Art

Art is the visual expression of human imagination in an attempt to create an object that carries an aesthetic or emotional impact. The definition of what constitutes art is often subjective but generally includes painting, sculpture, drawing, architecture, printmaking, photography, and filmmaking. These forms are often called visual arts to differentiate them from other types of artistic expression, such as music and literature.

Art created solely to be admired for its beauty is called fine art and includes painting, sculpture, and film. Decorative art, such as pottery or architecture, can also be admired for its aesthetics, but it serves a more practical purpose. Art in some form has existed since prehistoric times and has evolved with humans, changing and redefining itself many times over thousands of years. For most of human history, changes in artistic styles occurred over centuries. However, since the onset of the Industrial Revolution in the nineteenth century, rapid societal changes have given birth to new art styles in the course of just a few decades.

Early History

Fossil evidence suggests that early humans first developed tools about two and a half million years ago on the plains of Africa. While not technically considered works of art, these primitive stone tools marked the first time humans purposely created objects to shape the environment. Defining the first true work of human art is problematic because of the difficulty in accurately dating objects and the subjective nature of art. Some researchers believe zigzag scratch marks made on a mussel shell in Indonesia more than 430,000 years ago constitute the oldest known piece of art. Another possible, albeit controversial, candidate is known as the Venus of Berekhat Ram, a small stone figure resembling the torso of a woman. The figure was discovered in Israel and dates back at least 230,000 years. Archeologists are unsure, however, if it was carved by natural processes or by early humans.

About forty thousand years ago, prehistoric humans began drawing images on cave walls where they sought shelter from the elements. Spain's Nerja Caves contain a number of seal drawings dating to about forty-two thousand years, making this the oldest cave art yet discovered. One of the most well-known examples of Stone Age art was left on the walls of the Lascaux caves in France about fifteen to seventeen thousand years ago. The highly detailed drawings feature large colorful depictions of horses, deer, bison, cattle, and human figures.

Humans first discovered agriculture about ten to twelve thousand years ago, leading to settlements that grew into cities and eventually civilizations. Ceramic art, pottery, and stone carvings called petroglyphs were popular during from this period and have been discovered by archeologists at sites ranging from Japan to the Middle East and Europe. In Mesopotamia, where the first civilization took root around 3500 BCE, art was adorned with the earliest form of human writing and was used to denote military accomplishments and for religious purposes. One of the earliest known pieces of Egyptian art, the Palette of Narmer, dates from about 3000 BCE and shows the First Dynasty King Narmer conquering his enemies. Egyptian art was predominantly used to honor the gods and pharaohs and to facilitate the journey to the afterlife. As a result, the most noted works of Egyptian art were tombs, many adorned with carved hieroglyphic symbols and images of the pharaohs. The most famous of these were the Great Pyramids of Giza, constructed around 2500 BCE to honor Pharaoh Khufu and his son and grandson, who succeeded him.

The era from about 1000 BCE to 400 CE was dominated by the cultures of Greece and Rome. Greek architecture introduced the system of architectural orders, which emphasised proportion and aesthetic beauty. The style was noted for its use of ornate columns, which functioned as both a means of support and an element of design. Greek sculpture also applied the concept of perspective, utilizing the rules of anatomy to create more realistic human figures. The Romans borrowed much of their artistic style from the Greeks, adopting their insistence on proportion and realism. Roman contributions to architecture included the arch, a functional, curved element that allowed structures to support more weight. Sculpture was a common art form in the Roman Empire, with the Romans adding a more realistic touch to the perfectionism of the Greeks.

After the fall of the Roman Empire in the fifth century, Europe entered a period of societal instability highlighted by human migrations, foreign invasions, and the rise of Christianity. Religious influences ran deep in the medieval era. In monasteries, one of the few places where literacy was valued, monks created decorative artwork to adorn the books they wrote and copied. These illuminated manuscripts used bright colors and intricate designs typically infused with gold or silver to give them their "illuminating" quality. Among the lasting works of architecture from this era were great cathedrals, influenced by the rounded arches used by the Romans. In the later medieval period, this Romanesque style evolved into the Gothic style, which featured pointed arches and more elaborate designs.

Eastern cultures, isolated from the empires of the West, developed their own distinct artistic styles. In China, art was partly molded by the succession of dynasties and influenced by its rulers. One of the great works of early Chinese art was an army of more than eight thousand terracotta warriors buried with Emperor Qin Shi Huang around 210 BCE. Decorative arts, such as Chinese porcelain, were highly valued commodities in the ancient world. Chinese architecture, such as the traditional layered pagoda style roof, was adopted and refined by other Asian cultures. Much of Eastern art was influenced by the philosophies of Hinduism and Buddhism and tended to be more serene, often focusing on landscapes and meditative or religious imagery. In Japan, art reflected this spiritual quality in pottery, woodblock prints, ink-wash painting, and artistic writing known as calligraphy.

Renaissance and Modern Art

Europe emerged from the medieval period during the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, spurred on by technological advances, a renewed interest in the sciences, and the first voyages of discovery across the globe. This "rebirth" of the human spirit was called the Renaissance and featured a growing revival of the classical art and literature of ancient Greece and Rome. Renaissance art flourished in Italy as sculptors and painters returned to the concepts of perspective and proportionality developed a millennium earlier. Much of Renaissance art was devoted to religious themes and commissioned by wealthy and middle-class families for private use. Artists focused on realism in their work, highlighting the beauty of the human form. Sculptors such as Donatello produced numerous works of marble and bronze. Michelangelo, a sculptor and painter, created two iconic works—the marble statue of the biblical figure David and the sprawling religious imagery on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Vatican City. Perhaps the most famous work of art in history, the Mona Lisa, was painted by Italian artist Leonardo da Vinci sometime in the early sixteenth century.

As Renaissance influences spread across Europe, some artists in the sixteenth century began to rebel against its naturalistic style, preferring instead to incorporate a more exaggerated form in architecture, sculpture, and painting. The human figure in this style, known as mannerism, was more disproportional with elongated limbs, a smaller head, and artificial expressions. By the seventeenth century, mannerism had been replaced by the baroque style, with a focus on movement, color, grandeur, and deep religious themes. Baroque art grew out of the religious divide between Catholics and the newly formed Protestant denominations, as the Vatican believed such art could be used to express the glory of the Catholic Church.

Artistic styles made a brief return to the ideal beauty and symmetry of the Greeks and Romans around 1750 with the onset of the neoclassical period. On the heels of political revolutions in the Americas and France, a new style, romanticism, began to develop near the end of the eighteenth century. This style was a rebellion again the reason and order associated with the European Enlightenment of the previous centuries. Romantic art used imaginative images, often focusing on the power of nature, to express emotion and individualism.

By the beginning of the nineteenth century, technological advancements such as the steam engine had begun to transform the way people lived. For centuries, societies were mostly comprised of rural, agricultural communities. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution, people began to move to urban areas due to the growing number of factory jobs available. While this improved the lives of many, it also created a wider gap between the middle class and the poor and led to overcrowded cities with often impoverished living conditions. Inspired by this societal change, a new style and philosophy of art known as realism developed around 1850. Prior to that point, artists were mostly commissioned to produce work for wealthy individuals or institutions. The realism movement produced art honoring the working classes and the common labors of daily life. Art historians often point to the realism style as the birth of modern art.

In the 1860s and 1870s, a group of French artists rebelled against the government-approved styles favored by the French academy of fine arts. They created works that abandoned linear perspective and precise form for colorful, less detailed imagery using subtle brushstrokes to capture the "impression" of the natural world. Impressionism became one of the most well-known forms of modern art, and some of its most famous practitioners include Claude Monet, Edgar Degas, and Édouard Manet. Just as the impressionists revolted against the styles of their day, a new group of artists in the 1880s challenged impressionism with a style that reflected the mind of the artist. Post-impressionism art did not try to depict the natural world as it was, but rather through the emotions and images it presented to the artist. The style often combined some order and structure with abstract form and a wide use of colors. An example of this kind of art is the 1889 work The Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh.

At the start of the twentieth century, artists had not only challenged traditional ways of presenting their art, but had also found new media in which to express themselves. Photography, the ability to capture images on film, was first developed in the mid-nineteenth century, and motion pictures, or movies, were invented as the century came to a close. Both photography and movies soon became popular forms of art, evolving and adapting styles that reflected the changes in society.

Growing unease about humanity's place in the world gave rise to a new form of art in Germany around the year 1900. Expressionism used exaggerated swirling colors and shades designed to evoke a state of unsettled emotion. An example of this style in painting is The Scream by Edvard Munch; in motion pictures, it can be seen in the foreboding atmosphere of the 1922 vampire film Nosferatu. In the years surrounding World War I, artists began experimenting with different art styles. Futurism was art that celebrated technology and modern life; suprematism was abstract art that focused on geometric shapes; and constructivism formed in Russia as art "constructed" to move social change. The most revolutionary style from this era, however, was cubism, a form that discarded any semblance of perspective, often allowing objects and empty space to blend. Some of the artwork of Pablo Picasso is an example of this style.

Propelled by the upheaval of World War I, art continued on an anti-establishment course and adopted more bizarre elements. Dada, a movement that began in Switzerland, used painting, photography, film, and performance art to subvert traditional art forms and question the values of society. It was succeeded by surrealism, art that targeted the unconscious mind with dream-like imagery focusing on the strange and ridiculous. The most well-known surrealist artist was Salvador Dali, whose 1931 work The Persistence of Memory is famed for its images of melting clocks.

Inspired by surrealism, a new style emerged after World War II that featured purely abstract elements meant to evoke expression without coherent form. Known as abstract expressionism, the style was considered the first truly American form of art, and it can be seen in the paintings of Jackson Pollock. By the 1960s, artists such as Andy Warhol developed a style known as pop art, which criticized a growing consumer society by incorporating objects from popular culture. Like the impressionism movement of a century earlier, the postmodernism movement of the 1960s and 1970s grew out of a rebellion against the perceived standards of modern art. Postmodern sculpture, painting, film, and performance art question the accepted norms of society. It also disputes the concept that art's meaning lies in the mind of the artist and allows viewers to add their own interpretations. One form of postmodern art is known as deconstructivism, which is a visually striking style popular in sculpture and architecture. Deconstructivism manipulates geometry to create nonlinear shapes that defy the conventional order.

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