The visual arts are
art forms such as
painting,
drawing,
printmaking,
sculpture,
ceramics,
photography,
video,
filmmaking,
design,
crafts and
architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as
performing arts,
conceptual art, and
textile arts also involve aspects of visual arts as well as arts of other types. Also included within the visual arts are the
applied arts such as
industrial design,
graphic design,
fashion design,
interior design and
decorative art.
Current usage of the term "visual arts" includes
fine art as well as the
applied or
decorative arts and
crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the
Arts and Crafts Movement in
Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' had for some centuries often been restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the decorative arts, craft, or applied Visual arts media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms.
Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts.
The increasing tendency to privilege painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture, above other arts has been a feature of
Western art as well as
East Asian art. In both regions painting has been seen as relying to the highest degree on the imagination of the artist, and the furthest removed from manual labour – in
Chinese painting the most highly valued styles were those of "scholar-painting", at least in theory practiced by gentleman amateurs. The Western
hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes.
Education and training
Training in the visual arts has generally been through variations of the
apprentice and workshop systems. In Europe the
Renaissance movement to increase the prestige of the artist led to the
academy system for training artists, and today most of the people who are pursuing a career in arts train in
art schools at tertiary levels. Visual arts have now become an elective subject in most education systems.
Drawing
Drawing is a means of making an
image, illustration or graphic using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques available online and offline. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface using dry media such as
graphite pencils,
pen and ink,
inked
brushes, wax
color pencils,
crayons,
charcoals,
pastels, and
markers. Digital tools, including pens, stylus, Apple pencil that simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing,
hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, shading, scribbling,
stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a ''draftsman'' or ''draughtsman''.
Drawing and painting goes back tens of thousands of years.
Art of the Upper Paleolithic includes
figurative art beginning between about 40,000 to 35,000 years ago.
Non-figurative cave paintings consisting of hand stencils and simple geometric shapes are even older. Paleolithic
cave representations of animals are found in areas such as
Lascaux, France and
Altamira, Spain in Europe,
Maros, Sulawesi in Asia, and
Gabarnmung, Australia.
In
ancient Egypt, ink drawings on
papyrus, often depicting people, were used as models for painting or sculpture. Drawings on
Greek vases, initially geometric, later developed to the human form with
black-figure pottery during the 7th century BC.
With
paper becoming common in Europe by the 15th century, drawing was adopted by masters such as
Sandro Botticelli,
Raphael,
Michelangelo, and
Leonardo da Vinci who sometimes treated drawing as an art in its own right rather than a preparatory stage for painting or sculpture.
Painting
Painting taken literally is the practice of applying
pigment suspended in a carrier (or
medium) and a binding agent (a
glue) to a surface (support) such as
paper,
canvas or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with
drawing,
composition, or other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to
The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself.
Origins and early history
Like drawing, painting has its documented origins in caves and on rock faces. The finest examples, believed by some to be 32,000 years old, are in the
Chauvet and
Lascaux caves in southern France. In shades of red, brown, yellow and black, the paintings on the walls and ceilings are of bison, cattle, horses and deer.

Paintings of human figures can be found in the tombs of ancient Egypt. In the great temple of
Ramses II,
Nefertari, his queen, is depicted being led by
Isis. The Greeks contributed to painting but much of their work has been lost. One of the best remaining representations are the Hellenistic
Fayum mummy portraits. Another example is mosaic of the
Battle of Issus at
Pompeii, which was probably based on a Greek painting. Greek and Roman art contributed to
Byzantine art in the 4th century BC, which initiated a tradition in icon painting.
The Renaissance
Apart from the
illuminated manuscripts produced by monks during the
Middle Ages, the next significant contribution to European art was from
Italy's renaissance painters. From
Giotto in the 13th century to
Leonardo da Vinci and
Raphael at the beginning of the 16th century, this was the richest period in
Italian art as the ''chiaroscuro'' techniques were used to create the illusion of 3-D space.
Painters in northern Europe too were influenced by the Italian school.
Jan van Eyck from Belgium,
Pieter Bruegel the Elder from the Netherlands and
Hans Holbein the Younger from Germany are among the most successful painters of the times. They used the
glazing technique with oils to achieve depth and luminosity.
Dutch masters
The 17th century witnessed the emergence of the great Dutch masters such as the versatile
Rembrandt who was especially remembered for his portraits and Bible scenes, and
Vermeer who specialized in interior scenes of Dutch life.
Baroque
The
Baroque started after the Renaissance, from the late 16th century to the late 17th century. Main artists of the Baroque included
Caravaggio, who made heavy use of
tenebrism.
Peter Paul Rubens, a
Flemish painter who studied in Italy, worked for local churches in
Antwerp and also painted a series for
Marie de' Medici.
Annibale Carracci took influences from the
Sistine Chapel and created the genre of
illusionistic ceiling painting. Much of the development that happened in the Baroque was because of the
Protestant Reformation and the resulting
Counter Reformation. Much of what defines the Baroque is dramatic lighting and overall visuals.
Impressionism
Impressionism began in France in the 19th century with a loose association of artists including
Claude Monet,
Pierre-Auguste Renoir and
Paul Cézanne who brought a new freely brushed style to painting, often choosing to paint realistic scenes of modern life outside rather than in the studio. This was achieved through a new expression of aesthetic features demonstrated by brush strokes and the impression of reality. They achieved intense colour vibration by using pure, unmixed colours and short brush strokes. The movement influenced art as a dynamic, moving through time and adjusting to new found techniques and perception of art. Attention to detail became less of a priority in achieving, whilst exploring a biased view of landscapes and nature to the artists eye.
thumb|right|upright=0.7|alt=Edvard Munch painting The Scream from 1893 man at bridge with hands to ears and mouth open|Edvard Munch: ''The Scream'' (1893)
Post-impressionism
Towards the end of the 19th century, several young painters took impressionism a stage further, using geometric forms and unnatural colour to depict emotions while striving for deeper symbolism. Of particular note are
Paul Gauguin, who was strongly influenced by Asian, African and Japanese art,
Vincent van Gogh, a Dutchman who moved to France where he drew on the strong sunlight of the south, and
Toulouse-Lautrec, remembered for his vivid paintings of night life in the Paris district of
Montmartre.
Symbolism, expressionism and cubism
Edvard Munch, a Norwegian artist, developed his symbolistic approach at the end of the 19th century, inspired by the French impressionist
Manet. ''
The Scream'' (1893), his most famous work, is widely interpreted as representing the universal anxiety of modern man. Partly as a result of Munch's influence, the German
expressionist movement originated in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century as artists such as
Ernst Kirschner and
Erich Heckel began to distort reality for an emotional effect.
In parallel, the style known as
cubism developed in France as artists focused on the volume and space of sharp structures within a composition.
Pablo Picasso and
Georges Braque were the leading proponents of the movement. Objects are broken up, analyzed, and re-assembled in an abstracted form. By the 1920s, the style had developed into surrealism with
Dali and
Magritte.
Printmaking
Printmaking is creating, for artistic purposes, an image on a
matrix that is then transferred to a two-dimensional (flat) surface by means of ink (or another form of pigmentation). Except in the case of a
monotype, the same matrix can be used to produce many examples of the print.
Historically, the major techniques (also called media) involved are
woodcut,
line engraving,
etching,
lithography, and screenprinting (serigraphy, silkscreening) but there are many others, including modern digital techniques. Normally, the print is printed on
paper, but other mediums range from cloth and
vellum to more modern materials.
European history
Prints in the Western tradition produced before about 1830 are known as
old master prints. In Europe, from around 1400 AD
woodcut, was used for master prints on paper by using printing techniques developed in the Byzantine and Islamic worlds.
Michael Wolgemut improved German woodcut from about 1475, and
Erhard Reuwich, a Dutchman, was the first to use cross-hatching. At the end of the century
Albrecht Dürer brought the Western woodcut to a stage that has never been surpassed, increasing the status of the single-leaf woodcut.
Chinese origin and practice

In China, the art of printmaking developed some 1,100 years ago as illustrations alongside text cut in woodblocks for printing on paper. Initially images were mainly religious but in the
Song Dynasty, artists began to cut landscapes. During the
Ming (1368–1644) and
Qing (1616–1911) dynasties, the technique was perfected for both religious and artistic engravings.
Development in Japan 1603–1867

Woodblock printing in Japan (Japanese: 木版画, moku hanga) is a technique best known for its use in the
ukiyo-e artistic genre; however, it was also used very widely for printing
illustrated books in the same period. Woodblock printing had been used in China for centuries to print books, long before the advent of movable type, but was only widely adopted in Japan during the
Edo period (1603–1867). Although similar to woodcut in western printmaking in some regards, moku hanga differs greatly in that water-based inks are used (as opposed to western woodcut, which uses oil-based inks), allowing for a wide range of vivid color, glazes and color transparency.
Photography
Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light. The light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed
exposure. The process is done through mechanical
shutters or electronically timed exposure of
photons into
chemical processing or
digitizing devices known as
cameras.
The word comes from the Greek φως ''phos'' ("light"), and γραφις ''graphis'' ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη ''graphê'', together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." Traditionally, the product of photography has been called a
photograph. The term ''photo'' is an abbreviation; many people also call them ''pictures.'' In digital photography, the term ''image'' has begun to replace ''photograph.'' (The term ''image'' is traditional in geometric
optics.)
Architecture
Architecture is the process and the product of
planning,
designing, and
constructing buildings or any other structures. Architectural works, in the material form of buildings, are often perceived as cultural symbols and as works of art. Historical civilizations are often identified with their surviving architectural achievements.
The earliest surviving written work on the subject of architecture is ''
De architectura'', by the Roman architect
Vitruvius in the early 1st century AD. According to Vitruvius, a good building should satisfy the three principles of firmitas, utilitas, venustas, commonly known by the original translation – firmness, commodity and delight. An equivalent in modern English would be:
#Durability – a building should stand up robustly and remain in good condition.
#Utility – it should be suitable for the purposes for which it is used.
#Beauty – it should be aesthetically pleasing.
Building first evolved out of the dynamics between needs (shelter, security, worship, etc.) and means (available
building materials and attendant skills). As human cultures developed and knowledge began to be formalized through oral traditions and practices, building became a
craft, and "architecture" is the name given to the most highly formalized and respected versions of that craft.
Filmmaking
Filmmaking is the process of making a motion-picture, from an initial conception and research, through scriptwriting, shooting and recording, animation or other special effects, editing, sound and music work and finally distribution to an audience; it refers broadly to the creation of all types of films, embracing documentary, strains of theatre and literature in film, and poetic or experimental practices, and is often used to refer to video-based processes as well
Computer art

Visual artists are no longer limited to
traditional Visual arts media. Computers have been used as an ever more common tool in the visual arts since the 1960s. Uses include the
capturing or creating of images and forms, the editing of those images and forms (including exploring multiple
compositions) and the final
rendering or
printing (including
3D printing).
Computer art is any in which
computers played a role in production or display. Such art can be an image, sound,
animation,
video,
CD-ROM,
DVD,
video game,
website,
algorithm,
performance or gallery installation. Many traditional disciplines are now integrating
digital technologies and, as a result, the lines between traditional works of art and
new media works created using computers have been blurred. For instance, an artist may combine traditional
painting with
algorithmic art and other digital techniques. As a result, defining computer art by its end product can be difficult. Nevertheless, this type of art is beginning to appear in art museum exhibits, though it has yet to prove its legitimacy as a form unto itself and this technology is widely seen in contemporary art more as a tool rather than a form as with painting. On the other hand, there are computer-based artworks which belong to a new
conceptual and
postdigital strand, assuming the same technologies, and their social impact, as an object of inquiry.
Computer usage has blurred the distinctions between
illustrators,
photographers,
photo editors,
3-D modelers, and handicraft artists. Sophisticated rendering and editing software has led to multi-skilled image developers.
Photographers may become
digital artists. Illustrators may become
animators. Handicraft may be
computer-aided or use
computer-generated imagery as a template. Computer
clip art usage has also made the clear distinction between visual arts and
page layout less obvious due to the easy access and editing of clip art in the process of
paginating a document, especially to the unskilled observer.
Plastic arts
Plastic arts is a term for art forms that involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by moulding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramics. The term has also been applied to ''all the visual (non-literary, non-musical) arts''.
Materials that can be carved or shaped, such as stone or wood, concrete or steel, have also been included in the narrower definition, since, with appropriate tools, such materials are also capable of modulation. This use of the term "plastic" in the arts should not be confused with
Piet Mondrian's use, nor with the movement he termed, in French and English, "
Neoplasticism."
Sculpture
Sculpture is
three-dimensional artwork created by shaping or combining hard or
plastic material, sound, or text and or light, commonly
stone (either
rock or
marble),
clay,
metal,
glass, or
wood. Some sculptures are created directly by finding or
carving; others are assembled, built together and
fired,
welded,
molded, or
cast. Sculptures are often
painted.
A person who creates sculptures is called a sculptor.
Because sculpture involves the use of materials that can be moulded or modulated, it is considered one of the
plastic arts. The majority of
public art is sculpture. Many sculptures together in a
garden setting may be referred to as a
sculpture garden. Sculptors do not always make sculptures by hand. With increasing technology in the 20th century and the popularity of
conceptual art over technical mastery, more sculptors turned to
art fabricators to produce their artworks. With fabrication, the artist creates a design and pays a fabricator to produce it. This allows sculptors to create larger and more complex sculptures out of material like cement, metal and plastic, that they would not be able to create by hand. Sculptures can also be made with
3-d printing technology.
US copyright definition of visual art
In the United States, the law protecting the copyright over a piece of visual art gives a more restrictive definition of "visual art".
A "work of visual art" is —
(1) a painting, drawing, print or sculpture, existing in a single copy, in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author, or, in the case of a sculpture, in multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author; or
(2) a still photographic image produced for exhibition purposes only, existing in a single copy that is signed by the author, or in a limited edition of 200 copies or fewer that are signed and consecutively numbered by the author.
A work of visual art does not include —
(A)(i) any poster, map, globe, chart, technical drawing, diagram, model, applied art, motion picture or other audiovisual work, book, magazine, newspaper, periodical, data base, electronic information service, electronic publication, or similar publication;
(ii) any merchandising item or advertising, promotional, descriptive, covering, or packaging material or container;
(iii) any portion or part of any item described in clause (i) or (ii);
(B) any work made for hire; or
(C) any work not subject to copyright protection under this title.
See also
*
Art materials
*
Asemic writing
*
Collage
*
Crowdsourcing creative work
*
Décollage
*
Environmental art
*
Found object
*
Graffiti
*
History of art
*
Illustration
*
Installation art
*
Interactive art
*
Landscape art
*
Mathematics and art
*
Mixed media
*
Portraiture
*
Process art
*
Recording medium
*
Sketch (drawing)
*
Sound art
*
Vexillography
*
Video art
*
Visual arts and Theosophy
*
Visual impairment in art
References
Bibliography
* Barnes, A. C., ''The Art in Painting'', 3rd ed., 1937, Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc., NY.
* Bukumirovic, D. (1998). ''Maga Magazinovic''. Biblioteka Fatalne srpkinje knj. br. 4. Beograd: Narodna knj.
* Fazenda, M. J. (1997). ''Between the pictorial and the expression of ideas: the plastic arts and literature in the dance of Paula Massano''. n.p.
* Gerón, C. (2000). ''Enciclopedia de las artes plásticas dominicanas: 1844–2000''. 4th ed.
Dominican Republic s.n.
*
Oliver Grau (Ed.): ''MediaArtHistories''. MIT-Press, Cambridge 2007. with
Rudolf Arnheim,
Barbara Stafford,
Sean Cubitt,
W. J. T. Mitchell,
Lev Manovich,
Christiane Paul,
Peter Weibel a.o
Rezensionen* Laban, R. V. (1976). ''The language of movement: a guidebook to choreutics''. Boston: Plays.
* La Farge, O. (1930). ''Plastic prayers: dances of the Southwestern Indians''. n.p.
* Restany, P. (1974). ''Plastics in arts''. Paris, New York: n.p.
* University of Pennsylvania. (1969). ''Plastics and new art''. Philadelphia: The Falcon Pr.
External links
ArtLex– online dictionary of visual art terms.
Calendar for Artists– calendar listing of visual art festivals.
Art History Timelineby the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Category:Arts by type
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Category:Visual arts media