Art - an introduction

All Art basically classifies into two essential components: form and content. Form relates to three basic means:

(1)   The various elements of art

(2)   The basic design principles

(3)   The actual, tangible and physical materials used by the artist

If we go by this definition, then form is essentially concrete. It can also be fairly and easily described in terms of its form no matter which kind of piece of art is being appraised.

Now the question that comes to mind is how some of the fluid works would fit into this definition of form. Well, to answer that question, what you can do is provide details about how the various elements of form: color, value, space and line are being used.

Second comes the analysis of the principles of design used in the art-piece: balance, contrast, emphasis and proportion. How these elements and principles are composed on canvas using the physical form of art: brushes and oil paints, would make for very interesting analysis.

Having understood the component of form, content gets a little trickier. Content is highly idea-based and consists of three essential elements also:

(1)   What the artist wants to portray

(2)   What actually does get portrayed

(3)   How individuals react to actual and intended messages.

In addition to the above elements the component of content also includes the various ways in which various forces such as religion, politics, society influence a piece of art in general. In fact content is also about how the artists own of hallucinogenic substances impact the piece of art at the time it was created. It is all these factors that collectively make up the content component of art.

These parameters of content, just like the parameters of form, apply to any given piece of art. The parameters are usually applicable - with a number of variations to any piece.

Further classifications of art are: Contemporary Art and Modern Art. Modern Art is definitely different from Contemporary Art. A good rule to understand the differentiation is:

 Modern Art is the Art from the Impressionists. To state a time frame, from 1880 up until the 1960s or 70s.

 Contemporary Art is the Art, which emerged from the time frame of 1960s or 70s up until this very minute.

Category editors : Annie Zaidi, M. Hemdev, Sakina Kadiwala, Karishma Bajaj, L.B. Batra, F. Peris, Monica Khatri...

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