Intro to Visual Art for wannabe art directors: Basis of Advertising, Painting, Architecture and Posters, an integral part of any movie / film making.
How Do you Define It?
Visual Art has long been a source of peace and prosperity for many people in this world.
For years artists have observed the aesthetics, beauty, sorrow, struggles, and dangers of life, and depicted those through drawing, painting, sculptures, photography, and even film-making.
Every artist tries to make his/her point using a concept, without having to resort to speaking about the topic. The basis of visual arts is to entertain through the eyes without use of song, speech or writing.
So basically, the artist is telling a story by using visual images. The feelings aroused when a person sees a particular piece of art is the idea behind visual art.
History
Throughout the history of the world there has been visual art in one form or another. Even the early days of man have shown us that we communicated a lot through art with cave drawings depicting hunts and so on, at least until languages became the common medium of interaction.
When you move forward through history you see that visual art has played a major role in the culture of the countries around the world.
Appreciation Not Forthcoming
Many earlier artists never realized any kind of fame or fortune during their lifetime, as their work did not become appreciated until centuries later. One reason for this was that artists made things that were much ahead of the times, and so the general public could not relate to it.
An example is that of Vincent Van Gough who was plagued by his own insecurity and addictions. His work was outside of the norm and that is the reason it was not accepted by the art community of his time. Van Gough would spend his relatively short life painting but most of it would never sell.
Some Were Popular
The other side of the coin would be those artists that found fame and fortune during their life time and still have a huge following to this day.
Leonardo Da Vinci is a prime example. Da Vinci was a highly popular painter and sculpture in his time and he had the attention of the royal family which gave him carte blanche on his work.
Besides art he was known as one of the greatest thinkers who actually invented many of the things we use today. He was also a highly sought after teacher of the arts and many masters owe their talent to his schooling.
Times Have Changed
Things are different today as people have become more liberal, and are ready to accept a different point of view.
There is demand for radical work and things that don’t conform to norms.
Van Gough’s paintings now sell in the millions of dollar range and are highly sought after by serious art collectors.
The Various Forms of Visual Art that exist today include Abstract art, Cubism, Expressionism, Fauvism, Pop Art, Primitive arts, Realism.
And because it can encompass things such as drawing, painting, sculptures, photography, Film-making, the Elements of art usually include Texture, Form, Space, Shape, Line, Color, Value (tone).
Checkout this video where Peter Schjeldahl (senior art critic) speaks on the post-modern art world.
Visual arts make up a large portion of the artistic world, and also play a major role in any media production. As long as man exists, we will definitely find new ways to create new and interesting things to look at. If you want to appreciate it more, just visit an art gallery and you gain a better insight on how artists view the world and interpret the world for us.
