After three weeks of presentations, sophomore Art Foundations II students completed their unit on Modern & Contemporary Art Theory today.

“This unit was very eye-opening for me,” Julianna Ovalle said. “I had no idea how many groups one could divide art into, and what each movement was inspired by. We pass by art inspired by these movements everyday, and the understanding that these presentations gave me helps me to appreciate that art even more.”

Ovalle, who presented on Art Nouveau, is one of 19 students in the one-semester course who presented on a total of 15 artistic movements, including Surrealism, Expressionism, Fauvism and the Feminist Art Movement.

“Although I presented on Earth Art, my favorite movement has to be Surrealism,” Abby Widjanarko said. “I had always loved the abstract and unnatural feeling of Surrealist paintings when I’ve seen them in museums but was never able to identify the artistic movement it originated from.”

Students were randomly assigned a movement to create a slideshow presentation on, some of which were presented in pairs. The assignment required students to thoroughly research the origin of their movement, the artists that shaped it, the social movements that inspired it, and display prominent pieces born out of the movement.

“My goal in doing this unit is to introduce students to the full continuum of art history,” Rachel McIntire, Visual Arts Department Chair, said. “While also introducing students to the art around them in the city we live in, this unit allows for the type of in-depth analysis and understand of the fundamentals of each primary movement that acts as a solid foundation for the next level of art, whether that be AP or IB.”

Students will have the entire G Period this Wednesday to complete an assessment covering all movements students presented on, then will move onto the upcoming unit of researching prevalent modern female artists.

“It was great that [McIntire] chose to begin this course with this unit,” Ovalle said. “After gaining this newfound understanding of what inspires the art we see every day, I will be able to almost step into the head of the artists that we will study unit and further grasp what the purpose of their work is, or whether it is just art for art’s sake.”

Corrections: This story was corrected on Feb. 28, 2018 to reflect the correct name of the unit, Modern & Contemporary Art Theory, and not Post-Impressionist art movements. “Feminist” was also changed to “The Feminist Art Movement.”