Painting
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[[Image:Mona Lisa.jpg|thumb|The [[Mona Lisa]] is one of the most recognizable artistic paintings in the [[Western world]] by [[Italy|Italian]] painter [[Leonardo da Vinci]]]]
'''Painting''' is the practice of applying [[color]] to a [[surface]] (support) such as, e.g. [[paper]], [[canvas]], [[wood]], [[glass]], [[lacquer]] or concrete. However, when used in an artistic sense, the term "painting" means the use of this activity in combination with [[drawing]], [[Composition (visual arts)|composition]] and other aesthetic considerations in order to manifest the expressive and conceptual intention of the practitioner.
Painting is used as a mode of representing, documenting and expressing all the varied intents and subjects that are as numerous as there are practitioners of the craft. Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in a [[still life]] or [[landscape art|landscape painting]]), [[Photography|photographic]], [[Abstract art|abstract]], be loaded with narrative content, [[symbolism]], emotion or be [[Politics|political]] in nature. A large portion of the history of painting is dominated by [[Spirituality|spiritual]] motifs and ideas; sites of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting [[Mythology|mythological]] figures on pottery to [[Bible|biblical]] scenes rendered on the interior walls and ceiling of [[Sistine Chapel|The Sistine Chapel]] to depictions of the human body itself as a spiritual subject.
==Overview==
{{further|[[Western painting]] and [[History of painting]]}}
[[Image:Chen Hongshou, leaf album painting.jpg|thumb|left|180px|[[Chen Hongshou]] (1598–1652), ''Leaf album painting'' ([[Ming Dynasty]]).]]''"The boundary of things in the second plane will not be discerned like those in the first. Therefore, painter, do not produce boundaries between the first and the second, because the boundary of one object and another is of the nature of a [[line|mathematical line]] but not an actual line, in that the boundary of one colour is the start of another colour and is not to be accorded the status of an actual line, because nothing intervenes between the boundary of one colour which is placed against another. Therefore, painter, do not make the boundaries pronounced at a distance."''<ref name=Kemp>Martin Kemp, ''Leonardo on Painting'', p. 86-87.</ref>
What enables painting is the perception and representation of intensity. Every point in space has different intensity, which can be represented in painting by black and white and all the gray shades between. In practice, painters can articulate shapes by juxtaposing surfaces of different intensity; by using just color (of the same intensity) one can only represent symbolic shapes. Thus, the basic means of painting are distinct from ideological means, such as [[Geometry|geometrical]] figures, various points of view and organization ([[perspective (graphical)|perspective]]), and symbols. For example, a painter perceives that a particular white wall has different intensity at each point, due to shades and reflections from nearby objects, but [[Platonic idealism|ideally]], a white wall is still a white wall in pitch darkness. In technical drawing, thickness of line is also ideal, demarcating ideal outlines of an object within a perceptual frame different from the one used by painters.
[[Color]] and tone are the essence of painting as [[pitch (music)|pitch]] and [[rhythm]] are of [[music]]. Color is highly subjective, but has observable psychological effects, although these can differ from one culture to the next. Black is associated with mourning in the West, but in the East, white is. Some painters, theoreticians, writers and scientists, including [[Johann Wolfgang Goethe|Goethe]], [[Wassily Kandinsky|Kandinsky]], [[Isaac Newton|Newton]], have written their own [[color theory]]. Moreover the use of language is only a generalisation for a color equivalent. The word "[[red]]", for example, can cover a wide range of variations on the pure red of the [[visible spectrum]] of light. There is not a formalized register of different colors in the way that there is agreement on different notes in music, such as [[C (musical note)|C]] or [[C♯ (musical note)|C♯]] in music. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic and derived (complementary or mixed) colors (like, red, blue, green, brown, etc.). Painters deal practically with pigments, so "blue" for a painter can be any of the blues: phtalocyan, Paris blue, indigo, cobalt, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological, symbolical meanings of color are not strictly speaking means of painting. Colors only add to the potential, derived context of meanings, and because of this the perception of a painting is highly subjective. The analogy with music is quite clear—sound in music (like "C") is analogous to light in painting, "shades" to [[Dynamics (music)|dynamics]], and coloration is to painting as specific [[Tone color|timbre]] of musical instruments to music—though these do not necessarily form a melody, but can add different contexts to it.[[Image:Georges Seurat 066.jpg|thumb|right|300px|[[Georges Seurat]] (1859-91) - ''Circus Sideshow'', (1887-88)]]
Rhythm is important in painting as well as in music. Rhythm is basically a pause incorporated into a body (sequence). This pause allows creative force to intervene and add new creations—form, melody, coloration. The distribution of form, or any kind of information is of crucial importance in the given work of art and it directly affects the esthetical value of that work. This is because the esthetical value is functionality dependent, i.e. the freedom (of movement) of perception is perceived as beauty. Free flow of energy, in art as well as in other forms of "techne", directly contributes to the esthetical value.
Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, for example, [[collage]], which began with [[Cubism]] and is not painting in the strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as [[sand]], [[cement]], [[straw]] or [[wood]] for their [[Texture (painting)|texture]]. Examples of this are the works of [[Jean Dubuffet]] and [[Anselm Kiefer]].
(There is a growing community of artists who use computers to paint color onto a digital canvas using programs such as Photoshop, Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required.)
In 1829, the first [[photograph]] was produced. From the mid to late 19th century, [[photography|photographic]] processes improved and, as it became more widespread, painting lost much of its historic purpose to provide an accurate record of the observable world. There began a series of art movements into the 20th century where the [[Renaissance]] view of the world was steadily eroded, through [[Impressionism]], [[Post-Impressionism]], [[Fauvism]], [[Expressionism]], [[Cubism]] and [[Dada]]ism. Eastern and African painting, however, continued a long history of stylization and did not undergo an equivalent transformation at the same time.
[[Modern Art|Modern]] and [[Contemporary Art]] has moved away from the historic value of craft and documentation in favour of [[concept]]; this has led some to say that painting, as a serious art form, is dead, although this has not deterred the majority of artists from continuing to practise it either as whole or part of their work.
Recently, painting has been used in [[paint-on-glass animation]].
==History of painting==
{{main|History of painting}}
[[Image:Lascaux-aurochs.jpg|thumb|''Cave painting of aurochs,'' (Bos primigenius primigenius), [[Lascaux]], [[France]], [[prehistoric art]]]]
The oldest known paintings are at the [[Grotte Chauvet]] in [[France]], claimed by some historians to be about 32,000 years old. They are engraved and painted using [[red ochre]] and black pigment and show horses, rhinoceros, lions, buffalo, mammoth or humans often hunting. There are examples of [[cave painting]]s all over the world—in [[France]], [[Spain]], [[Portugal]], [[China]], [[Australia]], [[India]] etc.
In Western cultures [[oil painting]] and [[watercolor]] painting are the best known media, with rich and complex traditions in style and subject matter. In the East, ink and color ink historically predominated the choice of media with equally rich and complex traditions.
==Aesthetics and theory of painting==
[[Image:Formella 18, apelle o la pittura, nino pisano, 1334-1336 dettaglio 01.JPG|thumb|180px|''Apelles or the Art of painting'' (detail), relief of the [[Giotto's Bell Tower]] in [[Florence]], [[Italy]], [[Nino Pisano]], 1334-1336]]
[[Aesthetics]] tries to be the "science of [[beauty]]" and it was an important issue for such 18th and 19th century philosophers as [[Kant]] or [[Hegel]]. Classical philosophers like [[Plato]] and [[Aristotle]] also theorized about art and painting in particular; Plato disregarded painters (as well as sculptors) in his philosophical system; he maintained that painting cannot depict the [[truth]]—it is a copy of reality (a shadow of the world of ideas) and is nothing but a [[craft]], similar to shoemaking or iron casting. By the time of Leonardo painting had become a closer representation of the truth than painting was in [[Ancient Greece]]. [[Leonardo Da Vinci]], on the contrary, said that "Pittura est cousa mentale" (painting is a thing of the mind). Kant distinguished between [[Beauty]] and the [[Sublime (philosophy)|Sublime]], in terms that clearly gave priority to the former. Although he did not refer particularly to painting, this concept was taken up by painters such as [[Joseph Mallord William Turner|Turner]] and [[Caspar David Friedrich]].
Hegel recognized the failure of attaining a universal concept of beauty and in his aesthetic essay wrote that Painting is one of the three "romantic" arts, along with [[Poetry]] and [[Music]] for its [[symbolic]], highly intellectual purpose.
Painters who have written theoretical works on painting include [[Kandinsky]] and [[Paul Klee]]. Kandinsky in his [[essay]] maintains that painting has a spiritual value, and he attaches [[primary colors]] to essential feelings or concepts, something that [[Goethe]] and other writers had already tried to do.
[[Iconography]] is the study of the content of paintings, rather than their style. [[Erwin Panofsky]] and other [[art historian]]s first seek to understand the things depicted, then their meaning for the viewer at the time, and then analyse their wider cultural, religious, and social meaning.
In 1890, the Parisian painter [[Maurice Denis]] famously asserted: "Remember that a painting – before being a warhorse, a naked woman or some story or other – is essentially a flat surface covered with colors assembled in a certain order."<ref>http://uk.encarta.msn.com/encyclopedia_761563353/abstract_art.html Encyclopedia Encarta</ref> Thus, many twentieth century developments in painting, such as [[Cubism]], were reflections on the means of painting rather than on the external world, [[nature]], which had previously been its core subject. Recent contributions to thinking about painting has been offered by the painter and writer [[Julian Bell (artist)|Julian Bell]]<!--contemporary painter, not the poet (1900-1937)-->. In his book ''What is Painting ?'' Bell discusses the development, through history, of the notion that paintings can express feelings and ideas.<ref>[http://www.artnet.com/Magazine/index/cohen/cohen8-16-99.asp Review by art historian David Cohen, artnet.com]</ref> In ''Mirror of The World'' Bell writes:
''‘A work of art seeks to hold your attention and keep it fixed: a history of art urges it onwards, bulldozing a highway through the homes of the imagination.’''<ref>[http://www.lrb.co.uk/v29/n23/camp01_.html London Review of Books, [[29 November]] [[2007]].]</ref>
== Painting media =={{main|Painting style}}[[Image:Honoré Daumier 008.jpg|thumb|right|270px|[[Honoré Daumier]] (1808-79) - ''The Painter''. ]]
Different types of paint are usually identified by the medium that the pigment is suspended or embedded in, which determines the general working characteristics of the paint, such as [[viscosity]], [[miscibility]], [[solubility]], drying time, etc.
Examples include:
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*[[Acrylic paint|Acrylic]]
*[[Enamel paint]]
*[[Encaustic]] (wax)
*[[Fresco]]
*[[Gouache]]
*[[Ink]]
*[[Oil painting|Oil]]
*[[Water miscible oil paint]]s
*[[Pastel|Dry pastel]]
*[[Pastel|Oil pastel]]
*[[Spray paint]] ([[Graffiti]])
*[[Tempera]]
*[[Watercolor]]
*[[Laser|Light]]
</div>
== Painting styles ==
'Style' is used in two senses: It can refer to the distinctive visual elements, techniques and methods that typify an ''individual'' artist's work. It can also refer to the [[Art movement|movement]] or school that an artist is associated with. This can stem from an actual group that the artist was consciously involved with or it can be a category in which art historians have placed the painter. The word 'style' in the latter sense has fallen out of favor in academic discussions about contemporary painting, though it continues to be used in popular contexts. Such movements or classifications include the following :
<div style="-moz-column-count: 4; column-count:4; ">
*[[Abstract art|Abstract]]
*[[Abstract Expressionism]]
*[[Post-Abstract Expressionism]]
*[[Outsider Art|Art Brut]]
*[[Art Deco]]
*[[Baroque]]
*[[Body painting]]
*[[CoBrA]]
*[[Color Field painting|Color Field]]
*[[Constructivism (art)|Constructivism]]
*[[Contemporary Art]]
*[[Combined Realism]]
*[[Cubism]]
*[[Expressionism]]
*[[Fauvism]]
*[[Figuration Libre]]
*[[Folk art|Folk]]
*[[Futurism]]
*[[Graffiti]]
*[[Hard-edge]]
*[[Impressionism]]
*[[Lyrical Abstraction]]
*[[Mannerism]]
*[[Minimalism]]
*[[Modernism]]
*[[Naïve art]]
*[[Neo-classicism]]
*[[Op art]]
*[[Orientalism]]
*[[Orphism (art)|Orphism]]
*[[Outsider art|Outsider]]
*[[Painterly]]
*[[Photorealism]]
*[[Pinstriping]]
*[[Contemporary art|Pluralism]]
*[[Persian miniature|Persian Miniature]]
*[[Pointillism]]
*[[Pop art]]
*[[Postmodern art|Postmodernism]]
*[[Post-painterly Abstraction]]
*[[Precisionism]]
*[[Primitive art|Primitive]]
*[[Pseudorealism]]
*[[realism (arts)|Realism]]
*[[Rectoversion]]
*[[Reductive art|Reductive]]
*[[Representational Art]]
*[[Rococo]]
*[[Romanticism]]
*[[Romantic realism]]
*[[Socialist realism]]
*[[Stuckism]]
*[[Surrealism]]
*[[Tachism]]
*[[Tonalism]]
</div>
== Common painting idioms ==
[[Image:Music in Paint.gif|thumb|Boy learns to paint in 1935 [[Jacksonville, Florida]].]]
Painting idioms include:
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*[[Allegory]]
*[[Bodegón]]
*[[Body painting]]
*[[Botanical]]
*[[Figure painting]]
*[[Illustration]]
*[[Industry|Industrial]]
*[[Landscape painting|Landscape]]
*[[Portrait]]
*[[Still life]]
*[[Veduta]]
</div>
Some other painting terms are: [[Altarpiece]], [[Broken Color]], [[Cartoon]], [[Chiaroscuro]], [[Composition (visual arts)|Composition]], [[Drybrush]], [[easel|Easel Picture]], [[Foreshortening]], [[Genre]], [[Halo (optical phenomenon)|Halo]], [[Highlights]], [[History painting]], [[Imprimatura]], [[Landscape]], [[Madonna (art)|Madonna]], [[Maulstick]], [[Portrait miniature|Miniature]], [[mural|Mural Painting]], [[Palette]], [[Panel painting|Panel Painting]], [[Perspective (graphical)|Perspective]], [[pieta|Pietá]], [[Plein Air]], [[Portrait]], [[Sfumato]], [[Stippling]], [[wikt:technique|Technique]], [[Trompe l'oeil]], [[Underpainting]], [[Varnish]], [[Wet-on-wet]] and [[Four-dimensional painting]].
==See also==
<div style="-moz-column-count: 3; column-count:3; ">
* [[List of basic painting topics]]
* [[History of painting]]
* [[List of painters]]
* [[Portrait painting]]
* [[Oil painting]]
* [[Watercolor painting]]
* [[Acrylic paint]]
* [[Painterwork]]
* [[Western painting]]
*[[Brush painting]]
*[[Licked finish]]
</div>
==Notes==
{{reflist}}
== Bibliography ==
*[[Leone Battista Alberti|Alberti, Leone Battista]], De Pictura (On Painting), 1435. [http://www.noteaccess.com/Texts/Alberti/ On Painting, in English], [http://www.liberliber.it/biblioteca/a/alberti/de_pictura/html/depictur.htm De Pictura, in Latin]
*[http://www.kessinger.net/searchresults-orderthebook.php?ISBN=1417948353 A Treatise on Painting by Leonardo Da Vinci (Kessinger Publishing)]
*[http://www.phaidon.com/Default.aspx/Web/the-journal-of-eugene-delacroix-9780714833590 The Journal of Eugene Delacroix (Phaidon Press)]
*[http://us.penguinclassics.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780140446746,00.html The Letters of Vincent van Gogh (Penguin Classics)]
*[http://store.doverpublications.com/0486234118.html Kandinsky - Concerning the Spritual in Art (Dover Publications)]
*[[Max Doerner|Doerner, Max]] - [http://www.amazon.com/Materials-Artist-Their-Use-Painting/dp/015657716X The Materials of the Artist and Their Use in Painting: With Notes on the Techniques of the Old Masters]
==External links==
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