements that began in, or are closely identified with, the United States.
Hudson River School
American landscape painters who celebrated the wilderness of the Hudson Valley and, later, the American West.
Key artists: Thomas Cole, Frederic Edwin Church, Albert Bierstadt, Asher Brown Durand
Ashcan School
American realist painters who depicted everyday life in New York, especially in its poorer neighbourhoods.
Key artists: George Bellows, Robert Henri, John Sloan, William James Glackens
The Eight
Eight American painters who exhibited together in New York in 1908 in protest against the conservative National Academy of Design.
Key artists: Robert Henri, John Sloan, William James Glackens, Maurice Prendergast
Harlem Renaissance
A flowering of African American art, music and literature centred on Harlem, New York.
Key artists: Bessie Smith, Ma Rainey, Elizabeth Catlett, Augusta Savage
Black Mountain College
An experimental college in North Carolina where art was central to education and many artists of the post-war avant-garde taught or studied.
Key artists: Walter Gropius, Buckminster Fuller, Willem de Kooning, Josef Albers
Abstract Expressionism
The New York School of large, gestural 'action painting' and meditative colour fields.
Key artists: Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Louise Bourgeois, Willem de Kooning
Action Painting
Action painting: paint dripped, splashed and swept on to the canvas, making the act of painting itself the subject.
Key artists: Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, Arshile Gorky, Franz Kline
Colour Field Painting
Large, flat areas of colour that envelop the viewer.
Key artists: Helen Frankenthaler, Barnett Newman, Alma Thomas, Frank Bowling
Pop Art
Emerging in Britain and the United States, Pop Art borrowed imagery from advertising, comics and consumer culture.
Key artists: Victor Vasarely, Roy Lichtenstein, Claes Oldenburg, Jeff Koons
Indian River School (Florida Highwaymen)
The Florida Highwaymen: African American landscape painters who sold their work from the roadside.
Key artists: Alfred Hair, Al Black, James Gibson, Roy McLendon
Minimalism
Art pared back to simple geometric forms and industrial materials.
Key artists: Richard Serra, Frank Stella, Sol LeWitt, Donald Judd
Photorealism
Paintings made from photographs with meticulous, camera-like precision.
Key artists: Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, Duane Hanson, Ralph Goings
Graffiti Art
Spray-painted lettering and imagery from New York's streets and subways, which entered galleries in the 1980s.
Key artists: Keith Haring, Invader, Panmela Castro, Ememem
Frequently asked questions
What was the first American art movement?
The Hudson River School, from about 1825, is generally regarded as the first American art movement.