The visual arts are mostly concerned with aesthetics, and the skill and methods of the artists who reveal them. Some visual works of art can tell a story, or communicate messages through symbolism but this is not their primary purpose. For example, most movies are very visual but this is not the aim. The main focus for almost all movies is to tell a story. The visual arts are all about beauty (or lack of) and how we can perceive it.
When people hear the word 'art', it is probably the great painters and their works that immediately spring to mind.
The history of painting goes back as far as language and culture itself. Primitive paintings of animals and people were being drawn onto cave walls as long as 40 000 years ago in Europe and Asia. From these small beginnings painting became the highly sophisticated form of expression we can all enjoy today. Art historians classify all the different kinds of paintings into different genres depending on the period or movement (style) in which they were produced. The Egyptians incorporated pictures into their language (hieroglyphics), the Ancient Greeks and Romans into their architecture and European medieval scribes into their books. |
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Sculpture is part of the visual arts that is used for producing artworks using the three dimensions of the world that we know.
Sculpture was born from the processes of carving – removing material to reveal the desired object in the artists mind. So sculpture was only done with suitable materials such as stone, metal, ceramics and wood. In the Modern era there is much more freedom for artists to work with many other materials. And to the process of carving can be added techniques such as, modelling, molding & casting and welding.
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The word Architecture describes both the process and the end product of designing, and constructing buildings and various other physical structures. Buildings such as the Sydney Opera House or the Eiffel Tower can be seen as symbolic of the cultures that produced them and as works of art in their own right.
There are many things to think about when planning, designing and ultimately the constructing buildings. And it is these restrictions that actually enhance and promote the artistic merits of architecture. Form, space, aesthetics and ambiance including light and shadow must complement the building’s actual function and also balance with the local environment. There are also the technical restrictions of physics, materials available, costs and time limits. |
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Some have argued that photography is not a true art form but just because most photos are rather poor quality holiday snaps doesn't mean that the best examples aren't of the highest quality by true masters of their craft. Just as not every doodle scribbled onto a piece of paper is a painting, or every note written down on a piece of paper is literature.
Artistic photography can be broadly broken down into two categories. The first is composition, which reveals the true nature of an object/scene or reveals something about the object/scene that would not be otherwise easily seen to the casual observer. The second category is the photo that shows a broader narrative in a single moment and captures the true meaning of a story at that particular time. It is in this second category that we find many of the most famous photographs that have come to symbolize significant historical changes and the moment history changed direction and humankind set out on a new path. |
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From the earliest civilizations in the Middle East and ancient China, to 19th century Europe with their 'mechanical scopes' and crude 'flip books', people have tried to bring pictures to life through animation. But it wasn’t until the invention of motion picture film and cinematography at the turn of the 20th century that true animation became possible.
Modern popular animation can be divided into 3 basic genres. Traditional Animation, Stop Motion Animation and Computer Generated Animation (CGI). In Traditional Animation each frame is drawn by hand and is time consuming and expensive to produce on a large scale. Using this method cartoons first appeared in cinemas during the 1910s and were watched by audiences before the main feature movie would begin. Animated movies and most children's cartoons are actually part of the storytelling arts. Animation could easily be considered as part of the Storytelling Arts but it has been included here because there is an aesthetics to much animation that gives a distinctly visual experience. |
CGI Animation
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