13.7.14

All About Figurative And Genre Art

By Coleen Torres


Usually, basic artworks like painting and sculpting would actually be split into two kinds namely the figurative and the abstract. Also known as figurative and genre art, this kind is the kind that would depict real objects from real life in a rather accurate manner. Unlike abstract, this type would actually take shape and would actually depict something from real life.

Now although this type of artwork would represent real objects in life, it is not an exact copy of the real thing. It is actually an interpretation of what the artist would see when he looks at that certain object. It is because of this that a lot of figurative paintings or sculptures would have some twists added to that.

Now when one would try making artworks that are in this category, he would usually choose between either humans or animals. Now even though these two are the most common subjects to be used for this type of artwork, many artists would actually use objects from nature like trees or mountains. Sometimes they would even use architecture as their subjects like castles or buildings.

Now just to have a brief history on this type of art, the first of this kind was actually discovered in Southern Germany. It was actually a statue of a woman and was dated back to thirty five thousand years ago. Now when it comes to painting, the first one came from a small part of France and would show animals like cows or other types of domesticated creatures. This is a cave painting that dates back sixteen thousand years ago.

Of course if one is an artist of this category of artworks, he will always have to take note of certain elements in the process. Now since the end products are somewhat replicas of the real things, then one would have to pay close attention to certain elements. Elements such as the shapes, the colors, the lighting, the angles, and the texture.

Notice that if one would want to create artworks that are in this category, he would have to pay close attention to the details. Do take note that paintings and sculptures in this category are very detailed and would often contain a lot of things that usually will not be noticed by people. The details would actually be the ones that would make the depiction more realistic.

Now the Greeks would often make exact copies of their subjects down to the very last detail. This would be in contrast to the Egyptian style of doing things which would entail a good memory and a pair of artistic hands. Of course nowadays, these two concepts have fused to create a hybrid style of doing art that people are very familiar with nowadays.

So basically, those are some bits of information about this genre of art. As one can see, it has a very long history that started from the cavemen to the ancient Greeks or Egyptians until the Renaissance painters. Until now, this type of art is still evolving and becoming even more famous because many more techniques are being added to the arsenal.




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