Portal:Visual arts

THE VISUAL ARTS PORTAL

Introduction

Vincent van Gogh painting The Church at Auvers from 1890 gray church against blue sky — *The Church at Auvers*, an oil painting by Vincent van Gogh (1890)

The visual arts are art forms such as painting, drawing, printmaking, sculpture, ceramics, photography, video, image, filmmaking, design, crafts, and architecture. Many artistic disciplines such as performing arts, conceptual art, and textile arts, also involve aspects of the visual arts, as well as arts of other types. Within the visual arts, the applied arts, such as industrial design, graphic design, fashion design, interior design, and decorative art are also included.

Current usage of the term "visual arts" includes fine art as well as applied or decorative arts and crafts, but this was not always the case. Before the Arts and Crafts Movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, the term 'artist' had for some centuries often been restricted to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the decorative arts, crafts, or applied visual arts media. The distinction was emphasized by artists of the Arts and Crafts Movement, who valued vernacular art forms as much as high forms. Art schools made a distinction between the fine arts and the crafts, maintaining that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of the arts.

The increasing tendency to privilege painting, and to a lesser degree sculpture, above other arts has been a feature of Western art as well as East Asian art. In both regions, painting has been seen as relying on the imagination of the artist to the highest degree and being the furthest removed from manual labour – in Chinese painting, valued styles were "scholar-painting", at least in theory practiced by gentleman amateurs. The Western hierarchy of genres reflected similar attitudes. (Full article...)

Outline of the visual arts

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B of the Bang was a sculpture by Thomas Heatherwick next to the City of Manchester Stadium in east Manchester, England, commissioned to mark the 2002 Commonwealth Games. At 56 metres (184 ft) it was one of the tallest structures in Manchester and the tallest sculpture in the UK until the completion of Aspire in 2008. The sculpture took its name from a quotation of British sprinter Linford Christie, in which he said that he started his races not merely at the "bang" of the starting pistol, but at "the B of the Bang".

The sculpture was commissioned in 2003; construction overran and the official unveiling was delayed until 12 January 2005. Six days before the launch, the sculpture suffered the first of three visible structural problems as the tip of one of the spikes detached and fell to the ground. Legal action to repair the sculpture was started by Manchester City Council a year later, resulting in an out-of-court settlement totalling £1.7 million. (Full article...)

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Michelangelo's Pietà

Credit: Stanislav Traykov

Michelangelo's Pietà in St. Peter's Basilica in the Vatican.

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“	Painting is easy when you don't know how, but very difficult when you do.	”
	— Edgar Degas, unknown

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Self-portrait of Thirtle in 1816

John Thirtle (baptised 22 June 1777 – 30 September 1839) was an English watercolour artist and frame-maker. Born in Norwich, where he lived for most of his life, he was a leading member of the Norwich School of painters.

Much of Thirtle's life is undocumented. After working as an apprentice to a London frame-maker, he returned to Norwich to establish his own frame-making business. During his career he also worked as a drawing-master, a printseller and a looking glass maker. He produced frames for paintings by several members of the Norwich School, including John Crome and John Sell Cotman. Throughout his working life he continued to paint. In 1812 he married Elizabeth Miles, the sister of Cotman's wife Ann. Thirtle suffered from tuberculosis during the last two decades of his life, and his worsening health reduced his artistic output up to his death in 1839. His Manuscript Treatise on Watercolour, unpublished before 1977, was probably for his own use, and he exhibited fewer than 100 paintings. A member of the Norwich Society of Artists, he briefly served as its vice-president, but in 1816 was one of the artists who seceded from the Society to form a separate association, the Norfolk and Norwich Society of Artists, which dissolved after three years. (Full article...)

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General images

The following are images from various visual arts-related articles on Wikipedia.

Image 1Golden section in book design (from Graphic design)
Image 2Giorgio de Chirico 1914, pre-Surrealism (from History of painting)
Image 3The Eternal Father Painting the Virgin of Guadalupe. Attributed to Joaquín Villegas (1713 – active in 1753) (Mexican) (painter, Museo Nacional de Arte. (from History of painting)
Image 4Silk painting depicting a man riding a dragon, painting on silk, dated to 5th–3rd century BC, Warring States period, from Zidanku Tomb no. 1 in Changsha, Hunan Province (from History of painting)
Image 5Eland, rock painting, Drakensberg, South Africa (from History of painting)
Image 6Spanish cave painting of Bulls (from History of painting)
Image 7The Museum of Contemporary Art in Miami, Florida (from Contemporary art)
Image 8Colour (from Graphic design)
Image 9Barnett Newman, Untitled Etching 1 (First Version), 1968, Minimalism (from History of painting)
Image 10Spring Morning in the Han Palace, by Ming-era artist Qiu Ying (1494–1552 AD) (from History of painting)
Image 11Cover of the Thanksgiving 1895 issue of The Chap-Book, designed by Will H. Bradley (from Graphic design)
Image 12Joan Miró, Horse, Pipe and Red Flower, 1920, abstract Surrealism, Philadelphia Museum of Art (from History of painting)
Image 13A Chinese painted jar from the Western Han Era (202 BCE – 9 CE) (from History of painting)
Image 14Morgan Russell, Cosmic Synchromy (1913–14), Synchromism (from History of painting)
Image 15In 2021, researchers discovered ancient cave art in Leang Tedongnge, Sulawesi, Indonesia, estimated to be at least 45,500 years old. Depicting a warty pig, this artwork is recognized as the world's oldest known example of figurative or representational art. (from History of painting)
Image 16Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, rock painting, Stone Age, India (from History of painting)
Image 17Bharat Mata by Abanindranath Tagore (1871–1951), a nephew of the poet Rabindranath Tagore, and a pioneer of the movement (from History of painting)
Image 18Baptism of Christ on a medieval Nubian painting from Old Dongola (from History of painting)
Image 19Kiasma, a contemporary art museum in Helsinki, Finland (from Contemporary art)
Image 20Marcel Duchamp, Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2, 1912, Philadelphia Museum of Art (from History of painting)
Image 21Pierre Bonnard, 1913, European modernist Narrative painting (from History of painting)
Image 22Patrick Henry Bruce, American modernism, 1924 (from History of painting)
Image 23Qianlong Emperor Practicing Calligraphy, mid-18th century. (from History of painting)
Image 24Piet Mondrian, "Composition No. 10" 1939–1942, De Stijl (from History of painting)
Image 25Max Ernst, 1920, early Surrealism (from History of painting)
Image 26Rembrandt van Rijn, The Jewish Bride, ca. 1665–1669 (from History of painting)
Image 27Book of Hours (from History of painting)
Image 28Juan Luna, The Parisian Life, 1892 (from History of painting)
Image 29Henri Matisse 1909, late Fauvism (from History of painting)
Image 30Wayang beber, 17th century (from History of painting)
Image 31Gwion Gwion rock paintings found in the north-west Kimberley region of Western Australia c. 15,000 BC (from History of painting)
Image 32Lascaux, Horse (from History of painting)
Image 33Two Scribes Seated with Books and a Writing Table Fragment of a decorative margin Northern India (Mughal school), ca. 1640–1650 (from History of painting)
Image 34The Sakyamuni Buddha, by Zhang Shengwen, 1173–1176 AD, Song dynasty period. (from History of painting)
Image 35Francis Picabia, (Left) Le saint des saints c'est de moi qu'il s'agit dans ce portrait, 1 July 1915; (center) Portrait d'une jeune fille americaine dans l'état de nudité, 5 July 1915: (right) J'ai vu et c'est de toi qu'il s'agit, De Zayas! De Zayas! Je suis venu sur les rivages du Pont-Euxin, New York, 1915 (from History of painting)
Image 36A fresco showing Hades and Persephone riding in a chariot, from the tomb of Queen Eurydice I of Macedon at Vergina, Greece, 4th century BC (from History of painting)
Image 37Juan Luna, La Bulaqueña, 1895 (from History of painting)
Image 38Max Beckmann, The Night (Die Nacht), 1918–1919, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen, Düsseldorf (from History of painting)
Image 39Diego Rivera, Recreation of Man at the Crossroads (renamed Man, Controller of the Universe), originally created in 1934, Mexican muralism movement (from History of painting)
Image 40Edvard Munch, 1893, early example of Expressionism (from History of painting)
Image 41Young Mother Sewing, Mary Cassatt (from History of painting)
Image 42Muromachi period, Shingei (1431–1485), Viewing a Waterfall, Nezu Museum, Tokyo. (from History of painting)
Image 43Brice Marden, 1966/1986, Monochrome painting (from History of painting)
Image 44Poster to promote the Centennial of Argentina (1910) (from Graphic design)
Image 45Hand stencils in the "Tree of Life" cave painting in Gua Tewet, Kalimantan, Indonesia (from History of painting)
Image 46Loquats and Mountain Bird, anonymous artist of the Southern Song dynasty; paintings in leaf album style such as this were popular in the Southern Song (1127–1279). (from History of painting)
Image 47Paul Klee, 1922, Bauhaus (from History of painting)
Image 48Edward Hopper, Nighthawks, 1942, an American Scene painting (from History of painting)
Image 49Grant Wood, 1930, social realism (from History of painting)
Image 50A fresco from Cave 1 of Ajanta. (from History of painting)
Image 51Mother Goddess A miniature painting of the Pahari style, dating to the eighteenth century. Pahari and Rajput miniatures share many common features. (from History of painting)
Image 52Irbid, Jordan, "We are Arabs. We are Humans". Inside Out is a global participatory art project, initiated by the French photographer JR, an example of Street art. (from Contemporary art)
Image 53Due to its interdisciplinary nature, graphic design can be performed in different areas of application: branding, technical and artistic drawing, signage, photography, image and video editing, 3D modeling, animation, programming, digital drawing, video creation among other fields. (from Graphic design)
Image 54Pictographs from the Great Gallery, Canyonlands National Park, Horseshoe Canyon, Utah, c. 1500 BCE (from History of painting)
Image 55Graphic symbols are often functionalist and anonymous, as these pictographs from the US National Park Service illustrate. (from Graphic design)
Image 56Lascaux, Aurochs (Bos primigenius primigenius) (from History of painting)
Image 57Hellenistic Greek terracotta funerary wall painting, 3rd century BC (from History of painting)
Image 58Lascaux, Bulls and Horses (from History of painting)
Image 59Rock Shelters of Bhimbetka, rock painting, Stone Age, India (from History of painting)
Image 60An Ethiopian illuminated Evangelist portrait of Mark the Evangelist, from the Ethiopian Garima Gospels, 6th century AD, Kingdom of Aksum (from History of painting)
Image 61A Boeing 747 aircraft with livery designating it as Air Force One. The cyan forms, the US flag, presidential seal and the Caslon lettering, were all designed at different times, by different designers, for different purposes, and combined by designer Raymond Loewy in this one single aircraft exterior design. (from Graphic design)
Image 62Cueva de las Manos (Spanish for Cave of the Hands) in the Santa Cruz province in Argentina, c. 7300 BC (from History of painting)
Image 63Petroglyphs, from Sweden, Nordic Bronze Age (painted) (from History of painting)

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Major topics

Types of visual art – Architecture • Art intervention • Ceramic art • Computer art • Drawing • Fashion • Film • Installation art • Land art • Mixed media • Painting • Performance art • Photography • Printmaking • Sculpture • Stained glass; • Artists' Books

Art history – Pre-historic art • Ancient art • Art of Ancient Egypt • Art in Ancient Greece • Minoan pottery • Scythian art • Roman art • Women artists

Western art periods and movements – Medieval art • Gothic art • Renaissance • Mannerism • Baroque • Rococo • Neoclassicism • Romanticism • Realism • Modern Art • Impressionism • Symbolism • Fauvism • Proto-Cubism • Cubism • Futurism • Dada • Art Deco • Surrealism • Abstract Expressionism • Lyrical abstraction • Conceptual Art • Contemporary Art • Postmodern art visual arts.

Eastern and Middle Eastern art – Buddhist art • Chinese art • Islamic art • Japanese art • Laotian art • Thai art • Tibetan art

Lists – Architects • Art movements • Art periods • Painters • Printmakers • Sculptors • Statues

Lists of basic topics – Visual arts • Architecture • Film • Painting • Photography • Sculpture

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Art by country | Visual arts genres | Art movements | Women artists

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