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40 art trivia questions and answers

Painters and famous works, sculpture, mosaics, pigments, art movements and museums.

40 questions · Art trivia questions and answers · answers included

Art trivia questions and answers

Choose a score button to add a point. Scores last for this page visit.

Space shows the answer, then the next card. Arrow keys move. With scores on, keys 1 to 6 add a team point. F fills the screen. Escape closes play.
  1. 1

    Who painted the Mona Lisa?

    easy

    Answer

    Leonardo da Vinci

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mona_Lisa?oldid=1364364951

  2. 2

    After a quarrel with Gauguin, what did Vincent van Gogh cut off?

    easy

    Answer

    Part of his own left ear

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vincent_van_Gogh?oldid=1365516977

  3. 3

    What material is traditionally shaped by a potter on a wheel?

    easy

    Answer

    Clay

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Potter's_wheel?oldid=1365184248

  4. 4

    Which primary colors mix to make green in traditional painting?

    easy

    Answer

    Blue and yellow

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color_mixing?oldid=1350477109#Pigment_mixing

  5. 5

    What is a painting made on wet plaster called?

    medium

    Answer

    Fresco

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fresco?oldid=1362206690

  6. 6

    Which Mexican artist was born on 6 July 1907 in Coyoacán?

    hard

    Answer

    Frida Kahlo

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frida_Kahlo?oldid=1365718605#1907%E2%80%931924%3A_Family_and_childhood

  7. 7

    What tool holds and mixes an artist’s paint colors?

    easy

    Answer

    A palette

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Palette_(painting)?oldid=1328070225

  8. 8

    Which 19th-century movement originated with a group of Paris-based artists?

    medium

    Answer

    Impressionism

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Impressionism?oldid=1363845951

  9. 9

    Who painted the Sistine Chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512?

    easy

    Answer

    Michelangelo

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sistine_Chapel_ceiling?oldid=1361379409

  10. 10

    What is a three-dimensional artwork made by carving or modeling called?

    easy

    Answer

    Sculpture

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sculpture?oldid=1364853577

  11. 11

    Which artist painted The Starry Night?

    easy

    Answer

    Vincent van Gogh

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Starry_Night?oldid=1364457162

  12. 12

    What does a portrait primarily depict?

    easy

    Answer

    Artistic representation of a person

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Portrait?oldid=1359415562

  13. 13

    Which museum in Paris houses the Mona Lisa?

    easy

    Answer

    The Louvre

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Louvre?oldid=1362298616#Management%2C_administration%2C_partnerships

  14. 14

    What is the name for art made by assembling small pieces of glass or tile?

    easy

    Answer

    Mosaic

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosaic?oldid=1365269224#Terminology

  15. 15

    Which Spanish artist co-founded Cubism with Georges Braque?

    easy

    Answer

    Pablo Picasso

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pablo_Picasso?oldid=1365390373#Rose_Period%3A_1904%E2%80%931906

  16. 16

    When were the arts of ancient Greece rediscovered?

    medium

    Answer

    The early Renaissance

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_art?oldid=1365246973#Greek

  17. 17

    How are Warhol’s Campbell’s Soup Cans widely regarded?

    easy

    Answer

    A canonical symbol of Pop art

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campbell's_Soup_Cans?oldid=1364150627

  18. 18

    Why do artists use perspective in a flat image?

    easy

    Answer

    The illusion of depth

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perspective_(graphical)?oldid=1361340774#Early_history

  19. 19

    Which sculptor created The Thinker?

    medium

    Answer

    Auguste Rodin

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Thinker?oldid=1362396931

  20. 20

    What type of paint uses egg yolk as a traditional binder?

    hard

    Answer

    Egg tempera

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tempera?oldid=1360385238

  21. 21

    Which Japanese printmaker created The Great Wave off Kanagawa?

    medium

    Answer

    Hokusai

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Great_Wave_off_Kanagawa?oldid=1364555480

  22. 22

    How is a triptych arranged?

    medium

    Answer

    Divided into three sections

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triptych?oldid=1365785600

  23. 23

    What is negative space in art?

    medium

    Answer

    The space around and between objects

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_space?oldid=1364543582#Use

  24. 24

    Which artist designed the melting clocks in The Persistence of Memory?

    easy

    Answer

    Salvador Dalí

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Persistence_of_Memory?oldid=1365591625

  25. 25

    What does chiaroscuro emphasize?

    hard

    Answer

    Strong contrasts between light and dark

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chiaroscuro?oldid=1357000630

  26. 26

    Which ancient sculpture was discovered without its arms on the island of Milos?

    medium

    Answer

    The Venus de Milo

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Venus_de_Milo?oldid=1362156819#Discovery

  27. 27

    What did Marcel Duchamp call the everyday manufactured objects he chose and showed as art?

    hard

    Answer

    Readymades

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Readymades_of_Marcel_Duchamp?oldid=1348192631

  28. 28

    Who painted Girl with a Pearl Earring?

    medium

    Answer

    Johannes Vermeer

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Girl_with_a_Pearl_Earring?oldid=1361287529

  29. 29

    Why does watercolor paint look transparent on paper?

    hard

    Answer

    The paper being visible between the particles

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watercolor_painting?oldid=1362548745#Transparency

  30. 30

    Which 60-panel work brought Lawrence national recognition?

    hard

    Answer

    The Migration Series

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jacob_Lawrence?oldid=1364546214

  31. 31

    Which painting style tricks the eye into seeing painted objects as real?

    hard

    Answer

    Trompe-l'œil

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trompe-l'%C5%93il?oldid=1364275896

  32. 32

    Which architect designed the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao?

    hard

    Answer

    Frank Gehry

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guggenheim_Museum_Bilbao?oldid=1363487739#Architecture

  33. 33

    How did pointillists build images?

    medium

    Answer

    Small, distinct dots of color

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pointillism?oldid=1331243871

  34. 34

    What is a carving called that stands out only slightly from a flat background, as on a coin?

    hard

    Answer

    A low relief, or bas-relief

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Relief?oldid=1363347696#Low_relief_or_bas-relief

  35. 35

    What period followed Picasso’s Blue Period?

    medium

    Answer

    His Rose Period

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Picasso's_Blue_Period?oldid=1356786285

  36. 36

    Which art movement emerged in the United Kingdom and United States in the mid-to-late 1950s?

    medium

    Answer

    Pop art

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pop_art?oldid=1363328593

  37. 37

    Which lapis-lazuli pigment was at times valued as highly as gold in Europe?

    hard

    Answer

    Ultramarine

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ultramarine?oldid=1363907550

  38. 38

    How is a figure’s weight distributed in contrapposto?

    hard

    Answer

    Most of its weight on one foot

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Contrapposto?oldid=1365307695

  39. 39

    Which Bauhaus teacher wrote Concerning the Spiritual in Art?

    hard

    Answer

    Kandinsky

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wassily_Kandinsky?oldid=1362559902#Artistic_periods

  40. 40

    Why is the Bayeux Tapestry technically not a tapestry?

    hard

    Answer

    Embroidered rather than in a tapestry weave

    Source: Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bayeux_Tapestry?oldid=1365769038

How to play

Read each question exactly as written, so players know whether you want the artist or the work. Repeat foreign words like chiaroscuro once if asked, and accept any usual pronunciation.

Timer and team scores

8 turns × 60 seconds = 8 minutes of play, plus instructions and breaks.

60

Pause whenever the group needs more time.

Team Lime's turn

Team Lime: 0

Team Violet: 0