Art

• The Renaissance was the period between the 14th to the 17th century.
• Art is a highly diverse range of human activities engaged in creating visual, auditory, or performed artifacts—artworks—that express the author’s imaginative or technical skill and are intended to be appreciated for their beauty or emotional power
• Art is a creative activity that expresses imaginative or technical skills and produces a product called a work of art
• The original classical definition of art was derived from the Latin word "ars" meaning "skill" or "craft"
• The oldest documented forms of art are visual arts, including painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and other visual media
• Art can be classified as Visual Art, Literary Art, or Performing Art
• Visual Art:

  • Arts that meet the eye and evoke emotion through skill and imagination
  • Includes painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, and installation art
• Literary Art:

  • In the form of writing or stories with artistic and cultural value
  • Displays the beauty of speech and language to convey meanings
• Performance Art:

  • A time-based art form featuring live presentations to an audience
  • Draws on acting, poetry, music, dance, and painting
• Classification of Arts According to Functions:

  1. Motivated (Functional) Examples: Architecture, weaving, furniture-making

  2. Non-motivated (Non-functional) Examples: Painting, sculpture, literature, music, and theatre arts
• Common Functions of Art:

  1. Personal Function: Expresses feelings and ideas, serves as a means of expression, and has therapeutic value

  2. Social Function: Influences social behavior, seeks to influence collective behavior, and enhances shared sense of identity

  3. Spiritual Functions: Expresses spiritual beliefs and cultural values

  4. Educational Function: Boosts self-image, self-esteem, confidence, and pride

  5. Political Functions: Commemorates important figures, records historical events, and reveals ideals of heroism and leadership
• 6. Physical Function: Includes objects that make lives physically comfortable
• • Fauvism and Expressionism: Harsh colors, bold shapes, and disturbing emotional content
  • Cubism, Futurism, Supremativism, Constructivism, De Stijl: Exploration of expressionistic styles with abstract objects
  • Dada and Surrealism: Exploration of dreams and subconscious, rejection of traditional art rules
  • Pop Art: Satirical observers of contemporary culture, use of contemporary images and mass-production techniques
  • Postmodernism and Deconstructivism: Deconstructing styles of the past and reinterpreting them
  • Neo-Expressionism: Embraced impassioned emotions and autobiographical content
• Historical Foundations of Art:

  • Stone Age: Era of cave painting and Venus of Willendorf
  • Mesopotamian: Stone sculptures and narrative reliefs
  • Egyptian: Great Pyramids and busts of royal figures
  • Greek and Hellenistic: Idealism and perfection in architecture and sculptures
  • Roman: Construction of the Pantheon and the Colosseum
  • Byzantine and Islamic: Birth of Islamic religion and structures like Hagia Sophia
  • Middle Ages: Celtic and Gothic art, rise of gothic cathedrals
  • Early and High Renaissance: Cultural rebirth of art, literature, and intellect
• • Venetian and Northern Renaissance: Spread of Renaissance movement to northern European countries
  • Baroque: Highly religious era with dramatic style in art and architecture
  • Neoclassical: Grace and aesthetic perfection of Greco-Roman art periods
  • Romanticism: Emphasis on the self and rejection of order imposed by Enlightenment
  • Realism: Grounded approach to human nature, depiction of working class lives
  • Impressionism: Focus on capturing visual phenomenon, rejection of traditional techniques
  • Post-Impressionism: Maintained impressionism philosophy but applied to more common scenes
• Art Appreciation:

  • Encompasses a variety of works from paintings to sculptures, architecture to design, and digital art
  • Subjective in nature and can be appreciated by everyone
• Art appreciation is the knowledge and understanding of the universal and timeless qualities that identify all great art
• The more you appreciate and understand the art of different eras, movements, styles and techniques, the better you can develop, evaluate and improve your own artwork
• Art appreciation involves a deeper look into the setting and historical implication and background of the piece, a study of its origins
• Art appreciation helps open up the mindset of people by listening to different perspectives and views as well as interpretations of art
• Art is meant to stimulate thought and conversation between viewers
• Art can mean something different to every person that comes across it
• Art appreciation encourages thoughtful conversation and the understanding that there is more than one approach to everything
• Expression involves conveying meaning through low level skills like spelling, punctuation, and high level composition skills like planning and organization
• Artists use their art as a voice to react to injustices they see in the world
• Art has no rules and can be a reaction to established systems
• Different artists have different stories to tell and ideas to get across through their art
• Imagination is the ability to produce and simulate novel objects, peoples and ideas in the mind without any immediate input of the senses
• Imagination is the ability to form a mental image of something that is not perceived through the five senses
• Imagination is a cognitive process used in mental functioning and sometimes used in conjunction with psychological imagery
• Creativity is a phenomenon whereby something new and somehow valuable is formed
• Creativity can be matched with imagination for finding solutions and choosing between options
• Innovation is often viewed as the application of better solutions that meet new requirements or existing market needs
• The Visual Elements of Art are Line, Shape, Tone, Color, Pattern, Texture, Form
• Most images begin as line drawings which can suggest shape, pattern, form, depth, distance, rhythm, movement and emotions
• Shapes can be natural or man-made, regular or irregular, flat or solid, representational or abstract
• Tone is the lightness or darkness of a color and can create contrast, form, atmosphere, depth, distance, rhythm and pattern
• Color has the strongest effect on emotions and is used to create mood or atmosphere in an artwork
• Pattern is made by repeating elements to communicate balance, harmony, contrast, rhythm or movement
• Texture is the surface quality of an artwork experienced optically and physically