Monday, November 17, 2014

The Wonders Of Figurative And Genre Art

By Christa Jarvis


Art is one of the few things that make our world more round and beautiful. It opens up our eyes to see not only beauty but also truth. What makes it significant in the human life is still debatable for some people. But one remains certain for all of us, it is life. It came to us thousands of years ago. It is as old as time but as beautiful as the future.

There must be countless classifications of it these days. It comes along with different movements and categories. Among its most spectacular creations, painting is one of the oldest and most experimented forms. It gave birth to a number of forms like figurative and genre art, which is also referred to as representational. Primarily, it refers to the artworks that are inspired by the everyday life. That includes ordinary scenes from schools, market and regular household.

It has captured the human interest ever since the Greek Classical period but it was only recognized on the eighteenth century. It is the mark of opening the doors of real life objects as subjects. A chronological record of its history is absent but historians conclude that it was more explored on the nineteenth century. The depiction of reality rather than ideas caused a wide sensation worldwide. It is revolutionary in a way that it tries to shun traditional concepts.

From its general characteristics, many people are confused how to determine whether a specific work is representational or not. What we should know is that all artworks are representational in their own way. That means it depicts recognizable subjects that are present in the environment which the artist belongs.

Moreover, figuration deals with the surface level of a specific work while abstraction goes deeper to the point that work became unrecognizable. Both contained ideas that are worth thinking but how they are transported to its audience depends on the form. Such forms continue to motivate young artists of today to experiment and explore.

The American artist Andy Warhol is one of the main figures who utilized the form. He is one of the most controversial yet most talented artists on the roaring sixties. His mastery goes beyond one genre as his works cover a lot of them. He is well known for his striking subjects that include celebrities and hype events.

The painting entitled as The Persistence of Memory is his most recognizable work. It was inspired by the landscapes of Catalonia which he mixed with his theories of time and space. The work is a successful overlapping of abstraction and figuration. It is abstract in a sense that it draws confusing perception but it is more representational as it mainly shows real objects.

His influence did not stop on his works, it goes beyond the school of art produced by his style. One primary school of the figurative art is the Cubism which Picasso pioneered with other artists. In Cubism, a work always has a subject which is depicted in multiple viewpoints in order to widen its context.

Today, artists of many schools begin experimenting on the genre. It is also used in different purposes such as showing the cultural value of the time where a work is made. It also influenced other forms of art such as photography.




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