Painting is avisual art, which is characterized by the practice of applyingpaint,pigment,color or other medium to a solid surface (called "matrix"[1] or "support").[2] The medium is commonly applied to the base with abrush. Other implements, such as palette knives, sponges,airbrushes, the artist's fingers, or even a dripping technique that uses gravity may be used. One who produces paintings is called apainter.
Inart, the term "painting" describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called "a painting"). The support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass,lacquer, pottery,leaf, copper andconcrete, and the painting may incorporate other materials, in single or multiple form, including sand,clay, paper, cardboard, newspaper,plaster,gold leaf, and even entire objects.
Cave paintings depicting a wild boar hunt in theMaros-Pangkep karst of Sulawesi are estimated to be at least 43,900 years old (2014). This finding was recognized as "the oldest known depiction ofstorytelling and the earliest instance of figurative art in human history."
Redrawing of hunting scene from the Caves in the Maros-Pangkep karst
The depiction of a bull found in theLubang Jeriji Saleh,Indonesia, in 2018, is the world's oldest known figurative painting. The painting is estimated to have been created around 40,000 to 52,000 years ago, or even earlier.
In 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.
In November 2018, scientists reported the discovery of the then-oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave ofLubang Jeriji Saléh on theIndonesian island ofBorneo.[6][7] In December 2019, cave paintings portraying pig hunting within theMaros-Pangkep karst region inSulawesi were discovered to be even older, with an estimated age of at least 43,900 years. This finding was recognized as "the oldest known depiction ofstorytelling and the earliest instance of figurative art in human history."[8][9] In 2021, cave art of a pig found inSulawesi, Indonesia, and dated to over 45,500 years ago, has been reported.[10][11] On July 3, 2024, the journalNature published research findings indicating that the cave paintings which depictanthropomorphic figures interacting with a pig and measure 36 by 15 inches (91 by 38 cm) inLeang Karampuang are approximately 51,200 years old, establishing them as the oldest known paintings in the world.[12][13]
The invention of photography had a major impact on painting. In the decades after the firstphotograph was produced in 1829,photographic processes improved and became more widely practiced, depriving painting of much of its historic purpose to provide an accurate record of the observable world. A series of art movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—notablyImpressionism,Post-Impressionism,Fauvism,Expressionism,Cubism, andDadaism—challenged theRenaissance view of the world. Eastern and African painting, however, continued a long history ofstylization and did not undergo an equivalent transformation at the same time.[citation needed]
Modern andContemporary art has moved away from the historic value of craft and documentation in favour ofconcept. This has not deterred the majority of living painters from continuing to practice painting either as a whole or part of their work. The vitality and versatility of painting in the 21st century defy the previous "declarations" of its demise. In an epoch characterized by the idea ofpluralism, there is no consensus as to a representative style of the age. Artists continue to make important works of art in a wide variety of styles and aesthetictemperaments—their merits are left to the public and the marketplace to judge.
The Feminist art movement[15] began in the 1960s during the second wave of feminism. The movement sought to gain equal rights and equal opportunities for female artists internationally.
Color, made up ofhue,saturation, andvalue, dispersed over a surface is the essence of painting, just aspitch andrhythm are the essence ofmusic. Color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, white is. Some painters, theoreticians, writers, and scientists, includingGoethe,[16]Kandinsky,[17] andNewton,[18] have written their owncolor theory.
Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction of color equivalent. The word "red", for example, can cover a wide range of variations from the pure red of thevisible spectrum of light. There is not a formalized register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such asF orC♯. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic (primary) and derived (complementary or mixed) colors (like red, blue, green, brown, etc.).
Painters deal practically withpigments,[19] so "blue" for a painter can be any of the blues:phthalocyanine blue,Prussian blue,indigo,Cobalt blue,ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and symbolical meanings of color are not, strictly speaking, means of painting. Colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this, the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music (like a C note) is analogous to "light" in painting, "shades" todynamics, and "coloration" is to painting as the specifictimbre of musical instruments is to music. These elements do not necessarily form a melody (in music) of themselves; rather, they can add different contexts to it.
Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example,collage, which began withCubism and is not painting in the strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as metal, plastic,sand,cement,straw,leaves orwood for the texture. Examples of this are the works ofJean Dubuffet andAnselm Kiefer. There is a growing community of artists who use computers to "paint" color onto a digital "canvas" using programs such asAdobe Photoshop,Corel Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required.
Jean Metzinger's mosaic-likeDivisionist technique had its parallel in literature; a characteristic of the alliance betweenSymbolist writers and Neo-Impressionist artists:
I ask of divided brushwork not the objective rendering of light, but iridescences and certain aspects of color still foreign to painting. I make a kind of chromatic versification and for syllables, I use strokes which, variable in quantity, cannot differ in dimension without modifying the rhythm of a pictorial phraseology destined to translate the diverse emotions aroused by nature. (Jean Metzinger,c. 1907)[20]
Rhythm, for artists such asPiet Mondrian,[21][22] is important in painting as it is in music. If one defines rhythm as "a pause incorporated into a sequence", then there can be rhythm in paintings. These pauses allow creative force to intervene and add new creations—form, melody, coloration. The distribution of form or any kind of information is of crucial importance in the given work of art, and it directly affects the aesthetic value of that work. This is because the aesthetic value is functionality dependent, i.e. the freedom (of movement) of perception is perceived as beauty. Free flow of energy, in art as well as in other forms of "techne", directly contributes to the aesthetic value.[21]
Music was important to the birth ofabstract art since music is abstract by nature—it does not try to represent the exterior world, but expresses in an immediate way the inner feelings of the soul.Wassily Kandinsky often used musical terms to identify his works; he called his most spontaneous paintings "improvisations" and described more elaborate works as "compositions". Kandinsky theorized that "music is the ultimate teacher",[23] and subsequently embarked upon the first seven of his tenCompositions. Hearing tones and chords as he painted, Kandinsky theorized that (for example), yellow is the color of middleC on a brassy trumpet; black is the color of closure, and the end of things; and that combinations of colors produce vibrational frequencies, akin to chords played on a piano. In 1871 the young Kandinsky learned to play the piano and cello.[24][25] Kandinsky's stage design for a performance ofMussorgsky'sPictures at an Exhibition illustrates his "synaesthetic" concept of a universal correspondence of forms, colors and musical sounds.[26]
Female painter sitting on a campstool and painting a statue ofDionysus orPriapus onto a panel which is held by a boy. Fresco fromPompeii, 1st century
Aesthetics is the study ofart andbeauty; it was an important issue for 18th- and 19th-centuryphilosophers such asKant andHegel. Classical philosophers likePlato andAristotle also theorized about art and painting in particular. Plato disregarded painters (as well as sculptors) in his philosophical system; he maintained that painting cannot depict thetruth—it is a copy of reality (a shadow of the world of ideas) and is nothing but acraft, similar to shoemaking or iron casting.[28] By the time of Leonardo, painting had become a closer representation of the truth than painting was inAncient Greece.Leonardo da Vinci, on the contrary, said that "Italian:La Pittura è cosa mentale" ("English:painting is a thing of the mind").[29] Kant distinguished betweenBeauty and theSublime, in terms that clearly gave priority to the former.[citation needed] Although he did not refer to painting in particular, this concept was taken up by painters such asJ.M.W. Turner andCaspar David Friedrich.
Hegel recognized the failure of attaining a universal concept of beauty and, in his aesthetic essay, wrote that painting is one of the three "romantic" arts, along withPoetry andMusic, for itssymbolic, highly intellectual purpose.[30][31] Painters who have written theoretical works on painting includeKandinsky andPaul Klee.[32][33] In his essay, Kandinsky maintains that painting has a spiritual value, and he attachesprimary colors to essential feelings or concepts, something thatGoethe and other writers had already tried to do.
Iconography is the study of the content of paintings, rather than their style.Erwin Panofsky and otherart historians first seek to understand the things depicted, before looking at their meaning for the viewer at the time, and finally analyzing their wider cultural, religious, and social meaning.[34]
In 1890, the Parisian painterMaurice Denis famously asserted: "Remember that a painting—before being a warhorse, a naked woman or some story or other—is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order."[35] Thus, many 20th-century developments in painting, such asCubism, were reflections on themeans of painting rather than on the external world—nature—which had previously been its core subject. Recent contributions to thinking about painting have been offered by the painter and writer Julian Bell. In his bookWhat is Painting?, Bell discusses the development, through history, of the notion that paintings can express feelings and ideas.[36] InMirror of The World, Bell writes:
Awork of art seeks to hold your attention and keep it fixed: ahistory of art urges it onwards, bulldozing a highway through the homes of the imagination.[37]
Different types of paint are usually identified by the medium that the pigment is suspended or embedded in, which determines the general working characteristics of the paint, such asviscosity,miscibility,solubility, drying time, etc.
Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heatedbeeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, thoughcanvas and other materials are often used. The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used—some containing other types ofwaxes,damar resin,linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment. Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Other materials can be encased orcollaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface.
The technique was the normal one for ancient Greek and Roman panel paintings, and remained in use in the Eastern Orthodoxicon tradition.
Watercolor is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports includepapyrus, bark papers, plastics,vellum orleather,fabric, wood andcanvas. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to asbrush painting or scroll painting. InChinese,Korean, andJapanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India,Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions.Finger-painting with watercolor paints originated inChina. There are various types of watercolors used by artists. Some examples are pan watercolors, liquid watercolors, watercolor brush pens, andwatercolor pencils. Watercolor pencils (water-soluble color pencils) may be used either wet or dry.
Rudolf Reschreiter,Blick von der Höllentalangerhütte zum Höllentalgletscher und den Riffelwandspitzen, Gouache (1921)
Gouache is a water-based paint consisting of pigment and other materials designed to be used in an opaque painting method. Gouache differs fromwatercolor in that the particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to water is much higher, and an additional, inert, white pigment such aschalk is also present. This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities. Like all water media, it is diluted with water.[38]Gouache was a popular paint utilized by Egyptians,[39] Painters such asFrancois Boucher used this medium. This paint is best applied with sable brushes.
Glazing is commonly known as a premelted liquid glass. This glaze can be dipped or brushed on. This glaze appears chalky and there is a vast difference between the beginning and finished result. To be activated glazed pottery must be placed in a kiln to be fired. This melts the Silica glass in the glaze and transforms it into a vibrant glossy version of itself.[40][41]
Sesshū Tōyō,Landscapes of the Four Seasons (1486), ink and light color on paper
Ink paintings are done with a liquid that contains pigments ordyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image,text, ordesign. Ink is used for drawing with apen,brush, orquill. Ink can be a complex medium, composed ofsolvents, pigments, dyes,resins,lubricants, solubilizers,surfactants,particulate matter,fluorescers, and other materials. The components of inks serve many purposes; the ink's carrier, colorants, and other additives control flow and thickness of the ink and its appearance when dry.
Enamels are made by painting a substrate, typically metal, with powdered glass; minerals called color oxides provide coloration. After firing at a temperature of 750–850 degrees Celsius (1380–1560 degrees Fahrenheit), the result is a fused lamination of glass and metal. Unlike most painted techniques, the surface can be handled and wetted. Enamels have traditionally been used for decoration of precious objects,[42] but have also been used for other purposes.Limoges enamel was the leading centre of Renaissance enamel painting, with small religious and mythological scenes in decorated surrounds, on plaques or objects such assalts or caskets. In the 18th century, enamel painting enjoyed a vogue in Europe, especially as a medium forportrait miniatures.[43] In the late 20th century, the technique of porcelain enamel on metal has been used as a durable medium for outdoor murals.[44]
Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-solublebinder medium (usually a glutinous material such as egg yolk or some othersize). Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long-lasting, and examples from the first centuries CE still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention ofoil painting. A paint commonly called tempera (though it is not) consisting of pigment and glue size is commonly used and referred to by some manufacturers in America asposter paint.
White Angel (fresco, c. 1235), Mileševa monastery, Serbia
Fresco is any of several relatedmural painting types, done onplaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from theItalian wordaffresco[afˈfresːko], which derives from the Latin word forfresh. Frescoes were often made during the Renaissance and other early time periods.Buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, freshlime mortar orplaster, for which the Italian word for plaster,intonaco, is used.A secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster (secco is "dry" in Italian). The pigments require a binding medium, such asegg (tempera), glue oroil to attach the pigment to the wall.
Honoré Daumier,The Painter (1808–1879), oil on panel with visible brushstrokes
Oil painting is the process of painting withpigments that are bound with a medium ofdrying oil, such aslinseed oil,poppyseed oil which was widely used in early modern Europe. Often the oil was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or evenfrankincense; these were called 'varnishes' and were prized for their body and gloss. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. The transition began withEarly Netherlandish painting in northern Europe, and by the height of theRenaissance oil painting techniques had almost completely replacedtempera paints in the majority of Europe.
Pastel is a painting medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder.[45] The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, includingoil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and lowsaturation. The color effect of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process.[46] Because the surface of a pastel painting is fragile and easily smudged, its preservation requires protective measures such as framing under glass; it may also be sprayed with afixative. Nonetheless, when made with permanent pigments and properly cared for, a pastel painting may endure unchanged for centuries. Pastels are not susceptible, as are paintings made with a fluid medium, to the cracking and discoloration that result from changes in the color, opacity, or dimensions of the medium as it dries.
Ray Burggraf,Jungle Arc (1998), acrylic paint on wood
Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension inacrylic polymeremulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble awatercolor or anoil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media. The main practical difference between most acrylics and oil paints is the inherent drying time.[47] Oils allow for more time to blend colors and apply even glazes over under-paintings. This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as an advantage for certain techniques but may also impede the artist's ability to work quickly. Another difference is that watercolors must be painted onto a porous surface, primarily watercolor paper. Acrylic paints can be used on many different surfaces.[47][48] Both acrylic and watercolor are easy to clean up with water. Acrylic paint should be cleaned with soap and water immediately following use. Watercolor paint can be cleaned with just water.[49][50][51]
Between 1946 and 1949,Leonard Bocour andSam Golden invented a solution acrylic paint under the brandMagna paint. These weremineral spirit-based paints. Water-based acrylic paints were subsequently sold aslatex house paints.[52] In 1963, George Rowney (part ofDaler-Rowney since 1983) was the first manufacturer to introduce artists' acrylic paints in Europe, under the brand name "Cryla".[53] Acrylics are the most common paints used ingrattage, a surrealist technique that began to be used with the advent of this type of paint. Acrylics are used for this purpose because they easily scrape or peel from a surface.[54]
Aerosol paint (also called spray paint)[55] is a type of paint that comes in a sealed pressurized container and is released in a fine spray mist when depressing avalve button. A form ofspray painting,aerosol paint leaves a smooth, evenly coated surface. Standard sized cans are portable, inexpensive and easy to store. Aerosolprimer can be applied directly to bare metal and many plastics.
Speed, portability and permanence also make aerosol paint a commongraffiti medium. In the late 1970s, street graffiti writers' signatures and murals became more elaborate, and a unique style developed as a factor of the aerosol medium and the speed required for illicit work. Many now recognize graffiti and street art as a unique art form and specifically manufactured aerosol paints are made for the graffiti artist. Astencil protects a surface, except the specific shape to be painted. Stencils can be purchased as movable letters, ordered as professionally cutlogos or hand-cut by artists.
Water miscible oil paints (also called "water soluble" or "water-mixable") is a modern variety ofoil paint engineered to be thinned and cleaned up with water,[56][57] rather than having to use chemicals such asturpentine. It can be mixed and applied using the same techniques as traditional oil-based paint, but while still wet it can be effectively removed from brushes, palettes, and rags with ordinary soap and water. Its water solubility comes from the use of anoil medium in which one end of themolecule has been altered to bind loosely to water molecules, as in asolution.
Sandpainting is the art of pouring coloured sands, and powdered pigments from minerals or crystals, or pigments from other natural or synthetic sources onto a surface to make a fixed or unfixed sand painting.
Digital painting is a method of creating an art object (painting) digitally or a technique for making digital art on the computer. As a method of creating an art object, it adapts traditional painting medium such asacrylic paint,oils,ink,watercolor, etc. and applies the pigment to traditional carriers, such as woven canvas cloth, paper, polyester, etc. by means ofsoftware drivingindustrial robotic or office machinery (printers). As a technique, it refers to acomputer graphics software program that uses avirtual canvas and virtual painting box of brushes, colors, and other supplies. The virtual box contains many instruments that do not exist outside the computer, and which give adigital artwork a different look and feel from an artwork that is made the traditional way. Furthermore, digital painting is not 'computer-generated' art as the computer does not automatically create images on the screen using some mathematical calculations. On the other hand, the artist uses his own painting technique to create a particular piece of work on the computer.[58]
Bodily fluids have been used as painting media.Andy Warhol produced hisOxidization series by covering canvases with metallic paint and having his assistants and friends urinate on the still-wet paint.[59] Blood from menstrual periods has been used to paint images.[60] Sarah Maple, a contemporary artist, has used her menstrual blood to create portraits to help erase the taboo covering the topic of periods.[citation needed]
Style is used in two senses: It can refer to the distinctive visual elements, techniques, and methods that typify anindividual artist's work. It can also refer to themovement or school that an artist is associated with. This can stem from an actual group that the artist was consciously involved with or it can be a category in which art historians have placed the painter. The word 'style' in the latter sense has fallen out of favor in academic discussions about contemporary painting, though it continues to be used in popular contexts. Such movements or classifications include the following:
Modernism describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associatedcultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes toWestern society in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values ofrealism.[61][62] The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the "traditional" forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization, and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. A salient characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness. This often led to experiments with form, and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction).[63]
The first example of modernism in painting wasimpressionism, a school of painting that initially focused on work done, not in studios, but outdoors (en plein air). Impressionist paintings demonstrated that human beings do not see objects, but instead see light itself. The school gathered adherents despite internal divisions among its leading practitioners and became increasingly influential. Initially rejected from the most important commercial show of the time, the government-sponsoredParis Salon, theImpressionists organized yearly group exhibitions in commercial venues during the 1870s and 1880s, timing them to coincide with the official Salon. A significant event of 1863 was theSalon des Refusés, created byEmperor Napoleon III to display all of the paintings rejected by the Paris Salon.
Abstract painting uses avisual language of form, colour and line to create a composition that may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.[64][65]Abstract expressionism was an American post-World War IIart movement that combined the emotional intensity and self-denial of the GermanExpressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools—such asFuturism,Bauhaus andCubism, and the image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and, some feel, nihilistic.[66]
Action painting, sometimes calledgestural abstraction, is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied.[67] The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist. The style was widespread from the 1940s until the early 1960s and is closely associated withabstract expressionism (some critics have used the terms "action painting" and "abstract expressionism" interchangeably).
The termoutsider art was coined byart critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut (French:[aʁbʁyt], "raw art" or "rough art"), a label created byFrenchartistJean Dubuffet to describeart created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art byinsane-asylum inmates.[68] Outsider art has emerged as a successful art marketing category (an annual Outsider Art Fair has taken place in New York since 1992). The term is sometimes misapplied as a catch-all marketing label for art created by people outside the mainstream "art world", regardless of their circumstances or the content of their work.
Photorealism is the genre of painting based on using the camera and photographs to gather information and then from this information, creating a painting that appears to be very realistic like aphotograph. The term is primarily applied to paintings from the United Statesart movement that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a full-fledged art movement, Photorealism evolved fromPop Art[69][70][71] and as a counter toAbstract Expressionism.
Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolutionphotograph.Hyperrealism is a fully-fledged school ofart and can be considered an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe that has developed since the early 2000s.[72]
Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s and is best known for the artistic and literary production of those affiliated with theSurrealist Movement. Surrealist artworks feature the element of surprise, the uncanny, the unconscious, unexpected juxtapositions andnon-sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. LeaderAndré Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.
Miniature paintings were the primary form of painting in pre-colonial India. These were done on a special paper (known as wasli) using mineral and natural colours. Miniature painting is not one style but a group of several styles of schools of painting such as Mughal, Pahari, Rajasthani, Company style etc.
Mughal miniature painting is a particular style ofSouth Asian, particularly North Indian (more specifically, modern day India and Pakistan), painting confined tominiatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums (muraqqa). It emerged[73] fromPersian miniature painting (itself partly ofChinese origin) and developed in the court of theMughal Empire of the 16th to 18th centuries. Mughal painting immediately took a much greater interest in realistic portraiture than was typical of Persian miniatures. Animals and plants were the main subject of many miniatures for albums, and were more realistically depicted.[74][75][76]
Krishna and Radha, might be the work ofNihâl Chand, master of Kishangarh school of Rajput Painting
Rajasthani painting evolved and flourished in the royal courts ofRajputana[77] in northern India, mainly during the 17th century. Artists trained in the tradition of theMughal miniature were dispersed from the imperial Mughal court, and developed styles also drawing from local traditions of painting, especially those illustrating the Sanskrit Epics, theMahabharata andRamayana. Subjects varied, but portraits of the ruling family, often engaged in hunting or their daily activities, were generally popular, as were narrative scenes from the epics orHindu mythology, as well as somegenre scenes of landscapes, and humans.[78][79]
Punjab Hills orPahari painting of which Kangra, Guller, Basholi were major sub-styles. Kangra painting is the pictorial art ofKangra, named afterKangra,Himachal Pradesh, a formerprincely state, which patronized the art. It became prevalent with the fading ofBasohli school of painting in mid-18th century.[80][81] The focal theme of Kangra painting is Shringar (the erotic sentiment). The subjects are seen in Kangra painting exhibit the taste and the traits of the lifestyle of the society of that period.[82] The artists adopted themes from the love poetry ofJayadeva andKeshav Das who wrote ecstatically of the love ofRadha andKrishna withBhakti being the driving force.[83][84]
Khan Bahadur Khan with Men of his Clan, c. 1815, from the Fraser Album, Company Style
Company style is a term for a hybrid Indo-European style of paintings made in India by Indian artists, many of whom worked for European patrons in theBritish East India Company or other foreign Companies in the 18th and 19th centuries.[85] Three distinct styles of Company Painting emerged in three British Power Centres –Delhi,Calcutta andMadras. The subject matter of company paintings made for western patrons was often documentary rather than imaginative, and as a consequence, the Indian artists were required to adopt a more naturalistic approach to painting than had traditionally been usual.[86][87]
TheSikh style andDeccan style are other prominent Miniature painting styles of India.
Pichwai paintings are paintings on textile and usually depicting stories from the life of Lord Krishna.[88] These were made in large format and often used as a backdrop to the main idol in temples or homes. Pichwai paintings were made and are still made mainly in Rajasthan, India. However very few were made in the Deccan region, but these are extremely rare. The purpose of pichhwais, other than artistic appeal, is to narrate tales of Krishna to the illiterate. Temples have sets with different images, which are changed according to thecalendar of festivals celebrating the deity.[89]
Pattachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-basedscroll painting, based in the eastern Indianstates ofOdisha andWest Bengal.[90] The Pattachitra painting tradition is closely linked with the worship of LordJagannath in Odisha.[91] The subject matter of Pattachitra is limited to religious themes. Patachitra artform is known for its intricate details as well as mythological narratives and folktales inscribed in it. All colours used in the Paintings are natural and paintings are made fully old traditional way by Chitrakaras that is Odiya Painter. Pattachitra style of painting is one of the oldest and most popular art forms ofOdisha. Patachitras are a component of an ancientBengali narrative art, originally serving as a visual device during the performance of a song.[92][93][94]
Madhubani Art is a style ofIndian painting, practiced in theMithila region of India and Nepal. The style is characterized by complex geometrical patterns, these paintings are famous for representing ritual content used for particular occasions like festivals, religious rituals etc.[95]
The Bengal School[96] was anart movement and a style ofIndian painting that originated inBengal, primarilyKolkata andShantiniketan, and flourished throughout theIndian subcontinent, during theBritish Raj in the early 20th century.[97] The Bengal school arose as anavant garde and nationalist movement reacting against theacademic art styles previously promoted in India, both by Indian artists such asRaja Ravi Varma and in British art schools. The school wanted to establish a distinct Indian style which celebrated the indigenous cultural heritage. In an attempt to reject colonial aesthetics,Abanindranath Tagore also turned to China and Japan with the intent of promoting a pan-Asian aesthetic and incorporated elements from Far Eastern art, such as theJapanese wash technique.[98][99][100]
Mysore painting is an important form of classicalSouth Indian painting that originated in and around the town ofMysore inKarnataka encouraged and nurtured by the Mysore rulers. Mysore paintings are known for their elegance, muted colours, and attention to detail. The themes for most of these paintings areHindu gods and goddesses and scenes fromHindu mythology.[101]
Allegory is afigurativemode of representation conveying meaning other than the literal. Allegory communicates its message by means ofsymbolic figures, actions, or symbolic representation. Allegory is generally treated as a figure ofrhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed inlanguage: it may be addressed to the eye and is often found in realistic painting. An example of a simple visual allegory is the image of thegrim reaper. Viewers understand that the image of the grim reaper is a symbolic representation of death.
InSpanish art, abodegón is astill life painting depicting pantry items, such as victuals, game, and drink, often arranged on a simple stone slab, and also a painting with one or more figures, but significant still life elements, typically set in a kitchen or tavern. Starting in theBaroque period, such paintings became popular in Spain in the second quarter of the 17th century. The tradition of still life painting appears to have started and was far more popular in the contemporaryLow Countries, today Belgium andNetherlands (then Flemish and Dutch artists), than it ever was insouthern Europe.Northern still lifes had many subgenres: thebreakfast piece was augmented by thetrompe-l'œil, theflower bouquet, and thevanitas. In Spain, there were much fewer patrons for this sort of thing, but a type ofbreakfast piece did become popular, featuring a few objects of food and tableware laid on a table.
Afigure painting is awork of art in any of the painting media with the primary subject being the human figure, whether clothed ornude.Figure painting may also refer to the activity of creating such a work. The human figure has been one of the contrast subjects of art since the first Stone Age cave paintings and has been reinterpreted in various styles throughout history.[102] Some artists well known for figure painting arePeter Paul Rubens,Edgar Degas, andÉdouard Manet.
Illustration paintings are those used as illustrations in books, magazines, and theater or movieposters and comic books. Today, there is a growing interest in collecting and admiring the original artwork. Various museum exhibitions, magazines, and art galleries have devoted space to the illustrators of the past. In the visual art world, illustrators have sometimes been considered less important in comparison with fine artists andgraphic designers. But as the result ofcomputer game and comic industry growth, illustrations are becoming valued as popular and profitable artworks that can acquire a wider market than the other two, especially inKorea, Japan,Hong Kong and the United States.
Landscape painting is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, lakes, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works, landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. The sky is almost always included in the view, andweather is often an element of the composition. Detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects. The two main traditions spring fromWestern painting andChinese art, going back well over a thousand years in both cases.
Portrait paintings are representations of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness,personality, and even the mood of the person. The art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especiallyRoman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. One of the best-known portraits in the Western world isLeonardo da Vinci's painting titledMona Lisa, which is thought to be a portrait ofLisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.[109]
Warhol was one of the most prolific portrait painters of the 20th century. Warhol's paintingOrange Shot Marilyn ofMarilyn Monroe is an iconic early example of his work from the 1960s, andOrange Prince (1984) of the pop singerPrince is later example, both exhibiting Warhol's unique graphic style of portraiture.[110][111][112]
Astill life is a work ofart depicting mostlyinanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects—which may be either natural (food, flowers, plants, rocks, or shells) or human-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on). With origins in the Middle Ages and Ancient Greek/Roman art, still life paintings give the artist more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition than do paintings of other types of subjects such aslandscape orportraiture. Still life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. Some modern still life breaks the two-dimensional barrier and employs three-dimensional mixed media, and uses found objects, photography, computer graphics, as well as video and sound.
Aveduta is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting of acityscape or some other vista. Thisgenre oflandscape originated inFlanders, where artists such asPaul Bril paintedvedute as early as the 16th century. As the itinerary of theGrand Tour became somewhat standardized,vedute of familiar scenes like the Roman Forum or the Grand Canal recalled early ventures to the Continent for aristocratic Englishmen. In the later 19th century, more personal impressions of cityscapes replaced the desire for topographical accuracy, which was satisfied instead by paintedpanoramas.
^"Paint – Definition". Merriam-webster.com. 2012.Archived from the original on 4 March 2018. Retrieved13 March 2014.
^Perry, Lincoln (Summer 2014). "The Music of Painting".The American Scholar.83 (3): 85.
^M. Aubert et al., "Pleistocene cave art from Sulawesi, Indonesia",Nature vol. 514, pp. 223–227 (9 October 2014)."using uranium-series dating of coralloid speleothems directly associated with 12 human hand stencils and two figurative animal depictions from seven cave sites in the Maros karsts of Sulawesi, we show that rock art traditions on this Indonesian island are at least compatible in age with the oldest European art. The earliest dated image from Maros, with a minimum age of 39.9 kyr, is now the oldest known hand stencil in the world. In addition, a painting of ababirusa ('pig-deer') made at least 35.4 kyr ago is among the earliest dated figurative depictions worldwide, if not the earliest one. Among the implications, it can now be demonstrated that humans were producing rock art by ~40 kyr ago at opposite ends of the Pleistocene Eurasian world."
^, François Le Targat,Kandinsky, Twentieth Century masters series, Random House Incorporated, 1987, p. 7,ISBN0847808106
^Susan B. Hirschfeld, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Hilla von Rebay Foundation,Watercolours by Kandinsky at the Guggenheim Museum: a selection from the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and the Hilla von Rebay Foundation, 1991
^Fiedler, Jeannine (2013).Bauhaus. Germany: h.f. ullmann publishing GmbH. p. 262.ISBN978-3-8480-0275-7.
^Wallace, William (1911)."Hegel, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich" . InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 200–207, see page 207.Painting and music are the specially romantic arts. Lastly, as a union of painting and music comes poetry, where the sensuous element is more than ever subordinate to the spirit
^Franciscono, Marcel,Paul Klee: His Work and Thought, part 6 'The Bauhaus and Düsseldorf', chap. 'Klee's theory courses', p. 246 and under 'notes to pp. 245–54' p. 365
^Green-Cole, Ruth. "Painting Blood: Visualizing Menstrual Blood in Art." The Palgrave Handbook of Critical Menstruation Studies [Internet], U.S. National Library of Medicine, 25 July 2020, www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK565646/.
^Graff, Gerald (1975)Babbitt at the Abyss: The Social Context of Postmodern. American Fiction,TriQuarterly, No. 33 (Spring 1975), pp. 307–37; reprinted in Putz and Freese, eds., Postmodernism and American Literature.
^Gardner, Helen, Horst De la Croix, Richard G. Tansey, and Diane Kirkpatrick.Gardner's Art Through the Ages (San Diego:Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, 1991).ISBN0155037706. p. 953.
^Shapiro, David/Cecile (2000): Abstract Expressionism. The politics of apolitical painting. p. 189-90 In: Frascina, Francis (2000): Pollock and After. The critical debate. 2nd ed. London: Routledge
^Victoria and Albert Museum, Digital Media (16 November 2012)."Indian company paintings".www.vam.ac.uk.Archived from the original on 22 November 2021. Retrieved22 November 2021.
Howard Daniel (1971).Encyclopedia of Themes and Subjects in Painting: Mythological, Biblical, Historical, Literary, Allegorical, and Topical. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc.
W. Stanley Taft Jr. and James W. Mayer (2000).The Science of Paintings. Springer-Verlag.
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