Skip to Main Content

The Art Genome Project

The Art Genome Project is the classification system and technological framework that powers Artsy. It maps the characteristics (we call them "genes") that connect artists, artworks, architecture, and design objects across history. There are currently over 1,000 characteristics in The Art Genome Project, including art historical movements, subject matter, and formal qualities.

Artistic Disciplines

Fashion Design and Wearable Art

Subject Matter

Abstract Landscape

Advertising and Brands

African Diaspora

Alter Egos and Avatars

Animal Portrait

Anthropomorphism

Antiquity as Subject

Architecture's Effects

Arrivals/Departures

Artist as Ethnographer

Atmospheric Landscapes

Attenuated Figure

Bars and Restaurants

Bedrooms and Bathrooms

Caricatures and Parody

Circus/Carnival

Cityscapes and City Scenes

Classical Figure

Classical Mythology

Collective History

Cross-Cultural Dialogue

Cultural Commentary

Deities and Holy Figures

Digital Culture

Dreams / Altered States of Consciousness

Engaged with Byzantine and Medieval Art

Engaged with Communist Visual Culture

Engaged with European Old Masters

Engaged with Pre-Columbian Art

Engaged with Traditional African Art

Engaged with Traditional Chinese Art

Engaged with Traditional Islamic Art

Engaged with Traditional Japanese Art

Engaged with Traditional Korean Art

Engagement with Mass Media

Fertility/Pregnancy/Birth

Figure from the Back (Rückenfigur)

Figures in Nature

Figures of the Art World

Focus on the Social Margins

Group of Objects

Group of Portraits

Hugs and Kisses

Hybrids and Imaginary Creatures

Implied Narrative

Improbable Physics

Individual Portrait

Infographics and Diagrams

Institutional Critique

Interlaced Bodies

Intersectionality

Isolation/Alienation

Landscape and Nature Photography

Light as Subject

Line, Form, and Color

Madonna and Child

Modes of Transportation

Mourning and Commemoration

Mysticism, Shamanism, and the Occult

Mythology and Religion

Natural History

Parties and Celebrations

Performing Arts

Personal Histories

Personal Writing Systems

Personification

Political Events

Political Figures

Popular Culture

Portraits without a Face

Racial and Ethnic Identity

References to Art History

Related to Fashion

Related to Film

Related to Games

Related to Hip-Hop

Related to Literature

Related to Music

Related to Punk

Related to Religion

Related to Toys

Representations of Architecture

Representations of Everyday Objects

Royal/Court Commission

Royalty and Aristocracy

Scenes of Everyday Life

Science Fiction

Seduction and Courtship

Self as Subject

Sexual Identity

Southern Gothic

Spaces of the Art World

Sports/Athletics

Symbolic Composition

The American West

The Artist's Studio

The Domestic and Domesticity

The Environment

Traces, Indexes, and Implied Presence

Trauma and Struggle

Vacant and Vacated Spaces

Virtue and Vice

Visual Perception

War and Military

Work and Workers

Styles and Movements

19th Century American Art

19th Century American Paintings and Works on Paper

19th Century French Academy

19th Century German Realism

20th Century Art

Abstract Expressionism

Abstract Painting

Abstract Photography

Abstract Sculpture

Abstract versus Figurative Art

Abstraction-Création

Action Painting

American Impressionism

American Modernism

American Prints 1880–1950

American Realism

American Regionalism

American Sculpture 1830–1950

American Tonalism

American Works on Paper 1880–1950

Barbizon School

Bay Area Figurative Art

Beijing East Village

Bengal School of Art

Black Arts Movement

Black Mountain College

Capitalist Realism

Chicago Imagists

Collaborations and Collectives

Color Field Painting

Conceptual Art and Contemporary Conceptualism

Contemporary Academic Realism

Contemporary African Art

Contemporary Archaeological

Contemporary Art

Contemporary Asian Art

Contemporary British Art

Contemporary Canadian Art

Contemporary Ceramics

Contemporary Chinese Art

Contemporary Color Fields

Contemporary Conceptualism

Contemporary DIY

Contemporary Fact versus Fiction

Contemporary Fauvist

Contemporary Faux Naïf

Contemporary Feminist

Contemporary Figurative Drawing

Contemporary Figurative Painting

Contemporary Gestural Abstraction

Contemporary Glass

Contemporary Gothic

Contemporary Graphic Realism

Contemporary Grotesque

Contemporary Impressionist

Contemporary Indian Art

Contemporary Latin American Art

Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African Art

Contemporary Minimalist

Contemporary Modernist-Type Photography

Contemporary Op Art

Contemporary Participation

Contemporary Photography

Contemporary Pop

Contemporary Portrait Painting

Contemporary Portrait Photography

Contemporary Re-creations

Contemporary Realist Portrait Photography

Contemporary Scandinavian Art

Contemporary Surrealistic

Contemporary Traces of Memory

Contemporary Turkish Art

Contemporary Use of Textiles

Contemporary Vintage Photography

Cynical Realism

Deconstructivism

Deutscher Werkbund

Documentary Film

Documentary Travel Photography

Dusseldorf School of Photography

Dutch and Flemish

Early Computer Art

Early Renaissance

East Village Art

Fashion Photography

Feminist Art and Contemporary Feminist

Figurative Painting

Figurative Sculpture

Geometric Abstraction

German Expressionism

Gestural Abstraction

Graffiti and Street Art

Harlem Renaissance

Helsinki School of Photography

High Renaissance

Hudson River School

Hyperrealism and Photorealism

Iconic Works of Art History

Identity Politics

Impressionism and Contemporary Impressionist

Japanese Erotic Prints

Japanese Photography

Landscape Photography

Light and Space Movement

Mexican Muralism

Minimalism and Contemporary Minimalist

Modern Photography

Modern and Impressionist Art

Modern and Impressionist Prints

Neo-Conceptualism

Neo-Concrete Art

Neo-Expressionism

Neo-Impressionism

Neue Sachlichkeit

New American Color Photography

New American Documentary Photography

New British Sculpture

New Leipzig School

New Topographics

New York School

Nineteenth Century French Realism

Northern Renaissance

Nouveau Réalisme

Old Master Drawings and Prints

Old Master Influenced Fantasy

Pattern and Decoration Movement

Pittura Metafisica

Political Minimalism

Pop and Contemporary Pop

Post-'70s Ego Generation

Post-Impressionism

Post-Internet Art

Post-Painterly Abstraction

Post-War American Art

Post-War European Art

Post-World War I European Classicism

Post-World War II School of Paris

Pre-Raphaelites

Pre-World War II School of Paris

Progressive Artists' Movement

Relational Aesthetics

Renaissance Art

Rococo Art and Design

School of London

Self-Taught, Folk, and Outsider Art

Socialist Realism

Soviet Nonconformist Art

Street Photography

Studio Museum in Harlem Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program

The Aesthetic Movement

The Anthropocene

The Pictures Generation

The Stars Art Group (Xing Xing)

Traditional Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas

Transavanguardia

Venetian School

Vienna Secession

Viennese Actionism

Washington Color School

Works Progress Administration (WPA)

Yale University School of Art

Young British Artists (YBAs)

Zaire School of Popular Painting

Visual Qualities

Abstract Illusionism

Allover Composition

Arabesque/Scroll

Black and White

Blown-Off-Roof Perspective

Bright and Vivid Colors

Columns and Totems

Creased Crinkled Wrinkled

Crystalline and Geological Forms

Curvilinear Forms

Dense Composition

Emphasis on Linear Perspective

Fractal-like / Kaleidoscopic

Fragmented Geometry

Highly Detailed

Highly Ornamented

Iridescence/Opalescence

Irregular Curvilinear Forms

Irregular Linear Forms

Mimicking Ruined Materials

Mr Doodle: Pop Heart Collection

Patinated and Oxidized

Primary Abstraction

Radiating Lines

Raw versus Finished

Scattered Composition

Stained Glass Effect

Transparent/Translucent Medium

Woven/Perforated

Medium and Techniques

Album, Folio and Fan Formats

Altered and Substituted Canvases

Analogue Filmmaking

Arabic/Farsi Calligraphy

Archaeological Object

Art That Plays With Scale

Artists’ Books

Black-and-White Photography

Body Casts/Body Prints

Books and Portfolios

Collecting and Modes of Display

Color Photography

Computer-Aided Manufacturing

Copies and Emulations

Delicate Materials

Densely Textured or Haptic Surface

Design/Architecture Study

Digital Painting and Drawing

Digital as Manual

Digitally Manipulated

Divinatory Objects, Talismans, and Amulets

Documentary Photography

East Asian Calligraphy

East Asian Ink-and-Wash Painting

Erased and Obscured

Etching/Engraving

Extruded Design

Focus on Materials

Found Footage and Found Video

Frontal Perspective

Glass and Ceramics

Glitch Aesthetic

Gold Leaf and Gilding

History Painting

Imitated Material

Installation Art

Intentionally Exposed Canvas

Intricately Sculpted

Kinetic Sculpture

Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork

Large-Scale Painting

Large-Scale Photography

Large-Scale Sculpture

Long Distance and Deep Distance

Manipulated Photography

Miniature and Small-Scale Paintings

Monochrome Painting

Monotype/Monoprint

Multiple Exposure

Multiple Screens

Multiple Styles

Murals and Wall Drawings

Organic Material

Painting and Writing Tools

Performance Art

Photograph as Material

Photographic Source

Photographs of Surfaces

Photojournalism

Polychrome Sculpture

Process-Oriented

Pulled, Scraped, and Scratched

Reduced-Scale Architecture

Research as Art

Restored and Repurposed

Sculptural Use of Paint

Sculpture-Based Photography

Shallow Depth of Field

Site-Specific Art

Snapshot Aesthetic

Splattered/Dripped

Staged Photography

Suspended/Hanging

Time-Lapse Photography and Film

Topographic Photography

Traditional Photographic Techniques

Traditional Scroll Painting

Trompe l’oeil

Use of Traditional Techniques

Virtual and Augmented Reality

Wall Sculpture and Installation

Woodcut and Linocut

Geographic Regions

Andes Region Art

Art of Latin America and the Caribbean

Australian and New Zealand Art

Beijing Artists

British and Irish Art

Brooklyn Artists

Central American Art

Central Asian Art

East African Art

East European Art

East German Art

Eastern Mediterranean

Flanders and Luxembourg

French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname

Latin American Art

Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine

Los Angeles Artists

Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian Art

Middle African Art

Middle Eastern and North African Art

New York Artists

North African Art

San Francisco Artists

Scandinavian Art

South African Art

South Asian Art

Southeast Asian Art

Southeast European Art

Southern Cone Art

West African Art

Cultural and Religious Styles

Art of the Congo

Art of the Ivory Coast

Art of the Upper Paleolithic

Buddhist Art and Architecture

Christian Art and Architecture

Early Medieval Art

Eastern Zhou Dynasty

Greek Art and Architecture

Greek and Roman Art and Architecture

Hellenistic Art

Hindu Art and Architecture

Islamic Art and Architecture

Mayan Art and Architecture

Mesopotamian Art

Native American, First Nations, and Alaska Native Art

Northern and Southern Dynasties

Papua New Guinea Art

Pre-Columbian Art

Roman Art and Architecture

Traditional African Art

Traditional Oceanic Art

Western Zhou Dynasty

Textiles

Knitted and Crocheted

Tapestry and Wall Hanging

Jewelry and Fashion Object Types

Costume Accessory

Tableware, Vessels, and Objects

Artist Merchandise and Multiples

Household Objects

Objets de Vertu

Antiquities, Artifacts, and Religious Objects

Ceremonial Object

Funerary/Commemorative Object

Musical Instrument