Timeline, history and development of famous Art and Artists

Making works of art is one of the oldest human activities. Throughout history there have been different styles, or art movements. And the word art has many meanings.

Types of art

When we think of art, we perhaps think of the great works of painting and sculpture created by master artists. Painting and sculpture are known as the fine arts or the major arts, and are created primarily to be looked at. But these are only a small part of the art made around the world.

Decorative arts

The term decorative arts is used to mean a kind of art that is useful as well as beautiful. Decorative objects such as cups, rugs, furniture have a practical use aside from their beauty. Someone who makes decorative art objects is often called an artisan. Artisans use many different materials, such as straw, beads, feathers, glass, and paper, and they shape metals, precious stones, wood, and ivory.

In western society there was originally little difference between fine and decorative arts. In Europe until about the 15^th century, sculpture was always a part of architecture, and paintings were used to decorate church alters. Gradually a gap developed between decorative and fine art. However, in Asia there was no distinction between the two kind of arts. Much of what we call decorative art most highly prized by the Asians. For example, in China some of the finest bronzes were ever made, decorated with carvings based on dragons, snakes, and birds, were vessels for wine and food. In Japan, lacquer (highly polished varnish) objects and figures were greatly valued.

Folk Art

The term folk art is used to describe art produced by people using traditional techniques passed down to them through the generations. It especially applies to art produced by people living in rural areas. Some folk art is simple craft-work created for everyday use. More elaborate works are usually made for an important purpose such as a religious ceremony. Throughout history each culture has produced its own characteristic folk art.

Mass Production

The Industrial Revolution, the period of economic growth that began in the mid-1700s, marked the start of mass production. For the first time, millions of people could afford to buy decorative arts. By the 1900s, factories were mass-producing many craft objects such as textiles and furniture-items that had once been made by hand.

After World War II (1939-45), technical advances, such as improved color printing in books, made fine art more accessible to a wider audience. Meanwhile, courses at schools and colleges helped more people appreciate art. But not everyone agrees about what art is. Most people think that a work of art should appeal to both the mind and the senses; It should make the viewer think about the subject depicted as well as feel some emotion. There are fresh ideas in art all the time, and the history of fine art is reflected in a series of movements that have developed in different cultures, remaining popular until a new style has emerged.

History of Fine art

The earliest painting were made on the walls of caves by Stone Age people about 20,000 years ago. The paintings depicted the animals they hunted for food, such as bison, reindeer, and ibex.

Egyptian art

In the ancient Egyptian civilization, which arose about 5,000 years ago, artists created images and statues to celebrate their rulers, who were believed to be gods. Kings were buried in huge tombs called pyramids, inside which were rooms decorated with carvings and paintings of their deeds. The figures in Egyptian art were not painted to look lifelike. Later civilizations, such as those of the Cretans and the Greeks, created statues that looked more human, or more specifically, like representations of perfect humans. Roman art was more realistic and expressive. When Germanic people overran the Roman Empire in the fifth century A.D. And converted to Christianity, they turned to religious art.

Medieval Christian art

For nearly a thousand years, most European art was related to church. Medieval paintings and sculptures showed saints, martyrs, and scenes from the Bible. It was only in the 1400s that artists became concerned with individual human beings, and they tried to make their works realistic. For the first time, too, artists were recognized as being different from craftspeople. These changes took place in a period known as the Renaissance, which means “rebirth”. Artists and scholars believed they were returning to the art produced in the past.

In the centuries after the Renaissance, artists continued to try to capture what was most important and truthful about people and the world around them. They included the Italian painter Michelangelo and the Dutchman Rembrandt. Many artists tried to create “rules” about how to make a good picture and what sort of scene it should portray.

American art

The earliest artists in America were native people who had lived there for thousands of years before European settlement. They made beautiful pottery, jewelry, and carvings. Early American painting and sculpture was influenced by European- especially English-art after the settlers arrived in the early 1600s. But is portrait painting, for example, Americans created more realistic likenesses. During the 1800s, landscape painters worked on romantic views of the wilderness. By the end of the century, there was a growing interest in realism.

Impressionism

A major change in the art came with impressionism, a style developed by a group of French artists in the mid-to-late 1800s. Impressions were more concerned with the fresh, free way they applied their paint in dabs or strokes of color to the canvas than with the subjects of their pictures. The French artist Auguste Rodin transformed the art of sculpture by creating surfaces that seemed alive.

At the beginning of the 20^th century, Georges Braque (1882-1963) and Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) developed Cubism, a style of painting influenced by African art. They represented subjects as a series of simplified, angular forms. More artists began painting abstract works. Abstract art did not try to show anything that was real. Instead, Wassily Kandinsky and others liked to work with color and shape. In the mid-1920s, a new movement called Surrealism became popular in Europe. The Surrealists, such as Salvador Dali, based their images on dreams and fantasy.

Modern art in the United States

At the start of World War II, many artists fled Europe for New York. The city became the center of modern art, and a style called Abstract Expressionism developed. Paintings in this style usually appear disorderly, but the way paint is applied to the canvas reveals the artist's feelings. By about 1960, a new kind of style, known as Pop Art, had emerged. Pop Artists aimed to make art fun and use it to minor society. Their subjects were drawn from American popular culture. Other artists favored Minimal Art, a kind of abstract art based on how shapes look in different lights and colors.

A more recent development is conceptual Art, or “idea art”. Its followers believe that the idea of a work of art is more important than the end product. The result is breaking down of boundaries between the arts. Artists convey ideas through music, performance, photography, and video, as well as painting, drawing, and sculpture.

Great Artists

This is a short list of some of the world's most famous artists.

Praxteles (4^th century B.C.)

Athenian sculptor considered to be tha greatest of his time.

Giotto (Giotto di Bondone) (about 1267-1337)

Italian painter who began to develop realistic ways of painting.

Raphael (Raffaelo Sanzio) (1483-1520)

Italian painter famous for his set of wall paintings in the Vatican, Rome.

Titian (Tiziano Vecelli) (about 1488-1576)

Italian painter from Venice famous for his use of color and description of human character.

Goya (Fransisco Jose de Goya y Lucientes)

(1746-1828)

Spanish painter whose imaginative work depicted subjects as varied as court life and scenes of war.

Hokusai (Hokusai Katsushika) (1760-1849)

Japanese landscape artist and print maker.

Turner, J.M.W. (Joseph Mallord William)

(1775-1851)

English painter whose work experimented with capturing the effects of light.

Whistler, James Abbott McNeill (1834-1903)

American painter whose landscapes and portraits evoked moods rather than accurately reflected color.

Cezanne, Paul (1839-1906)

French painter whose methods greatly influenced the modern art.

Rodin, Auguste (1840-1917)

French sculptor famous for his portrayal of the human body.

Monet, Claude (1840-1926)

French landscape painter and one of the founders of Impressionism.

Sargent, John Singer (1856-1925)

American painter famous for his portraits of fashionable society.

Kandinsky, Wassily (1866-1944)

Russian painter and pioneer of abstract art.

Klee, Paul (1879-1940)

Swiss painter whose colorful works portrayed a world of poetry and music.

Rothko, Mark (1903-70)

American Abstract Expressionist who painted rectangular masses of color with fuzzy edges that seemd to float across one another.

Dali, Salvador (Filipe Jacinto) (1904-89)

Spanish Surrealist who painted dreamlike images using a highly realistic technique.

Pollock, (Paul) Jackson (1912-56)

American Abstract Expressionist who splashes and dripped paint onto canvas.

Warhol, Andy (1928-87)

American Pop artist famous for his paintings based on subjects featured in newspapers and advertisements, such as cans of soup.