Art works are also often classified in terms of techniques and materials used. Thus works of etching, intaglio, dry brush, collage etc have the status of almost individual genres. One of the most original style of art-technique once developed by Abanindranath Tagore was the wash-technique. Artists like Panesar had started a new style of collage, which is also very original.

Another way of categorizing art is on the basis of original source material on which the artist bases his creations. Thus we see differences in the works of Jogen Chaudhuri inspired by Bengali Alpana craft and those of Shakti Burman , inspired by the cave paintings and middle-age murals.

Ideas that have dominated the artists mind since time immemorial have always revolved around three basic elements : style, technique and subject matter. All isms of art bring forth distinctions in these three aspects.  

Cubism : the style popularized by mainly Pablo Picasso was the first attempt at serious distortion of natural form. This had many followers in India among the early Bengal School artists including Gagnendranath Tagore and some Calcutta Group painters like Paritosh Sen . 

Impressionism : popularized by artists like Manet, Monet and Renoir, this style de-emphasizes the use of colours in grammatical manner. Rather the idea is to just create an impression of what artist wants to convey. Many of Bikash Bhattacharya’s water-colours, and those of Paresh Maity fall into this category. But the only artists of singnificance who had once taken up the style in totality in Bengal had been Gopal Ghosh. 

Fauvism : Inspired by the works of van Gogh and Gauguin, a new movement led by Henry Matisse had started in Europe, which emphasized in the use of colours for creation of moods. Fauvism had been very popular once in Bengal. Jamini Roy, Chittoprosad Bhattacharya had used very vibrant colours. But after independence this emphasis on colours reduced. The style got prominence again in recent past when artists like Devajyoti Ray started making exuberant art works doused in brightness of colours.  

Expressionism : This refers to wide range of works which emphasize more on subject matter than on style. Almost all works of art are in a way expressionist. But Ramkinkar Baij, Zainul Abedin and among the modern day artists Bikash Bhattacharya are probably the best known expressionists of Bengal. 

Abstraction Expressionism : In a way distortion of forms as in Cubism was the first step towards abstraction. But Abstract expressionists like Jackson Pollock believed in creating patterns of colours without any reference to forms. The style is very popular today as in India we can see the art market flooded with abstract works.  

Surrealism : Salvador Dali’s new style which uses techniques of realism to create fantasy-based images was once very popular among artists like Ganesh Paine, Sunil Das , etc. Bikash Bhattacharya ’s works can also be categorized in this genre.  

Pseudorealism : A new style, it combines the use of realistic techniques to create comprehendible imagery with off-beat colours as in fauvism. Its main adherents are the post-liberalization artists led by Devajyoti Ray .