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Visual arts

Artscolumbia / Visual arts

The Meaning

Visual Arts have been here since the time when a human figured out that some materials leave a trace on the surface. That’s how we got our first drawings depicting mammoth hunt, early religious beliefs, and daily life. The term itself means visualizing things that surround us. Basically, the primary function of visual arts is to recreate some being or essence. It reflects reality in visual imagery and portrays existing real world properties: color, size, spatiality, the form of an object etc. Although it may seem like a representation of just the reality, it is also a medium of transferring the events in time, a plot or a detailed narrative. It reveals the spiritual structure of humankind and its psychology. Visual arts pose the real picture of life and nature, and clearly embodies the images that do not exist in reality, only emerging from our imagination. Visual arts also appear as a branch of science.

The branch includes research that provides fundamental laws of the genesis and evolution of the visual arts as a whole, and in particular the historically determined stages of development, including styles in different national contexts; the complex issues related to the clarification of the structure of specific genre of visual arts, its contents, and forms; implementation of the description, analysis, interpretation, attribution of works of art, consideration of the characteristics of their social functioning; studying the achievements of individual national art schools, creative arts practice associations, groups, individual artists.

When developing a particular perspective, visual arts are based on the achievements of museology, restoration, and other ancillary disciplines, also taking into account the experience of related social sciences.

The Contents

Visual arts connect a wide range of genres and artists. The first one is drawing. Dating back to Paleolithic times, it was the first sign of art made by humans. It evolved to be a fully functioning art today, including professional drawings with ink, pencils, crayons, charcoals and so on. Painting is the derivative of basic drawing, taking this art one step ahead, adding complexity and more colors, evolving more and resulting in almost photorealistic paintings by talented artists. Plastic arts, particularly sculpture, is another major genre of visual arts. It is a 3D artwork that includes the use of materials which can be molded, ranging from clay to metal and stone.

Visual arts also include photography and filmmaking that operate directly with the existing world, portraying the events, people or just cute kittens. Filmmaking often uses handmade imagery to show something that does not exist in the real life. Thus, we have reached computer art, which consists of many previously mentioned arts, but performed in a virtual environment, such as Photoshop. Last but not least is architecture. Incorporating imagination of the author, various artistic methods and techniques results in creating stunning facades that are masterpieces.

Jun 20, 2017
in Drawing
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Drawings of Lequeu and Piranesi, in relation to the geometrical description of Gaspard Monge and J NL Durand

Gaspard Monge was very important as he made an amazing discovery towards the end of the 18th century, of Descriptive geometry, where 3d objects can be projected in 2d plains using mathematics. Durand then translated the descriptive geometry into architecture. This was an important discovery as this had always been a problem for architects, trying to describe an object though its projections on three planes. Due to this discovery, ideas, which architects had prior to this, could be transformed into drawings, which are more realistic. Geometry has always been a vital asset to communicate precise and realistic drawings. Piranesi loved working with perspective and fantasy and this can be seen in many of his drawings. Perspective of a drawing is constructed...

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Jun 19, 2017
in Painting
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How the Visual Arts Communicate

In the painting of Mona Lisa shows an ordinary women looking directly at you with her hands crossed and a tiny smile. From what I read about this portrait in these times the 1400’s to 1500’s women don’t normally look directly at you and the artist would normally cut off the women’s body to show a close up of the face. The point of this portrait was to make Mona Lisa look as naturally as possible and show that wealth was not important. Apart from the naturalism in the figure, the painting includes a background. If you look over her shoulder to the left side, you see a road that leads to distance, and mountains painted as background. On the right...

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Jun 16, 2017
in Painting
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Identifying Art Vocabulary

Study the above painting, Marizy Sainte-Genevieve, carefully. Based on your analysis, answer the following questions. Write your answers in the boxes provided below the questions. 1. What types of lines has the artist used in the painting? The artist used rough brush strokes to create organic shapes. 2. What are the positive shapes in the painting? I feel as though the positive shapes/main subjects in the painting are the houses on the side of the street. 3. What is the negative shape in the painting? The negative shapes include the trees and people farther down the road, in the background. 4. What is the vantage point in the painting? The vantage point is in the beginning of the street, before the buildings, because that’s the artists literal point...

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May 31, 2017
in Greek, Sculpture
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Greek Sculptures: Nike of Samothrace and Aphrodite

The marble sculpture shows a complete lighthearted scene between the three figures of Greek mythology as the details of Aphrodite’s hair, Pan’s furry legs and rough horns, and the anatomy of each figures are accurately rendered. The proportion of each figure is carefully done as the artist made sure that each figure contains their most prominent characteristics: Aphrodite’s voluptuousness and womanliness, Pan’s hybridism and dishevelment, and Eros’s lenient infancy and power of flight. The work displays a great composition as it is due to the linkage between the figures in the artist’s arrangement. The two main figures Aphrodite and Pan were in contact with each other by Eros at the top, with the hands and arms combined while Pan’s leg...

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May 25, 2017
in Painting
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Favorite Painting by Picasso

Have you ever gone to the museum and glanced at paintings but had to do a double take because a painting grabbed your attention so strongly? This is what happened to me when I saw the painting by Pablo Picasso entitled Mother and Child 1901. This painting was done during what was called the Blue Period. “Picasso’s Blue Period was in 1900 and ended in 1904.” (unknown, Pablo Picasso's Blue Period 1901-1904, 2009) All of his paintings during this period were created in shades of blue and blue-green with other colors occasionally. Picasso had many paintings that had the same title but in different time periods. Paintings by Picasso brought out warm and loving feelings in my heart. This one...

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May 25, 2017
in Sculpture
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Society of Animal Artists summary

This article is about the Society of Animal Artists that was first formed in the 1960’s and how large the society is today. Being a part of the Society of Animal Artists is comparable to being a member of Who’s Who of the world’s top wildlife artists. Patricia Allen Bott was the founder of the Society of Animal Artists in the 1960’s. The group started out very small with less than 20 members. She loved animals and animals in art. The group still continues on today with more than 400 members. Members attend exhibitions at zoos, whale-watching trips, and venture to different wild animal parks. The society’s sculptors then have an opportunity to take reference pictures of a wide range of animals...

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