THE WORLD OF
PAINTING
Presentation by Sergey Virstyuk
Frida Kahlo, Self-Portrait, 1940
Raphael, c. 1517-1518, Uffizi Gallery
Self-portrait
What is…
Self-portrait
is a representation of an artist, drawn, painted, photographed,
or sculpted by the artist. Although self-portraits have been
made by artists since the earliest times, it is not until the Early
Renaissance in the mid 15th century that artists can be
frequently identified depicting themselves as either the main
subject, or as important characters in their work. With better
and cheaper mirrors, and the advent of the panel portrait,
many painters, sculptors and printmakers tried some form of
self-portraiture. Portrait of a Man in a Turban by Jan van Eyck
of 1433 may well be the earliest known panel self-portrait. He
painted a separate portrait of his wife, and he belonged to the
social group that had begun to commission portraits, already
more common among wealthy Netherlanders than south of the
Alps. The genre is venerable, but not until the Renaissance,
with increased wealth and interest in the individual as a
subject, did it become truly popular.
Landscape
Themistokles von Eckenbrecher (German, 1842–1921).
View of Laerdalsoren, on the Sognefjord, 1901
What is…
Landscape
is the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys,
trees, rivers, 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. Sky is
almost always included in the view, and weather 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 from Western
painting and Chinese art, going back well over a thousand years
in both cases. Landscape photography has been very important
since the 19th century, and is covered by its own article.
Alfred Sisley, Bridge at Villeneuve-la-Garenne, 1872, Metropolitan Museum of Art
Impressionism
What is…
Impressionism
is a 19th-century art movement that originated with a group of
Paris-based artists. Their independent exhibitions brought them
to prominence during the 1870s and 1880s, in spite of harsh
opposition from the conventional art community in France. The
name of the style derives from the title of a Claude Monet
work, Impression, soleil levant (Impression, Sunrise), which
provoked the critic Louis Leroy to coin the term in a satirical
review published in the Parisian newspaper Le Charivari.
Avant-garde
The Love of Zero, a 1927 film by Robert Florey
What is…
Avant-garde
refers to people or works that are experimental or innovative,
particularly with respect to art, culture, and politics.
Avant-garde represents a pushing of the boundaries of what is
accepted as the norm or the status quo, primarily in the
cultural realm. The notion of the existence of the avant-garde
is considered by some to be a hallmark of modernism, as
distinct from postmodernism. Many artists have aligned
themselves with the avant-garde movement and still continue
to do so, tracing a history from Dada through the Situationists
to postmodern artists such as the Language poets around 1981.
Futurism
Giacomo Balla, Abstract Speed, 1913–1914
What is…
Futurism
was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in
the early 20th century. It emphasized and glorified themes
associated with contemporary concepts of the future, including
speed, technology, youth and violence, and objects such as the
car, the airplane and the industrial city. It was largely an Italian
phenomenon, though there were parallel movements in Russia,
England and elsewhere. The Futurists practiced in every
medium of art, including painting, sculpture, ceramics, graphic
design, industrial design, interior design, urban design,
theatre, film, fashion, textiles, literature, music, architecture
and even gastronomy.
Kazimir Malevich, Black Square, 1915, The Russian Museum
Abstractionism
What is…
Abstractionism
uses a visual language of form, color and line to create a
composition which may exist with a degree of independence
from visual references in the world. Western art had been,
from the Renaissance up to the middle of the 19th century,
underpinned by the logic of perspective and an attempt to
reproduce an illusion of visible reality. The arts of cultures
other than the European had become accessible and showed
alternative ways of describing visual experience to the artist.
By the end of the 19th century many artists felt a need to
create a new kind of art which would encompass the
fundamental changes taking place in technology, science and
philosophy. The sources from which individual artists drew their
theoretical arguments were diverse, and reflected the social
and intellectual preoccupations in all areas of Western culture
at that time.