Five Diagrams Charting Art History's Visual Lineages

DailyArt Magazine presents a curated selection of five diagrams that visualize art history, each offering a distinct perspective on the development of modern art. The list begins with Alfred H. Barr's seminal 1936 chart for MoMA's 'Cubism and Abstract Art' exhibition, which traced artistic evolution from the 1890s to the 1930s, and includes two of its descendants. Miguel Covarrubias's 'The Tree of Modern Art' (1933) roots modern art in Classicism and Romanticism, branching into Surrealism and abstraction with a whimsical touch. Ward Shelley's 'Autonomous Art, Ver. 1' (2007–2009) intertwines art movements with economic pressures and funding sources from the 17th century onward. Hank Willis Thomas's 'Colonialism and Abstract Art' (2019) expands Barr's model to include socioeconomic and political contexts, highlighting works like Picasso's 'Les Demoiselles d'Avignon' (1907) and Rousseau's 'The Dream' (1910). Paul Ingram and Mitali Banerjee's network diagram for MoMA's 2012 exhibition 'Inventing Abstraction, 1910–1925' maps connections among artists, composers, dancers, and poets, with Wassily Kandinsky as the most connected figure. Finally, Doron Goldfarb's 'Collectivizing the Barr Model' (2020) uses Wikipedia hyperlinks to generate a massive network of 55,000 artists and 375 art movements, revealing collective attention at scale. The article is published by DailyArt Magazine and features images from collections including the David Rumsey Map Collection and Pierogi Gallery.