ART NOUVEAN

Paintings
Painting[edit]





Sgraffito by Paul Cauchie on his residence and studio, Brussels (1905)

Detail of the frieze by Gustav Klimt in the Palais Stoclet, Brussels (1905-1911)
Painting was another domain of Art Nouveau, though most painters associated with Art Nouveau are
primarily described as members of other movements, particularly post-impressionism and symbolism. Alphonse
Mucha was famous for his Art Nouveau posters, which frustrated him. According to his son and
biographer, Jiří Mucha, he did not think much of Art Nouveau. "What is it, Art Nouveau? he asked. "...Art can
never be new." [145] He took the greatest pride in his work as a history painter. His one Art-Nouveau inspired
painting, "Slava", is a portrait of the daughter of his patron in Slavic costume, which was modelled after his
theatrical posters. [145]
The painters most closely associated with Art Nouveau were Les Nabis, post-impressionist artists who were
active Paris from 1888 until 1900. One of their stated goals was to break down the barrier between the fine
arts and the decorative arts. They painted not only canvases, but also decorative screens and panels, Many of
their works were influenced by the aesthetics of Japanese prints. The members included Pierre
Bonnard, Maurice Denis, Paul Ranson, Édouard Vuillard, Ker-Xavier Roussel, Félix Vallotton, and Paul
Sérusier.[146]
In Belgium, Fernand Khnopff worked in both painting and graphic design. Wall murals by Gustav Klimt were
integrated into decorative scheme of Josef Hoffmann for the Palais Stoclet. The Klimt mural for the dining
room at the Palais Stoclet (1905-1911) is considered a masterpiece of late Art Nouveau.
One subject did appear both in traditional painting and Art Nouveau; the American dancer Loie Fuller, was
portrayed by French and Austrian painters and poster artists.[147]
 One particular style that became popular in the Art Nouveau period, especially in Brussels, was sgraffito, a
technique invented in the Renaissance of applying layers of tinted plaster to make murals on the facades of
houses. This was used in particular by Belgian architect Paul Hankar for the houses he built for two artist
friends, Paul Cauchie and Albert Ciamberlani.

Sculptures


Atlantes, caryatids at Sankt-Mang-Brunnen by Georg Wrba in Kempten, Germany (1905)

Ceramic puttis in Music conservatory of Barcelona by Eusebi Arnau (1916–28)

Sculpture was another form of expression for Art Nouveau artists, crossing with ceramics sometimes. The
porcelain figurine Dancer with a Scarf by Agathon Léonard won recognition both in ceramics and in sculpture
at the Paris Exposition in 1900. Sculptors of other countries also created ceramic sculptures:
Bohemian Stanislav Sucharda and Ladislav Šaloun, Belgian Charles Van der Stappen and Catalan Lambert
Escaler [ca], who created statues of polychrome terracotta. Another notable sculptor of that time was Agustí
Querol Subirats from Catalonia who created statues in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and Cuba.[160]
In architectural sculpture not only statues but also reliefs were used. Art Nouveau architects and sculptors
found inspiration in
animal motifs (butterflies, peacocks, swans, owls, bats, dragons, bears ). Atlantes, c
[161] [162] [163] [164] [165] [166] [167] [168]

aryatids,[169] putti,[170] and gargoyles[

Architecture


Entrance of Hôtel Solvay in Brussels by Victor Horta (1898)

In Brussels (1905)

Irises and mascaron at the facade of Schichtel building by Aloys Walter in Strasbourg, France (1905–06)
Art Nouveau architecture was a reaction against the eclectic styles that dominated European architecture in
the second half of the 19th century. It was expressed through decoration: either ornamental (based on flowers
and plants, e.g. Thistles,[154] irises,[155] cyclamens, orchids, water lilies etc.) Or sculptural (see the respective
section below). While faces of people (or mascarons) are referred to ornament, the use of people in different
forms of sculpture (statues and reliefs: see the respective section below) were also typical for Art Nouveau.
Before Vienna Secession, Jugendstil and National romantic style façades were asymmetrical, and often
decorated with polychrome ceramic tiles. The decoration usually suggested movement; there was no distinction
between the structure and the ornament.[156] A curling or "whiplash" motif, based on the forms of plants and
flowers, was widely used in the early Art Nouveau, but decoration became more abstract and symmetrical
in Vienna Secession and other later versions of the style, as in the Palais Stoclet in Brussels (1905-1911).[157]
The style first appeared in Brussels' Hankar House by Paul Hankar (1893) and Hôtel Tassel (1892-3) of Victor
Horta. The Hôtel Tassel was visited by Hector Guimard, who used the same style in his first major work,
the Castel Béranger (1897–98). Horta and Guimard also designed the furniture and the interior decoration,
down to the doorknobs and carpeting. In 1899, based on the fame of the Castel Béranger, Guimard received a
commission to design the entrances of the stations of the new Paris Métro, which opened in 1900. Though few
of the originals survived, these became the symbol of the Art Nouveau movement in Paris.
In Paris, the architectural style was also a reaction to the strict regulations imposed on building facades
by Georges-Eugène Haussmann, the prefect of Paris under Napoleon III. Bow windows were finally allowed
in 1903, and Art Nouveau architects went to the opposite extreme, most notably in the houses of Jules
Lavirotte, which were essentially large works of sculpture, completely covered with decoration. An important
neighbourhood of Art Nouveau houses appeared in the French city of Nancy, around the Villa
Majorelle (1901–02), the residence of the furniture designer Louis Majorelle. It was designed by Henri
Sauvage as a showcase for Majorelle's furniture designs
 SYMBOL
 Panting
]

Simone Martini (1285–1344).

French late Gothic frescos.

Painting in a style that can be called Gothic did not appear until about 1200, nearly 50 years after the origins
of Gothic architecture and sculpture. The transition from Romanesque to Gothic is very imprecise and not at all
a clear break, and Gothic ornamental detailing is often introduced before much change is seen in the style of
figures or compositions themselves. Then figures become more animated in pose and facial expression, tend to be
smaller in relation to the background of scenes, and are arranged more freely in the pictorial space, where there
is room. This transition occurs first in England and France around 1200, in Germany around 1220 and Italy
around 1300. Painting during the Gothic period was practiced in four primary media: frescos, panel
paintings, manuscript illumination and stained glass.
Frescoes[edit]
Frescoes continued to be used as the main pictorial narrative craft on church walls in southern Europe as a
continuation of early Christian and Romanesque traditions. An accident of survival has given
Denmark and Sweden the largest groups of surviving church wall paintings in the Biblia pauperum style,
usually extending up to recently constructed cross vaults. In both Denmark and Sweden, they were almost all
covered with limewash after the Reformation which has preserved them, but some have also remained
untouched since their creation. Among the finest examples from Denmark are those of the Elmelunde
Master from the Danish island of Møn who decorated the churches
of Fanefjord, Keldby and Elmelunde. Albertus Pictor is arguably the most well-known fresco artist from the
[10]

period working in Sweden. Examples of Swedish churches with well-preserved frescos

include Tensta, Gökhem and Anga churches.

 Sculpture
]
 French ivory Virgin and Child, end of the 13th century, 25 cm high, curving to fit the shape of the ivory tusk.
The Gothic period is essentially defined by Gothic architecture, and does not entirely fit with the development
of style in sculpture in either its start or finish. The facades of large churches, especially around doors,
continued to have large tympanums, but also rows of sculpted figures spreading around them.
The statues on the Western (Royal) Portal at Chartres Cathedral (c. 1145) show an elegant but exaggerated
columnar elongation, but those on the south transept portal, from 1215–20, show a more naturalistic style and
increasing detachment from the wall behind, and some awareness of the classical tradition. These trends were
continued in the west portal at Reims Cathedral of a few years later, where the figures are almost in the round,
as became usual as Gothic spread across Europe.[16] Bamberg Cathedral has perhaps the largest assemblage of
13th century sculpture, culminating in 1240 with the Bamberg Rider, the first life-size equestrian statue in
Western art since the 6th century.
In Italy Nicola Pisano (1258–78) and his son Giovanni developed a style that is often called Proto-
Renaissance, with unmistakable influence from Roman sarcophagi and sophisticated and crowded
compositions, including a sympathetic handling of nudity, in relief panels on their pulpit of Siena Cathedral
(1265–68), the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia, and Giovanni's pulpit in Pistoia of 1301.[17]
Another revival of classical style is seen in the International Gothic work of Claus Sluter and his followers
in Burgundy and Flanders around 1400.[18] Late Gothic sculpture continued in the North, with a fashion for
very large wooden sculpted altarpieces with increasingly virtuoso carving and large numbers agitated
expressive figures; most surviving examples are in Germany, after much iconoclasm elsewhere. Tilman
Riemenschneider, Veit Stoss and others continued the style well into the 16th century, gradually absorbing
Italian Renaissance influences.[19]
Life-size tomb effigies in stone or alabaster became popular for the wealthy, and grand multi-level tombs
evolved, with the Scaliger Tombs of Verona so large they had to be moved outside the church. By the 15th
century there was an industry exporting Nottingham alabaster altar reliefs in groups of panels over much of
Europe for economical parishes who could not afford stone retables.[20]

South portal of Chartres Cathedral (c. 1215–20).

 PART III
20TH CENTURY ART
MODERN ART

Vincent van Gogh, Country Road in Provence by Night, 1889, May 1890, Kröller-Müller Museum

Wassily Kandinsky, On White II, 1923

Modern art includes artistic work produced during the period extending roughly from the 1860s to the 1970s,
and denotes the styles and philosophy of the art produced during that era.[1] The term is usually associated with
art in which the traditions of the past have been thrown aside in a spirit of experimentation.[2] Modern artists
experimented with new ways of seeing and with fresh ideas about the nature of materials and functions of art.
A tendency away from the narrative, which was characteristic for the traditional arts, toward abstraction is
characteristic of much modern art. More recent artistic production is often called contemporary
art or postmodern art.
Modern art begins with the heritage of painters like Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges
Seurat and Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec all of whom were essential for the development of modern art. At the
beginning of the 20th century Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubists Georges
Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy, Jean Metzinger and Maurice de Vlaminck revolutionized the Paris art
world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism.
Matisse's two versions of The Dance signified a key point in his career and in the development of modern
painting.[3] It reflected Matisse's incipient fascination with primitive art: the intense warm color of the figures
against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of the dancing nudes convey the feelings
of emotional liberation and hedonism.
Initially influenced by Toulouse-Lautrec, Gauguin and other late-19th-century innovators, Pablo Picasso made
his first cubist paintings based on Cézanne's idea that all depiction of nature can be reduced to three
solids: cube, sphere and cone. With the painting Les Demoiselles d'Avignon (1907), Picasso dramatically
created a new and radical picture depicting a raw and primitive brothel scene with five prostitutes, violently
painted women, reminiscent of African tribal masks and his own new Cubist inventions. Analytic cubism was
jointly developed by Picasso and Georges Braque, exemplified by Violin and Candlestick, Paris, from about
1908 through 1912. Analytic cubism, the first clear manifestation of cubism, was followed by Synthetic
cubism, practiced by Braque, Picasso, Fernand Léger, Juan Gris, Albert Gleizes, Marcel Duchamp and several
other artists into the 1920s. Synthetic cubism is characterized by the introduction of different textures,
surfaces, collage elements, papier collé and a large variety of merged subject matter.[citation needed]

EXPRESSIONISM

Edvard Munch, The Scream, 1893, oil, tempera and pastel on cardboard, 91 x 73 cm, National Gallery of
Norway, inspired 20th-century ExpressionistsExpressionism is a modernist movement, initially
in poetry and painting, originating in Germany at the beginning of the 20th century. Its typical trait is to
present the world solely from a subjective perspective, distorting it radically for emotional effect in order to
evoke moods or ideas.[1][2] Expressionist artists have sought to express the meaning[3] of emotional experience
rather than physical reality.[3][4]
Expressionism developed as an avant-garde style before the First World War. It remained popular during
the Weimar Republic,[1] particularly in Berlin. The style extended to a wide range of the arts,
including expressionist architecture, painting, literature, theatre, dance, film and music.[5]
The term is sometimes suggestive of angst. In a historical sense, much older painters such as Matthias
Grünewald and El Greco are sometimes termed expressionist, though the term is applied mainly to 20th-century
works. The Expressionist emphasis on individual and subjective perspective has been characterized as a
reaction to positivism and other artistic styles such as Naturalism and Impressionism
Grand opening of the first Dada exhibition: International Dada Fair, Berlin, 5 June 1920. The central figure
hanging from the ceiling was an effigy of a German officer with a pig's head. From left to right: Raoul
Hausmann, Hannah Höch (sitting), Otto Burchard, Johannes Baader, Wieland Herzfelde, Margarete
Herzfelde, Dr. Oz (Otto Schmalhausen), George Grosz and John Heartfield.[1]

DADALISM

Francis Picabia: left, Le saint des saints c'est de moi qu'il s'agit dans ce portrait, 1 July 1915; center, Portrait
d'une jeune fille americaine dans l'état de nudité, 5 July 1915; right, J'ai vu et c'est de toi qu'il s'agit, De
Zayas! De Zayas! Je suis venu sur les rivages du Pont-Euxin, New York, 1915

Dada artists, group photograph, 1920, Paris. From left to right, Back row: Louis Aragon, Theodore Fraenkel,
Paul Eluard, Clément Pansaers, Emmanuel Fay (cut off).
Second row: Paul Dermée, Philippe Soupault, Georges Ribemont-Dessaignes.
Front row: Tristan Tzara (with monocle), Celine Arnauld, Francis Picabia, André Breton.

Dada (/ˈdɑːdɑː/) or Dadaism was an art movement of the European avant-garde in the early 20th century,
with early centers in Zürich, Switzerland, at the Cabaret Voltaire (circa 1916); New York Dada began circa
1915,[2][3] and after 1920 Dada flourished in Paris. Developed in reaction to World War I, the Dada
movement consisted of artists who rejected the logic, reason, and aestheticism of modern capitalist society,
instead expressing nonsense, irrationality, and anti-bourgeois protest in their works.[4][5][6] The art of the
movement spanned visual, literary, and sound media, including collage, sound poetry, cut-up writing, and
sculpture. Dadaist artists expressed their discontent with violence, war, and nationalism, and maintained
political affinities with the radical far-left.[7][8][9][10]

There is no consensus on the origin of the movement's name; a common story is that the German artist Richard
Huelsenbeck slid a paper knife (letter-opener) at random into a dictionary, where it landed on "dada", a
colloquial French term for a hobby horse. Others note that it suggests the first words of a child, evoking a
childishness and absurdity that appealed to the group. Still others speculate that the word might have been
 chosen to evoke a similar meaning (or no meaning at all) in any language, reflecting the movement's
internationalism.[11]
The roots of Dada lie in pre-war avant-garde. The term anti-art, a precursor to Dada, was coined by Marcel
Duchamp around 1913 to characterize works which challenge accepted definitions of art.[12] Cubism and the
development of collage and abstract art would inform the movement's detachment from the constraints of
reality and convention. The work of French poets, Italian Futurists and the German Expressionists would
influence Dada's rejection of the tight correlation between words and meaning.[13] Works such as Ubu
Roi (1896) by Alfred Jarry, and the ballet Parade (1916–17) by Erik Satie would also be characterized as
proto-Dadaist works.[14] The Dada movement's principles were first collected in Hugo Ball's Dada
Manifesto in 1916.
The Dadaist movement included public gatherings, demonstrations, and publication of art/literary journals;
passionate coverage of art, politics, and culture were topics often discussed in a variety of media. Key figures in
the movement included Hugo Ball, Marcel Duchamp, Emmy Hennings, Hans Arp, Sophie Taeuber-Arp, Raoul
Hausmann, Hannah Höch, Johannes Baader, Tristan Tzara, Francis Picabia, Huelsenbeck, George Grosz, John
Heartfield, Man Ray, Beatrice Wood, Kurt Schwitters, Hans Richter, Max Ernst, and Elsa von Freytag-
Loringhoven among others. The movement influenced later styles like the avant-garde and downtown
music movements, and groups including Surrealism, nouveau réalisme, pop art and Fluxus.

SUREALISM

1974
installation of Mae West’s Face which May be Used as a Surrealist Apartment by Salvador Dali. Image
© Flickr user Torrenega licensed under CC BY 2.0
 By Evan Pavka
 June 06, 2018

In 1924 writer André Breton penned the Surrealist Manifesto, which called to destabilize the divides between
dreams and reality, between objectivity and subjectivity. For many architects who had been—and continue to
be—interested in the fundamental role of the built environment, Breton’s surrealist thinking provided a rich
resource to examine the role architecture plays in forming reality. Since then, from Salvador Dali and Frederick
Kiesler to Frank Gehry, Surrealism has profoundly shaped architecture in the 20th century.

Save this picture!

Time Transfixed by Rene Magritte, 1938. Image via Flickr user - EMR - image in public domain
Surrealist artists were always fond of architecture—particularly the interior. Drawing on the unsettling and
hyper-rational “Ideal Cities” of the Renaissance, Italian artist Giorgio de Chirico crafted haunting dream-like
scenes of urban spaces populated with neoclassical structures, sculptures, and medieval fortresses contrasted
with industrial chimneys and the faint puffs of a stream engine beyond. Likewise, the Belgian painter René
Magritte transformed the architecture of everyday life into perplexing symbolic images. In Time
Transfixed (1938), what appears to be a functioning toy engine phases through the mantlepiece of a Victorian
interior to occupy the hearth. The familiar domestic scene becomes an arresting image that symbolically
addresses the speed of new methods of travel and their implications on domesticity.

Save this picture!

Mae West’s Face which May be Used as a Surrealist Apartment by Salvador Dali. Image © Flickr user Delai
Haslam licensed under CC BY 2.0
Even Salvador Dali, perhaps the most infamous surrealist artist, engaged the built environment. Moving
beyond the melting planes of his iconic scenes, Dali produced the Mae West Lips Sofa between 1937 and 1938
in collaboration with his longtime British patron Edward James as an extension of the illusory collaged
drawing Mae West’s Face which May be Used as a Surrealist Apartment (1934–1935). Later, in 1974, the
sofa was later included in a full-scale construction of the salon, which resembles the iconic actress’ face in three
dimensions, created with the assistance of architect Oscar Tusquests.
 SOCIAL REALISM

At the Museum of Socialist Art, Sofia, Bulgaria

Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic art that was developed in the Soviet Union and was the official
style in that country between 1932 and 1988, as well as in other socialist countries after World War
II.[1] Socialist realism is characterized by the glorified depiction of communist values, such as the emancipation
of the proletariat.[2] Despite its name, the figures in the style are very often highly idealized, especially in
sculpture, where it often leans heavily on the conventions of classical sculpture. Although related, it should not
be confused with social realism, a type of art that realistically depicts subjects of social concern,[3] or other
forms of "realism" in the visual arts.
Socialist realism was the predominant form of approved art in the Soviet Union from its development in the
early 1920s to its eventual fall from official status beginning in the late 1960s until the breakup of the Soviet
Union in 1991.[4][5] While other countries have employed a prescribed canon of art, socialist realism in the
Soviet Union persisted longer and was more restrictive than elsewhere in Europe.[6]

IMPRESSIONISM

Rauschenberg, Robert: MonogramMonogram, combine painting (mixed media) by Robert Rauschenberg, 1959;
in the Moderna Museet, Stockholm.Moderna Museet, Stockholm/Photograph: Statens Konstmuseer
The beginnings of modern painting cannot be clearly demarcated, but there is general agreement that it started
in 19th-century France. The paintings of Gustave Courbet, Edouard Manet, and the Impressionists represent a
deepening rejection of the prevailing academic tradition and a quest for a more naturalistic representation of
the visual world. These painters’ Post-Impressionist successors can be viewed as more clearly modern in their
repudiation of traditional techniques and subject matter and their expression of a more subjective personal
vision. From about the 1890s on, a succession of varied movements and styles arose that are the core of modern
art and that represent one of the high points of Western visual culture. These modern movements include Neo-
Impressionism, Symbolism, Fauvism, Cubism, Futurism, Expressionism, Suprematism, Constructivism, Metaph
ysical painting, De Stijl, Dada, Surrealism, Social Realism, Abstract Expressionism, Pop art, Op
art, Minimalism, and Neo-Expressionism. Despite the enormous variety seen in these movements, most of them
are characteristically modern in their investigation of the potentials inherent within the painting medium itself
for expressing a spiritual response to the changed conditions of life in the 20th century and beyond. These
conditions include accelerated technological change, the expansion of scientific knowledge and understanding,
the seeming irrelevance of some traditional sources of value and belief, and an expanding awareness of non-
Western cultures.

POINTILLISM

Detail from Seurat's Parade de cirque, 1889, showing the contrasting dots of paint which define Pointillism

Pointillism (/ˈpɔɪntɪlɪzəm/) is a technique of painting in which small, distinct dots of color are applied in
patterns to form an image.
Georges Seurat and Paul Signac developed the technique in 1886, branching from Impressionism. The term
"Pointillism" was coined by art critics in the late 1880s to ridicule the works of these artists, but is now used
without its earlier mocking connotation.[1] The movement Seurat began with this technique is known as Neo-
impressionism. The Divisionists used a similar technique of patterns to form images, though with larger cube-
like brushstrokes.[2]
 CUBISM

Pablo Picasso, 1910, Girl with a Mandolin (Fanny Tellier), oil on canvas, 100.3 x 73.6 cm, Museum of Modern
Art, New York
Cubism is an early-20th-century avant-garde art movement that revolutionized
European painting and sculpture, and inspired related movements in music, literature and architecture. Cubism
has been considered the most influential art movement of the 20th century.[1][2] The term is broadly used in
association with a wide variety of art produced in Paris (Montmartre and Montparnasse) or near Paris
(Puteaux) during the 1910s and throughout the 1920s.
The movement was pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque, joined by Jean Metzinger, Albert
Gleizes, Robert Delaunay, Henri Le Fauconnier, and Fernand Léger.[3] One primary influence that led to
Cubism was the representation of three-dimensional form in the late works of Paul Cézanne.[4] A retrospective
of Cézanne's paintings had been held at the Salon d'Automne of 1904, current works were displayed at the
1905 and 1906 Salon d'Automne, followed by two commemorative retrospectives after his death in 1907.[5] In
Cubist artwork, objects are analyzed, broken up and reassembled in an abstracted form—instead of depicting
objects from a single viewpoint, the artist depicts the subject from a multitude of viewpoints to represent the
subject in a greater context.[6]
In France, offshoots of Cubism developed, including Orphism, Abstract art and later Purism.[7][8] The impact of
Cubism was far-reaching and wide-ranging. In other
countries Futurism, Suprematism, Dada, Constructivism, De Stijl and Art Deco developed in response to
Cubism. Early Futurist paintings hold in common with Cubism the fusing of the past and the present, the
representation of different views of the subject pictured at the same time, also called multiple
perspective, simultaneity or multiplicity,[9] while Constructivism was influenced by Picasso's technique of
constructing sculpture from separate elements.[10] Other common threads between these disparate movements
include the faceting or simplification of geometric forms, and the association of mechanization and modern life.
 FUTURISM

Gino Severini, 1912, Dynamic Hieroglyphic of the Bal Tabarin, oil on canvas with sequins, 161.6 x 156.2 cm
(63.6 x 61.5 in.), Museum of Modern Art, New York

Italian futurists Luigi Russolo, Carlo Carrà, Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni and Gino
Severini in front of Le Figaro, Paris, February 9, 1912
Futurism (Italian: Futurismo) was an artistic and social movement that originated in Italy in the early 20th
century. It emphasised speed, technology, youth, violence, and objects such as the car, the airplane, and the
industrial city. Its key figures were the Italians Filippo Tommaso Marinetti, Umberto Boccioni, Carlo
Carrà, Gino Severini, Giacomo Balla, and Luigi Russolo. It glorified modernity and aimed to liberate Italy
from the weight of its past.[1] Cubism contributed to the formation of Italian Futurism's artistic
style.[2] Important Futurist works included Marinetti's Manifesto of Futurism, Boccioni's sculpture Unique
Forms of Continuity in Space, Balla's painting Abstract Speed + Sound, and Russolo's The Art of Noises.
Although it was largely an Italian phenomenon, there were parallel movements
in Russia, England, Belgium 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 cooking. To some extent Futurism influenced the art
movements Art Deco, Constructivism, Surrealism, Dada, and to a greater degree Precisionism, Rayonism,
and Vorticism.
 ABSTRACT ART

Robert Delaunay, 1912–13, Le Premier Disque, 134 cm (52.7 in.), private collection
Abstract art uses visual language of shape, form, color and line to create a composition which may exist with a
degree of independence from visual references in the world.[1] 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. 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.[2]
Abstract art, non-figurative art, non-objective art, and non-representational art are closely related terms. They
are similar, but perhaps not of identical meaning.
Abstraction indicates a departure from reality in depiction of imagery in art. This departure from accurate
representation can be slight, partial, or complete. Abstraction exists along a continuum. Even art that aims for
verisimilitude of the highest degree can be said to be abstract, at least theoretically, since perfect representation
is likely to be exceedingly elusive. Artwork which takes liberties, altering for instance color and form in ways
that are conspicuous, can be said to be partially abstract. Total abstraction bears no trace of any reference to
anything recognizable. In geometric abstraction, for instance, one is unlikely to find references to naturalistic
entities. Figurative art and total abstraction are almost mutually exclusive. But figurative
and representational (or realistic) art often contains partial abstraction.
 PART IV
ASIAN ART
CHINISE ART

Chinese jade ornament, with dragon and phoenix design, of the late Spring and Autumn period (722–482 BC).

Early Autumn, 13th century, by Song loyalist painter Qian Xuan. The decaying lotus leaves and dragonflies
hovering over stagnant water are probably a veiled criticism of Mongol rule.[1]

Carved lacquer tray with two birds against a background of plum blossom and flowers, 19 cm wide, 13th
century
Chinese art is visual art that, whether ancient or modern, originated in or is practiced in China or by Chinese
artists. The Chinese art in the Republic of China (Taiwan) and that of overseas Chinese can also be considered
part of Chinese art where it is based in or draws on Chinese heritage and Chinese culture. Early "stone age art"
dates back to 10,000 BC, mostly consisting of simple pottery and sculptures. After this early period Chinese art,
like Chinese history, is typically classified by the succession of ruling dynasties of Chinese emperors, most of
which lasted several hundred years.
Chinese art has arguably the oldest continuous tradition in the world, and is marked by an unusual degree of
continuity within, and consciousness of, that tradition, lacking an equivalent to the Western collapse and
gradual recovery of classical styles. The media that have usually been classified in the West since
the Renaissance as the decorative arts are extremely important in Chinese art, and much of the finest work was
produced in large workshops or factories by essentially unknown artists, especially in Chinese ceramics.
 JAPANESE ART

The Great Wave off Kanagawa, Katsushika Hokusai

Japanese art covers a wide range of art styles and media, including ancient
pottery, sculpture, ink painting and calligraphy on silk and paper, ukiyo-e paintings
and woodblock prints, ceramics, origami, and more recently manga which is modern
Japanese cartoons and comics along with a myriad of other types. It has a long history,
ranging from the beginnings of human habitation in Japan, sometime in the 10th
millennium BC, to the present-day country.
Japan has been subject to sudden invasions of new ideas followed by long periods of
minimal contact with the outside world. Over time the Japanese developed the ability to
absorb, imitate, and finally assimilate those elements of foreign culture that
complemented their aesthetic preferences. The earliest complex art in Japan was
produced in the 7th and 8th centuries in connection with Buddhism. In the 9th century,
as the Japanese began to turn away from China and develop indigenous forms of
expression, the secular arts became increasingly important; until the late 15th century,
both religious and secular arts flourished. After the Ōnin War (1467–1477), Japan
entered a period of political, social, and economic disruption that lasted for over a
century. In the state that emerged under the leadership of the Tokugawa shogunate,
organized religion played a much less important role in people's lives, and the arts that
survived were primarily secular.
 INDIAN ART

Female performer with a tanpura, post-Mughal, 18th century. Colour and gold on paper.
Indian art consists of a variety of art forms, including painting, sculpture, pottery, and textile arts such
as woven silk. Geographically, it spans the entire Indian subcontinent, including what is
now India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bhutan and eastern Afghanistan. A strong sense of
design is characteristic of Indian art and can be observed in its modern and traditional forms.
The origin of Indian art can be traced to pre-historic settlements in the 3rd millennium BC. On its way to
modern times, Indian art has had cultural influences, as well as religious influences such
as Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Islam. In spite of this complex mixture of religious traditions,
generally, the prevailing artistic style at any time and place has been shared by the major religious groups.

Middle East