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Style and Art

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STYLE and Art: A discussion of how Art is classified into Styles, Periods, and Movements. [there is an important note at the bottom of this page]
One of the ways that Art and the field of art history is looked at is to categorize [or divide] art, artists, cultures, periods, locations and artworks into some form of larger grouping. There are a variety of approaches to this and they all have their vagaries and complications. * Time – we call these Art Periods – this is especially helpful with cultures and artworks [or artifacts] that are so old that we do not know: * who the artist/maker was * what their cultural aspects were * objects that are so unknown that the only identifier is time [based on the archaeological strata the work was found in]. * Geography – Frequently mixed with cultural labels and aspects, these are artworks grouped by location. * An example of a very broad category would be African Art. * examples of the problem with this: Should we include Egyptian works in the heading of African Art? [some do and some don’t here]. What about Nigerian, Ethiopian, South African and the many other cultures of Africa? * Culture - When it can be done, and makes helpful sense, and a thread can be followed, we might use a cultural reference. * An example might be Hindu Art of India and Buddhist Art of India, which then has sub-groups by geography - Northern and Southern styles. * Styles – another way the artwork gets looked at is in the ways it is designed or approached and its theoretical basis. This is where we get into styles: Frequently styles have a common cultural base and are a way of describing the ongoing change, progression and development of the art-making activity in that culture. * An example would be Chinese Buddhist; Indian Buddhist and Korean Buddhist. All have a Buddhist base, with the same Iconography, but different cultural variations in idea, thought, detail and approach as well as time. * Materials – Sometimes we have groupings centered around a particular material – frequently this is related to craft arts. * Methods – Groupings related to methods used in the making – Oriental Brush Painting might be a good example. A definition of Style: A characteristic manner of expression whether it is by an individual artist; a group of associated artists or artworks; or time and/or cultural based related artworks. Works of art by different artists may have certain features in common - these works might be said to have a group style. Most of our Non western styles have a cultural or geographic considerations - but not all - especially when we get closer to the present time.
QUOTES:
* Picasso described himself as "a painter without style," explaining: "Style is often something which locks the painter into the same vision, the same technique, the same formula during years and years, sometimes during one's whole lifetime." - Pablo Picasso (1881-1973), Spanish artist. (quoted in: prefatory text to exhibition catalog, Geneva, 1963). * "In the final analysis, 'style' is art. And art is nothing more or less than various modes of stylized, dehumanized representation." - Susan Sontag (1933-2004), American essayist. Against Interpretation, "On Style" (1966).
A REALLY IMPORTANT NOTE:
This works to define 3 specific terms related to STYLE in art: 1] Style; 2] Realism and 3] genre
Style versus style: This is one of those language things we run into in Art talk & art history. An example would be realism [no capital ‘R’] and Realism. Small cap realism would be when we talk about a painting or painter as having painted realistically or being realistic in choice or design - This means the painting presents us with a view of the subject matter [content] that is visually clear and true to life – the content looks like it does in real life - when we see a real one.
Then there is Realism [notice the capitol 'R'] which refers to a painting style from approximately 1840 to the late 1800s with a gritty type of portrayal of people in work situations with an underlying social commentary to the paintings. So realism is a method of painting and portrayal; and Realism is a French painting style of the mid 1800's. Another example: genre painting is a method of portrayal or choice of subject, Vermeer was a genre painter but Baroque is the period or style of Vermeer. Genre is frequently a category of artistic composition, as in music or literature, characterized by similarities in form, style, or subject matter.

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