Smart Cookie Trivia

40 Art Trivia Questions and Answers (Easy to Hard)

Masterpieces, artists, techniques, and movements. These start easy and get harder as you go. Tap any question to reveal the answer and a quick fact.

1. 1Who painted the Mona Lisa?Answer

   Leonardo da VinciIt hangs in the Louvre in Paris.

2. 2Who painted "The Starry Night"?Answer

   Vincent van GoghHe painted it in 1889, based on the view from his room at an asylum in Saint-Rémy.

3. 3Which artist is famous for paintings of Campbell's soup cans?Answer

   Andy WarholHe first showed them in 1962.

4. 4What are the three primary colors in traditional color theory?Answer

   Red, yellow, and blueMixing them gives the secondary colors orange, green, and purple.

5. 5Who painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel?Answer

   MichelangeloHe worked on it from 1508 to 1512.

6. 6Which Spanish artist co-founded Cubism?Answer

   Pablo PicassoHe developed it alongside the French painter Georges Braque.

7. 7Which Mexican artist is known for her striking self-portraits?Answer

   Frida KahloAbout a third of her paintings are self-portraits.

8. 8What is a sculpture of a person's head and shoulders called?Answer

   A bustBusts of rulers were common in ancient Rome.

9. 9Which Norwegian artist painted "The Scream"?Answer

   Edvard MunchHe made several versions, starting in 1893.

10. 10Which French painter is famous for his water lilies at Giverny?Answer

    Claude MonetHe painted his garden pond about 250 times.

11. 11What is a painting of fruit, flowers, or everyday objects called?Answer

    A still lifeDutch painters of the 1600s made the genre famous.

12. 12What is the art form that makes pictures from small pieces of glass or tile?Answer

    MosaicEach small piece is called a tessera.

13. 13What is the art of decorative handwriting called?Answer

    CalligraphyThe word comes from Greek for "beautiful writing".

14. 14Which artist painted melting clocks in "The Persistence of Memory"?Answer

    Salvador DalíThe 1931 painting is a landmark of Surrealism.

1. 15Which art movement takes its name from Monet's "Impression, Sunrise"?Answer

   ImpressionismA critic coined the term mockingly in 1874.

2. 16Who painted "Girl with a Pearl Earring"?Answer

   Johannes VermeerThe Dutch painter made it around 1665.

3. 17Which sculptor created "The Thinker"?Answer

   Auguste RodinIt was first conceived as part of his larger work "The Gates of Hell".

4. 18Which Dutch artist painted "The Night Watch"?Answer

   RembrandtThe huge group portrait was finished in 1642.

5. 19Which American artist became famous for "drip" paintings?Answer

   Jackson PollockHe laid canvases on the floor and poured paint onto them.

6. 20Who painted "The Birth of Venus"?Answer

   Sandro BotticelliIt hangs in the Uffizi Gallery in Florence.

7. 21In which city is the Prado Museum?Answer

   MadridIt holds major collections of Velázquez and Goya.

8. 22Who painted "American Gothic"?Answer

   Grant WoodThe models were his sister and his dentist.

9. 23What is painting on wet plaster called?Answer

   FrescoThe pigment becomes part of the wall as the plaster dries.

10. 24Which Japanese artist created "The Great Wave off Kanagawa"?Answer

    Katsushika HokusaiThe woodblock print dates from around 1831.

11. 25Which Austrian artist painted "The Kiss" using gold leaf?Answer

    Gustav KlimtIt comes from his celebrated Golden Period.

12. 26Which anonymous artist's "Girl with Balloon" shredded itself just after selling at auction in 2018?Answer

    BanksyThe half-shredded work was renamed "Love Is in the Bin".

13. 27Which New York museum is home to "The Starry Night"?Answer

    The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA)It acquired the painting in 1941.

14. 28Who painted "Nighthawks", a late-night diner scene?Answer

    Edward HopperHe finished it in 1942.

1. 29Who painted "The Garden of Earthly Delights"?Answer

   Hieronymus BoschThe strange triptych hangs in the Prado.

2. 30Who painted "Las Meninas"?Answer

   Diego VelázquezHe painted himself into the 1656 scene, standing at his easel.

3. 31Marcel Duchamp's "Fountain", a signed urinal, is associated with which movement?Answer

   DadaHe submitted it in 1917 under the name "R. Mutt".

4. 32Who painted "Liberty Leading the People"?Answer

   Eugène DelacroixIt commemorates the French revolution of July 1830.

5. 33Which Renaissance artist painted "The School of Athens"?Answer

   RaphaelThe fresco is in the Vatican's Apostolic Palace.

6. 34What is the term for strong contrast between light and dark in a painting?Answer

   ChiaroscuroCaravaggio was a master of its dramatic form.

7. 35Which Russian artist painted "Black Square" in 1915?Answer

   Kazimir MalevichIt launched the abstract movement he called Suprematism.

8. 36Who painted "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte"?Answer

   Georges SeuratIt is made of countless tiny dots of color, a technique called pointillism.

9. 37Which Dutch painter is known for grids of black lines and blocks of primary color?Answer

   Piet MondrianHe was a leading figure of the De Stijl movement.

10. 38Which famous painting was stolen from the Louvre in 1911?Answer

    The Mona LisaIt was missing for over two years, which helped make it world-famous.

11. 39Who sculpted "The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa"?Answer

    Gian Lorenzo BerniniThe Baroque masterpiece is in a church in Rome.

12. 40Who painted "Saturn Devouring His Son"?Answer

    Francisco GoyaIt is one of the "Black Paintings" he made on the walls of his house.