Art explained

In Impressionism, aesthetics was the most important part. Other matters such as the painting technique, the subject, the author or the spectator were secondary. Pointillism pretended to recuperate the scientific study of colors and the combination of the primary colors. Pointillist artists painted whole canvasses with many small dots of primary colors, one next to the other. The result is a little strange, since images became quite geometric, far from the spontaneity which was seeked by impressionists. If seen from far away, the different dots, painted in primary colors combined giving the feeling to the eye as if a vast palette of colours had been used.

Pointillism was created and developed by George Seurat. Paul Signac was another well known painter who painted in this style.

Seurat studied optical science and theory on aesthetic to develop his artworks with the same method. He brought his masterpiece, “Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte”. This art showed his accomplishment as what they called him Divisionist. The trend of the tiny color dots blended from afar created the subject in the vision of the viewers.

Neoimpressionism or Pointillism was short lived but it has made an important impact on painters and evolution of arts.

Synthetism was a style of art within post-impressionism that Paul Gaugin favored in 1890. It was his belief that visuals from the memory reproduced in painting are called art. A style of painting wherein artworks produced from remembered pictures was integrated, simplified, and made. Cloisonnism was also a used style; colored flat areas outlined with black lines are its main qualities of producing the art.

Synthetism implied a radical change from Impressionism. In Synthetism planear surfaces became important. Also the contour of the figures (silhouette) was important and they were often emphasized in the paintings

In Synthesism, what became important to paint is the idea that the painter has after a given experience. The artist’s memory takes away the superfluous part and retains only the essence. This way, it is achieved the synthesis of shape and colour. The important thing is how the image is remembered, not so much how it really looks like.

Gauguin is a great example of Synthesism. He represents primitivism and bohemian style. He is the perfect example of an artist who sought the necessity to unify art and life. Gauguin abandoned western civilization (he was a stock agent) in search of the primitive art and civilization. He went to live to Tahiti. He valued this art not so much for being different, but especially for its authenticity. He was in a constant search of himself. He found himself and peace in Tahiti.

As expressed by Dan Colvin “Landscapes represent an expression and a striving for the Ideal”

Have you ever seen a landscape and been struck by “awe?” Some landscapes especially in photography make you wonder at just how small we are in this beautiful world. Artists sometimes use landscapes to reflect the ideal , or to try to interpret humanity as it should be. In landscapes like these , there is no question as to our understanding what the artist is trying to tell us.

Art is about trying to express something, a dream, a thought, an illusion, and artists try to do this through paint, photography, illustration, street art, or any creative means. They want to express their feelings, perceptions, and leave a part of themselves through their work. Thanks to tools that are available today through the computer, artists are more able to create what comes to them in their dreams, their imagination, or in their ideas. Some use landscapes to do this, others use people and humanity, but whatever subject the artists prefers, it is much easier for the artist to express his ideas in these modern times than it ever was before.

Artists rejected for lacking professional training by the sophisticated societies referred to their artworks as the Naive or Outsider. The artists under this style of art shared the same passion and intense as other trained artists, the only difference was that they worked for their art without the formal learning and trainings. The artwork produced by these artists was highly detailed in images, used bright and strong colors and were without perspective. Usually the images looked like they were floating in space creating illusions of fantasy. The Naive Art was not concerned with social structures, traditions and correctness of politics in their expressions in their work.

This kind of art had proven to be most important for its ability to endure the changing styles of art around it for many decades. It maintained its identity after all the years it had been around. All the artists of Naive Art worldwide followed the oversimplification of the artworks; it was childlike possessing the identity of the style.

The characteristics found in the Naive Art were very unfitting as compared to the formal painting qualities. It showed difficulties with drawing and perspective; however, it resulted to something awkwardly charming for the strong pattern of unrefined colors. It was refreshing for the viewers because of its lack of subtlety. It became a recognized and popular style with all its qualities. Pseudo-naive and faux-naïve were other names coined for this style.

Henri Rousseau was born as part of a modest family and he made his living in customs. He was not a professional painter, in that he did not live from his paintings, but he considered himself a painter above all else.

He painted differently from the more educated contemporary artists. He did not have any artistic education, he was self taught. His painting differed from the more elaborated paintings of the times in that they were rougher and also in the themes it depicted. He liked to use photos and illustrated books for his paintings.

The traits of his paintings were the traits of innocence:

Innocence is what justifies naïf paintings. A Naïf painting is a type of painting that shows an unaffected simplicity with none of the guile of worldly experience. The painting shows many of society’s shortcomings and clumsiness, but they are by no means inferior to other types of paintings. The main characteristics of naïf paintings are as follows:

Contours were defined very precisely.

• There was a lack of perspective.
• Extraordinary use of color.
• Spectrum very refined.
• Painting very detailed and meticulous.
• The sensation of volume is achieved through color.
• The drawing may be wrong.
• The signatures are often large.
• Great expressive power.

Source: Spanisharts

What is an art critic? An art critic is a person, who with certain art education discusses and evaluates visual arts, and decides on whether it is unique and good or whether it is terrible.

Who decides on whether an art work is good or not? This is usually the job of the visual art critic and art critics will evaluate a piece according to the aesthetical theory of beauty, but because the arts have become so vast there has also been a need to divide art criticism into several different disciplines, each with its own set of rules. Most art criticism can be divided into two categories, that of historical criticism and contemporary criticism which is the critiquing of work done by living artists.

Critics do not always know what they are doing and much of their critiques are changed, or opinions of them are formed over time. For instance, art that was once venerated by the critic, were later found to be ridiculous, or found to be lacking in creativity, theory, and style. And the same holds true for pieces that were once derided, later to be venerated (as in the work of the impressionists).

Where does abstract painting begin? How does a fine artist take an idea or concept and then create what he sees? It’s actually a well thought out process, and takes several steps even though it may not appear so. First the painter has the idea and he may even create a smaller scaled version of the painting, or a concept painting. In the case of abstract art, he may place other materials within the painting, and these may be modeling clay, wire, wire grid work, paper, computer generated images, physical object, anything that gives the painting more emphasis, and meaning.

Then the artist may add some color or what some call an under painting. Some painters use color itself lightly placed and others do it in black and white. The point of an underpainting, even in an abstract is so that the artist can visualize better the composition and bring certain objects to the foreground and others to the background. Underpainting becomes more important in both fantasy art, modern art, and generally for images that come in part or in totality from the imagination. If you take a look at Carol Nelson’s work , you will get a better idea of what is involved.

When you go into a museum or when you go to a photography show, which photos draw your attention? It’s usually the black and white photos that interest you more and a lot of photographers prefer to work in black and white film.

Have you ever wondered why photographers work in Black and White? The truth is that once they have finished with their magic and have used the right lighting, the right editing and photo enhancement techniques, black and white photos tend to stand out more, be more defined, sharper and in some ways define the artists feelings better than color images. Black and white photos seem to make angles starker and define contrasts better. Lets take the work of Rodney Smith. This photographer, does many photos in black and white . If you look at his work, you will notice that it is much more arresting than when photographers take the same type of image in color.

What is the reason for this? It’s hard to say why black and white takes seem more interesting than color images. It may have to do with the way light is reflected better in black and white or it may have to do with the artist’s creativity.

When we refer to artists and their work we always think of creativity, but what is creativity? The mystics define creativity as “being attune” with God. The job of the artist, painter, musician or writer then is to attune with the source of all creation, listen, and tell the story. It sort of goes with the old saying of “Shut up and listen.”

This in essence means that everyone has the ability to be creative, they just need to listen to the voice from within, and for an artist to be able to attune to that inner voice he may need a special place to work, a special time of day, a certain place, or experience, something that makes them want to paint and express the feelings and the creativity they feel from within. The next time you look at an artist work try not to think about it, but feel the creativity that emanated from his soul when he created it.

Many people who suddenly find themselves among society’s elite, the ones that have acquired large amounts of money, find themselves wanting to collect art. But they decide to collect art for the wrong reasons.  They decide to collect art to be noticed, to be a part of the art collector crowd, and to be among the wealthy art collectors. 

Many of these collectors don’t know much about art; in fact their collecting is based more on a need to be noticed by others, rather than any real love or knowledge of art. The only problem with this type of art collecting is that you need to continually buy artwork to be noticed.

Modern art has truly been affected by the patronage of these collectors. Painters who attract the attention of any of these collectors achieve instant recognition they look for.  These patrons buy contemporary art from new styles and movements, but the truth is the quality of the work itself becomes irrelevant, and it becomes an issue of “who’s buying what?” It seems Hollywood has also hit the art market of today.