Visual arts
The
visual arts are a class of
art forms, including
painting,
sculpture,
film,
photography, and others, that focus on the creation of works which are primarily
visual in nature.
Arts or
the Arts encompasses visual arts,
performing arts,
language arts, and
culinary arts. Many artistic disciplines involve aspects of the visual arts as well other types, so these definitions are not strict.
The current usage of
visual arts includes
fine arts and well as
crafts, but this was not always the case. In
Britain and elsewhere, a
visual artist referred to a person working in the
fine arts (such as
painting,
sculpture, or
printmaking) and not the
handicraft,
craft, or
applied art disciplines. This distinction was emphasized by artists of the
Arts and Crafts movement who valued vernacular artforms as much as high forms. The movement contrasted with
modernists who sought to withhold the high arts from the masses by keeping them esoteric.
Art schools made a distinction between the
fine arts and the
crafts in such a way that a craftsperson could not be considered a practitioner of art.
There may be some residual meaning of
visual arts as fine art. But generally,
visual arts is suitably independent of these older, loaded concepts and as such is the preferred term for work across all the disciplines in question.
Drawing is a means of making an
image, using any of a wide variety of tools and techniques. It generally involves making marks on a surface by applying pressure from a tool, or moving a tool across a surface. Common tools are
graphite pencils,
pen and ink,
inked
brushes, wax
color pencils,
crayons,
charcoals,
pastels, and
markers. Digital tools which simulate the effects of these are also used. The main techniques used in drawing are: line drawing,
hatching, crosshatching, random hatching, scribbling,
stippling, and blending. An artist who excels in drawing is referred to as a
draftsman or
draughtsman.
Painting taken literally is the practice of applying
pigment suspended in a carrier (or
medium) and a binding agent (a
glue) to a
surface (support) such as
paper,
canvas or a wall. However, when used in an artistic sense it means the use of this activity in combination with
drawing,
composition and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner. Painting is also used to express spiritual motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery to
The Sistine Chapel to the human body itself.
Photography is the process of making pictures by means of the action of light.
Light patterns reflected or emitted from objects are recorded onto a sensitive medium or storage chip through a timed
exposure. The process is done through
mechanical,
chemical or
digital devices known as
cameras.
The word comes from the
Greek words φως
phos ("light"), and γραφις
graphis ("stylus", "paintbrush") or γραφη
graphê, together meaning "drawing with light" or "representation by means of lines" or "drawing." Traditionally the product of photography has been called a
photograph. The term
photo is an abbreviation; many people also call them
pictures. In digital photography, the term
image has begun to replace
photograph. (The term
image is traditional in geometric
optics.)
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Collage*
Comics*
Conceptual art*
Crafts*
Decollage*
Decorative art*
Design*
Drawing*
Film*
Found art*
Graffiti*
Illustration*
Installation art*
Mail art*
Mixed media*
Painting*
Photography*
Printmaking*
Sculpture*
Video art:
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History of art*
History of film*
History of painting*
History of sculpture*
Plastic arts*
ArtLex - online dictionary of visual art terms.
*
Art History Timeline by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
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Tenability of the Distinction Between Arts and Crafts - essay. (PDF)
