Painting

Painting, branch of the visual arts in which color, derived from any of numerous organic or synthetic substances, is applied to various surfaces to create a representational or abstract picture or design. This article traces the history of Western painting; for its development in other cultures, see cross-references at the end of this article.

Self-Portrait with Small Monkey Twentieth-century Mexican painter Frida Kahlo is best known for her very personal self-portraits. In these works she depicts herself impassively staring at the viewer, often surrounded by references to the painful circumstances of her life. Kahlo also celebrated her Mexican identity in her artwork by using a painting style based on native popular art and by incorporating representations of Mexican flora and fauna as well as references to the pre-Columbian civilizations of Mexico, as seen here in Self-Portrait with Small Monkey (1945, private collection).Schalkwijk/Art Resource, NY


II MEDIA, TECHNIQUES, AND STYLES
Painting Media and Styles Painting is the oldest and one of the most versatile forms of two-dimensional expression. There are as many different styles of paintings as there are painters. Some of the painting media used most often are oil, watercolor, tempera, gouache, fresco, enamel, and acrylic.
Watercolor The Reaper by Winslow Homer is a watercolor painted in the 1870s. The medium of watercolor facilitated Homer’s ability to achieve a naturalistic effect, and it was his medium of choice for creating magazine illustrations. One of the most important themes in Homer’s work was rural America.Art Resource, NY



Fresco The art of fresco painting requires skill because the paint must be applied quickly to the plaster while it is still wet. This fresco by Diego Rivera, the most prolific and best-known of the Mexican muralists, is called La Civilización Tarasca. The subject matter deals with the customs of the indigenous people of Mexico, in this case the dyeing and decorating of fabric.National Institute of Bellas Artes/Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York


Oil on Canvas French artist André Derain painted London Bridge (Museum of Modern Art, New York City) in 1906. He is one of the central figures of the group of artists called the fauves (French for “wild beasts”), a name never accepted by the painters themselves. Derain created simplified yet dramatic designs using unnaturally brilliant colors to convey a sense of emotion. Inspired by non-Western art, the fauves became known for their use of distorted perspectives, vivid colors, and unrestrained brushwork.© 2001 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York / ADAGP, Paris./THE BETTMANN ARCHIVE


Enamel This picture is a detail of a Russian silver centerpiece crafted in Old Russian style. It was made in the late 19th century and features a type of enamel painting known as en plein. The area that was to be enameled was first covered with white enamel and fired. Then the scene was painted on top using powdered enamel mixed with oil paint.Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York


Ink and Pigment Laila and Majnun at School (1494) was painted by Bihzad, one of the great Persian miniature artists from Herat (now in Afghanistan). The flat, layered perspective shows the influence of Chinese landscapes. The gold background is unusual for a painting done before the 16th century, and the faces are drawn with a sense of grace not often seen in such work. The juxtaposition of inside and outside and the way in which parts of the picture spill over the borders is particularly notable.Bridgeman Art Library, London/New York


In the course of its history, Western painting has taken several major forms, involving distinctive media and techniques. The techniques employed in drawing, however, are basic to all painting, except perhaps the most recent avant-garde forms. Fresco painting, which reached its heights in the late Middle Ages and throughout the Renaissance, involves the application of paint to wet, or fresh (Italian fresco), plaster or to dry plaster (see Fresco). Tempera painting, another older form, involves the use of powdered pigments mixed with egg yolk applied to a prepared surface—usually a wood panel covered with linen. Oil painting, which largely supplanted the use of fresco and tempera during the Renaissance, was traditionally thought to have been developed in the late Middle Ages by the Flemish brothers Jan van Eyck and Hubert van Eyck; it is now believed to have been invented much earlier. Other techniques are enamel, encaustic painting, gouache, grisaille, and watercolor painting. The use of acrylic paints (see Acrylic) has become very popular in recent times; this water-based medium is easily applied, dries quickly, and does not darken with the passage of time.

The Restoration of The Last Supper
This 1983 National Geographic article provides a brief history of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper, discussing damages done to the painting over the last 500 years. The most recent attempts at restoration of the famous mural began in 1977 and have provided clues to the changes it has undergone and new insights on Leonardo's techniques. This most recent restoration effort was completed in 1999.


Over the centuries, different artistic methods, styles, and theories—ways of thinking about the purposes of art—have succeeded one another, only to appear again, generally with modifications, in other times. Thus, a method of painting thought to have been used by cave painters involved blowing pigments through tubes onto the cave walls; a somewhat analogous method is that of those 20th-century painters who dribble pigments from their brushes onto canvas. In the Renaissance, fresco painting on walls and ceilings largely gave way to easel painting in oils, but wall painting returned to popularity in the 20th century—for example, in the work of the Mexican muralists (see Mural Painting). The impulse to express intense emotion in art links painters as different as El Greco in 16th-century Spain and the German expressionists of the 20th century. At the opposite pole from expressionist attempts to reveal inner reality, there have always been painters committed to the exact representation of outward appearances. Realism and symbolism, classical restraint and romantic passion, have alternated throughout the history of painting, revealing significant affinities and influences.

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Art

I INTRODUCTION

Art, a disciplined activity that may be limited to skill or expanded to include a distinctive way of looking at the world. The word art is derived from the Latin ars, meaning “skill.” Art is skill at performing a set of specialized actions, as, for example, the art of gardening or of playing chess.

Art in its broader meaning, however, involves both skill and creative imagination in a musical, literary, visual, or performance context. Art provides the person or people who produce it and the community that observes it with an experience that might be aesthetic, emotional, intellectual, or a combination of these qualities.

II FINE ARTS AND DECORATIVE ARTS

Traditionally, in most societies, art has combined practical and aesthetic functions. In the 18th century in the West, however, a more sophisticated public began to distinguish between art that was purely aesthetic and art that was also practical. The fine arts (French beaux arts)—including literature, music, dance, painting, sculpture, and architecture—are concerned primarily with aesthetics. The decorative or applied arts, such as pottery, metalwork, furniture, tapestry, and enamel, are often useful arts and for a time were demoted to the rank of crafts. Because the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris taught only the major visual arts, the term art was sometimes narrowed to mean only drawing, painting, architecture, and sculpture. Since the mid-20th century, however, greater appreciation of non-Western and folk traditions and of individual work in a mechanized society has tended to blur the old distinction. Both categories are becoming valued as art.

III ART AND SCIENCE
Both art and science require technical skill. Both artist and scientist try to create order out of the seemingly random and diverse experiences of the world. Both try to understand and appreciate the world and to convey their experience to others. However, an essential difference exists: The scientist studies quantitative sense perceptions in order to discover laws or concepts that are universally true. The artist selects qualitative perceptions and arranges them to express personal and cultural understanding. Whereas further investigation may cause a scientific law to be invalidated, a work of art—despite changes in the artist's view or the public taste—has permanent validity as an aesthetic statement at a particular time and place.

IV THE ARTIST IN THE WORLD

Although artists may be unique geniuses impelled by their own creative energies, they are also very much products of their societies. A society must provide sufficient wealth and leisure to enable the public or an institution to pay a professional artist, as did Sumerian priests and Renaissance princes. An amateur artist must have free time, as, for example, a farmer who carves or embroiders in winter, or an office worker who paints on Sunday. Even the choice to be an artist may be culturally influenced. In many traditional societies, artists, like other people, customarily followed their father's profession, as did certain Japanese families of actors and painters and the musical dynasties of 18th-century Europe.

The physical resources of a society affect the medium in which an artist works. In stoneless Mesopotamia, Sumerian architects built in brick. Nomadic Asian herders wove wool from their flocks into rugs. Medieval European painters worked on wood panels, plaster walls, stained-glass windows, and parchment books in an era before paper was known in the West. Mass production and world trade have given 20th-century artists an enormous range of materials.

An artist's medium affects the style of the work. Thus, a sculptor must treat stone differently from wood; a musician achieves different effects with drums than with violins; a writer must meet certain demands of poetry that might be irrelevant to the novel. Local tradition also affects art styles. Pottery design in one area and period may be geometric and in another, naturalistic. Indian tradition prescribed closely curled hair in depictions of the Buddha, just as Western tradition decreed blond hair for depictions of Jesus Christ. Eastern artists paid no heed to scientific perspective, which has been a major concern of Western painters since the European Renaissance.

In addition, the subject of art is largely dictated by the society that supports it. Ancient Egyptian art and architecture, dominated by state and religion, glorified the pharaoh and life after death. In pious medieval Europe, most visual arts and theater had Christian themes. In 20th-century totalitarian countries, officially accepted art must serve the state. Since the 19th century, in most Western countries, artists have had greater freedom to choose the subjects they please. Sometimes, as in conceptual art and absolute music, the form of the work becomes its subject.

The status of artists in the West has changed over the centuries. In classical and medieval times, poets and other writers who used mental skills were usually ranked above actors, dancers, musicians, painters, and sculptors who used physical skills. From the Renaissance on, as all aspects of the human personality came to be valued, those skilled in the visual and performing arts gradually gained greater recognition and social prestige. Today art in all its categories is considered an essential part of human achievement, and some of its many, varied creators are ranked among the most celebrated citizens of the world.

For art theory see Aesthetics; Criticism, Literary. For art technique and history see Architecture; Clothing; Dance; Drama and Dramatic Arts; Music; Music, Western; Novel; Painting; Poetry; Pottery; Sculpture. See also articles on individual artists, dancers, musicians, and writers.


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