How to understand art. How to learn to understand art

In this publication, we will consider such trends in art as Realism, Impressionism, Fauvism, Modernism, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Abstractionism, Dadaism, Suprematism, Metaphysical Painting, Surrealism, Active Painting, Pop Art and Minimalism.

But first collage :)

Click on the picture to enlarge

Let us now briefly consider these areas of art.

Realism - (lat. real, real) - a direction in art that aims to faithfully reproduce reality in its typical features.

Impressionism- a direction in the art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, whose representatives sought to most naturally and impartially capture real world in its mobility and variability, to convey their fleeting impressions.

Fauvism- direction to french painting late XIX- the beginning of the 20th century, characterized by the brightness of colors and the simplification of form.

Modern - artistic direction in art, most popular in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. His distinctive features is the rejection of straight lines and angles in favor of more natural, "natural" lines.

Expressionism- a trend in European art that developed around the beginning of 1905-1920, characterized by a tendency to express the emotional characteristics of images (usually a person or group of people) or emotional state the artist himself.

Cubism- avant-garde trend in fine arts, primarily in painting, which originated at the beginning of the 20th century and is characterized by the use of emphatically geometrized conditional forms, the desire to “split” real objects into stereometric primitives.

Futurism - common name artistic avant-garde movements of the 1910s - early 1920s, primarily in Italy and Russia. Main artistic principles- speed, movement, energy that some futurists tried to convey enough simple tricks. Their painting is characterized by energetic compositions, where the figures are fragmented into fragments and intersect sharp corners, where flickering shapes, zigzags, spirals, beveled cones predominate, where movement is transmitted by superimposing successive phases on one image - the so-called principle of simultaneity.

Abstractionism- the direction of non-figurative art, which abandoned the representation of forms close to reality in painting and sculpture. One of the goals of abstractionism is to achieve "harmonization", the creation of certain color combinations and geometric shapes in order to evoke various associations in the contemplator.

Dadaism, or Yes Yes - modernist movement in literature, fine arts, theater and cinema. In the visual arts, the most common form of Dadaist creativity was collage - a technical technique for creating a work of pieces of various materials: paper, fabric, etc.

Suprematism- a direction in avant-garde art, founded in the 1st half of the 1910s. K. S. Malevich. Being a kind of abstract art, Suprematism was expressed in combinations of multi-colored planes of the simplest geometric outlines (in the geometric forms of a straight line, square, circle and rectangle). Combination of multi-colored and multi-sized geometric shapes forms balanced asymmetric Suprematist compositions permeated with internal movement.

metaphysical painting- direction to Italian painting beginning of the 20th century. AT metaphysical painting metaphor and dream become the basis for thought to go beyond ordinary logic, and the contrast between the realistically accurately depicted object and the strange atmosphere in which it is placed strengthened the unreal effect.

Surrealism- a direction in art, formed by the beginning of the 1920s in France. It is distinguished by the use of allusions and paradoxical combinations of forms.

active painting- tachisme ( variety abstract art: coloring by intuition) - a trend in Western European abstractionism of the 1950s and 60s, which was most widespread in the United States. It is a painting with spots that do not recreate images of reality, but express the unconscious activity of the artist. Strokes, lines and spots in tachisme are applied to the canvas with quick hand movements without a premeditated plan.

Pop Art(English) pop art, short for popular art, the etymology is also associated with English. pop- jerky blow, cotton) - a trend in the visual arts of the 1950s and 1960s, which arose as a reaction to abstract expressionism, using images of consumer products.

An image borrowed from popular culture, is placed in a different context:

• scale and material change;
• a technique or technical method is exposed;
• information interference is detected, etc.

Minimalism - artistic movement originated in New York in the 1960s. The art of minimalism usually included geometric shapes, repeatability, neutral surfaces, industrial materials and manufacturing method.

For many, it seems an impossible task to remember the artists and their paintings. For hundreds of years, history has entered the names of many artists whose names are well-known, unlike paintings. How to remember the peculiarity of the artist and his style? We have prepared brief description For those who want to understand the fine arts:

If the pictures show people with big asses, be sure - this is Rubbens

If people in beautiful clothes are relaxing in nature - Watteau

If men look like curly-haired women, with wild eyes - This is Caravaggio

If a picture with a dark background depicts a person with a blissful expression on his face or a martyr - Titian

If the picture contains multi-figured compositions, many people, objects, Christian and surreal motifs - this is Bosch

If a painting contains multi-figure compositions and complex plots, but they look more realistic than Bosch's paintings, you can be sure that this is Brueghel.

If you see a portrait of a man against a dark background in a dim, yellow light - Rembrandt

Biblical and mythological scenes depicting several plump cupids - Francois Boucher

Naked, pumped up bodies, ideal forms - Michelangelo

Ballerinas are drawn, this is Degas

Contrasting, sharp image with emaciated and bearded faces - El Greco

If the picture shows a girl with a unibrow - this is Frida

Quick and light strokes, bright colors and an image of nature - Monet

Light colors and rejoicing people - Renoir

Bright, colorful and rich - Van Gogh

Gloomy colors, black outlines and sad people - Manet

The background is like from the movie "The Lord of the Rings", with a slight blue fog. Wavy hair and aristocratic nose Madonna - Da Vinci

If the body depicted in the picture has an unusual shape - Picasso

Colored squares like an excel document - Mondrian

I came up with and drew excellent cheat sheets that will help both adults and children understand the directions of art. They are incredibly helpful and interesting.

However, Natasha herself will tell about them. And, of course, will show. By the way, you can download and print each cheat sheet.

How the idea was born

The idea of ​​cheat sheets on the history of art did not appear by chance.- I'm constantly looking effective methods teaching art history. At the same time, I am faced with typical problems in the study and teaching of the subject:

Firstly, lectures in the form of continuous notes on several sheets are forgotten very quickly.

Secondly, most people do not have time to delve deeply into the material, much less to check the validity of the facts and critical appraisal sources.

Thirdly, art- it's about ideas. It is like a mirror of the quest of every era: the work reflects ideas about the world and its structure, about truth, about beauty and morality, about the place of a person in life. But for some reason, most of the lectures are based on the biographies of specific artists, listing works and dates of their creation. In fact, the names of the paintings, dates and dull facts from the biography are not so important, like« born, educated, married» . After all, all this is forgotten instantly.

Fourth, when teaching art history in the format« born, educated, married» understanding is not formed artistic processes and their origins.

I really wanted to find a way to convey information to compressed form(= saving time), but at the same time highlighting the phenomenon with different angles, to give an idea of ​​specific artistic tasks and ways to solve them (= understanding of artistic processes). And add a few interesting facts that could capture the imagination and remain in memory. And so the idea of ​​art cheat sheets was born.

Why cheat sheets will help you quickly understand art

- Everything is capacious and to the point. The format of the sheet allows you to contain only really important information.

- Hierarchy of major and minor. Something will certainly be forgotten: a date, a fact from a biography, or the name of the third manifesto of this particular great artist. But the main thing will remain in memory- understanding the essence of an artistic phenomenon (whether it be a specific master, direction or style).

- The cheat sheet format allows you to visually divide all the information into different blocks. It's easier to remember, because they work at the same time different types memory.

Why cheat sheets written by an art critic are effective

- They help the reader to form a competent idea about the art of a certain era, since only a person who understands the subject of art can choose the most significant and correctly place the accents.

- A decent art critic read scientific literature about the era / direction / master, checked the facts, studied diaries and documents- a professional look allows you to highlight the really key features.

Cribs in six areas of Russian art

In the book "Playing Art" we are talking about Russian art turn XIX-XX centuries and about the six main trends of that time: realism, modernism, cubo-futurism, primitivism, analytical art and abstractionism. As the children's book called big interest and for adults, in addition to the book, I made six cheat sheets in each of the areas.

There is an opinion that"realism" - this is when what is depicted looks like the world. But is realism always really"realism"?

Modern

What kind artistic values shared by the masters of the modern era? And how to learn to quickly determine that the work belongs to the Art Nouveau style? All this is described in detail in the cheat sheet.

- direction in Russian art of the early twentieth century, which appeared as a result of the synthesis French cubism and Italian Futurism. In the cheat sheet, we analyze in detail what features of cubo-futurism came from, what is its uniqueness and what are the features"promotions" new direction on the art scene.

Primitivism

Many are concerned about the question of why the paintings of primitivists are recognized as masterpieces of art. Or, for example, for what reasons did primitivism arise? Why did the primitivists deliberately"forget" craft and turn away from realism in favor of emotion and pure ideas? And the most important thing- what to pay attention to in order to appreciate the peculiar beauty of the paintings of primitivists? The cheat sheet has many answers to the most different questions about this direction.

One of the first trends in the art of the twentieth century, which had a deeply developed theoretical base, was analytical art. In the cheat sheet, we understand the views on the art of the founder of the direction- Pavel Filonov. We also observe how the artist, thanks to his technique, translates ideas into artistic images.

The first abstractionists staged one of the most important issues in contemporary art:« Is one dot enough for a work of art?» . The cheat sheet tells about the reasons for the birth abstract painting, the main ideas of the key masters and what abstraction actually shows.

Well, are you curious? We have one last surprise.

Art master class for children

Natasha Kaya came up with unusual creative task, which will help the child quickly understand the directions in art (realism, modern, cubo-futurism, primitivism, analytical art and abstract art) and easily distinguish one from the other.

You will need:

six fruits of the same kind or fake fruits (available at home and garden stores or craft stores)

gouache or acrylic in different colors

big and small brushes.

Idea: each fruit will symbolize one of the directions of art.

Each of the painted peppers represents one art direction.

REALISM. We leave one fruit unpainted - it will be a "representative" of realism.

The rest of the fruits are covered with white paint.

Tasks for children in the areas:

MODERN. We color the fruit with beautiful ornaments.

CUBO-FUTURISM. We denote by a line all the faces of the fruit. Edges can be painted in different colors

PRIMITIVISM. You have to be careful to draw badly. For example, choose only the wrong colors, which the fruit is not colored in nature.

ANALYTICAL ART. We draw particles or atoms from which nature has "assembled" the fruit.

ABSTRACTIONISM. We paint the fruit in one color, because the form is above all.

Now you have 6 fruits that clearly demonstrate the features of each art direction.

Post cover - modern cheat sheet.

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