We understand art quickly and with pleasure. Expressionism - emotional return
I came up with and drew excellent cheat sheets that will help both adults and children understand art trends. They are incredibly useful and interesting.
However, Natasha will tell you about them herself. And, of course, it will show. By the way, you can download and print each cheat sheet.
How the idea was born
The idea of art history cheat sheets did not appear by chance- I am constantly looking for effective methods for teaching art history. At the same time, I encounter typical problems in studying and teaching the subject:
Firstly, lectures in the form of continuous notes on several sheets are very quickly forgotten.
Secondly, Most people don’t have the time to dive deeply into the material, much less check the accuracy of the facts and critically evaluate the sources.
Cheat sheet on primitivism. Author - Natasha Kaya.Third, art- it's about ideas. It is like a mirror of the searches of each era: the work reflects ideas about the world and its structure, about truth, about beauty and morality, about man’s place in life. But for some reason most lectures are based on biographies of specific artists, listing works and the dates of their creation. In fact, the names of the paintings, dates and sad facts from the biography like« born-studied-married» . After all, all this is forgotten instantly.
Fourthly, when teaching art history in the format« born-studied-married» an understanding of artistic processes and their origins is not formed.
I really wanted to find a way to convey information in a concise form (= saving time), but at the same time highlight the phenomenon from different angles, give an idea of specific artistic tasks and ways to solve them (= understanding of artistic processes). And add a few interesting facts that could capture the imagination and remain in memory. This is how the idea of art cheat sheets was born.
Why cheat sheets will help you quickly understand art
- Everything is succinct and to the point. The sheet format allows you to contain only really important information.
A Cheat Sheet for Analytical Art. Author - Natasha Kaya.
- Hierarchy of main and secondary. Something will certainly be forgotten: a date, a fact from a biography, or the title of the third manifesto of this particular great artist. But the main thing will remain in memory- understanding the essence of an artistic phenomenon (be it a specific master, direction or style).
- The cheat sheet format allows you to visually divide all the information into different blocks. It’s easier to remember this way because different types of memory are working at the same time.
Why are cheat sheets written by an art critic effective?
- They help to form in the reader a competent idea of the art of a certain era, since only a person who understands the topic of art can choose the most significant and correctly place the emphasis.
- A decent art critic has read scientific literature about the era/movement/master, checked the facts, studied diaries and documents- A professional look allows you to highlight the truly key features.
Cheat sheets on six areas of Russian art
In the book "Let's play art" we are talking about Russian art at the turn of the 19th-20th centuries and about the six main directions of that time: realism, modernism, cubo-futurism, primitivism, analytical art and abstractionism. Since the book for children aroused great interest among adults, in addition to the book, I made six cheat sheets for each area.
There is an opinion that"realism" - this is when what is depicted is similar to the world around us. But is realism always really"realism"?
Modern
What artistic values did the masters of the Art Nouveau era share? And how can you learn to quickly determine that a work belongs to the Art Nouveau style? All this is described in detail in the cheat sheet.
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- direction in Russian art of the early twentieth century, which appeared as a result of the synthesis of French cubism and Italian futurism. In this cheat sheet we look in detail at what features of cubo-futurism came from, what makes it unique and what are its features"promotion" a new direction on the art scene.
Click on the picture - it will open in full size.
Primitivism
Many people are concerned with the question of why the paintings of primitivists are recognized as masterpieces of art. Or, for example, for what reasons did primitivism arise? Why do primitivists deliberately"forget" craft and turn away from realism in favor of emotion and pure ideas? And the most important thing- What should you pay attention to in order to appreciate the unique beauty of the paintings of the primitivists? The cheat sheet contains many answers to a variety of questions about this area.
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One of the first trends in the art of the twentieth century, which had a deeply developed theoretical basis, was analytical art. In the cheat sheet we understand the views on art of the founder of the movement- Pavel Filonov. We also observe how the artist, thanks to his technique, translates ideas into artistic images.
Click on the picture - it will open in full size.
The first abstract artists posed one of the most important questions in modern art:« Is one point enough for a piece of art?» . The cheat sheet explains the reasons for the birth of abstract painting, the main ideas of key masters, and what abstraction actually shows.
Click on the picture - it will open in full size.Well, are you curious? We have one last surprise.
Master class on art for children
Natasha Kaya came up with the idea an unusual creative task that will help the child quickly understand the trends in art (realism, modernism, cubo-futurism, primitivism, analytical art and abstractionism) and easily distinguish one from the other.
You will need:
six fruits of the same type or fruit replicas (available at home and garden stores or craft stores)
gouache or acrylic in different colors
large and small brushes.
Idea: each fruit will symbolize one of the art directions.
Each of the painted peppers represents one art movement.
REALISM. We leave one fruit unpainted - it will be a “representative” of realism.
We cover the remaining fruits with white paint.
Assignments for children in the following areas:
MODERN. We paint the fruit with beautiful ornaments.
CUBO-FUTURISM. We denote with a line all the edges of the fruit. Edges can be painted in different colors
PRIMITIVISM. You need to diligently draw badly. For example, choose only the wrong colors, which the fruit is not colored in nature.
ANALYTICAL ART. We draw the particles or atoms from which nature “assembled” the fruit.
ABSTRACTIONISM. We paint the fruit with one color, because shape is above all.
Now in front of you are 6 fruits that clearly demonstrate the characteristics of each art direction.
Post cover - a cheat sheet on Art Nouveau.
Some people believe that only a select few can understand art. Others hold the opposite point of view - real art is understandable to everyone. Still others believe that there is no need to understand art, because its task is only to give people aesthetic pleasure. We believe that, of course, it is necessary to understand art, and everyone can learn it. Here are some simple tips.
Expand your knowledge base
First, study information about the art of different eras. After all, in order to distinguish the paintings of one artist from the canvases of another, you need to at least slightly improve the theoretical basis. Remember at least a few outstanding masters from each era and their most famous works. Also explore different styles of painting. It would be a good idea to remember their names: baroque, classicism, impressionism, dadaism, etc. Try to connect the historical period and the direction in painting - this will help structure your knowledge.
Try to see the beauty
Once you've learned the theory, it's time to practice. You don't have to go to the museum. Pick up an album with reproductions of paintings from an art gallery. After looking through the album, try to name the era of the painting, its direction, and maybe even remember the name of the author. If you devote at least a few minutes to this training every day, after a while you will surprise everyone with your knowledge of art. Only the training must be honest, there is no need to spy on the answers!
The feeling of beauty can be trained
Now you can safely go to the museum. If you go to a painting exhibition next weekend, you will see that many of the paintings have become much clearer to you.
Learn to highlight the good pictures and not focus on the bad ones
To become an even better judge of art, you will need to learn to differentiate between good and bad paintings. But this knowledge comes only with experience. If you become a regular visitor to museums and exhibitions, and there is an album of reproductions on your bedside table that you look through before bed, the results will not be long in coming. Soon, when you visit any exhibition, you will be able to evaluate the works presented.
Learn to admire the works of masters
It is sometimes difficult for an ordinary person to understand why a particular painting delights art connoisseurs. For example, the same “Black Square” by Kazimir Malevich, which still causes heated debate. So which paintings inspire admiration? To understand this, we need to divide the canvas we are analyzing into three components: volume, color and line. Which of these three elements predominates in the picture? What can attract the viewer's attention in this painting? The answers to these questions will give you information about the main advantages of the painting. But the main thing in the artist’s work is the overall impression of the picture, its beauty. Different eras had different ideas about beauty. If in the 19th century curvaceous figures were celebrated, in the 20th century thinness and teenage angularity were elevated to the pedestal of beauty. As you understand, beauty in art is an ambiguous concept. But there are some nuances that allow the viewer to grasp the beauty of the picture - the perfection of lines, light or continuous strokes, the primacy of volume or the range of colors that comes to the fore.
Learn to understand abstract art
It is impossible to learn to understand art without understanding abstract art. These are paintings that always cause heated discussions. So what is the beauty of abstract paintings? To some, these paintings seem like children's scribblings; it is difficult to find a plot in them. But the beauty of these paintings is that they force the viewer to plunge into their own inner world, to find the beauty within themselves. But not everyone is able to see this beauty, because it is depicted abstractly. Learn to understand art so that the pictures you see evoke real emotions in you and give you a feeling of beauty. The following short course from a young art critic will help you make small talk.
- If the plot of the canvas is drawn against a gloomy background and the hero’s face expresses torment, before you Titian.
- If the canvas depicts naked people with very curvy figures and cellulite, which even men have, in front of you Rubens.
- If the hero of the painting's plot is a man with a woman's face, in front of you Caravaggio.
Caravaggio
- If there are many small people in the plot of the work, in front of you Bruegel.
Bruegel
- If again there are a lot of small people in the plot, plus also a lot of small incomprehensible details, before you Bosch.
- If on the canvas you can see men with the figures of bodybuilders, and everything is fine, in front of you Michelangelo.
Michelangelo
- If you see a ballerina on the canvas, in front of you Degas.
- If there are skinny characters with unshaven faces on the canvas, in front of you El Greco.
El Greco
- If all the characters in the painting, including women, remind you of Putin, before you Jan van Eyck.
Jan van Eyck
Jan van Eyck
- If the canvas is too bright and colorful, in front of you van Gogh.
- If the canvas consists of stains, in front of you Monet.
- If people are painted on the canvas, a riot of colors of nature is in front of you Manet.
In this publication, we will consider such trends in art as Realism, Impressionism, Fauvism, Art Nouveau, Expressionism, Cubism, Futurism, Abstractionism, Dadaism, Suprematism, Metaphysical painting, Surrealism, Active painting, Pop Art and Minimalism.
But first a collage :)
Click on the picture to enlarge
Now let's briefly look at these areas of art.
Realism - (lat. material, real) - a direction in art that aims to truthfully reproduce reality in its typical features.
Impressionism- a direction in the art of the last third of the 19th - early 20th centuries, whose representatives sought to most naturally and impartially capture the real world in its mobility and variability, to convey their fleeting impressions.
Fauvism- a direction in French painting of the late 19th - early 20th centuries, characterized by bright colors and simplification of form.
Modern- an artistic movement in art, most popular in the second half of the 19th - early 20th centuries. Its distinctive features are the rejection of straight lines and angles in favor of more natural, “natural” lines.
Expressionism- a movement in European art that developed around the beginning of 1905-1920, characterized by a tendency to express the emotional characteristics of images (usually a person or group of people) or the emotional state of the artist himself.
Cubism- an avant-garde movement in the fine arts, primarily in painting, that originated at the beginning of the 20th century and is characterized by the use of emphatically geometrized conventional forms, the desire to “split” real objects into stereometric primitives.
Futurism- the general name for the avant-garde artistic movements of the 1910s and early 1920s, primarily in Italy and Russia. The main artistic principles are speed, movement, energy, which some futurists tried to convey using fairly simple techniques. Their paintings are characterized by energetic compositions, where the figures are fragmented into fragments and intersected by sharp angles, where flashing forms, zigzags, spirals, beveled cones predominate, where movement is conveyed by superimposing successive phases on one image - the so-called principle of simultaneity.
Abstractionism- a direction of non-figurative art that abandoned the depiction of forms close to reality in painting and sculpture. One of the goals of abstract art is to achieve “harmonization”, the creation of certain color combinations and geometric shapes in order to evoke various associations in the beholder
Dadaism, or Yes Yes- modernist movement in literature, fine arts, theater and cinema. In fine art, the most common form of creativity of the Dadaists was collage - a technical technique for creating a work from pieces of various materials: paper, fabric, etc., arranged in a certain way and glued onto a flat base (canvas, cardboard, paper).
Suprematism- a movement in avant-garde art founded in the 1st half of the 1910s. K. S. Malevich. Being a type of abstract art, Suprematism was expressed in combinations of multi-colored planes of the simplest geometric shapes (in the geometric shapes of a straight line, square, circle and rectangle). The combination of multi-colored and different-sized geometric figures forms balanced asymmetrical suprematist compositions permeated with internal movement.
Metaphysical painting- a direction in Italian painting of the early 20th century. In metaphysical painting, metaphor and dream become the basis for thought to go beyond ordinary logic, and the contrast between a realistically accurately depicted object and the strange atmosphere in which it is placed enhances the surreal effect.
Surrealism- a movement in art that was formed by the early 1920s in France. Characterized by the use of allusions and paradoxical combinations of forms.
Active painting- tachisme ( a type of abstract art: applying paint according to intuition) - a movement in Western European abstract art of the 1950s-60s, which became most widespread in the USA. It is painting with spots that do not recreate images of reality, but express the unconscious activity of the artist. Strokes, lines and spots in tachisme are applied to the canvas with quick movements of the hand without a pre-thought-out plan.
Pop Art(English) pop-art, abbreviation for popular art, etymology is also associated with English. ror- abrupt blow, clap) - a movement in the fine arts of the 1950s-1960s, which arose as a reaction to abstract expressionism, using images of consumer products.
An image borrowed from popular culture is placed in a different context:
- scale and material change;
- a technique or technical method is exposed;
- information interference is detected, etc.
Minimalism- an artistic movement that emerged in New York in the 1960s. Minimalist art typically included geometric shapes, repetition, neutral surfaces, industrial materials, and production techniques.
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Hello!
My name is Muhiddin. I am from Uzbekistan. I read articles on your site. I really like it. Very interesting and creative.
Although I read a lot, I still can't understand some situations. Can I ask you a question?
As we all know, there are many museums and palaces in the world. Each of them is unique and inimitable. I visited museums in Russia, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, USA, etc. When I look at paintings from the Middle Ages, I try to understand what is actually depicted there. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out: the topics are very different. They say that to understand the pictures you need to know the Bible very well. I agree with this.
Please, if you have very smart people who understand the importance of this issue, write an article about it. How should one even visit museums around the world? How can one know without Google what is valuable there (for example, the Peacock Clock in the Hermitage) and how to understand the plot and history of a painting? How should a person view and interpret painting in general? What easy ways are there?
With the hope of seeing answers to my questions in the near future and with best regards, Muhyiddin.
Answer
Of course, we can ask questions, isn’t that why you wrote to us? By the way, a huge thank you to you: it’s a pleasure to answer this. Although some moments seem too naive to us. Everything is much simpler than you think. Someone very smart came up with audio guides and tour guides that explain everything. And to understand deeper, you need to show interest. Whether it’s easy or not - decide for yourself.
Modern civilization has created such a miracle as the Internet, which makes life much easier. You type the name of the museum into a search engine, and voila - all the main attractions in a brief summary are in front of you. There you can see the history of the creation of the picture, the plot, some subtleties. Very convenient, especially if you don’t have much time to visit. There is no time to stop at each painting, so you have to turn on cruising speed, run at a pace past less significant paintings in order to stop at recognized masterpieces. Although sometimes the painting in the far corner is more impressive than the main masterpiece of the museum collection. For example, the Sistine Madonna: certainly a brilliant and beautiful work, but in the Dresden gallery there are more impressive smaller pieces.
Some people believe that gaining knowledge from the Internet, especially when it comes to such lofty matters, is bad manners. For them, it’s like exchanging a night of museums for a “Nasty Molly” concert at the Ionoteka: it seems to be also a cultural event, but with a caustic aftertaste of crap. Because culture is different.
For such people, books and encyclopedias of classical art have been published for a hundred years now, containing reproductions of paintings with brief information about them. Most often, such collections are divided according to a specific topic, for example, into masterpieces of Russian fine art, the best works of a particular artist, or the collections of a particular museum.
I fell in love with Russian fine art thanks to the paintings of Karl Bryullov. And I fell in love with the work of Karl Pavlovich thanks to a gorgeous book with reproductions, published in the still shaggy Soviet times. There was a biography of the artist, and comments about how he painted his brilliant Italian landscapes, and what the gestures of people in the painting “The Last Day of Pompeii” mean.
If you want to understand even more deeply, you will have to read monographs and books by world-famous art critics. At one time, I was deeply impressed by the work of Eleanor Paston about the work of Viktor Vasnetsov. I can also recommend Svetlana Alpers’ monograph “The Art of Description: Dutch Painting in the 17th Century.” We all love wonderful, cozy Dutch painting, the great Van Dyck, Bruegel, Rubens. But the author claims that analysis is impossible without optics. An interesting, although not indisputable theory. It turns out that cultured people of the European north looked at the paintings, unlike the Italians, who tried to recognize the allegorical, philosophical or political meaning in the drawing.
It’s amazing how good the book “History of Paintings” by the now deceased art critic Daniel Arass is. It consists of short stories devoted to the problems of perspective depiction. Simply put, it explains what the gestures of the archangels, the landscape behind Gioconda, and the huge snails in the paintings of Francesco del Cossa mean.
Be sure to read the book “Painting and Social Experience in 15th Century Italy.” Already from the title it is clear that it is about Italy and the views of people of different classes on art. Elementarily, the merchant and the artisan had a different eye, and therefore their vision of the paintings was different. The artists, of course, took this fact into account when writing.
Hand on heart, some of the art history books were written in Soviet times. Just look at the delightful series “Essays on the History and Theory of Fine Arts.” The books themselves are small, but they describe the main milestones and best masters of a particular historical period or people in an accessible, beautiful language, without unnecessary words. As you know, the best book is a book with pictures. Everything is fine, there are reproductions and photographs of architectural monuments here. To be honest, I don’t know if it is published now, but I think that even in Uzbekistan it won’t be difficult to find old editions. Maybe they are in libraries, or someone will decide to resell them.
Young authors in their new books are trying to get to the bottom of the truth, attributing semi-detective stories to the pictures, trying to look at famous masterpieces with a new look, although everything has been known for a long time. So don't look at the book's release date.
Finding good books is not difficult. They not only broaden your horizons, but also teach you to perceive well-known paintings differently. I think one day we will make a selection of books on art history.
To understand art even better, you need to be interested in the biography of the masters. For example, Caravaggio's paintings become clearer when you realize that he is an accidental killer who spent almost his entire life on the run. The paintings and antics of Salvador Dali are seen a little differently when you learn about his environment and the nuances of family life.
And of course, art cannot go against history. It is she, my dear, who makes it clear what socio-political order was carried out by the monks who remained in history under the sonorous names of Fra Angelico, Fra Bartolomeo, etc. The emergence of avant-gardeism, cubism and impressionism is inextricably linked with the madness of the abnormal and revolutionary twentieth century. When you remember that in those days drugs were medicine, technology advanced by leaps and bounds, and morals changed greatly, you find justification for the proclaimed popularity and greatness of Modigliani. After all, in essence, when you look at frescoes or canvases, you are reading a historical document.
Sometimes what we see is not at all what we think. For example, the Freemasons left entire messages with their architecture. Every monogram, every caryatid, column and even the location of the house has a meaning. But the uninitiated sees just a beautiful house of the 19th century. Art is a subtle thing.
Read books, watch documentaries, they will teach you to see more than just beauty. Well, at the same time you will find out which museum contains what. By the way, the stories of the museums themselves are sometimes more interesting than their collections, so if you are interested, then study them.
But that's not all. If you want to become an art monster, train. For example, learn to distinguish schools without looking at the authors. Just open a book with reproductions and name the time period, the author’s school and in what direction he wrote. The highest score is the name of the artist. And try to explain what is depicted on the canvas yourself, without prompting. Even if it is an abstract painting, although they have many meanings. Well, only critics and cultural experts understand more deeply.
And finally, any business is perceived differently if you do it yourself. It’s the same with painting: if you paint yourself, you look at the canvas with a different eye, like a professional. You notice such nuances as line, volume, color. We mere mortals see something interesting, but the artist is a completed puzzle. Take this into account, even if you are not going to spend time on drawing courses. The subtleties of artistic cuisine, terminology and the creation process significantly change the perception. It’s like watching football and teaching football players how to kick and pass, because you can’t be called colleagues.