Art · Unit 16

Modern Art Movements

Impressionism through to contemporary art

Once photography could record appearances, painting stopped needing to, and the century that followed is a sequence of answers to what painting should do instead.

The unit covers Impressionism, Expressionism and Cubism, Dada and Surrealism, abstraction, and Pop and contemporary art.

This unit breaks down into 21 short steps and 128 questions, starting at difficulty 3 and building to 5. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 21
Questions: 128
Difficulty: 3-5

What this unit covers

Impressionism
Expressionism and Cubism
Dada and Surrealism
Abstract Art
Pop and Contemporary Art

Where this fits

Follows Renaissance to Romanticism.

Where people slip

Movement names were often coined as insults. Impressionism, Cubism and Fauvism were all mockery before they were labels the artists accepted.

How the unit is structured

Modern Art Movements runs as 21 short steps that unlock in order. 15 are practice rounds and 6 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 3 and climb to 5 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 21 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 128 in the unit altogether.

Abstract Art

Choose all that applyLevel 3
1. Which colours fill Piet Mondrian's grid paintings, alongside black and white? Pick all that apply.
- Redcorrect
- Yellowcorrect
- Bluecorrect
- Green
Mondrian limited his grids to black lines, white space and the three primaries: red, yellow and blue.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
2. Wassily Kandinsky is often credited as a pioneer of which kind of art?
- Abstract artcorrect
- Photorealism
- Portraiture
- Landscape painting
Kandinsky is seen as a founder of purely abstract art, painting colours and shapes without real objects.
Odd one outLevel 3
3. Which of these artists did NOT make abstract art?
- Johannes Vermeercorrect
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Piet Mondrian
- Jackson Pollock
Kandinsky, Mondrian and Pollock made abstract works, while Vermeer painted realistic 1600s scenes.
Fact or fibLevel 4
4. Jackson Pollock carefully sketched realistic figures before filling them in with colour.
Answer: False
Pollock instead dripped and poured paint across canvases on the floor in his 'action painting'.
Fill the blankLevel 4
5. The 1940s to 1950s New York movement of Pollock and Rothko is called Abstract ____.
- Expressionismcorrect
- Impressionism
- Realism
- Classicism
Abstract Expressionism made the United States a centre of the postwar art world.
Match the pairsLevel 5
6. Match each abstract pioneer to the movement they helped define.
Answer: Piet Mondrian = De Stijl; Robert Delaunay = Orphism; Vladimir Tatlin = Constructivism; Mikhail Larionov = Rayonism
Early abstraction split into many national movements, from Dutch De Stijl to Russian Rayonism.

Dada and Surrealism

Fact or fibLevel 3
7. Surrealism was launched by Andre Breton, who wrote its manifesto in 1924.
Answer: True
Poet Andre Breton defined Surrealism in his 1924 manifesto, exploring dreams and the unconscious.
Fill the blankLevel 3
8. Under a painting of a pipe, Rene Magritte wrote 'This is not a ____.'
- pipecorrect
- cloud
- dream
- hat
In 'The Treachery of Images', Magritte reminds us the picture of a pipe is not a real pipe.
Match the pairsLevel 3
9. Match each Dada or Surrealist artwork to the artist who made it.
Answer: Fountain = Marcel Duchamp; The Son of Man = Rene Magritte; The Elephant Celebes = Max Ernst; Harlequin's Carnival = Joan Miro
Each of these landmark works belongs to the listed Dada or Surrealist artist.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
10. Which Surrealist painted 'The Persistence of Memory', with its melting clocks?
- Salvador Dalicorrect
- Rene Magritte
- Max Ernst
- Joan Miro
Salvador Dali painted the drooping, melting clocks of 'The Persistence of Memory' in 1931.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
11. Which of these figures were part of the Dada movement? Pick all that apply.
- Marcel Duchampcorrect
- Man Raycorrect
- Tristan Tzaracorrect
- Claude Monet
Duchamp, Man Ray and Tzara were central Dadaists, while Monet was an Impressionist.
Guess the numberLevel 4
12. In what year did Andre Breton publish the first Surrealist Manifesto?
Answer: 1924
Breton launched Surrealism formally with his 1924 manifesto.

Expressionism and Cubism

Build the sentenceLevel 3
13. Build a true sentence about how Cubism shows objects.
Answer: Cubism shows objects from many angles at once
Cubism famously shows objects from many angles at once, flattening them into planes.
Fact or fibLevel 3
14. Cubist paintings usually show an object from a single fixed viewpoint.
Answer: False
Cubism actually shows an object from many angles at the same time, not one fixed view.
Fill the blankLevel 3
15. Cubism was developed together by Pablo Picasso and Georges ____.
- Braquecorrect
- Monet
- Dali
- Munch
Picasso and Georges Braque worked side by side to invent and shape Cubism.
Multiple choiceLevel 3
16. Who painted the famous Expressionist image 'The Scream' in 1893?
- Edvard Munchcorrect
- Gustav Klimt
- Wassily Kandinsky
- Paul Cezanne
Norwegian artist Edvard Munch painted 'The Scream', a figure crying out under a blood-orange sky.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
17. Which of these artists worked in the Cubist style? Pick all that apply.
- Pablo Picassocorrect
- Georges Braquecorrect
- Juan Griscorrect
- Claude Monet
Picasso, Braque and Juan Gris were all leading Cubists; Monet was an Impressionist.
Match the pairsLevel 4
18. Match each early modern movement to a leading artist.
Answer: Fauvism = Henri Matisse; Cubism = Georges Braque; Futurism = Umberto Boccioni; Der Blaue Reiter = Wassily Kandinsky
Each movement gathered around a few defining figures in the early 1900s.

Impressionism

Build the sentenceLevel 3
19. Build a sentence describing Impressionist brushwork.
Answer: Impressionists used short visible brushstrokes
Impressionists left short, visible strokes on the canvas instead of blending them smooth.
Choose all that applyLevel 3
20. Which of these were Post-Impressionist painters? Pick all that apply.
- Vincent van Goghcorrect
- Paul Cezannecorrect
- Paul Gauguincorrect
- Rembrandt
Van Gogh, Cezanne and Gauguin were Post-Impressionists, while Rembrandt worked in the 1600s.
Fill the blankLevel 3
21. Impressionists often painted outdoors, a practice called painting 'en ____ air'.
- pleincorrect
- faux
- beaux
- sans
'En plein air' is French for 'in the open air', meaning painting on location outdoors.
Guess the numberLevel 3
22. In what year did the first Impressionist exhibition open in Paris?
Answer: 1874 year
The independent artists held their first group show in Paris in 1874, outside the official Salon.
Match the pairsLevel 3
23. Match each Impressionist or Post-Impressionist artist to a famous work.
Answer: Claude Monet = Water Lilies; Auguste Renoir = Luncheon of the Boating Party; Vincent van Gogh = Sunflowers; Georges Seurat = A Sunday on La Grande Jatte
Each of these artists is closely tied to the listed masterpiece.
Fact or fibLevel 4
24. Impressionists often painted 'en plein air', outdoors, to capture shifting natural light.
Answer: True
Portable paint tubes let them work directly from the landscape.

Pop and Contemporary Art

Choose all that applyLevel 3
25. Which of these artists are linked to Pop Art? Pick all that apply.
- Andy Warholcorrect
- Roy Lichtensteincorrect
- Claes Oldenburgcorrect
- Claude Monet
Warhol, Lichtenstein and Oldenburg were Pop artists, while Monet was an Impressionist.
Fact or fibLevel 3
26. Yayoi Kusama is famous for covering her artworks and rooms in polka dots.
Answer: True
Contemporary artist Yayoi Kusama fills paintings, sculptures and Infinity Rooms with endless polka dots.
Fill the blankLevel 3
27. Roy Lichtenstein copied the small printing dots of comic books, known as ____ dots.
- Ben-Daycorrect
- polka
- pixel
- oil
Lichtenstein imitated Ben-Day dots, the tiny coloured dots used to print cheap comics.
Match the pairsLevel 3
28. Match each Pop or contemporary artist to a famous work.
Answer: Andy Warhol = Campbell's Soup Cans; Roy Lichtenstein = Whaam!; Jeff Koons = Balloon Dog; Damien Hirst = Shark in formaldehyde
Each of these artists is best known for the listed work.
Build the sentenceLevel 4
29. Build a sentence describing what Pop art drew on.
Answer: Pop art celebrated mass media and advertising
Pop art borrowed its images from comics, advertising and consumer culture.
Guess the numberLevel 5
30. Andy Warhol's original 'Campbell's Soup Cans' work was made up of how many separate canvases, one for each soup variety?
Answer: 32 canvases
Warhol painted 32 canvases in 1962, one for each Campbell's soup flavour sold at the time.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 14 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Build the sentence
Choose all that apply
Fact or fib
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Picture question
Put in order
Sort into groups
Spell it
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Modern Art Movements

128 questions across 21 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

Read about Modern Art Movements

Explainers from our blog on what this unit covers. Each one ends with real questions from the bank.

More units in Art

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