Painting is perhaps the most ancient form of art. Even in the primitive era, our ancestors made images of people and animals on the walls of caves. These are the first examples of painting. Since then, this type of art has always remained a companion of human life. Examples of painting today are numerous and varied. We will try to cover this type of art as much as possible, to talk about the main genres, styles, directions and techniques in it.
painting techniques
Consider first the basic techniques of painting. One of the most common is oil. This is a technique in which oil-based paints are used. These paints are applied in strokes. With the help of them, you can create a variety of different shades, as well as convey the necessary images with maximum realism.
Tempera is another popular technique. We are talking about it when emulsion paints are used. The binder in these paints is egg or water.
Gouache- a technique widely used in graphics. Gouache paint is made on an adhesive basis. It can be used to work on cardboard, paper, bone or silk. The image is durable, and the lines are clear. Pastel- This is a drawing technique with dry pencils, while the surface must be rough. And, of course, it is worth mentioning about watercolors. This paint is usually diluted with water. A soft and thin layer of paint is obtained using this technique. Particularly popular Of course, we have listed only the main techniques that are used in painting most often. There are others.
What are the paintings usually painted on? The most popular painting on canvas. It is stretched on a frame or glued to cardboard. Note that in the past, wooden boards were used quite often. Today, not only painting on canvas is popular, but any other flat materials can be used to create an image.
Painting types
There are 2 main types of it: easel and monumental painting. The latter is related to architecture. This type includes paintings on the ceilings and walls of buildings, decorating them with images made of mosaics or other materials, stained-glass windows, and so on. Easel painting is not associated with a specific building. It can be moved from place to place. In easel painting, there are many varieties (otherwise they are called genres). Let's dwell on them in more detail.
Genres of painting
The word "genre" is French in origin. It translates as "genus", "species". That is, under the name of the genre there is a content of some kind, and, pronouncing its name, we understand what the picture is about, what we will find in it: a person, nature, an animal, objects, etc.
Portrait
The most ancient genre of painting is the portrait. This is an image of a person who looks only like himself and no one else. In other words, a portrait is an image in painting of an individual appearance, since each of us has an individual face. This genre of painting has its own varieties. A portrait can be full-length, chest-length, or only one person is painted. Note that not every image of a person is a portrait, since an artist can create, for example, "a person in general" without writing him off from anyone. However, when he depicts a specific representative of the human race, he is working on a portrait. Needless to say, there are numerous examples of painting in this genre. But the portrait below is known to almost every resident of our country. We are talking about the image of A. S. Pushkin, created in 1827 by Kiprensky.
Self-portrait can also be added to this genre. In this case, the artist depicts himself. There is a paired portrait, when in the picture there are people in a pair; and a group portrait, when a group of people is depicted. One can also note the ceremonial portrait, a variety of which is equestrian, one of the most solemn. It was very popular in the past, but such works are rare now. However, the next genre that we will talk about is relevant at any time. What is it about? This can be guessed by sorting through the genres that we have not yet named, characterizing painting. Still life is one of them. It is about him that we will now talk, continuing to consider painting.
Still life
This word also has a French origin, it means "dead nature", although the meaning would be more accurate "inanimate nature". Still life - the image of inanimate objects. They are of great variety. Note that still lifes can also depict "living nature": butterflies subsided on the petals, beautiful flowers, birds, and sometimes a person can be seen among the gifts of nature. However, it will still be a still life, since the image of the living is not the most important thing for the artist in this case.
Scenery
Landscape is another French word meaning "view of the country" in translation. It is analogous to the German concept of "landscape". Landscape is a depiction of nature in its diversity. The following varieties join this genre: the architectural landscape and the very popular seascape, which is often called the single word "marina", and the artists working in it are called marine painters. Numerous examples of painting in the seascape genre can be found in the work of I. K. Aivazovsky. One of them is "Rainbow" of 1873.
This picture is painted in oil and is difficult to perform. But it’s not difficult to create watercolor landscapes, so at school, in drawing lessons, this task was given to each of us.
Animal genre
The next genre is animalistic. Everything is simple here - this is an image of birds and animals in nature, in a natural environment.
household genre
The everyday genre is a depiction of scenes from life, everyday life, funny "incidents", home life and stories of ordinary people in an ordinary environment. And you can do without stories - just capture everyday activities and affairs. Such paintings are sometimes referred to as genre painting. As an example, consider the above work by Van Gogh (1885).
historical genre
The themes of painting are diverse, but the historical genre stands out separately. This is a depiction of historical heroes and events. The battle genre adjoins it, it presents episodes of war, battle.
Religious and mythological genre
In the mythological genre, paintings are written on the themes of ancient and ancient legends about gods and heroes. It should be noted that the image is of a secular nature, and in this it differs from the images of the deities represented on the icon. By the way, religious painting is not only icons. It brings together various works written on religious subjects.
Clash of genres
The richer the content of the genre, the more its "companions" appear. Genres can merge, so there is a painting that cannot be put into the framework of any of them at all. In art, there is both a general (techniques, genres, styles) and an individual (a particular work taken separately). A separate picture carries something in common. Therefore, many artists may have one genre, but the paintings painted in it are never alike. Such features have the culture of painting.
Style
Style in is an aspect of the visual perception of paintings. It can combine the work of one artist or the work of artists of a certain period, direction, school, area.
Academic painting and realism
Academic painting is a special direction, the formation of which is associated with the activities of the academies of arts in Europe. It appeared in the 16th century at the Bologna Academy, the natives of which sought to imitate the masters of the Renaissance. Since the 16th century, methods of teaching painting began to be based on strict observance of rules and norms, following formal patterns. art in Paris was considered one of the most influential in Europe. She promoted the aesthetics of classicism that dominated France in the 17th century. Parisian academy? contributing to the systematization of education, gradually turned the rules of the classical direction into a dogma. So academic painting has become a special direction. In the 19th century, one of the most prominent manifestations of academicism was the work of J. L. Gerome, Alexandre Cabannel, J. Ingres. Classical canons were replaced by realistic ones only at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. It was realism that at the beginning of the 20th century became the basic method of teaching in academies, turning into a dogmatic system.
Baroque
Baroque is a style and era of art, which is characterized by aristocracy, contrast, dynamism of images, simple details when depicting abundance, tension, drama, luxury, a fusion of reality and illusion. This style appeared in Italy in 1600 and spread throughout Europe. Caravaggio and Rubens are its most prominent representatives. Baroque is often compared with expressionism, however, unlike the latter, it does not have too repulsive effects. Paintings of this style today are characterized by the complexity of lines and an abundance of ornaments.
Cubism
Cubism is an avant-garde art movement that originated in the 20th century. Its creator is Pablo Picasso. Cubism made a real revolution in the sculpture and painting of Europe, inspiring the creation of similar trends in architecture, literature, and music. Artistic painting in this style is characterized by recombined, broken objects that have an abstract form. When depicting them, many points of view are used.
Expressionism
Expressionism is another important trend in contemporary art that appeared in Germany in the first half of the 20th century. At first it covered only poetry and painting, and then spread to other areas of art.
Expressionists depict the world subjectively, distorting reality to create a greater emotional effect. Their goal is to make the viewer think. Expression in expressionism prevails over the image. It can be noted that many works are characterized by motifs of torment, pain, suffering, screaming (the work of Edvard Munch, presented above, is called "The Scream"). Expressionist artists are not at all interested in material reality, their paintings are filled with deep meaning and emotional experiences.
Impressionism
Impressionism - a direction of painting, aimed mainly at working in the open air (open air), and not in the studio. It owes its name to the painting "Impression, Sunrise" by Claude Monet, which is shown in the photo below.
The word "impression" in English is impression. Impressionistic paintings convey primarily the light sensation of the artist. The main features of painting in this style are as follows: barely visible, thin strokes; change in lighting, accurately conveyed (attention is often focused on the effect of the passage of time); open composition; a simple common goal; movement as a key element of human experience and perception. The most prominent representatives of such a trend as impressionism are Edgar Degas, Claude Monet, Pierre Renoir.
Modernism
The next direction is modernism, which originated as a set of trends in various fields of art in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The Paris Salon of the Rejected was opened in 1863. Artists whose paintings were not allowed in the official salon were exhibited here. This date can be considered the date of the emergence of modernism as a separate direction in art. Otherwise, modernism is sometimes called "another art". His goal is to create unique paintings that are not like others. The main feature of the works is a special vision of the world by the author.
Artists in their work rebelled against the values of realism. Self-awareness is a striking characteristic of this trend. This often leads to experimentation with form as well as a penchant for abstraction. Representatives of modernism pay special attention to the materials used and the work process. One of its most prominent representatives are Henry Matisse (his work "The Red Room" of 1908 is presented above) and Pablo Picasso.
Neoclassicism
Neoclassicism is the main direction of painting in Northern Europe from the middle of the 18th century until the end of the 19th. It is characterized by a return to the features of the ancient Renaissance and even the times of classicism. In architectural, artistic and cultural terms, neoclassicism emerged as a response to Rococo, which was perceived as a shallow and artsy style of art. Neoclassical artists, thanks to their good knowledge of church laws, tried to introduce canons into their work. However, they avoided simply reproducing classical motifs and themes. Neoclassical artists tried to place their painting within the framework of tradition and thus demonstrate mastery of the genre. Neoclassicism in this respect is directly opposed to modernism, where improvisation and self-expression are considered virtues. Its most famous representatives include Nicolas Poussin, Raphael.
Pop Art
The last direction that we will consider is pop art. He appeared in Britain in the mid-50s of the last century, and in the late 50s - in America. Pop art is believed to have originated as a reaction to the ideas of abstract expressionism that dominated at the time. Speaking about this direction, it is impossible not to mention In 2009, "Eight Elvis", one of his paintings, was sold for $ 100 million.
Style(Greek stilos - rod, stick for writing) - an established form of artistic self-determination of an era, region, nation, social or creative group or individual. The birth of the largest, so-called "historical artistic styles", is determined by the internal logic of the development of human artistic thinking, certain ways of seeing the world, understanding the properties of space and time in which a person lives and acts. Styles in art do not have clear boundaries, they pass one into another and are in continuous development.
Romanesque (X-thirteenth century). The word "Romance" comes from the Latin romanus - Roman. Romanesque buildings symbolized not only the political and cultural continuity from Ancient Rome, but also testified to the unlimited power of the new rulers of Europe, the omnipotence of the Christian God. The Romanesque style in architecture is characterized by the use of vaulted and arched structures, massive walls, narrow windows, towers of various silhouettes in buildings. The style is characterized by simplicity, expediency, rigor. Temples, monastic complexes, knight's castles were built in the Romanesque style.
Gothic style (XII-16th century). The word "Gothic" comes from the name of the Germanic tribe Goths. After the Romanesque style, Gothic became the second canon of the Middle Ages and the first pan-European artistic style in history. The basis of style is architecture. The technological need to lighten the vault gave rise to a new design.
High lancet arches, ribbed vaults and a frame system of supports made it possible to block gigantic spaces, increase the height of the building and free the walls from the load without fear that they would collapse. The walls were cut through by huge windows and stained-glass windows, creating a special play of color and light. The vertical becomes the main compositional dominant. All these techniques made it possible to create an artistic image that reflects the irrational, mystical aspiration of the human soul to heaven. The most famous Gothic cathedral is Notre Dame Cathedral in France.
Baroque (late 16th - mid 18th century). The Baroque era is associated with the rise of absolutism, as well as with the development of theater and opera. It originated in Italy, then spread to other European countries after the Renaissance. The very word "baroque" - of Portuguese origin and means "irregular pearl". Baroque art is characterized by grandiosity, splendor, passion for spectacular effects, the combination of fantastic and real, contrasts of scale and rhythm, materials and texture. The main means of expressiveness of Baroque art is the play of light and shadow. Baroque is characterized by pictorial illusoryness, i.e., the desire to deceive the eye, to get out of the space depicted into real space.
Classicism (XVII - early XIX century). The word "classicism" comes from the Latin classicus - first-class, exemplary. In Western Europe, classicism dominated art in the 17th-18th centuries, in Russia - in the second half of the 18th-19th centuries. This artistic style is the highest manifestation of the ideas of compositional integrity, completeness, balance. Expresses the desire for simplicity, clarity, rationality, logic of the artistic image. This ideal manifested itself most clearly in the era of ancient classics.
Therefore, in most cases, the predominance of classical thinking means an orientation towards the forms of ancient art. As a method of thinking, classicism is normative and systematic. It is no coincidence that in classicism there is a system of rules and a complete theory of artistic creation. Classicism puts forward such aesthetic norms as resistance to the cruelty of fate and the vicissitudes of life, the subordination of the personal to the common, passions to duty, reason, and the highest interests of society. In the literature of classicism, there was a strict hierarchy of genres: "high" (tragedy, epic, ode, historical, mythological, religious paintings) and "low" (comedy, satire, fable, genre painting).
The late stage of classicism is the Empire style.
Rococo (first half of the 18th century). The word "rococo" comes from the French "rocaille", which means "asymmetrical", "decorated with ornate curls." It became widespread in France under Louis XV. Rococo, associated with the crisis of absolutism, is characterized by a departure from life into the world of fantasy, theatrical play and pastoral plots, erotic situations. Rococo dominated interior decoration, sculpture, painting and arts and crafts.
Direction- social, artistic movement; the worldview of a rapidly changing time, revealed in art.
Romanticism (late 18th - early 19th century). Romanticism reflected disappointment in the ideas of the French Revolution and the worldview of the Enlightenment. The basis of the romantic worldview is a painful discord between the ideal and social reality. The dramatic change in everyday life as a result of industrialization has forced many people to turn to the world of feelings and emotional experiences. Lyrics flourished in European literature during this period, poems and novels in verse became the main genre.
Romanticism is characterized by the opposition of two worlds: the real and the imaginary. Seeing the world of vices in contemporary reality, romanticism tries to find a way out for man. This way out is at the same time a way out of society in different ways. Option one - the romantic hero goes into his own inner world, the world of passions and experiences, the world of fiction and dreams. Option two - flight to exotic countries. Another direction of care may be care at a different time. Romanticism begins to idealize the past, especially the Middle Ages, seeing in it a different reality, a culture whose values are incomparable with the utilitarianism of modern society.
Realism (arose in the Renaissance, stood out as an independent direction in the 19th-20th centuries). A term in the broad sense of the word denoting the desire for a more complete, deep and comprehensive reflection of reality in all its manifestations. The trend of realism in thinking manifests itself in different forms in different types of art, art movements and styles. The development of realism could most fully express the contradictions of social development.
The leading principles of realism: an objective reflection of life in combination with the author's ideal; reproduction of typical characters, conflicts, situations with their artistic individualization; the prevailing interest in the problem of "personality and society". Realism led to the flourishing of such a literary genre as the socio-historical novel. Literature, in turn, influenced realistic painting. Gustave Courbet(1819-1877) was the first who, in relation to his paintings, began to use the term "realism", which means the image of reality. Courbet depicted people at work, and not in joy and contentment, as was often shown before.
Naturalism (last third of the 19th century). The word "naturalism" comes from the Latin natura - nature. A direction in literature and art that strove for an objectively accurate and dispassionate reproduction of the observed reality. Theorist and leader of naturalism was Emile Zola. Representatives of naturalism proceeded from the position that the fate of a person is completely predetermined by the social environment, way of life, heredity, and physiology.
Historicism, or eclecticism (a trend in architecture, 1820-1920). A combination of heterogeneous stylistic elements or an arbitrary choice of stylistic design for buildings that have a qualitatively different meaning and purpose. During the construction of various structures, architects in most cases resorted to copying the styles of the past. These various building styles are united by the common name "historicism". The use of historical styles in architecture showed pride in the technical achievements of the 19th century.
Symbolism. In a broad sense, symbolism is an integral property of art, since artistic creativity is symbolic in nature. This is a trend of artistic thinking, which in different eras found its expression in religious art, in romanticism, in the modern period. Symbolism is an essential property of art, designed to establish a connection between the visible and the concrete with the realm of ideal representations.
As a trend in European and Russian art at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries, symbolism is imbued with mysticism, mystery, the desire to comprehend the highest values with the help of symbols, allegories, and generalizations. To express the inexpressible is the task of symbolism. Symbolism is a two world: the world of everyday reality and the transcendent world, that is, the world that is beyond sensory perception. Symbolists believed that art has a special, magical power that can renew life, worldview and life of people.
Impressionism (last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries). The word "impressionism" comes from the French impression - impression. The name arose after the exhibition in 1874, which exhibited the painting by Claude Monet “Impression. Rising Sun". The Impressionists were the innovators who had the greatest influence on the development of art in the 20th century. The Impressionists conveyed impressions by artistic means in the same way as brief moments were recorded by a camera.
They conveyed the external impression of light, shadow, reflexes on the surface of objects with separate strokes of pure colors, which visually dissolved the form in the environment. The painting method was based on the principle of contrast perception of complementary colors. The plot of the paintings was of secondary importance for the artists. They tried to capture the movement in the picture and at the same time portray, capture the fleeting nuances of this movement. Of particular interest to artists were the unsteady, transitional states of natural phenomena (water, clouds, light).
Post-Impressionism (late 19th - early 20th century). Post - after + impressionism. The general designation of various artistic movements in painting of the 20th century that arose as a reaction to the method of impressionism: symbolism, divisionism, expressionism, fauvism, orphism, cubism. The Post-Impressionists are Georges Seurat,Paul Cezanne,Paul Gauguin,Vincent Van Gogh,Henri Toulouse-Lautrec, as well as representatives of neo-impressionism and the Nabis group. Each artist went his own way, forming his own creative method and individual artistic style.
Pointillism, or divisionism, or neo-impressionism (late 19th century). From the French point - point, from lat. division - division. The pictorial method and the trend in post-impressionism painting that arose on its basis, in which work on the picture is carried out with small separate strokes of a dotted or rectangular shape of pure color. Strokes of paint of different colors had to be mixed optically when the viewer perceived the picture from a certain distance, and not mechanically on the artist's palette, as was always the case.
Art Nouveau (late 19th - early 20th century). The Russian name of the style, respectively, in French "l" art nouveau "is a new art. Modern is a set of attempts to form a holistic, opposing eclectic art style in architecture and decorative art. Representatives of modern used new technically constructive means (metal, glass, ceramics) , free planning, a kind of architectural decor for creating unusual, emphasized individual buildings (mainly city mansions), all the elements of which were subject to a single ornamental rhythm and a peculiar symbolic design. Fine and decorative art of modernity is distinguished by the poetics of symbolism, the decorative rhythm of flexible, flowing lines, stylized floral pattern.
Decadence, or decadence (second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries). From the French word decadence - decay, decline. The general name of the crisis phenomena of European culture, which are characterized by moods of hopelessness, rejection of life, individualism. Constant themes of decadence are the motives of non-existence and death, longing for spiritual values, rejection of civil ideals, faith in reason, which is associated with the increasing role of the intellect. Decadence became widespread in Russia, especially after the revolution of 1905-1907, in the work of a number of masters of the World of Art and Blue Rose associations.
Vanguard (XX century). A term denoting a set of colorful and diverse innovative, revolutionary, rebellious movements and trends in the artistic culture of the 20th century. Avant-garde phenomena are characteristic of all transitional stages in the history of artistic culture, individual types of art. However, in the XX century. the avant-garde has acquired global significance as a powerful phenomenon of artistic culture, which is associated with a turning point in cultural and civilizational processes caused by the scientific and technological progress of the 20th century. The main trend of the avant-garde is the rejection of traditions and the experimental search for new forms.
Being the extreme expression of a broader direction of modernism, the avant-garde is looking for various ways to directly influence readers, listeners, viewers. To produce shock, scandal, shocking - without this, avant-garde art is impossible. The main thing is the effectiveness of art - it is designed to amaze, stir up, cause an active reaction in a person from the outside. At the same time, it is desirable that the reaction be immediate, instantaneous, excluding a long and concentrated perception of aesthetic form and content. Misunderstanding, complete or partial, organically enters into the avant-gardist's plan. The most essential thing in the avant-garde is its unusualness, catchiness.
The principles of the avant-garde were adopted by cubism, futurism, dadaism, abstract art, surrealism, expressionism, constructivism and other movements. The Russian avant-garde in the visual arts includes M. Chagall,K. Malevich,V. Kandinsky. It was the avant-garde that, by loosening and destroying traditional aesthetic norms and principles, forms and methods of artistic expression and opening up the possibility of unlimited innovations, often based on the latest achievements of science and technology, opened the way for the transition of artistic culture to a new quality. With this, the avant-garde fulfilled its function in the new European culture and basically ended its existence as a kind of global phenomenon in the 1960s and 70s.
Modernism (late 19th - mid-20th centuries). The general designation of the phenomena of art and literature, affirming a new approach to the depiction of life. Modernism combines many relatively independent ideological and artistic trends and trends, different in social scale and cultural and historical significance (fauvism, expressionism, symbolism, cubism, abstractionism, constructivism). The formation of modernism as a legitimate artistic and aesthetic system was prepared by its stages such as decadence and avant-garde. The predominance of gloomy coloring, pessimistic moods and anxious languishing forebodings, the consciousness of the unknowability and immutability of the inhuman world - such an emotional mood of the works of modernism.
Postmodernism (second half of the 20th century). By the middle of the XX century. postmodernism was understood as the modern phase of the development of European culture. Leading Western political scientists interpret postmodernism as a symbol of a post-industrial society. Postmodernism is a broad cultural trend in which philosophy, aesthetics, art, and the humanities fall into orbit.
Styles and directions of paintingThe number of styles and trends is huge, if not endless. Styles in art do not have clear boundaries, they smoothly pass one into another and are in continuous development, mixing and opposition. Within the framework of one historical artistic style, a new one is always born, and that, in turn, passes into the next. Many styles coexist at the same time and therefore there are no “pure styles” at all.
Abstractionism (from Latin abstractio - removal, distraction) - an artistic direction in art that has abandoned the image of forms close to reality.
avant-garde, avant-garde (from French avant-garde - advanced detachment) - the general name of artistic trends in the art of the 20th century, which are characterized by the search for new forms and means of artistic display, underestimation or complete denial of traditions and absolutization of innovation.
Academicism (from French academisme) - a direction in European painting of the 16th-19th centuries. It was based on dogmatic adherence to the external forms of classical art. Followers characterized this style as a reflection on the art form of the ancient ancient world and the Renaissance. Academism replenished the traditions of ancient art, in which the image of nature was idealized, while compensating for the norm of beauty. Annibale, Agostino and Lodovico Carracci wrote in this style.
Actionism (from the English action art - the art of action) - happening, performance, event, process art, demonstration art and a number of other forms that arose in the avant-garde art of the 1960s. In accordance with the ideology of actionism, the artist must organize events and processes. Actionism seeks to blur the line between art and reality.
Empire (from the French empire - empire) - a style in architecture and decorative art that arose in France at the beginning of the 19th century, during the First Empire of Napoleon Bonaparte. Empire - the final development of classicism. For the embodiment of majesty, sophistication, luxury, power and military strength, the Empire is characterized by an appeal to ancient art: ancient Egyptian decorative forms (war trophies, winged sphinxes ...), Etruscan vases, Pompeian paintings, Greek and Roman decor, Renaissance frescoes and ornaments. The main representative of this style was J. L. David (paintings "The Oath of the Horatii" (1784), "Brutus" (1789))
underground (from the English underground - underground, dungeon) - a number of artistic trends in contemporary art that oppose mass culture, the mainstream. The underground rejects and violates the political, moral and ethical orientations and types of behavior accepted in society, introducing antisocial behavior into everyday life. In the Soviet period, due to the severity of the regime, almost any unofficial, i.e. not recognized by the authorities, art turned out to be underground.
Art Nouveau (from French art nouveau, literally - new art) - the name of the Art Nouveau style common in many countries (Belgium, France, England, USA, etc.). The most famous artist of this direction of painting: Alphonse Mucha.
Art Deco (from French art deco, abbreviated from decoratif) - a trend in art in the middle of the 20th century, which marked the synthesis of avant-garde and neoclassicism, replaced constructivism. Distinctive features of this direction: fatigue, geometric lines, luxury, chic, expensive materials (ivory, crocodile skin). The most famous artist of this trend is Tamara de Lempicka (1898-1980).
Baroque (from Italian barocco - strange, bizarre or from port. perola barroca - an irregularly shaped pearl, there are other assumptions about the origin of this word) - an artistic style in the art of the late Renaissance. Distinctive features of this style: exaggeration of size, broken lines, an abundance of decorative details, heaviness and colossality.
Revival, or Renaissance (from French renaissance, Italian rinascimento) is an era in the history of European culture that replaced the culture of the Middle Ages and preceded the culture of modern times. Approximate chronological framework of the era - XIV-XVI centuries. A distinctive feature of the Renaissance is the secular nature of culture and its anthropocentrism (that is, interest, first of all, in a person and his activities). There is an interest in ancient culture, there is, as it were, its “revival” - and this is how the term appeared. Drawing pictures of traditional religious themes, the artists began to use new artistic techniques: building a three-dimensional composition, using a landscape in the background, which allowed them to make the images more realistic and lively. This sharply distinguished their work from the previous iconographic tradition, replete with conventions in the image. The most famous artists of this period: Sandro Botticelli (1447-1515), Leonardo da Vinci (1452-1519), Raphael Santi (1483-1520), Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475-1564), Titian (1477-1576), Antonio Correggio (1489 -1534), Hieronymus Bosch (1450-1516), Albrecht Durer (1471-1528).
Woodland (from English - forest land) - a style in art, originating in the symbolism of rock art, myths and legends of North American Indians.
Gothic (from Italian gotico - unusual, barbaric) - a period in the development of medieval art, covering almost all areas of culture and developing in Western, Central and partly Eastern Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. Gothic completed the development of European medieval art, having arisen on the basis of the achievements of the Romanesque culture, and during the Renaissance, the art of the Middle Ages was considered "barbaric". Gothic art was cult in purpose and religious in subject matter. It appealed to the highest divine powers, eternity, the Christian worldview. Gothic in its development is divided into Early Gothic, Heyday, Late Gothic.
Impressionism (from French impression - impression) is a trend in European painting that originated in France in the middle of the 19th century, the main purpose of which was to convey fleeting, changeable impressions.
Kitsch, kitsch (from German kitsch - bad taste) is a term denoting one of the most odious phenomena of mass culture, a synonym for pseudo-art, in which the main attention is paid to the extravagance of appearance, the loudness of its elements. In fact, kitsch is a kind of postmodernism. Kitsch is mass art for the elite. A work belonging to kitsch must be made at a high artistic level, it must have a fascinating plot, but this is not a real work of art in a high sense, but a skillful fake for it. There may be deep psychological collisions in kitsch, but there are no genuine artistic discoveries and revelations.
Classicism (from Latin classicus - exemplary) is an artistic style in art, the basis of which was the appeal, as an ideal aesthetic standard, to the images and forms of ancient art and the Renaissance, requiring strict adherence to a number of rules and canons.
Cosmism (from the Greek kosmos - organized world, kosma - decoration) is an artistic and philosophical worldview, which is based on knowledge of the Cosmos and the idea of a person as a citizen of the World, as well as a microcosm similar to the Macrocosm. Cosmism is associated with astronomical knowledge about the universe.
Cubism (from French cube - cube) is a modernist trend in art, depicting objects of reality decomposed into simple geometric shapes.
Lettrism (from the English letter - letter, message) is a direction in modernism based on the use of images similar to a font, unreadable text, as well as compositions based on letters and text.
Metarealism, metaphysical realism (from the Greek. meta - between and healis - material, real) is a direction in art, the main idea of which is to express the superconsciousness, the superphysical nature of things.
Minimalism (derived from the English minimal art - minimal art) is an artistic movement that comes from the minimal transformation of the materials used in the creative process, simplicity and uniformity of forms, monochrome, creative self-restraint of the artist. Minimalism is characterized by the rejection of subjectivity, representation, illusionism. Rejecting classical techniques and traditional art materials, minimalists use industrial and natural materials of simple geometric shapes and neutral colors (black, gray), small volumes, use serial, conveyor methods of industrial production.
Modern (derived from the French moderne - the latest, modern) - an artistic style in art, in which the features of the art of different epochs are rethought and stylized with the help of artistic techniques based on the principles of asymmetry, ornamental news and decorations.
Neoplasticism is one of the earliest varieties of abstract art. Created by 1917 by the Dutch painter P. Mondrian and other artists who were part of the "Style" association. Neoplasticism is characterized, according to its creators, by the desire for "universal harmony", expressed in strictly balanced combinations of large rectangular figures, clearly separated by perpendicular black lines and painted in local colors of the main spectrum (with the addition of white and gray tones).
Primitivism, naive art, naive - a style of painting in which the picture is deliberately simplified, its forms are made primitive, like folk art, the work of a child or a primitive person.
Op art (from the English optical art - optical art) is a neo-avant-garde trend in the visual arts, in which the effects of spatial movement, merging and "floating" of forms are achieved by introducing sharp color and tonal contrasts, rhythmic repetitions, crossing spiral and lattice configurations, wriggling lines.
Orientalism (from Latin oriens - east) - a direction in European art that uses the themes, symbols and motifs of the East and Indochina
Orphism (from French orphisme, from Orp?ee - Orpheus) - a direction in French painting of the 1910s. The name was given in 1912 by the French poet Apollinaire to painting artist Robert Delaunay. Orphism is associated with cubism, futurism and expressionism. The main features of this style of painting are aestheticism, plasticity, rhythm, elegance of silhouettes and lines.
Masters of Orphism: Robert Delaunay, Sonia Turk-Delaunay, Frantisek Kupka, Francis Picabia, Vladimir Baranov-Rossine, Fernand Léger, Morgan Russell.
pop art
Postmodernism (from French postmodernisme - after modernism) is a new artistic style that differs from modernism in its return to the beauty of secondary reality, narrative, appeal to the plot, melody, and harmony of secondary forms. Postmodernism is characterized by the unification within the framework of one work of styles, figurative motifs and artistic techniques borrowed from different eras, regions and subcultures.
Realism (from lat. gealis - material, real) is a trend in art characterized by the depiction of social, psychological and other phenomena that is as close to reality as possible.
Rococo (derived from the French rococo, rocaille) is a style in art and architecture that originated in France in the early 18th century. He was distinguished by grace, lightness, intimate-flirtatious character. Having replaced the ponderous baroque, rococo was both the logical result of its development and its artistic antipode. With the Baroque style, Rococo is united by the desire for completeness of forms, but if Baroque gravitates towards monumental solemnity, then Rococo prefers elegance and lightness.
Symbolism (from French symbolisme - a sign, an identifying sign) is an artistic direction in art, based on the embodiment of the main ideas of the work through the many-valued and many-sided associative aesthetics of symbols.
Socialist realism, socialist realism is an artistic trend in art, which is an aesthetic expression of a socialist conscious concept of the world and man, due to the era of socialist society.
Hyperrealism, superrealism, photorealism (from the English hyperrealism - over realism) is a direction in art based on an accurate photographic reproduction of reality.
Surrealism (from French surrealisme - over + realism) is one of the directions of modernism, the main idea of which is to express the subconscious (to combine dream and reality).
Transavant-garde (from Latin trans - through, through and French avantgarde - avant-garde) is one of the modern trends of postmodernism that arose as a reaction to conceptualism and pop art. Transavant-garde covers the mixing and transformation of styles born in the avant-garde, such as cubism, fauvism, futurism, expressionism, etc.
Expressionism (derived from the French expression - expressiveness) is a modernist trend in art that considers the image of the outside world only as a means for expressing the subjective states of the author.
Directions in art are a system of artistic techniques, means of expression, which are designed to express a certain idea, a worldview that is dominant in a certain community at a given period of time. Styles have developed over the past millennium, successively replacing each other. Sometimes a new style arose as a continuation and development of the previous one, sometimes it became the result of a struggle with the ideas of the predecessor.
In some cases, it is so difficult to single out a style that it is rather classified as a direction. So symbolism, cubism can be attributed as an independently formed style, and they can be considered as directions of comprehensive modernism.
Each era gave rise to more than one artistic style. By studying works of art, you can get to know better the time in which this or that artistic style was formed and dominated.
The main trends in art of the 10th - 19th centuries
Romanesque style (X - XIII centuries)
Gothic style (XIII - XVI centuries)
Baroque (XVI - XVIII centuries)
Classicism (XVII - XIX centuries)
Sentimentalism (XVIII century)
Romanticism (XVIII - XIX centuries)
Realism (XIX century)
The main trends in the art of the XX century
Modernism
Symbolism
Impressionism
Surrealism
Formed in the 1920s of the last century, it is a style of paradoxical forms and allusions, reflecting the combination of dream and reality. In painting, surrealism is clearly reflected in the canvases of Magritte, Ernst, Dali, Matta...
The number of styles and trends is huge, if not endless. The key feature by which works can be grouped by style is the unified principles of artistic thinking. The change of some ways of artistic thinking by others (alternating types of compositions, techniques of spatial constructions, features of color) is not accidental. Our perception of art is also historically changeable.
Building a system of styles in a hierarchical order, we will adhere to the Eurocentric tradition. The largest in the history of art is the concept of an era. Each era is characterized by a certain “picture of the world”, which consists of philosophical, religious, political ideas, scientific ideas, psychological characteristics of the worldview, ethical and moral norms, aesthetic criteria of life, according to which they distinguish one era from another. These are the Primitive Age, the era of the Ancient World, Antiquity, the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the New Age.
Styles in art do not have clear boundaries, they smoothly pass one into another and are in continuous development, mixing and opposition. Within the framework of one historical artistic style, a new one is always born, and that, in turn, passes into the next. Many styles coexist at the same time and therefore there are no “pure styles” at all.
Several styles can coexist in the same historical era. For example, Classicism, Academicism and Baroque in the 17th century, Rococo and Neoclassicism in the 18th century, Romanticism and Academicism in the 19th century. Such styles as, for example, classicism and baroque are called great styles, since they apply to all types of art: architecture, painting, arts and crafts, literature, music.
It should be distinguished: artistic styles, trends, trends, schools and features of the individual styles of individual masters. Within one style, there can be several artistic directions. The artistic direction is made up of both signs typical of a given era and peculiar ways of artistic thinking. The Art Nouveau style, for example, includes a number of trends from the turn of the century: post-impressionism, symbolism, fauvism, and so on. On the other hand, the concept of symbolism as an artistic movement is well developed in literature, while in painting it is very vague and unites artists who are so different stylistically that it is often interpreted only as a worldview that unites them.
Below are the definitions of eras, styles and trends that are somehow reflected in modern fine and decorative arts.
| - an artistic style that was formed in the countries of Western and Central Europe in the XII-XV centuries. It was the result of the centuries-old evolution of medieval art, its highest stage and at the same time the first pan-European, international art style in history. It covered all kinds of art - architecture, sculpture, painting, stained glass, book design, arts and crafts. The basis of the Gothic style was architecture, which is characterized by lancet arches soaring upwards, multi-colored stained-glass windows, visual dematerialization of the form. Elements of Gothic art can often be found in modern interior design, in particular, in wall painting, less often in easel painting. Since the end of the last century, there has been a gothic subculture, clearly manifested in music, poetry, and fashion design. |
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| (Renaissance) - (French Renaissance, Italian Rinascimento) An era in the cultural and ideological development of a number of countries in Western and Central Europe, as well as some countries in Eastern Europe. The main distinguishing features of the Renaissance culture: secular character, humanistic worldview, appeal to the ancient cultural heritage, a kind of "revival" of it (hence the name). The culture of the Renaissance has the specific features of the transitional era from the Middle Ages to the new time, in which the old and the new, intertwined, form a peculiar, qualitatively new alloy. Difficult is the question of the chronological boundaries of the Renaissance (in Italy - 14-16 centuries, in other countries - 15-16 centuries), its territorial distribution and national characteristics. Elements of this style in modern art are often used in wall paintings, less often in easel painting. | |
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- (from the Italian maniera - technique, manner) a trend in European art of the 16th century. Representatives of mannerism moved away from the Renaissance harmonious perception of the world, the humanistic concept of man as a perfect creation of nature. A sharp perception of life was combined with a programmatic desire not to follow nature, but to express the subjective "inner idea" of the artistic image that was born in the artist's soul. Most clearly manifested in Italy. For Italian Mannerism 1520s. (Pontormo, Parmigianino, Giulio Romano) are characterized by the dramatic sharpness of the images, the tragedy of the worldview, the complexity and exaggerated expression of postures and movement motifs, the elongation of the proportions of the figures, coloristic and light and shade dissonances. Recently, it has been used by art historians to refer to phenomena in contemporary art associated with the transformation of historical styles. |
| - historical art style, which was originally distributed in Italy in the middle. XVI-XVII centuries, and then in France, Spain, Flanders and Germany in the XVII-XVIII centuries. More broadly, this term is used to define the ever-renewing tendencies of a restless, romantic worldview, thinking in expressive, dynamic forms. Finally, in every time, in almost every historical artistic style, one can find its own "baroque period" as a stage of the highest creative upsurge, tension of emotions, explosiveness of forms. | |
| - artistic style in Western European art XVII - early. XIX century and in Russian XVIII - early. XIX, referring to the ancient heritage as an ideal to follow. It manifested itself in architecture, sculpture, painting, arts and crafts. Classicist artists considered antiquity to be the highest achievement and made it their standard in art, which they sought to imitate. Over time, it was reborn into academism. | |
| - a trend in European and Russian art of the 1820s-1830s, which replaced classicism. Romantics brought individuality to the forefront, opposing the ideal beauty of the classicists to "imperfect" reality. Artists were attracted by bright, rare, extraordinary phenomena, as well as images of a fantastic nature. In the art of romanticism, a sharp individual perception and experience plays an important role. Romanticism liberated art from abstract classicistic dogmas and turned it towards national history and images of folklore. | |
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- (from lat. sentiment - feeling) - a direction of Western art of the second half of the 18th century, expressing disappointment in a “civilization” based on the ideals of “reason” (the ideology of the Enlightenment). S. proclaims feeling, solitary reflection, the simplicity of the rural life of the “little man”. J. J. Rousseau is considered to be the ideologist of S.. |
| - a direction in art that strives to display both the external form and the essence of phenomena and things with the greatest truth and reliability. How a creative method combines individual and typical features when creating an image. The longest time of existence direction, developing from the primitive era to the present day. | |
| - direction in European artistic culture of the late XIX-early XX centuries. Arising as a reaction to the domination of the norms of bourgeois "sanity" in the humanitarian sphere (in philosophy, aesthetics - positivism, in art - naturalism), symbolism first of all took shape in French literature of the late 1860s and 70s, and later became widespread in Belgium, Germany , Austria, Norway, Russia. The aesthetic principles of symbolism in many respects went back to the ideas of romanticism, as well as to some doctrines of the idealistic philosophy of A. Schopenhauer, E. Hartmann, partly F. Nietzsche, to the work and theorizing of the German composer R. Wagner. Symbolism contrasted the living reality with the world of visions and dreams. A symbol generated by poetic insight and expressing the otherworldly meaning of phenomena, hidden from ordinary consciousness, was considered a universal tool for comprehending the secrets of being and individual consciousness. The artist-creator was considered as an intermediary between the real and the supersensible, finding "signs" of world harmony everywhere, prophetically guessing the signs of the future both in modern phenomena and in the events of the past. | |
| - (from French impression - impression) a trend in art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, which arose in France. The name was introduced by art critic L. Leroy, who disparagingly commented on the exhibition of artists in 1874, where, among others, C. Monet's painting “Sunrise. Impression". Impressionism asserted the beauty of the real world, emphasizing the freshness of the first impression, the variability of the environment. The predominant attention to solving purely pictorial problems reduced the traditional idea of drawing as the main component of a work of art. Impressionism had a powerful impact on the art of European countries and the United States, aroused interest in scenes from real life. (E. Manet, E. Degas, O. Renoir, C. Monet, A. Sisley, etc.) | |
| - a trend in painting (synonymous with divisionism), which developed within the framework of neo-impressionism. Neo-Impressionism originated in France in 1885 and also spread to Belgium and Italy. The neo-impressionists tried to apply the latest advances in the field of optics in art, according to which painting, made by separate points of primary colors, in visual perception gives a fusion of colors and the whole gamut of painting. (J. Seurat, P. Signac, K. Pissarro). | |
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post-impressionism- conditional collective name of the main directions of French painting to. XIX - 1st quarter. 20th century The art of post-impressionism arose as a reaction to impressionism, which fixed attention on the transfer of the moment, on the feeling of picturesqueness and lost interest in the form of objects. Among the post-impressionists are P. Cezanne, P. Gauguin, V. Gogh and others. |
| - style in European and American art at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries. Art Nouveau rethought and stylized the features of the art of different epochs, and developed its own artistic techniques based on the principles of asymmetry, ornamentality and decorativeness ty. Natural forms also become the object of stylization of modernity. This explains not only the interest in vegetative ornaments in the works of Art Nouveau, but also their compositional and plastic structure itself - an abundance of curvilinear outlines, floating shchix, uneven contours, reminiscent of plant forms. Closely associated with modernity is symbolism, which served as the aesthetic and philosophical basis for modernity, relying on modernity as a plastic implementation of its ideas. Art Nouveau had different names in different countries, which are essentially synonymous: Art Nouveau - in France, Secession - in Austria, Jugendstil - in Germany, Liberty - in Italy. |
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- (from French modern - modern) the general name of a number of art movements of the first half of the 20th century, which are characterized by the denial of traditional forms and aesthetics of the past. Modernism is close to avant-gardism and opposed to academicism. |
| - a name that unites the range of artistic movements that were widespread in the 1905-1930s. (Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Dadaism, Surrealism). All these areas are united by the desire to renew the language of art, to rethink its tasks, to gain freedom of artistic expression. | |
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- direction in art to. XIX - present. XX century, based on the creative lessons of the French artist Paul Cezanne, who reduced all forms in the image to the simplest geometric shapes, and color - to contrasting constructions of warm and cold tones. Cézannism served as one of the starting points for cubism. To a large extent, cezannism also influenced the domestic realistic school of painting. |
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- (from fauve - wild) avant-garde trend in French art n. 20th century The name "wild" was given by modern critics to a group of artists who appeared in 1905 in the Parisian Salon of Independents, and was ironic. The group included A. Matisse, A. Marquet, J. Rouault, M. de Vlaminck, A. Derain, R. Dufy, J. Braque, K. van Dongen and others. , the search for impulses in primitive creativity, the art of the Middle Ages and the East. |
| - deliberate simplification of visual means, imitation of the primitive stages of the development of art. This term refers to the so-called. naive art of artists who did not receive a special education, but were involved in the general artistic process of the late 19th - early 19th century. XX century. The works of these artists - N. Pirosmani, A. Russo, V. Selivanov and others are characterized by a kind of childishness in the interpretation of nature, a combination of generalized form and petty literalness in details. The primitivism of the form by no means predetermines the primitiveness of the content. It often serves as a source for professionals who borrowed forms, images, methods from folk, essentially primitive art. N. Goncharova, M. Larionov, P. Picasso, A. Matisse drew inspiration from primitivism. | |
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- a direction in art that has developed on the basis of following the canons of antiquity and the Renaissance. It existed in many European schools of art from the 16th to the 19th centuries. Academism turned classical traditions into a system of "eternal" rules and regulations that fettered creative searches, tried to oppose imperfect living nature with "high" improved, extra-national and timeless forms of beauty brought to perfection. Academism is characterized by a preference for plots from ancient mythology, biblical or historical themes to plots from contemporary life for the artist. |
| - (French cubisme, from cube - cube) direction in the art of the first quarter of the XX century. The plastic language of cubism was based on the deformation and decomposition of objects into geometric planes, the plastic shift of form. The birth of cubism falls on 1907-1908 - the eve of the First World War. The undisputed leader of this trend was the poet and publicist G. Apollinaire. This trend was one of the first to embody the leading trends in the further development of the art of the twentieth century. One of these trends was the dominance of the concept over the artistic value of the painting itself. J. Braque and P. Picasso are considered the fathers of cubism. Fernand Léger, Robert Delaunay, Juan Gris, and others joined the emerging current. | |
| - a trend in literature, painting and cinema that arose in 1924 in France. It greatly contributed to the formation of the consciousness of modern man. The main figures of the movement are Andre Breton, Louis Aragon, Salvador Dali, Luis Bunuel, Juan Miro and many other artists from all over the world. Surrealism expressed the idea of existence beyond the real, the absurdity, the unconscious, dreams, daydreams acquire an especially important role here. One of the characteristic methods of the surrealist artist is the removal from conscious creativity, which makes him a tool that in various ways extracts bizarre images of the subconscious, akin to hallucinations. Surrealism survived several crises, survived the Second World War and gradually, merging with mass culture, intersecting with transavant-garde, entered postmodernism as an integral part. | |
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- (from lat. futurum - future) literary and artistic movement in the art of the 1910s. Assigning itself the role of a prototype of the art of the future, futurism as the main program put forward the idea of dissolving cultural stereotypes and offered instead the apology of technology and urb anism as the main signs of the present and the future. An important artistic idea of futurism was the search for a plastic expression of the swiftness of movement as the main sign of the pace of modern life. The Russian version of futurism was called kybofuturism and was based on the combination of the plastic principles of French cubism and European general aesthetic installations futurism. |
