Portal:Arts
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Introduction
The arts refers to the theory and physical expression of creativity found in human societies and cultures. Major constituents of the arts include literature (including drama, poetry, and prose), performing arts (among them dance, music, and theatre), and visual arts (including drawing, painting, filmmaking, architecture, ceramics, sculpting, and photography).
Some art forms combine a visual element with performance (e.g., cinematography) or artwork with the written word (e.g., comics). From prehistoric cave paintings to modern day films, art serves as a vessel for storytelling and conveying humankind's relationship with the environment. Read more...
4th bay of the Sistine Chapel ceiling.
Selected general articles
A mosaic is a piece of art or image made from the assembling of small pieces of colored glass, stone, or other materials. It is often used in decorative art or as interior decoration. Most mosaics are made of small, flat, roughly square, pieces of stone or glass of different colors, known as tesserae. Some, especially floor mosaics, are made of small rounded pieces of stone, and called "pebble mosaics".
Mosaics have a long history, starting in Mesopotamia in the 3rd millennium BC. Pebble mosaics were made in Tiryns in Mycenean Greece; mosaics with patterns and pictures became widespread in classical times, both in Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome. Early Christian basilicas from the 4th century onwards were decorated with wall and ceiling mosaics. Mosaic art flourished in the Byzantine Empire from the 6th to the 15th centuries; that tradition was adopted by the Norman Kingdom of Sicily in the 12th century, by the eastern-influenced Republic of Venice, and among the Rus in Ukraine. Mosaic fell out of fashion in the Renaissance, though artists like Raphael continued to practise the old technique. Roman and Byzantine influence led Jewish artists to decorate 5th and 6th century synagogues in the Middle East with floor mosaics. Read more...
Art Nouveau (/ˌɑːrtnuːˈvoʊ, ˌɑːr/; French: [aʁ nuvo]) is an international style of art, architecture and applied art, especially the decorative arts, that was most popular between 1890 and 1910. A reaction to the academic art of the 19th century, it was inspired by natural forms and structures, particularly the curved lines of plants and flowers.
English uses the French name Art Nouveau (new art). The style is related to, but not identical with, styles that emerged in many countries in Europe at about the same time: in Austria it is known as Secessionsstil after Wiener Secession; in Spanish Modernismo; in Catalan Modernisme; in Czech Secese; in Danish Skønvirke or Jugendstil; in German Jugendstil, Art Nouveau or Reformstil; in Hungarian Szecesszió; in Italian Art Nouveau, Stile Liberty or Stile floreale; in Lithuanian Modernas; in Norwegian Jugendstil; in Polish Secesja; in Slovak Secesia; in Ukrainian and Russian Модерн (Modern); in Swedish and Finnish Jugend. Read more...
An iPod, an industrially designed product.
Industrial design is a process of design applied to products that are to be manufactured through techniques of mass production. Its key characteristic is that design is separated from manufacture: the creative act of determining and defining a product's form and features takes place in advance of the physical act of making a product, which consists purely of repeated, often automated, replication. This distinguishes industrial design from craft-based design, where the form of the product is determined by the product's creator at the time of its creation.
All manufactured products are the result of a design process, but the nature of this process can take many forms: it can be conducted by an individual or a large team; it can emphasize intuitive creativity or calculated scientific decision-making, and often emphasizes both at the same time; and it can be influenced by factors as varied as materials, production processes, business strategy, and prevailing social, commercial, or aesthetic attitudes. The role of an industrial designer is to create and execute design solutions for problems of form, function, usability, physical ergonomics, marketing, brand development, sustainability, and sales. Read more...
Anne Vallayer-Coster, Attributes of Music, 1770. This still life painting depicts a variety of French Baroque musical instruments, such as a natural horn, transverse flute, musette, pardessus de viole, and lute.
A musical instrument is an instrument created or adapted to make musical sounds. In principle, any object that produces sound can be considered a musical instrument—it is through purpose that the object becomes a musical instrument.[citation needed] The history of musical instruments dates to the beginnings of human culture. Early musical instruments may have been used for ritual, such as a trumpet to signal success on the hunt, or a drum in a religious ceremony. Cultures eventually developed composition and performance of melodies for entertainment. Musical instruments evolved in step with changing applications.
The date and origin of the first device considered a musical instrument is disputed. The oldest object that some scholars refer to as a musical instrument, a simple flute, dates back as far as 67,000 years. Some consensus dates early flutes to about 37,000 years ago. However, most historians believe that determining a specific time of musical instrument invention is impossible due to the subjectivity of the definition and the relative instability of materials used to make them. Many early musical instruments were made from animal skins, bone, wood, and other non-durable materials. Read more...
Classical bell tutus in The Dance Class by Degas, 1874
Ballet /ˈbæleɪ/ (French: [balɛ]) is a type of performance dance that originated during the Italian Renaissance in the fifteenth century and later developed into a concert dance form in France and Russia. It has since become a widespread, highly technical form of dance with its own vocabulary based on French terminology. It has been globally influential and has defined the foundational techniques used in many other dance genres and cultures. Ballet has been taught in various schools around the world, which have historically incorporated their own cultures and as a result, the art has evolved in a number of distinct ways. See glossary of ballet.
A ballet, a work, consists of the choreography and music for a ballet production. Ballets are choreographed and performed by trained ballet dancers. Traditional classical ballets are usually performed with classical music accompaniment and use elaborate costumes and staging, whereas modern ballets, such as the neoclassical works of American choreographer George Balanchine, often are performed in simple costumes (e.g., leotards and tights) and without the use of elaborate sets or scenery. Read more...
The Black Crook was a hit musical in 1866.
Musical theatre is a form of theatrical performance that combines songs, spoken dialogue, acting and dance. The story and emotional content of a musical – humor, pathos, love, anger – are communicated through the words, music, movement and technical aspects of the entertainment as an integrated whole. Although musical theatre overlaps with other theatrical forms like opera and dance, it may be distinguished by the equal importance given to the music as compared with the dialogue, movement and other elements. Since the early 20th century, musical theatre stage works have generally been called, simply, musicals.
Although music has been a part of dramatic presentations since ancient times, modern Western musical theatre emerged during the 19th century, with many structural elements established by the works of Gilbert and Sullivan in Britain and those of Harrigan and Hart in America. These were followed by the numerous Edwardian musical comedies and the musical theatre works of American creators like George M. Cohan at the turn of the 20th century. The Princess Theatre musicals (1915–1918) and other smart shows like Of Thee I Sing (1931) were artistic steps forward beyond revues and other frothy entertainments of the early 20th century and led to such groundbreaking works as Show Boat (1927) and Oklahoma! (1943). Some of the most famous musicals through the decades that followed include
West Side Story (1957), The Fantasticks (1960), Hair (1967), A Chorus Line (1975), Les Misérables (1985), The Phantom of the Opera (1986), Rent (1996), The Producers (2001), Wicked (2003) and Hamilton (2015). Read more...
A mural is any piece of artwork painted or applied directly on a wall, ceiling or other permanent surface. A distinguishing characteristic of mural painting is that the architectural elements of the given space are harmoniously incorporated into the picture.
Some wall paintings are painted on large canvases, which are then attached to the wall (e.g., with marouflage). Whether these works can be accurately called "murals" is a subject of some controversy in the art world,[who?] but the technique has been in common use since the late 19th century. Read more...- A happening is a performance, event, or situation meant to be considered art, usually as performance art. The term was first used by Allan Kaprow during the 1950s to describe a range of art-related event or multiple events. Read more...
Textile arts are arts and crafts that use plant, animal, or synthetic fibers to construct practical or decorative objects.
Textiles have been a fundamental part of human life since the beginning of civilization. The methods and materials used to make them have expanded enormously, while the functions of textiles have remained the same. The history of textile arts is also the history of international trade. Tyrian purple dye was an important trade good in the ancient Mediterranean. The Silk Road brought Chinese silk to India, Africa, and Europe. Tastes for imported luxury fabrics led to sumptuary laws during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The Industrial Revolution was shaped largely by innovation in textiles technology: the cotton gin, the spinning jenny, and the power loom mechanized production and led to the Luddite rebellion. Read more...
Bryan Zanisnik, performance of When I Was a Child I Caught a Fleeting Glimpse, 2009
Performance art is a performance presented to an audience within a fine art context, traditionally interdisciplinary. Performance may be either scripted or unscripted, random or carefully orchestrated, spontaneous or otherwise carefully planned with or without audience participation. The performance can be live or via media; the performer can be present or absent. It can be any situation that involves four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body, or presence in a medium, and a relationship between performer and audience. Performance art can happen anywhere, in any type of venue or setting and for any length of time. The actions of an individual or a group at a particular place and in a particular time constitute the work. Read more...- Stand-up comedy is a comic style in which a comedian performs in front of a live audience, usually speaking directly to them. The performer is commonly known as a comic, stand-up comic, comedian, comedienne, stand-up comedian, or simply a stand-up. In stand-up comedy, the comedian gives the illusion that they are dialoguing, but in actuality, they are monologuing a grouping of humorous stories, jokes and one-liners, typically called a shtick. Some stand-up comedians use props, music or magic tricks
to enhance their acts. Stand-up comedy is stated to be the "freest form of comedy writing" that is normally regarded as an "extension of" the person performing.
The improvization of stand-up is often compared to jazz music.
A comedian's process of writing is likened to the process of song writing.
A comedian's ability to tighten their material has been likened to crafting a samurai sword. Read more... 
Printmaking is the process of creating artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints that have an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable of producing multiples of the same piece, which is called a print. Each print produced is not considered a "copy" but rather is considered an "original". This is because typically each print varies to an extent due to variables intrinsic to the printmaking process, and also because the imagery of a print is typically not simply a reproduction of another work but rather is often a unique image designed from the start to be expressed in a particular printmaking technique. A print may be known as an impression. Printmaking (other than monotyping) is not chosen only for its ability to produce multiple impressions, but rather for the unique qualities that each of the printmaking processes lends itself to.
Prints are created by transferring ink from a matrix or through a prepared screen to a sheet of paper or other material. Common types of matrices include: metal plates, usually copper or zinc, or polymer plates for engraving or etching; stone, aluminum, or polymer for lithography; blocks of wood for woodcuts and wood engravings; and linoleum for linocuts. Screens made of silk or synthetic fabrics are used for the screenprinting process. Other types of matrix substrates and related processes are discussed below. Read more...
Calligraphy (from Greek: καλλιγραφία) is a visual art related to writing. It is the design and execution of lettering with a broad tip instrument, brush, or other writing instruments. A contemporary calligraphic practice can be defined as "the art of giving form to signs in an expressive, harmonious, and skillful manner".
Modern calligraphy ranges from functional inscriptions and designs to fine-art pieces where the letters may or may not be readable.[page needed] Classical calligraphy differs from typography and non-classical hand-lettering, though a calligrapher may practice both. Read more...
Rococo (/rəˈkoʊkoʊ/ or /roʊkəˈkoʊ/), less commonly roccoco, or "Late Baroque", is a highly ornamental and theatrical style of decoration which combines asymmetry, scrolling curves, gilding, white and pastel colors, sculpted molding, and trompe l'oeil frescoes to create the illusions of surprise, motion and drama. It first appeared in France and Italy in the 1730s and spread to Central Europe in the 1750s and 1760s. It is often described as the final expression of the Baroque movement.
The Rococo style began in France in the first part of the 18th century in the reign of Louis XV as a reaction against the more formal and geometric Style Louis XIV. It was known as the style rocaille, or rocaille style. It soon spread to other parts of Europe, particularly northern Italy, Bavaria, Austria, other parts of Germany, and Russia. It also came to influence the other arts, particularly sculpture, furniture, silverware and glassware, painting, music, and theatre. Read more...
Dance is a type of performance art practiced all over the world.
Performing arts are a form of art in which artists use their voices, bodies or inanimate objects to convey artistic expression. It is different from visual arts, which is when artists use paint, canvas or various materials to create physical or static art objects. Performing arts include a range of disciplines which are performed in front of a live audience.
Theatre, music, dance and object manipulation, and other kinds of performances are present in all human cultures. The history of music and dance date to pre-historic times whereas circus skills date to at least Ancient Egypt. Many performing arts are performed professionally. Performance can be in purpose built buildings, such as theatres and opera houses, on open air stages at festivals, on stages in tents such as circuses and on the street. Read more...- Tragedy (from the Greek: τραγῳδία, tragōidia) is a form of drama based on human suffering that invokes an accompanying catharsis or pleasure in audiences. While many cultures have developed forms that provoke this paradoxical response, the term tragedy often refers to a specific tradition of drama that has played a unique and important role historically in the self-definition of Western civilisation. That tradition has been multiple and discontinuous, yet the term has often been used to invoke a powerful effect of cultural identity and historical continuity—"the Greeks and the Elizabethans, in one cultural form; Hellenes and Christians, in a common activity," as Raymond Williams puts it.
From its origins in the theatre of ancient Greece 2500 years ago, from which there survives only a fraction of the work of Aeschylus, Sophocles and Euripides, as well as a large number of fragments from other poets; through its singular articulations in the works of Shakespeare, Lope de Vega, Jean Racine, and Friedrich Schiller to the more recent naturalistic tragedy of August Strindberg; Samuel Beckett's modernist meditations on death, loss and suffering; Müller's postmodernist reworkings of the tragic canon; and Joshua Oppenheimer's incorporation of tragic pathos in his nonfiction film, The Act of Killing (2012), tragedy has remained an important site of cultural experimentation, negotiation, struggle, and change. A long line of philosophers—which includes Plato, Aristotle, Saint Augustine, Voltaire, Hume, Diderot, Hegel, Schopenhauer, Kierkegaard, Nietzsche, Freud, Benjamin, Camus, Lacan, and Deleuze—have analysed, speculated upon, and criticised the genre. Read more... 
A specimen sheet of the Trajan typeface, which is based on the letter forms of capitalis monumentalis or Roman square capitals used for the inscription at the base of Trajan's Column, from which the typeface takes its name
Typography is the art and technique of arranging type to make written language legible, readable, and appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, point sizes, line lengths, line-spacing (leading), and letter-spacing (tracking), and adjusting the space between pairs of letters (kerning). The term typography is also applied to the style, arrangement, and appearance of the letters, numbers, and symbols created by the process. Type design is a closely related craft, sometimes considered part of typography; most typographers do not design typefaces, and some type designers do not consider themselves typographers. Typography also may be used as a decorative device, unrelated to communication of information.
Typography is the work of typesetters (also known as compositors), typographers, graphic designers, art directors, manga artists, comic book artists, graffiti artists, and, now, anyone who arranges words, letters, numbers, and symbols for publication, display, or distribution, from clerical workers and newsletter writers to anyone self-publishing materials. Until the Digital Age, typography was a specialized occupation. Digitization opened up typography to new generations of previously unrelated designers and lay users. As the capability to create typography has become ubiquitous, the application of principles and best practices developed over generations of skilled workers and professionals has diminished. So at a time when scientific techniques can support the proven traditions (e.g., greater legibility with the use of serifs, upper and lower case, contrast, etc.) through understanding the limitations of human vision, typography as often encountered may fail to achieve its principal objective: effective communication. Read more...- Fauvism is the style of les Fauves (French for "the wild beasts"), a group of early twentieth-century modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities and strong color over the representational or realistic values retained by Impressionism. While Fauvism as a style began around 1904 and continued beyond 1910, the movement as such lasted only a few years, 1905–1908, and had three exhibitions. The leaders of the movement were André Derain and Henri Matisse. Read more...
František Kupka, Amorpha, Fugue en deux couleurs (Fugue in Two Colors), 1912, oil on canvas, 210 x 200 cm, National Gallery in Prague
Geometric abstraction is a form of abstract art based on the use of geometric forms sometimes, though not always, placed in non-illusionistic space and combined into non-objective (non-representational) compositions. Although the genre was popularized by avant-garde artists in the early twentieth century, similar motifs have been used in art since ancient times. Read more...- Comics is a medium used to express ideas by images, often combined with text or other visual information. Comics frequently takes the form of juxtaposed sequences of panels of images. Often textual devices such as speech balloons, captions, and onomatopoeia indicate dialogue, narration, sound effects, or other information. Size and arrangement of panels contribute to narrative pacing. Cartooning and similar forms of illustration are the most common image-making means in comics; fumetti is a form which uses photographic images. Common forms of comics include comic strips, editorial and gag cartoons, and comic books. Since the late 20th century, bound volumes such as graphic novels, comic albums, and tankōbon have become increasingly common, while online webcomics have proliferated in the 21st century.
The history of comics has followed different paths in different cultures. Scholars have posited a pre-history as far back as the Lascaux cave paintings. By the mid-20th century, comics flourished particularly in the United States, western Europe (especially in France and Belgium), and Japan. The history of European comics is often traced to Rodolphe Töpffer's cartoon strips of the 1830s, and became popular following the success in the 1930s of strips and books such as The Adventures of Tintin. American comics emerged as a mass medium in the early 20th century with the advent of newspaper comic strips; magazine-style comic books followed in the 1930s, in which the superhero genre became prominent after Superman appeared in 1938. Histories of Japanese comics and cartooning (manga) propose origins as early as the 12th century. Modern comic strips emerged in Japan in the early 20th century, and the output of comics magazines and books rapidly expanded in the post-World War II era with the popularity of cartoonists such as Osamu Tezuka. Comics has had a lowbrow reputation for much of its history, but towards the end of the 20th century began to find greater acceptance with the public and in academia. Read more... 
Installation art is an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that often are site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called public art, land art or intervention art; however, the boundaries between these terms overlap. Read more...
Theatre or theater is a collaborative form of fine art that uses live performers, typically actors or actresses, to present the experience of a real or imagined event before a live audience in a specific place, often a stage. The performers may communicate this experience to the audience through combinations of gesture, speech, song, music, and dance. Elements of art, such as painted scenery and stagecraft such as lighting are used to enhance the physicality, presence and immediacy of the experience. The specific place of the performance is also named by the word "theatre" as derived from the Ancient Greek θέατρον (théatron, "a place for viewing"), itself from θεάομαι (theáomai, "to see", "to watch", "to observe").
Modern Western theatre comes, in large measure, from the theatre of ancient Greece, from which it borrows technical terminology, classification into genres, and many of its themes, stock characters, and plot elements. Theatre artist Patrice Pavis defines theatricality, theatrical language, stage writing and the specificity of theatre as synonymous expressions that differentiate theatre from the other performing arts, literature and the arts in general. Read more...
The Roman orator Cicero speaks to the Roman Senate.
Cicero Denounces Catiline (1889), fresco by Cesare Maccari
Public speaking (also called oratory or oration) is the process or act of performing a good speech to a live audience. This type of speech is deliberately structured with three general purposes: to inform, to persuade and to entertain. Public speaking is seen traditionally as part of the art of persuasion. Public speaking is commonly understood as formal, face-to-face speaking of a single person to a group of listeners. Public speaking can be governed by different rules and structures. For example, speeches about concepts do not necessarily have to be structured in any special way. However, there is a method behind giving it effectively. For this type of speech it would be good to describe that concept with examples that can relate to the audiences life.
Public speaking can serve the purpose of transmitting information, telling a story, motivating people to act or some combination of those. Public speaking can be used in many different forms and has evolved through the years to become what it is now. The history of public speaking has changed and transformed through technology and history. Knowing when public speaking is most effective and how it is done properly is a key part in understanding the importance of it. Read more...
A theatre director or stage director is an instructor in the theatre field who oversees and orchestrates the mounting of a theatre production (a play, an opera, a musical, or a devised piece of work) by unifying various endeavours and aspects of production. The director's function is to ensure the quality and completeness of theatre production and to lead the members of the creative team into realizing their artistic vision for it. The director therefore collaborates with a team of creative individuals and other staff, coordinating research, stagecraft, costume design, props, lighting design, acting, set design, stage combat, and sound design for the production. If the production he or she is mounting is a new piece of writing or a (new) translation of a play, the director may also work with the playwright or translator. In contemporary theatre, after the playwright, the director is generally the primary visionary, making decisions on the artistic concept and interpretation of the play and its staging. Different directors occupy different places of authority and responsibility, depending on the structure and philosophy of individual theatre companies. Directors use a wide variety of techniques, philosophies, and levels of collaboration. Read more...
Neo-Impressionism is a term coined by French art critic Félix Fénéon in 1886 to describe an art movement founded by Georges Seurat. Seurat's greatest masterpiece, A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte, marked the beginning of this movement when it first made its appearance at an exhibition of the Société des Artistes Indépendants (Salon des Indépendants) in Paris. Around this time, the peak of France's modern era emerged and many painters were in search of new methods. Followers of Neo-Impressionism, in particular, were drawn to modern urban scenes as well as landscapes and seashores. Science-based interpretation of lines and colors influenced Neo-Impressionists' characterization of their own contemporary art. The Pointillist and Divisionist techniques are often mentioned in this context, because it was the dominant technique in the beginning of the Neo-impressionist movement.
Some argue that Neo-Impressionism became the first true avant-garde movement in painting. The Neo-Impressionists were able to create a movement very quickly in the 19th century, partially due to its strong connection to anarchism, which set a pace for later artistic manifestations. The movement and the style were an attempt to drive "harmonious" vision from modern science, anarchist theory, and late 19th-century debate around the value of academic art. The artists of the movement "promised to employ optical and psycho-biological theories in pursuit of a grand synthesis of the ideal and the real, the fugitive and the essential, science and temperament." Read more...
A musician is a person who plays a musical instrument or is musically talented. Anyone who composes, conducts, or performs music is referred to as a musician. A musician who plays a musical instrument is also known as an instrumentalist.
Musicians can specialize in any musical style, and some musicians play in a variety of different styles depending on cultures and background. Examples of a musician's possible skills include performing, conducting, singing, rapping, producing, composing, arranging, and the orchestration of music. Read more...
The Baroque (UK: /bəˈrɒk/, US: /bəˈroʊk/)createdthat created to the g by is a highly ornate and often extravagant style of architecture, music, painting, sculpture and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th until the mid-18th century. It followed the Renaissance style and preceded the Rococo (in the past often referred to as "late Baroque") and Neoclassical styles. It was encouraged by the Catholic Church as a means to counter the simplicity and austerity of Protestant architecture, art and music, though Lutheran Baroque art developed in parts of Europe as well. The Baroque style used contrast, movement, exuberant detail, deep colour, grandeur and surprise to achieve a sense of awe. The style began at the start of the 17th century in Rome, then spread rapidly to France, northern Italy, Spain and Portugal, then to Austria and southern Germany. By the 1730s, it had evolved into an even more flamboyant style, called rocaille or Rococo, which appeared in France and central Europe until the mid to late 18th century. Read more...
Art Deco, sometimes referred to as Deco, is a style of visual arts, architecture and design that first appeared in France just before World War I. Art Deco influenced the design of buildings, furniture, jewelry, fashion, cars, movie theatres, trains, ocean liners, and everyday objects such as radios and vacuum cleaners. It took its name, short for Arts Décoratifs, from the Exposition internationale des arts décoratifs et industriels modernes (International Exhibition of Modern Decorative and Industrial Arts) held in Paris in 1925. It combined modernist styles with fine craftsmanship and rich materials. During its heyday, Art Deco represented luxury, glamour, exuberance, and faith in social and technological progress.
Art Deco was a pastiche of many different styles, sometimes contradictory, united by a desire to be modern. From its outset, Art Deco was influenced by the bold geometric forms of Cubism; the bright colors of Fauvism and of the Ballets Russes; the updated craftsmanship of the furniture of the eras of Louis Philippe I and Louis XVI; and the exotic styles of China and Japan, India, Persia, ancient Egypt and Maya art. It featured rare and expensive materials, such as ebony and ivory, and exquisite craftsmanship. The Chrysler Building and other skyscrapers of New York built during the 1920s and 1930s are monuments of the Art Deco style. Read more...
New media art refers to artworks created with new media technologies, including digital art, computer graphics, computer animation, virtual art, Internet art, interactive art, video games, computer robotics, 3D printing, cyborg art and art as biotechnology. The term differentiates itself by its resulting cultural objects and social events, which can be seen in opposition to those deriving from old visual arts (i.e. traditional painting, sculpture, etc.). This concern with medium is a key feature of much contemporary art and indeed many art schools and major universities now offer majors in "New Genres" or "New Media" and a growing number of graduate programs have emerged internationally. New media art often involves interaction between artist and observer or between observers and the artwork, which responds to them. Yet, as several theorists and curators have noted, such forms of interaction, social exchange, participation, and transformation do not distinguish new media art but rather serve as a common ground that has parallels in other strands of contemporary art practice. Such insights emphasize the forms of cultural practice that arise concurrently with emerging technological platforms, and question the focus on technological media, per se.
New Media concerns are often derived from the telecommunications, mass media and digital electronic modes of delivering the artworks involve, with practices ranging from conceptual to virtual art, performance to installation. Read more...
The bouncing ball animation (below) consists of these six frames.
Animation is a method in which pictures are manipulated to appear as moving images. In traditional animation, images are drawn or painted by hand on transparent celluloid sheets to be photographed and exhibited on film. Today, most animations are made with computer-generated imagery (CGI). Computer animation can be very detailed 3D animation, while 2D computer animation can be used for stylistic reasons, low bandwidth or faster real-time renderings. Other common animation methods apply a stop motion technique to two and three-dimensional objects like paper cutouts, puppets or clay figures.
Commonly the effect of animation is achieved by a rapid succession of sequential images that minimally differ from each other. The illusion—as in motion pictures in general—is thought to rely on the phi phenomenon and beta movement, but the exact causes are still uncertain.
Analog mechanical animation media that rely on the rapid display of sequential images include the phénakisticope, zoetrope, flip book, praxinoscope and film. Television and video are popular electronic animation media that originally were analog and now operate digitally. For display on the computer, techniques like animated GIF and Flash animation were developed. Read more...- Ukiyo-e (Japanese: 浮世絵, pronounced [ɯkʲijoꜜe]; literally "picture[s] of the Floating World") is a genre of Japanese art which flourished from the 17th through 19th centuries. Its artists produced woodblock prints and paintings of such subjects as female beauties; kabuki actors and sumo wrestlers; scenes from history and folk tales; travel scenes and landscapes; flora and fauna; and erotica.
Edo (modern Tokyo) became the seat of government for the military dictatorship in the early 17th century. The merchant class at the bottom of the social order benefited most from the city's rapid economic growth. Many indulged in the entertainments of kabuki theatre, courtesans, and geisha of the pleasure districts. The term ukiyo ("floating world") came to describe this hedonistic lifestyle. Printed or painted ukiyo-e images of this environment emerged in the late 17th century and were popular with the merchant class, who had become wealthy enough to afford to decorate their homes with them. Read more... - Design can have different connotations in different fields of application (see design disciplines below), but there are two basic meanings of design: as a verb and as a noun.
Design (as a verb: to design) is the intentional creation of a plan or specification for the construction of an object or system or for the implementation of an activity or process. Read more...
Fashion design is the art of applying design, aesthetics and natural beauty to clothing and its accessories. It is influenced by cultural and social attitudes, and has varied over time and place. Fashion designers work in a number of ways in designing clothing and accessories such as bracelets and necklaces. Because of the time required to bring a garment onto the market, designers must at times anticipate changes to consumer tastes.
Designers conduct research on fashion trends and interpret them for their audience. Their specific designs are used by manufacturers. This is the essence of a designer’s role; however, there is variation within this that is determined by the buying and merchandising approach, and product quality; for example, budget retailers will use inexpensive fabrics to interpret trends, but high-end retailers will ensure that the best available fabrics are used. Read more...- A genius is a person who displays exceptional intellectual ability, creative productivity, universality in genres or originality, typically to a degree that is associated with the achievement of new advances in a domain of knowledge. Despite the presence of scholars in many subjects throughout history, many geniuses have shown high achievements in only a single kind of activity.
There is no scientifically precise definition of genius, and the question of whether the notion itself has any real meaning has long been a subject of debate, although psychologists are converging on a definition that emphasizes creativity and eminent achievement. Usually, genius is associated with talent, but many authors (for example Cesare Lombroso) systematically distinguish these terms. Read more... 
Horticulture has been defined as the culture of plants for food, comfort and beauty. A more precise definition can be given as "The cultivation, processing, and sale of fruits, nuts, vegetables, ornamental plants, and flowers as well as many additional services". It also includes plant conservation, landscape restoration, soil management, landscape and garden design, construction, and maintenance, and arboriculture. In contrast to agriculture, horticulture does not include large-scale crop production or animal husbandry.
Horticulturists apply their knowledge, skills, and technologies used to grow intensively produced plants for human food and non-food uses and for personal or social needs. Their work involves plant propagation and cultivation with the aim of improving plant growth, yields, quality, nutritional value, and resistance to insects, diseases, and environmental stresses. They work as gardeners, growers, therapists, designers, and technical advisors in the food and non-food sectors of horticulture. Horticulture even refers to the growing of plants in a field or garden. Read more...
Caricature of Aubrey Beardsley by Max Beerbohm (1896), taken from Caricatures of Twenty-five Gentlemen
A caricature is a rendered image showing the features of its subject in a simplified or exaggerated way through sketching, pencil strokes, or through other artistic drawings.
In literature, a caricature is a description of a person using exaggeration of some characteristics and oversimplification of others. Read more...
An actor is a person who portrays a character in a performance (also actress; see below). The actor performs "in the flesh" in the traditional medium of the theatre or in modern media such as film, radio, and television. The analogous Greek term is ὑποκριτής (hupokritḗs), literally "one who answers". The actor's interpretation of their role—the art of acting—pertains to the role played, whether based on a real person or fictional character. Interpretation occurs even when the actor is "playing themselves", as in some forms of experimental performance art.
Formerly, in ancient Greece and Rome, the medieval world, and the time of William Shakespeare, only men could become actors, and women's roles were generally played by men or boys. After the English Restoration of 1660, women began to appear on stage in England. In modern times, particularly in pantomime and some operas, women occasionally play the roles of boys or young men. Read more...
A potter at work in Morena, India
Pottery is the process of forming vessels and other objects with clay and other ceramic materials, which are fired to give them a hard, durable form. Major types include earthenware, stoneware and porcelain. The place where such wares are made by a potter is also called a pottery (plural "potteries"). The definition of pottery used by the American Society for Testing and Materials (ASTM), is "all fired ceramic wares that contain clay when formed, except technical, structural, and refractory products." A different definition, used within the field of ceramics, is "everything which is not porcelain". In archaeology, especially of ancient and prehistoric periods, "pottery" often means vessels only, and figures etc. of the same material are called "terracottas". Clay as a part of the materials used is required by some definitions of pottery, but this is dubious.
Pottery is one of the oldest human inventions, originating before the Neolithic period, with ceramic objects like the Gravettian culture Venus of Dolní Věstonice figurine discovered in the Czech Republic dating back to 29,000–25,000 BC, and pottery vessels that were discovered in Jiangxi, China, which date back to 18,000 BC. Early Neolithic pottery artefacts have been found in places such as Jōmon Japan (10,500 BC), the Russian Far East (14,000 BC), Sub-Saharan Africa and South America. Read more...
The Soldier and his Wife. Etching by Daniel Hopfer, who is believed to have been the first to apply the technique to printmaking.
Etching is traditionally the process of using strong acid or mordant to cut into the unprotected parts of a metal surface to create a design in intaglio (incised) in the metal. In modern manufacturing, other chemicals may be used on other types of material. As a method of printmaking, it is, along with engraving, the most important technique for old master prints, and remains in wide use today. In a number of modern variants such as microfabrication etching and photochemical milling it is a crucial technique in much modern technology, including circuit boards.
In traditional pure etching, a metal (usually copper, zinc or steel) plate is covered with a waxy ground which is resistant to acid. The artist then scratches off the ground with a pointed etching needle where he or she wants a line to appear in the finished piece, so exposing the bare metal. The échoppe, a tool with a slanted oval section, is also used for "swelling" lines. The plate is then dipped in a bath of acid, technically called the mordant (French for "biting") or etchant, or has acid washed over it. The acid "bites" into the metal (it dissolves part of the metal) where it is exposed, leaving behind lines sunk into the plate. The remaining ground is then cleaned off the plate. The plate is inked all over, and then the ink wiped off the surface, leaving only the ink in the etched lines. Read more...
Mail art by György Galántai, 1981
Mail art (also known as postal art and correspondence art) is a populist artistic movement centered on sending small scale works through the postal service. It initially developed out of what eventually became Ray Johnson's New York Correspondence School in the 1950s and the Fluxus movement in the 1960s, though it has since developed into a global movement that continues to the present. Read more...
Robert Rauschenberg, Rhyme, 1956
Assemblage is an artistic form or medium usually created on a defined substrate that consists of three-dimensional elements projecting out of or from the substrate. It is similar to collage, a two-dimensional medium. It is part of the visual arts, and it typically uses found objects, but is not limited to these materials. Read more...
Poetry (the term derives from a variant of the Greek term, poiesis, "making") is a form of literature that uses aesthetic and rhythmic qualities of language—such as phonaesthetics, sound symbolism, and metre—to evoke meanings in addition to, or in place of, the prosaic ostensible meaning.
Poetry has a very long history, dating back to prehistorical times with the creation of hunting poetry in Africa, and panegyric and elegiac court poetry was developed extensively throughout the history of the empires of the Nile, Niger and Volta river valleys . Some of the earliest written poetry in Africa can be found among the Pyramid Texts written during the 25th century BCE, while the Epic of Sundiata is one of the most well-known examples of griot court poetry. The earliest Western Asian epic poetry, the Epic of Gilgamesh, was written in Sumerian. Early poems in the Eurasian continent evolved from folk songs such as the Chinese Shijing, or from a need to retell oral epics, as with the Sanskrit Vedas, Zoroastrian Gathas, and the Homeric epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Ancient Greek attempts to define poetry, such as Aristotle's Poetics, focused on the uses of speech in rhetoric, drama, song and comedy. Later attempts concentrated on features such as repetition, verse form and rhyme, and emphasized the aesthetics which distinguish poetry from more objectively informative, prosaic forms of writing. Read more...
Street art by Kevin Larmee, SoHo, New York City (1985)
Street art is visual art created in public locations, usually unsanctioned artwork executed outside of the context of traditional art vans. Other terms for this type of art include "independent public art", "post-graffiti", and "neon-graffiti", and is closely related with guerrilla art. Common forms and media include spray paint graffiti, stencil graffiti, wheatpasted poster art, sticker art, street installations, and sculpture. Video projection and yarn bombing have also gained some popularity near the turn of the 21st century. Read more...
Singing is the act of producing musical sounds with the voice and augments regular speech by the use of sustained tonality, rhythm, and a variety of vocal techniques. A person who sings is called a singer or vocalist (in jazz and popular music). Singers perform music (arias, recitatives, songs, etc.) that can be sung with or without accompaniment by musical instruments. Singing is often done in an ensemble of musicians, such as a choir of singers or a band of instrumentalists. Singers may perform as soloists or accompanied by anything from a single instrument (as in art song or some jazz styles) up to a symphony orchestra or big band. Different singing styles include art music such as opera and Chinese opera, Indian music and religious music styles such as gospel, traditional music styles, world music, jazz, blues, gazal and popular music styles such as pop, rock, electronic dance music and filmi (film songs).
Singing can be formal or informal, arranged or improvised. It may be done as a form of religious devotion, as a hobby, as a source of pleasure, comfort or ritual, as part of music education or as a profession. Excellence in singing requires time, dedication, instruction and regular practice. If practice is done on a regular basis then the sounds can become more clear and strong. Professional singers usually build their careers around one specific musical genre, such as classical or rock, although there are singers with crossover success (singing in more than one genre). They usually take voice training provided by voice teachers or vocal coaches throughout their careers. Read more...
Wax figure of Alfred Hitchcock, Hitchcock was nominated five times for the Academy Award for Best Director and is considered to be one of the greatest film directors of all time.
A film director is a person who directs the making of a film. A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the technical crew and actors in the fulfillment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, production design, and the creative aspects of filmmaking. Under European Union law, the director is viewed as the author of the film.
The film director gives direction to the cast and crew and creates an overall vision through which a film eventually becomes realized, or noticed. Directors need to be able to mediate differences in creative visions and stay within the boundaries of the film's budget. Read more...
Graphic symbols are often functionalist and anonymous, as these pictographs from the US National Park Service illustrate.
Graphic design is the process of visual communication and problem-solving through the use of typography, photography and illustration. The field is considered a subset of visual communication and communication design, but sometimes the term "graphic design" is used synonymously. Graphic designers create and combine symbols, images and text to form visual representations of ideas and messages. They use typography, visual arts and page layout techniques to create visual compositions. Common uses of graphic design include corporate design (logos and branding), editorial design (magazines, newspapers and books), wayfinding or environmental design, advertising, web design, communication design, product packaging and signage. Read more...- Hard-edge painting is painting in which abrupt transitions are found between color areas. Color areas are often of one unvarying color. The Hard-edge painting style is related to Geometric abstraction, Op Art, Post-painterly Abstraction, and Color Field painting. Read more...
The Daria-i-Noor (meaning: Sea of Light) Diamond from the collection of the national jewels of Iran at Central Bank of Islamic Republic of Iran. Mined in India, originally owned by the Hindu Kakatiya dynasty, and later passed to successive dynasties; and finally bought to Iran by Nader Shah.
Jewellery (British English) or jewelry (American English) consists of small decorative items worn for personal adornment, such as brooches, rings, necklaces, earrings, pendants, bracelets, and cufflinks. Jewellery may be attached to the body or the clothes. From a western perspective, the term is restricted to durable ornaments, excluding flowers for example. For many centuries metal, often combined with gemstones, has been the normal material for jewellery, but other materials such as shells and other plant materials may be used. It is one of the oldest type of archaeological artefact – with 100,000-year-old beads made from Nassarius shells thought to be the oldest known jewellery. The basic forms of jewellery vary between cultures but are often extremely long-lived; in European cultures the most common forms of jewellery listed above have persisted since ancient times, while other forms such as adornments for the nose or ankle, important in other cultures, are much less common.
Jewellery may be made from a wide range of materials. Gemstones and similar materials such as amber and coral, precious metals, beads, and shells have been widely used, and enamel has often been important. In most cultures jewellery can be understood as a status symbol, for its material properties, its patterns, or for meaningful symbols. Jewellery has been made to adorn nearly every body part, from hairpins to toe rings, and even genital jewellery. The patterns of wearing jewellery between the sexes, and by children and older people can vary greatly between cultures, but adult women have been the most consistent wearers of jewellery; in modern European culture the amount worn by adult males is relatively low compared with other cultures and other periods in European culture. Read more...
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Did you know...
- ... that Gujarati theatre actor Pransukh Nayak was entered in the 1989 Guinness Book of Records with 22,455 performances in his career?
- ... that Marvel Comics published a solo comic book about the teenager Jean Grey from the time-displaced X-Men?
- ... that Adrien Agreste's superhero identity, Cat Noir, is a tribute to the comic book character Catwoman?
- ... that Flame Con, the first LGBTQ comic convention in New York City, kicks off its annual event with a dance party and drag performances?
- ... that Native American poet Jennifer Foerster co-directs a program fostering arts education for women and girls of the Muscogee Nation?
- ... that actor Tony Clay was asked "Dude, what have you done?" on Twitter when his EastEnders character, Halfway, shot a popular character?
- ... that the 31 acoustic panels on the ceiling of the Central University of Venezuela's Aula Magna auditorium were originally meant to be an art installation in the outside corridor?
- ... that Henriette Feuerbach wrote a book for women and promoted the art of her stepson, the painter Anselm Feuerbach?
- ... that Rubens' painting Hercules' Dog Discovers Purple Dye depicts the wrong kind of snail?
- ... that the Indonesian actor Adipati Dolken adopted his stage name from the owner of the villa where he stayed on vacation in Puncak?
- ... that Annalisa Crannell brings chopsticks to art galleries as a tool for finding vanishing points?
- ... that the Museum of Geometric and MADI Art in Dallas is the only museum in North America dedicated to the Madí art movement?
Selected images
The Mona Lisa, by Leonardo da Vinci, is one of the most recognizable paintings in the world.
Device to Root Out Evil (1997) sculpture by Dennis Oppenheim at
Palma de Mallorca, Plaça de la Porta de Santa Catalina
An artistic depiction of a group of Rhinos, was completed in the Chauvet Cave 30,000 to 32,000 years ago.
Stage dance – a professional dancer at the Bolshoi Theatre
Modern dance – a female dancer performs a leg split while balanced on the back of her partner
The Rape of Europa, Titian, 1562
Small Greek terracotta figurines were very popular as ornaments in the home
Hokusai: Red Fuji southern wind clear morning from Thirty-six Views of Mount Fuji
9th-century Khmer lintel
Creeping Hyena, c. 12–17,000 BP, mammoth ivory, found in La Madeleine, France
Brunelleschi, in the building of the dome of Florence Cathedral (Italy) in the early 15th century, not only transformed the building and the city, but also the role and status of the architect.
Acrobatic dance – an acro dancer performs a front aerial
Michelangelo's Moses, (c. 1513–1515), San Pietro in Vincoli, Rome, for the tomb of Pope Julius II
Henry Moore, Large Reclining Figure, 1984 (based on a smaller model of 1938), Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge
An Indian classical dancer
Ritual dance – Armenian folk dancers celebrate a neo-pagan new year
Lululaund – The Dancing Girl (painting and silk cloth. A.L. Baldry 1901, before p. 107), The inscription reads; "Dancing is a form of rhythm/ Rhythm is a form of music/ Music is a form of thought/ And thought is a form of divinity."
Circus Sideshow (French: Parade de cirque), Georges Seurat, 1887–88
A hip-hop dancer demonstrates popping
Two Lovers by Reza Abbasi, 1630
The Raising of the Cross, Peter Paul Rubens, 1610–11
Nara Daibutsu, c. 752, Nara, Japan
Ancient Roman architect Vitruvius described in his theory of proper architecture, the proportions of a man.
A latin ballroom couple perform a Samba routine at a dancesport event
Hanuman on his chariot, a scene from the Ramakien in Wat Phra Kaew, Bangkok
Venus of Laussel c. 27,000 BP, an Upper Palaeolithic carving, Bordeaux museum, France
A ballet dancer performs a standing side split
Vernacular architecture in Norway: wood and elevated-level
Street dancers at a competition
Michelangelo, The Tomb of Pope Julius II, c. 1545, with statues of Rachel and Leah on the left and right of his Moses.
Latin Ballroom ballroom dancers perform the Tango
Plan of the second floor (attic storey) of the Hôtel de Brionne in Paris – 1734.
Pipelined implementation of MIPS architecture.
A 6th-century encaustic icon from Saint Catherine's Monastery, Egypt.
A nineteenth century artist's representation of a Flamenco dancer
The Milkmaid, Johannes Vermeer, 1658–1660
A basic tango rhythm
Ancient Chinese engraving of female instrumentalists
The Dying Gaul, or The Capitoline Gaul a Roman marble copy of a Hellenistic work of the late 3rd century BCE Capitoline Museums, Rome
Landscapes of the Four Seasons (1486), Sesshū Tōyō. Ink and light color on paper.
One of the first representations of the Buddha, 1st–2nd century CE, Gandhara
The Gero Cross, c. 965–970, Cologne, Germany. The first great example of the revival of large sculpture
Magdalenian Horse, c. 17,000 BP Musée d'Archéologie Nationale, France
Dale Chihuly, 2006, (Blown glass)
Harlequin and Columbina from the mime theater in Copenhagen, Denmark
In Lesotho: rondavel stones.
St. James panel, from reredos in Cristo Rey Church, Santa Fe, New Mexico, c. 1760
Maurice Quentin de La Tour, Portrait of Louis XV of France. (1748) Pastel.
A dancer performs a "toe rise", in which she rises from a kneeling position to a standing position on the tops of her feet
The Parthenon, Athens, Greece, "the supreme example among architectural sites." (Fletcher).
High Classical high relief from the Elgin Marbles, which originally decorated the Parthenon, c. 447–433 BCE
David Smith, CUBI VI, (1963), Israel Museum, Jerusalem.
Vincent van Gogh: The Church at Auvers (1890)
Paul Gauguin: The Vision After the Sermon (1888)
Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Apollo and Daphne in the Galleria Borghese, 1622–1625
Netsuke of tigress with two cubs, mid-19th-century Japan, ivory with shell inlay
Charles Rennie Mackintosh – Music Room 1901
Sophocles, as depicted in the Nordisk familjebok.
Jean Metzinger, c.1906, La danse (Bacchante), oil on canvas, 73 x 54 cm, Kröller-Müller Museum
Pre-historic model of a planned pre-historic temple, at the National Museum of Archaeology in Valletta
Orangery at the Palace of Versailles, outside Paris
Manfred on the Jungfrau (1837), John Martin. Watercolor painting
Rembrandt: The Night Watch
Self-portrait of Rembrandt, 1630. An example of oil painting on copper.
Raphael: Spasimo (1514–1516)
La donna velata, Raphael, 1516
Erotic dance – a pole dancer performs a routine
Nefertari with Isis
The Pergamene style of the Hellenistic period, from the Pergamon Altar, early 2nd century
Jungle Arc by Ray Burggraf. Acrylic paint on wood. (1998)
Auguste Rodin, The Thinker, 1902, Musée Rodin, Paris
The Chinese Diamond Sutra, the world's oldest printed book (868 CE)
Apelles or the Art of painting (detail), relief of the Giotto's Bell Tower in Florence, Italy, Nino Pisano, 1334–1336
Chen Hongshou (1598–1652), Leaf album painting (Ming Dynasty)
The oldest known figurative painting is a depiction of a bull discovered in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave, painted 40,000 years ago or earlier.
Two Chiwara c. late 19th early 20th centuries, Art Institute of Chicago. Female (left) and male Vertical styles
A dancer practices in a dance studio, the primary setting for training in classical dance and many other styles
An amateur dancesport competition, featuring the Viennese Waltz
A Jōmon statue, Japan
Ludwig Gies, cast iron plaquette, 8 x 9.8 cm, Refugees, 1915
Adriaen de Vries, Mercury and Psyche Northern Mannerist life-size bronze, made in 1593 for Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor.
Piet Mondrian, 1921, Composition en rouge, jaune, bleu et noir, Gemeentemuseum Den Haag
Open air Buddhist rock reliefs at the Longmen Grottoes, China
Edvard Munch: The Scream (1893)
The Blue Boy, Thomas Gainsborough, 1770
Members of an American jazz dance company perform a formal group routine in a concert dance setting
A Forest Floor Still-Life by Otto Marseus van Schrieck, 1666
Yola hut -Tagoat Co. Wexford Ireland
The Card Players, Paul Cézanne, 1892
Nuremberg sculptor Adam Kraft, self-portrait from St Lorenz Church, 1490s.
Honoré Daumier (1808–79), The Painter. Oil on panel with visible brushstrokes.
Folk dance – some dance traditions travel with immigrant communities, as with this festival dance performed by a Polish community in Turkey
Modern street theatre performance in La Chaux-de-Fonds
Cave painting of aurochs, (French: Bos primigenius primigenius), Lascaux, France, an example of prehistoric art
Sydney Opera House, Australia designed by Jørn Utzon
Moai from Easter Island, where the concentration of resources on large sculpture may have had serious political effects.
The Angel of the North by Antony Gormley, 1998
Ugandan youth dance at a cultural celebration of peace
Dancing girls in pop-concert, Sofia, Bulgaria.
Commedia dell'arte troupe on a wagon, by Jan Miel, 1640
Visible damage due to acid rain on a sculpture
Prop dance – a fire dancer performance
Body plan of a ship showing the hull form
Members of a dance routine.
Clearing Up, Coast of Sicily, a painting by Andreas Achenbach, who specialized in the "sublime" mode of landscape painting in which man is dwarfed by nature's might and fury. – 1847 The Walters Art Museum.
Solo dance – Russian ballerina Marina Semjonova
Cylinder seal with its impression on clay; serpopards and eagles, Uruk Period, 4100–3000 BCE
Christo and Jeanne-Claude, Umbrellas 1991, Japan
Dance is a type of performance art practiced all over the world.
Greek bronze statuette of a veiled and masked dancer, 3rd–2nd century BC, Alexandria, Egypt.
Detail of painted Limoges enamel dish, mid-16th century, attributed to Jean de Court, Waddesdon Bequest, British Museum
French ivory Virgin and Child, end of 13th century, 25 cm high, curving to fit the shape of the ivory tusk
Sumerian male worshipper, alabaster with shell eyes, 2750−2600 BCE
Gaston Lachaise, Floating Figure 1927, bronze, no. 5 from an edition of 7, National Gallery of Australia
The National Congress of Brazil, designed by Oscar Niemeyer
Swimming Reindeer c. 13,000 BP, female and male swimming reindeer – late Magdalenian period, found at Montastruc, Tarn et Garonne, France
Charioteer of Delphi, ancient Greek bronze sculpture, 5th century BCE, close up head detail
A contemporary dancer performs a stag split leap
Pigment Colours – Classification
Example of an East Asian hip-and-gable roof at the Longxing Buddhist Temple, China.
Two classical ballet dancers perform a sequence of The Nutcracker, one of the best known works of classical dance
Composition VII, Wassily Kandinsky, 1913
Medal of John VIII Palaeologus, c. 1435, by Pisanello, the first portrait medal, a medium essentially made for collecting.
Gumboot dance evolved from the stomping signals used as coded communication between labourers in South African mines
White Angel, a fresco from Mileševa, Serbia
Social dance – dancers at a juke joint dance the Jitterbug, an early 20th century dance that would go on to influence swing, jive, and jazz dance
Mesolithic dancers at Bhimbetka
Innocent X, Velázquez, c 1650
Street samba dancers perform in carnival parades and contests
The Brunswick Lion, 1166, the first large hollow casting of a figure since antiquity, 1.78 metres tall and 2.79 metres long
Albrecht Dürer: Melancholia I (1541)
Mask from Gabon
Classical dancer from India
Paul Gauguin, 1894, Oviri (Sauvage), partially glazed stoneware, 75 x 19 x 27 cm, Musée d'Orsay, Paris
Michelangelo, Pietà, 1499.
Ivory with traces of paint, 11th–12th century, Egypt
Folk dance – a trio of Irish Stepdancers performing in competition
Dance partnering – a male dancer assists a female dancer in performing an arabesque, as part of a classical pas de deux
Detail of Crucifixion of Jesus Christ, Spanish, wood and polychrome, 1793.
Modern reconstruction of the original painted appearance of a Late Archaic Greek marble figure from the Temple of Aphaea, based on analysis of pigment traces, c. 500 BCE
Street dance – a Breakdancer performs a handstand trick
Tubes of paint
Two modern dancers
Claude Monet: Le Déjeuner sur l’herbe (1866)
Bodegón or Still Life with Pottery Jars, by Francisco de Zurbarán. 1636, Oil on canvas; 46 x 84 cm; Museo del Prado, Madrid
Venus of Willendorf, c. 24,000–26,000 BP
A carved wooden Bodhisattva from the Song dynasty 960–1279, Shanghai Museum
The Toilet of Venus, François Boucher, 1751
Seated Bodhisattva Guanyin, wood and pigment, 11th century, Northern Song dynasty.
Thutmose, Bust of Nefertiti, 1345 BCE, Egyptian Museum of Berlin
Mosaic of Battle of Issus
Hindu Gupta terracotta relief, 5th century CE, of Krishna Killing the Horse Demon Keshi
Löwenmensch, from Hohlenstein-Stadel, now in Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany, the oldest known anthropomorphic animal-human statuette, Aurignacian era, c. 35–40,000 BP
Silver monster on a chape, Scottish or Anglo-Saxon, St Ninian's Isle Treasure, c. 800?
Isadora Duncan, one of the developers of free dance.
Arnolfini Portrait, Jan van Eyck, 1434 (on panel)
Section of Trajan's Column, CE 113, with scenes from the Dacian Wars
The Trundholm sun chariot, perhaps 1800–1500 BCE; this side is gilded, the other is "dark".
Spiral Jetty by Robert Smithson, in 2005
Flax seed is the source of linseed oil.
Helen Moller
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In the news
- 21 February 2019 –
- American actor Jussie Smollett is arrested for filing a false police report about an alleged hate crime. (Fox News)
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