What is art? What are the general classifications of artworks?

Fine arts can be roughly divided into: Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, sculpture, mural painting and artistic design.

Chinese painting is divided into: freehand brushwork landscapes, freehand brushwork flowers and birds, freehand brushwork figures, meticulous brushwork flowers and birds and meticulous brushwork figures.

Oil painting is divided into traditional oil painting or classical oil painting and modern oil painting.

Prints are divided into: woodcut, copperplate, photography and screen printing.

Sculpture can be divided into realistic sculpture and abstract sculpture.

Murals are divided into craft murals and traditional murals.

Art design is divided into: environmental art design, graphic art design, exhibition art design, decorative art design and so on.

Art, a special term "art", began to be widely used by artists and educators in the May 4th New Culture Movement in China. It originated from the Latin "art" in ancient Rome. Its original meaning refers to "artificial skills" as opposed to "natural creation", and generally refers to all kinds of hand-made works of art, literature, drama, music and so on. And in a broad sense, it also includes boxing, magic, medicine and so on. In ancient China, the so-called "all-round skills" also covered an equally wide range. In ancient times, regardless of the east or the west, there were only concepts such as "craft" and "craft". In China's ancient books, only professional terms such as "painting", "carving", "carving" and "splendid literature" are used, but there is no such special term as "art", because the aesthetic consciousness of human beings first originated from handicrafts that meet the needs of survival.

In Europe, the concepts of "art" and "fine arts" were not established and recognized until the Renaissance. At this time, people began to realize that creating products in the pure spiritual field is more enough to make people full of passion, broaden their horizons, and achieve the purpose of mutual sympathy, firm will and confidence. This kind of ideological activity is an important manifestation of the development of humanism and people's subjective consciousness, involving different fields and forms of art, which is our large-scale expansion of literary and artistic categories, including art. This spiritual product, which is promoted from the material, goes hand in hand with the material and becomes an indispensable nutrition to nourish people's hearts in an all-round way. Humans rely on it to cultivate feelings, cooperate with various sciences to understand the world, popularize education and open up civilization. It plays the role of organizing and coordinating the will and behavior of social members. The development of civilization is inseparable from artistic creation, and art is one of the important and distinctive signs of spiritual civilization.

In Latin countries in Europe and America, "art" is interpreted as both "art" and "art". When Cai Yuanpei used the word "art" in his early days, it also included poetry and music. Since then, China's literary and art circles and education circles have gradually distinguished the concepts of "art" and "art". "Art" is the general name of all art categories. It is a big subject that reflects nature and expresses social consciousness through different visual means, including literature, music, architecture and gardens in a broad sense. Comprehensive arts include drama, film, folk art, acrobatics and so on. They use art to varying degrees, and some of them are closely combined with art. "Art", as a category of "art", is bound to be together with sister art, but its artistic form has distinct characteristics. When it is combined with sister art, it greatly enriches artistic expression. Under certain social development conditions, art can even be combined with science and technology to derive new artistic varieties.

When human beings create spiritual products, they naturally classify them, establish various branches of literature and art, make them develop in the direction of specialization, and form unique expressions of various artistic categories. Although many occasions are separated, sometimes they are separated and reunited. Every combination and blending (such as animated films and musical fountains) will produce new artistic intentions, new varieties and corresponding artistic appeal. The differentiation and combination of art is a kind of development, which opens up the understanding of art and updates the concept of art. The reason why there are differences and combinations is not contradictory and can be tolerated is because all kinds of works of art are dominated by the aesthetic principles of * * * *, and there are rules to follow.

In addition, if we talk about "beauty" from the perspective of aesthetics and aesthetic education, the word "beauty" has a very broad meaning in Chinese, which not only summarizes the whole literary and artistic category, but also involves ethics, philosophy and other fields.

Forms and characteristics of art

Ancient and modern Chinese and foreign art categories are rich and varied and ever-changing. Influenced by science and technology and industrial production, modern fine arts are constantly emerging, and unprecedented new styles and new varieties emerge one after another. Art requires the development of individuality, and the general trend of development is diversification, so it is difficult to make a clear overview of its similarities and differences.

Art categories in the world can be divided into painting, sculpture, arts and crafts, architectural art and so on according to material materials and production methods. The varieties of painting can be divided into Chinese painting, oil painting, printmaking, watercolor painting, gouache painting, chalk painting, acrylic painting and various plastics and chemical pigments. Prints can be divided into wood block, hemp block, metal block (copper or lead), stone block, screen block and so on. Woodcut printing materials can be divided into ink and wash, oil painting pigment overprint and watercolor overprint. Metal plates can be divided into corrosion and dry etching. Oil painting can be divided into gloss and matte. The oldest egg-colored paintings in Europe and ancient mineral pigments in China have maintained the advantages of lasting colors and handy techniques. Oil painting and printmaking have become worldwide paintings in the 20th century. In the form of expression, printmaking has shown national and regional characteristics in many civilized countries. The development and innovation of modern oil painting and sculpture is the fastest and the form changes the most.

Painting can be divided into murals according to style (according to materials, it can also be divided into wet murals, gold lacquer, millstone inlay, colored cement and wood, glass, metal plate inlay and so on. Matte oil painting, acrylic and other plastic pigments are also widely used), miniature painting, lacquer painting, lacquer painting, New Year pictures (using woodcut watermarking, gouache, watercolor and other methods), comics, posters, comics, illustrations and so on.

Chinese painting can be divided into two systems: meticulous painting and freehand brushwork according to artistic skills; According to the theme and style, it can be divided into figure painting, landscape painting, flowers, insects, feathers (birds and beasts), scales (fish and shellfish) and other painting themes. Japanese painting is deeply influenced by it. Calligraphy and seal cutting have always been the sister arts of Chinese painting, which are self-contained and widely circulated in Japan. Calligraphy art is regarded as abstract art in contemporary times.

The types of sculptures can be divided into stone carvings (marble, granite, etc. ), metal sculpture (including cast copper, stainless steel, lead, nickel, aluminum, etc. ), FRP, plastic, white cement and other sculptures. According to genre and form, it can be divided into circular sculpture, relief (height), monument sculpture, figure sculpture, animal sculpture, decorative sculpture, folk color sculpture and so on. At present, there are full-size color sculptures directly copied and reprocessed from the human body, and there are also "effect sculptures" that use the principle of electricity and light effect to produce vibration beauty. These two sculptures can be said to be two extremes of realistic form and abstract form.

The varieties of arts and crafts (also known as practical arts) are the most colorful, which can be divided into metalworking, carpentry, lacquerware, ceramics, colored plastic, jade carving, tooth carving, cloisonne, enamel, feeder, dyeing and weaving, embroidery and weaving. Most of the characteristic crafts in various countries and regions come from folk handicrafts, which have the characteristics of appealing to both refined and popular tastes and are closely related to the people.

Design categories include book binding, advertising, commodity packaging, clothing, furniture, industrial product design, interior decoration, environmental art (courtyard, garden and architectural group art) and so on. The design also includes patterns, fonts and technical arts designed by photography and computers.

As far as the visual means of artistic creation is concerned, modeling is one of the important morphological characteristics. So it is also called plastic arts. For example, painting is painting, sculpture is shaping and carving, architectural art is building by shelving, and arts and crafts are carving, etching, cutting and cutting. Modeling has a wide meaning, including three-dimensional modeling and plane modeling; There are colored shapes and black and white shapes. The concept of modeling is constantly changing and developing. In modern concepts, the forms of plastic beauty are both concrete and abstract. Generally speaking, the development track of western art is mainly the modeling of block surface, and the application of lines is attached to block surface; China's fine arts and line-drawing modeling occupy an important position, and the figures are reflected by line-drawing. Therefore, the word "shaping" is often used in the west to describe the painting style, and it is strongly recommended to embody sculpture in painting. China's art is just the opposite, and the description of lines dominates the modeling. Even in sculpture art, the role of lines is dominant. The figure block in China's sculpture is generalized, and it completes the modeling task through the description of lines.

Art is also called space art, and the western art tradition basically refers to length, height and depth as "three-dimensional space" according to the concept of physics. The three-dimensional beauty with a sense of depth in the real space is an important basis for the three-dimensional modeling images such as sculpture and architecture to have a sense of life and strength. Expressing three-dimensional beauty on the plane is one of the indispensable and important foundations for the realism of reproducible figurative painting. Space art is generally regarded as an art that is impossible or not longer than expressing temporality and creates and feels through vision. It is characterized by being good at describing, shaping and depicting things or scenes in life or imagination, with obvious reproducibility and descriptive nature. It will not disappear with the passage of light, unless it is destroyed by external forces and corroded by itself, it can exist in the world for a long time. Space art also has some weaknesses in creation, especially for plot painting and sculpture. For example, a single painting can only show an instant image, and it is difficult to expand things and plots vertically. However, it is precisely because of this limitation that paintings strive for a deeper image, pursuing the simplicity of modeling and the cohesion of sports sense, thus forming the unique charm of painting. Painting and sculpture composition often choose a spontaneous moment to strengthen the sense of strength in the process of character action, which psychologically causes the progressive effect of action from beginning to end, such as drawing an arrow without sending it, making space art have a sense of time. Both Chinese and western paintings and sculptures have such examples. Simple words are mellow and profound, which can never be absorbed by an instant impression; The conciseness and cohesion of space artistic image also means the concentration of time.

In China's traditional art theory, there are different interpretations of the concept of space. In the Song Dynasty, Guo said, "There are three distances in the mountain: from the foot of the mountain to the top of the mountain, it is majestic; Looking at the mountain from the front is far-reaching; Looking at the mountain near the mountain is called Pingyuan. " This is not only a simple view of physical space, but also a poetic view of heaven and earth space, that is, the artistic conception of "fugue" with room for manoeuvre. Chinese painting theory advocates the unity of time and space, and expresses infinite spatial images with limited pictures; Accordingly, the focus perspective method was replaced by the decentralized perspective method (although Zong Bing of the Southern Song Dynasty had discovered the principle of physical perspective as early as the 5th century AD), which was a visual psychological space formed under the cultural background of China, the so-called "psychological vision". At the end of 19, this aesthetic view was concerned by the west, and it was proposed to break the boundaries between time and space in art to expand the expressive function.

Art, also called visual art, is from the perspective that the perceptual medium between aesthetic subject and object is mainly visual. When people perceive plastic arts, they usually perceive them through visual channels (except some handicrafts can enhance the aesthetic experience by touching them). The definition of visual art covers a wide range, and all categories, styles, forms or symbols of visual art that are mainly appreciated through visual media can be included. As for the comprehensive visual arts such as drama, dance and literary works read by vision, they are naturally not included, because they are mainly perceived through behaviors and actions (performances), language and words, and various other sensory channels.

Art is also divided into two systems: pure art and arts and crafts. Art refers to painting, sculpture, music and so on. This is pure spirit and appreciation, and sometimes poetry. Cai Yuanpei once called it literature and art, pointing out that it embodies social and cultural consciousness and aesthetic consciousness, which is different from arts and crafts combining practical function and aesthetic consciousness. Literature and art are more appropriate than pure art, because the meaning of "pure" is not clear. If it refers to pure appreciation art, then there are arts and crafts, and the so-called "pure art" is not all pure appreciation. But the word pure art has been used all the time, although it does not conform to the original intention of a foreign language.

Design is an art discipline that rose in the middle of the 20th century. Although it is not a new term, it has long been used in architectural art and arts and crafts. In architectural and industrial design, the overall situation is determined by the space design of the body surface, followed by the local design of doors, windows, walls and various components. In arts and crafts, there are shapes, patterns and other designs. The composition of paintings is actually the overall structural design; In a certain form of image, there are lines, shapes, colors, squares and other graphic designs; In sculpture, the most important thing is the spatial design of modeling. Modern design first developed in commodity packaging, furniture and interior decoration, and then extended from light industrial products to heavy industrial products, such as automobiles, ships and airplanes. The design of many industrial products is closely integrated with science and technology. Design has penetrated into the whole art field and become an important modeling discipline. Design ideas and techniques greatly affect the artistic charm of works of art.

Design is a subject that studies all kinds of beautiful images and feelings formed by point, line, surface, body, light, color, quality, material and all modeling factors, and applies them to all kinds of artistic creation. In short, design is the knowledge of modeling, and its main object is to study visual space and convey the effect of visual art through space design. Plane composition, three-dimensional composition, indoor space composition, environmental space composition and other majors all discuss the problem of artistic modeling from the perspective of space design. The development of design has been involved in the field of pure art, and has had a great impact on modern painting and sculpture. Broadly speaking, the brush and ink of Chinese painting, the texture and texture of oil painting, and the beauty of materials in sculpture and craft all belong to the category of design (abstract modeling form). In some developed countries, the Academy of Fine Arts has been renamed as "Academy of Fine Arts and Design".

"Concrete art" and "abstract art" are new terms formed at the beginning of the 20th century. Although these two art forms have existed since ancient times, abstract art has only developed greatly in modern times. Figurative refers to the expression of concrete objects. Realistic art at all times and all over the world relies on concrete and visible forms to reflect the essence and internal relations of things through their phenomena and external forms. Based on concrete concepts, it mainly uses the method of thinking in images to refine, generalize, condense and exaggerate the creative materials in life, thus achieving typical aesthetic purposes. The word "abstract" can be understood from two aspects. First, artists use refining, generalization and other means to artistically process images in life, thus creating artistic images. This process is called artistic abstraction, which expresses the artist's feelings about the essence of objective things. From life form to art form, there is no need to run through this abstract thinking activity in the image all the time. Here, abstraction is "the abstraction of art". Figurative and abstract are not contradictory, but unified in artistic image. P Picasso's exploration of a series of images of "cow" shows the variety of artistic abstraction (from concrete, semi-abstract to abstract), from which we can see a certain trajectory from "artistic abstraction" to "abstract art". The Drinking Bear, created by Yang Dongbai, a modern sculptor in China, is an abstract and concrete work. This is a semi-abstract art, and the author skillfully uses the means of "artistic abstraction" and expresses the intention of "abstract art" well. Secondly, abstract and concrete are two opposite images. Abstract is a kind of pure consciousness and form, but it does not absolutely exclude the integration with concrete, forming an exaggerated form, in which concrete or semi-abstract art appears.

Various schools of abstract artists in the world have different understandings of the meaning of "abstraction".

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