An art movement is a tendency or style in art with a specific common philosophy or goal, followed by a group of artists during a restricted period of time, or, at least, with the heyday of the movement more or less strictly so restricted (usually a few months, years or decades). According to theories associated with the concept of postmodernism, art movements were especially important during the period of time corresponding to modern art. The period of time called "modern art" is posited to have ended approximately three-quarters of the way through the twentieth century. (Postmodernism in visual art refers to approximately the period after the "modern" period, that is, it begins where modernism leaves off.) During the period of time corresponding to "modern art" each consecutive movement was often considered a new avant-garde. Also during the period of time referred to as "modern art" each movement was seen corresponding to a somewhat grandiose rethinking of all that came before it, concerning the visual arts. Generally there was a commonality of visual style linking the works and artists included in an art movement. Verbal expression and explanation of movements has come from the artists themselves, sometimes in the form of an art manifesto, and sometimes from art critics and others who may explain their understanding of the meaning of the new art then being produced. The theory of postmodernism in visual art tends to assert that in recent decades art movements in the visual arts are less pronounced or even nonexistent.

The term refers to tendencies in visual art, novel ideas and architecture, and sometimes literature. In music it is more common to speak about genres and styles instead. See also cultural movement, a term with a broader connotation.

Because the names of many art movements use the -ism suffix (for example cubism and futurism), they are sometimes referred to as isms.