Everything for studying khiar, in one place
Movements, painters, a timeline you can read straight through, the vocabulary, a quiz and two pages for classrooms. All of it free, all of it in the browser, nothing to install.
Nine ways in
Pick the shape of the question you have. If you only want one entry point, start with the timeline and follow it forwards.
Art movements
Six eras with their traits, key artists and why each one still matters.
Explore the sixMasterpieces
Landmark works, each with its movement, artist, year and the story behind it.
Open the galleryArtists
Twenty-four painters, four per movement, with dates, places and one line on what they did.
Meet the paintersTimeline
Six hundred years in order, with what turned in each era and what came next.
Read it in orderGlossary
Chiaroscuro, impasto, sfumato, ukiyo-e: the words used to describe a painting.
Look a word upQuiz
Ten questions on movements and works, with an explanation after every answer.
Test yourselfCompare two movements
Put any two eras side by side: dates, traits, palettes and artists.
Set up a comparisonTeaching resources
Three lesson plans, printable sheets and notes on sharing a movement with a class.
Plan a lessonFurther reading
Six books worth owning and eight museums where the originals hang.
Go deeperHow to use khiar to actually remember this
One pass through the site in the wrong order is easy to forget. This order sticks better.
Read the timeline first
Twenty minutes, top to bottom. You get the shape of the story: when each way of painting began and what it was reacting against.
Then one movement properly
Open a single era and read its traits, its painters and the why. One era understood deeply beats six skimmed.
Assign a work to it
Find one painting in the gallery from that era. A movement is much easier to recall once a single canvas is attached to it.
Compare it with its neighbour
Put the era beside the one that followed and the difference does the teaching for you. Then take the quiz.
Before you read
Skim the glossary once. Having words for light, colour, space and surface means the movement pages read as description rather than adjectives.
While you read
Ask what the painter had to solve. Space, light, movement, money, patrons. Every movement is an answer to a problem someone had.
Afterwards
Say the era out loud in two sentences: what it looked like, and what it was reacting against. If you cannot, read the why box again.
Short answers
Is the study material free?
Yes. All six movements, the 24 artists, the timeline and the glossary are free with no account. Paid plans add the complete gallery, offline reading and classroom tools — see pricing.
How long does a pass through take?
About twenty minutes for the timeline, forty for one movement read properly, and ten for the quiz.
Can I search instead of clicking around?
Press / anywhere on the site, or use the search button in the header. It looks through movements, painters, works and glossary terms at once.
Do you show photographs of the paintings?
No. Each work appears as a palette of colour bands drawn from it, so you can feel the mood of an era without displaying reproductions. The reading page says where to see the originals.
Pick one era and read it properly
The timeline is the fastest way in, and every movement has its own page with traits, painters and a reason to care.
Free to use. Collector $6 a month, Classroom $24, cancel any time.