In the beginning was the word painting

Painting by Hermann Otto Hoyer, entitled, «In the Beginning Was the Word,» ca. 1937. German artist Hoyer depicted a quasi-messianic Hitler mesmerizing an audience with his oratory in the 1920s. The artwork’s title is from the opening line of the New Testament Gospel of John: «In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.» This and 400 other Nazi-era artworks still considered politically charged remain in the U.S. Army’s custody today.

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‘Am Anfang war das Wort’ (In the beginning was the Word) (1937) by Hermann Otto Hoyer

One of the most famous paintings of the Third Reich era (if there ever was one) is undeniably Am Anfang war das Wort (In the beginning was the Word) from 1937, painted by Hermann Otto Hoyer, a German artist who, very unfortunately for him, had to go through the tribulations of both wars, losing an arm in the process and experiencing the ignominious life of a prisoner in enemy territory. However, the loss of his right arm during WWI did not deter Hoyer from continuing with his artistic career, and in fact we can see photos of Hoyer painting sketches of the aforementioned work with just one operative arm; that is what I call perseverance!

In spite of having gone through both conflicts as a combatant Hoyer managed to stay alive up to the age of 75, though after WWII, he had to go through the humiliation of being imprisoned once again by the Al-lies in his own homeland for another couple of years.

The following biography comes almost entirely from Galleria d’Arte Thule. Bear with me that the original text was poorly translated from Italian so some mild incongruencies could show up in the text, but I think I did a pretty good job overall, in spite of the limitations. I hope you appreciate it.

Biography

Hermann Otto Hoyer was born on January 25, 1893 in Bremen. He studied and worked as a painter on glass in Metz, Nancy and Basilea. Hoyer was described as a serious man, reserved but not aloof, tall, reddish-blond and freckled. Before carrying out his military service in Bremen between 1913/14 he spent a semester with Josef Goller in the Art of School of Dresden.

WWI

In the First World War, at the Battle of the Marne, Hoyer was wounded by a piece of shrapnel and was taken prisoner and locked up by the British. As recounted later he felt like “a rat in a cage” in Britain. He had to remain in captivity for more than two years so that he could regain his freedom. After two attempts to escape without success he was taken to the concentration camp for “refugees” of Graiba in Tunisia which forced inmates to 14 hours a day of hard labour and only one round of cleaning staff each 60 days. On his third attempt to escape Hoyer was captured again just before the front of Tripoli and locked up for 60 days in a cage, with the shape of a tent, without moving. The next stage of his military detention ordeal was Emzarir, a place plagued by raging typhus and malaria.

The prison camp was then moved to Marseille. Once there he was able to escape with a friend, who was killed by a bullet during the escape flight, while Hoyer reached Switzerland with his right arm badly injured and fractured. From that point on Hoyer had to learn, with great difficulty, to work with his left hand.

After the war, he was finally able to return home. From 1919 to 1925 Hoyer attended classes at the Art Academy in Monaco with Hermann Groeber, a favorite pupil of Franz von Stuck and Carl von Marr. In 1922 Hoyer painted a portrait of Dr. Ferdinand Sauerbruch, an oil painting which still decorates a room in the Chirurgischen Klinik Humboldt University in Berlin. In 1925 Hoyer, who was supported by the brewery family Carl Richter (whose son he was a prisoner of war with), built a country house in Oberstdorf (Allgäu). Hoyer painted landscapes and portraits there. A monumental communion (dinner) at the mountain station of the cable car in Nebelhorn painted in 1929 is still visible today, in a directory of the Heimatmuseum Oberstdorf.

WWII

Hermann Hoyer became an early member of the NSDAP Party. With the famous painting SA Man with a Swastika Flag and Wounded Comrade on the Shoulder (1933) (actually known as Bild der Kampfzeit) he put his art at the service of the NSDAP. In the House of Art in Munich in 1937 Hoyer introduced the famous painting Am Anfang war das Wort (In the Beginning was the Word) representing Adolf Hitler speaking to the citizens of Oberstdorf in the initial Kampfzeit of the National Socialist movement. Hitler bought the painting for the planned art gallery in Linz. This painting was reproduced in thousands of postcards and art magazines.

In the Second World War, although devoid of the use of an arm, Hermann Otto Hoyer volunteered for the Waffen-SS with the rank of Obersturmführer (lieutenant). In 1943 he was appointed professor of art academy in Munich. In 1944 Hoyer participated in the exhibition of German artists and the SS in Wroclaw and Salzburg with a portrait of the SS-Obergruppenführer Theodor Eicke, a Knight of the Iron Cross who died in the Russian front on February 26, 1943, when his plane was shot down by enemy fire.

The works included in the exhibition were included in a subsequent catalog published by the Reichsführer SS Main Office from Wilhelm Limpert Verlag Berlinof in 1944 entitled German Artists and the SS. Directory of artists and works with 20 Pictures for the Salzburg’s exhibition in June/July 1944. Many of the works were reproduced in postcards. The catalog’s introduction was prepared by SS-Obergruppenführer General Waffen-SS Gottlieb Berger, director of SS-Hauptamt in Berlin.

Aftermath

During the 1945’s “denazification” programs Hoyer was again detained for political reasons. After his release in 1947 he lived with his daughter and son in Oberstdorf until his death on May 30, 1968. Hermann Otto Hoyer was buried in the cemetery of Oberstdorf.

At this day and age Hoyer’s paintings are really difficult to find in public places. One of his paintings hangs in the Museum der Stadt, another in the Wittelsbacher Hof, but most of his artistic works are privately owned.

But… what happened to the celebrated painting In the beginning was the Word?

In much of the literature dedicated to the art of the Third Reich, the painting is presented as a model for the creation of the myth of the “dictator seen as the messiah”. On the orders of the Allied Control Commission, the painting was seized and taken to a military depot of the United States on 13 May 1946. Up to this day the painting is still unavailable to public view, along with four other works, due to the painting being considered “blatantly propagandistic”. The painting is currently in the custody of the U.S. Army at the United States Army Center of Military History in the basement of a skyscraper in Washington DC.

Sources: Galleria d’Arte Thule, Le Prince Lointain, Artnet, Metapedia (Deutsch) and akpool.de

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Author: J. BelengerJ.Belenger (pronounced with a hard ‘G’) is a musician, composer and experienced graphic artist. He participated in the soundtrack for the documentary ‘Hellstorm’, directed by Kyle Hunt, in 2015. He has also collaborated extensively with Justice 4 Germans in the past.

Paintings have always been the way for us to display our thoughts, imagination, and even beautiful scenes that have been burned into our memory.

But have you ever wondered, what kind of path this ancient way of art had to take to get to where it is today?

It had to endure various movements, revolutions, and changes in the popular beliefs of the general art community.

But still, it survived and still is one of the most popular forms of art to this day.

However, the story of the history of paintings is interesting and mesmerizing to hear. Here’s why: 

How Was Painting Invented?

Painting initially emerged in prehistoric times, when nomadic people would use it to make symbols on the rocky walls of caves and mountains.

Most of the time the materials used in these paintings were mostly charcoal as it left gray marks on the walls.

The earliest signs of paintings were found in Spanish Caves which date to more than 42,000 years ago.

Who made the first painting?

Paintings of the olden times are believed to be made by primitive people, mostly cave dwellers or Neanderthals in the prehistoric era.

These people would sculpt and paint on the walls, making symbols that were used to represent the language of those times, and this is how they would communicate with each other.

However, some researchers believe that Neanderthals predated most of the earliest paintings that were found and are under speculation if it was the Homo-Sapiens who actually painted those paintings.

Therefore, the question “Who invented painting?” is considered very vague as we can never narrow it down to a singular person.

However, it is considered that the earliest cave paintings that we can find are from the African subcontinent.

How Did Early Humans Begin Painting? 

It is believed that our early African ancestors began painting to communicate among themselves and leave a sign for future generations.

Due to these enhancements in humans, it is said that this ability was the greatest innovation among humans and not tools and weapons.

The first humans would blast charcoal dust onto their own hands that were placed on the cave walls using tubes made out of wood.

This created a revelation among the early humans and ignited the cognitive abilities of painting among them, due to which they began to paint even more complicated variations of animals and human activities.

Among these paintings, the most common was the painting of huge animals like mammoths and bison, or activities like farming and hunting of these animals.

Cave paintings like these, found in France and Spain, are the main evidence of human involvement and the path they were following to becoming more civilized.

As time went by, early humans discovered better methods to leave symbols on the walls.

They started using pigments of various flowers to incorporate color into their painting and even started using straws to paint these cave paintings.

This was the first paintbrush that was used in the history of painting.

Crediting these gradual advancements in art technology, humans developed the ability to make more detailed and better-quality paintings.

In Eastern countries, apart from the wall paintings, humans had started to paint on big leaves so they could be carried around and shown to others.

This worked as the first canvas used by humans in the history of painting.

Paintings in the Middle Ages

Following the birth and evolution of painting in the ancient age came the medieval age, where paintings as art started to take a more distinct shape.

It also witnessed the uprisings of the Jewish, Islamic, and Christian religions among humans.

This gave rise to paintings that were mostly religious in nature and appeased the various gods that the artists would follow.

There was an abundance of paintings of Jesus Christ, realistic genres, and paintings of still life that were starting to find a place in every household.

But apart from the religious paintings, there was an explosion of famous landscape paintings that beautifully depicted the reality of the vast and serene landscapes all across the world.

Fan Kuan in the east and Jacob Van Ruisdael in the west started to make a name for their landscape with exceptional beauty and detail.

This started to attract more and more people to paintings, either to paint them or to mesmerize viewers all over the world.

Now that the world was ruled by kings and queens, the demand for paintings started to increase as they wanted paintings to increase the beauty of their palaces.

Conquerors wanted the paintings to depict their hard-fought battles, governors wanted them to depict their well-governed cities.

This created a new fashion among people to commission paintings according to their own tastes, which created a new boom in the painting industry.

Paintings From the Renaissance 

Painting was at its most popular stage ever in history as the globe entered the Renaissance era.

Apart from its use as something to ponder over, paintings were now also being used as currency in the world.

Many famous painters like Michaelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rafael were household names as their paintings had achieved celebrity status.

Their words now held great weight in every political situation as their paintings held the power to sway the minds of people.

These paintings that had a deeper meaning to them had started to attract viewers from all over the world.

This was considered to be the best time in the history of painting as an art although other arts like sculpting were also gaining popularity.

Many famous paintings like the Mona Lisa, Creation Of Adam, and The Last Supper were credited to the Renaissance era.

This created a sense of great accomplishment among these painters and received a great deal of recognition.

(You can also read: Paintings by Leonardo da Vinci)

Evolution of Painting into Rococo and Baroque

As the world progressed into the next stages of human evolution, so did art and so did painting.

Coming from an all-time high, painters, as well as paintings, had gained center stage in political as well as social communities all over the world.

With this rise in popularity came the rise of various movements like the Baroque cultural movement and the Rococo movement.

In the beginning, the paintings of the Baroque period were stylized with great drama, deep color, and intense light and dark shadows.

For the first time in the history of paintings, they were meant to evoke emotion out of the viewer, which was in stark contrast to the peaceful and serene paintings from the Renaissance.

Among some of the greatest Baroque period artists, the most famous were Carravaggio, Reubens, and Poussin.

In Italy, especially the Baroque style was epitomized by religion and mythology, often getting displayed on the roof of churches. Whereas in the Dutch art community, easel painting of everyday subjects became more popular.

The mood and emotions of the subjects were rather muted in the Rococo movement of art, which represented a revolutionary period in the history of paintings.

It first took shape in France, where commissions from the court of the king of France were the most common outlook for art and paintings in general.

Similar to Baroque, Rocco still possessed complex forms and intricate patterns but also had new concepts of asymmetry and oriental designs.

Many French masters of painting, like Watteau, Boucher, and Fragonard, were the greatest advocates of this movement.

Slowly, yet surely painting as art had almost reached its final stages of evolution and had taken one of the biggest stages in the history of the world, where it had begun from just a print of charcoal on the cave walls.

Now, it had found home on big roofs of cathedrals and on famous canvases which were attached to Easels.

20th-Century And Modern Paintings

The 19th century rolled up in the art world, and the hype around painting as a household item started to die as media and technology started to take over the world.

But, it wasn’t completely dead yet and still had a pretty strong hold on the political and social community in the Western world.

The 20th century itself was filled with turmoil, wars, and social unrest all around.

Amidst all of this, for the first time in the history of painting as an art, multiple movements were taking place, and painters were able to choose their own genre of painting.

One of the biggest art movements that revolutionized the art of painting was called “abstraction of art.”

In this movement, painters were able to move away from the long-going tradition of portraying realism.

The painting had found a way to deliver messages which were deeper than what they were able to before.

This same movement took part in various ways under various different names in multiple countries.

The movement’s evolution led to what we know today as modern art and paintings.

End Note’

From painting with a wooden tube to the fine bristled brushes of today.

From the walls of caves to gigantic murals on walls and canvases on easels.

Paintings have evolved from just a means of communication in prehistoric times to sending socio-political messages through the artworks of famous artists.

Today, they hang on the walls of many famous galleries and are sold for millions of dollars, making them one of the most expensive artworks ever made.

However, we believe that if there is a famous painting that really hits you in the heart, you should possess it.

Are you worried about how you are going to obtain it?

No worries, our professional artists will recreate any artwork that strikes a chord with you and ensure that it also improves the decor of your house.

Read more: Japanese Erotic Art: Shunga Paintings That Bestow Luck.

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Frequently Asked Questions

Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface (called the «matrix»^{[citation needed]} or «support»).^[1] The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, can be used.

In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action (the final work is called «a painting»). The support for paintings includes such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass, lacquer, pottery, leaf, copper and concrete, and the painting may incorporate multiple other materials, including sand, clay, paper, plaster, gold leaf, and even whole objects.

Painting is an important form of visual art, bringing in elements such as drawing, composition, gesture, narration, and abstraction.^[2] Paintings can be naturalistic and representational (as in still life and landscape painting), photographic, abstract, narrative, symbolistic (as in Symbolist art), emotive (as in Expressionism) or political in nature (as in Artivism).

A portion of the history of painting in both Eastern and Western art is dominated by religious art. Examples of this kind of painting range from artwork depicting mythological figures on pottery, to Biblical scenes on the Sistine Chapel ceiling, to scenes from the life of Buddha (or other images of Eastern religious origin).

History[edit]

The oldest known paintings are approximately 40,000 years old, found in both the Franco-Cantabrian region in western Europe, and in the caves in the district of Maros (Sulawesi, Indonesia). In November 2018, however, scientists reported the discovery of the then-oldest known figurative art painting, over 40,000 (perhaps as old as 52,000) years old, of an unknown animal, in the cave of Lubang Jeriji Saléh on the Indonesian island of Borneo (Kalimantan).^[3][4] In December 2019, figurative cave paintings depicting pig hunting in the Maros-Pangkep karst in Sulawesi were estimated to be even older, at at least 43,900 years old. The finding was noted to be “the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world”.^[5][6] More recently, in 2021, cave art of a pig found in an Indonesian island, and dated to over 45,500 years, has been reported.^[7][8] However, the earliest evidence of the act of painting has been discovered in two rock-shelters in Arnhem Land, in northern Australia. In the lowest layer of material at these sites, there are used pieces of ochre estimated to be 60,000 years old. Archaeologists have also found a fragment of rock painting preserved in a limestone rock-shelter in the Kimberley region of North-Western Australia, that is dated 40,000 years old.^[9] There are examples of cave paintings all over the world—in Indonesia, France, Spain, Portugal, Italy, China ,India, Australia, Mexico,^[10] etc. In Western cultures, oil painting and watercolor painting have 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.

The invention of photography had a major impact on painting. In the decades after the first photograph was produced in 1829, photographic processes improved and became more widely practiced, depriving painting of much of its historic purpose to provide an accurate record of the observable world. A series of art movements in the late 19th and early 20th centuries—notably Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, Fauvism, Expressionism, Cubism, and Dadaism—challenged the Renaissance view of the world. Eastern and African painting, however, continued a long history of stylization and did not undergo an equivalent transformation at the same time.^{[citation needed]}

Modern and Contemporary art has moved away from the historic value of craft and documentation in favour of concept. This has not deterred the majority of living painters from continuing to practice painting either as a whole or part of their work. The vitality and versatility of painting in the 21st century defy the previous «declarations» of its demise. In an epoch characterized by the idea of pluralism, there is no consensus as to a representative style of the age. Artists continue to make important works of art in a wide variety of styles and aesthetic temperaments—their merits are left to the public and the marketplace to judge.

The Feminist art movement^[11] began in the 1960s during the second wave of feminism. The movement sought to gain equal rights and equal opportunities for female artists internationally.

Elements of painting[edit]

Color and tone[edit]

Color, made up of hue, saturation, and value, dispersed over a surface is the essence of painting, just as pitch and rhythm are the essence 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 Goethe,^[12] Kandinsky,^[13] and Newton,^[14] have written their own color theory.

Moreover, the use of language is only an abstraction for a color equivalent. The word «red», for example, can cover a wide range of variations from 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 F or C♯. For a painter, color is not simply divided into basic (primary) and derived (complementary or mixed) colors (like red, blue, green, brown, etc.).

Painters deal practically with pigments,^[15] so «blue» for a painter can be any of the blues: phthalocyanine blue, Prussian blue, indigo, Cobalt blue, ultramarine, and so on. Psychological and 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 a C note) is analogous to «light» in painting, «shades» to dynamics, and «coloration» is to painting as the specific timbre of musical instruments is to music. These elements do not necessarily form a melody (in music) of themselves; rather, they can add different contexts to it.

Non-traditional elements[edit]

Modern artists have extended the practice of painting considerably to include, as one example, collage, which began with Cubism and is not painting in the strict sense. Some modern painters incorporate different materials such as metal, plastic, sand, cement, straw, leaves or wood for their 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 Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, and many others. These images can be printed onto traditional canvas if required.

Rhythm[edit]

Jean Metzinger’s mosaic-like Divisionist technique had its parallel in literature; a characteristic of the alliance between Symbolist writers and Neo-Impressionist artists:

I ask of divided brushwork not the objective rendering of light, but iridescences and certain aspects of color still foreign to painting. I make a kind of chromatic versification and for syllables, I use strokes which, variable in quantity, cannot differ in dimension without modifying the rhythm of a pictorial phraseology destined to translate the diverse emotions aroused by nature. (Jean Metzinger, circa 1907)^[16]

Rhythm, for artists such as Piet Mondrian,^[17][18] is important in painting as it is in music. If one defines rhythm as «a pause incorporated into a sequence», then there can be rhythm in paintings. These pauses allow 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 aesthetic value of that work. This is because the aesthetic 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 aesthetic value.^[17]

Music was important to the birth of abstract art since music is abstract by nature—it does not try to represent the exterior world, but expresses in an immediate way the inner feelings of the soul. Wassily Kandinsky often used musical terms to identify his works; he called his most spontaneous paintings «improvisations» and described more elaborate works as «compositions». Kandinsky theorized that «music is the ultimate teacher,»^[19] and subsequently embarked upon the first seven of his ten Compositions. Hearing tones and chords as he painted, Kandinsky theorized that (for example), yellow is the color of middle C on a brassy trumpet; black is the color of closure, and the end of things; and that combinations of colors produce vibrational frequencies, akin to chords played on a piano. In 1871 the young Kandinsky learned to play the piano and cello.^[20][21] Kandinsky’s stage design for a performance of Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition illustrates his «synaesthetic» concept of a universal correspondence of forms, colors and musical sounds.^[22]

Music defines much of modernist abstract painting. Jackson Pollock underscores that interest with his 1950 painting Autumn Rhythm (Number 30).^[23]

Aesthetics and theory[edit]

Aesthetics is the study of art and beauty; it was an important issue for 18th- and 19th-century philosophers such as Kant and 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.^[24] 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 «Italian: La Pittura è cosa mentale» («English: painting is a thing of the mind«).^[25] Kant distinguished between Beauty and the Sublime, in terms that clearly gave priority to the former.^{[citation needed]} Although he did not refer to painting in particular, this concept was taken up by painters such as J.M.W. 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.^[26][27] Painters who have written theoretical works on painting include Kandinsky and Paul Klee.^[28][29] In his essay, Kandinsky 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 historians first seek to understand the things depicted, before looking at their meaning for the viewer at the time, and finally analyzing their wider cultural, religious, and social meaning.^[30]

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.»^[31] Thus, many 20th-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 have been offered by the painter and writer Julian Bell. In his book What is Painting?, Bell discusses the development, through history, of the notion that paintings can express feelings and ideas.^[32] 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.^[33]

Painting media[edit]

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.

Hot wax or encaustic[edit]

Encaustic painting, also known as hot wax painting, involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. The liquid/paste is then applied to a surface—usually prepared wood, though canvas and other materials are often used. The simplest encaustic mixture can be made from adding pigments to beeswax, but there are several other recipes that can be used—some containing other types of waxes, damar resin, linseed oil, or other ingredients. Pure, powdered pigments can be purchased and used, though some mixtures use oil paints or other forms of pigment. Metal tools and special brushes can be used to shape the paint before it cools, or heated metal tools can be used to manipulate the wax once it has cooled onto the surface. Other materials can be encased or collaged into the surface, or layered, using the encaustic medium to adhere it to the surface.

The technique was the normal one for ancient Greek and Roman panel paintings, and remained in use in the Eastern Orthodox icon tradition.

Watercolor[edit]

Watercolor is a painting method in which the paints are made of pigments suspended in a water-soluble vehicle. The traditional and most common support for watercolor paintings is paper; other supports include papyrus, bark papers, plastics, vellum or leather, fabric, wood and canvas. In East Asia, watercolor painting with inks is referred to as brush painting or scroll painting. In Chinese, Korean, and Japanese painting it has been the dominant medium, often in monochrome black or browns. India, Ethiopia and other countries also have long traditions. Finger-painting with watercolor paints originated in China. There are various types of watercolors used by artists. Some examples are pan watercolors, liquid watercolors, watercolor brush pens, and watercolor pencils. Watercolor pencils (water-soluble color pencils) may be used either wet or dry.

Gouache[edit]

Gouache is a water-based paint consisting of pigment and other materials designed to be used in an opaque painting method. Gouache differs from watercolor in that the particles are larger, the ratio of pigment to water is much higher, and an additional, inert, white pigment such as chalk is also present. This makes gouache heavier and more opaque, with greater reflective qualities. Like all watermedia, it is diluted with water.^[34]

Ink[edit]

Ink paintings are done with a liquid that contains pigments or dyes and is used to color a surface to produce an image, text, or design. Ink is used for drawing with a pen, brush, or quill. Ink can be a complex medium, composed of solvents, pigments, dyes, resins, lubricants, solubilizers, surfactants, particulate matter, fluorescers, and other materials. The components of inks serve many purposes; the ink’s carrier, colorants, and other additives control flow and thickness of the ink and its appearance when dry.

Enamel[edit]

Enamels are made by painting a substrate, typically metal, with powdered glass; minerals called color oxides provide coloration. After firing at a temperature of 750–850 degrees Celsius (1380–1560 degrees Fahrenheit), the result is a fused lamination of glass and metal. Unlike most painted techniques, the surface can be handled and wetted Enamels have traditionally been used for decoration of precious objects,^[35] but have also been used for other purposes. Limoges enamel was the leading centre of Renaissance enamel painting, with small religious and mythological scenes in decorated surrounds, on plaques or objects such as salts or caskets. In the 18th century, enamel painting enjoyed a vogue in Europe, especially as a medium for portrait miniatures.^[36] In the late 20th century, the technique of porcelain enamel on metal has been used as a durable medium for outdoor murals.^[37]

Tempera[edit]

Tempera, also known as egg tempera, is a permanent, fast-drying painting medium consisting of colored pigment mixed with a water-soluble binder medium (usually a glutinous material such as egg yolk or some other size). Tempera also refers to the paintings done in this medium. Tempera paintings are very long-lasting, and examples from the first centuries CE still exist. Egg tempera was a primary method of painting until after 1500 when it was superseded by the invention of oil painting. A paint commonly called tempera (though it is not) consisting of pigment and glue size is commonly used and referred to by some manufacturers in America as poster paint.

Fresco[edit]

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, done on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Italian word affresco [afˈfresːko], which derives from the Latin word for fresh. Frescoes were often made during the Renaissance and other early time periods.
Buon fresco technique consists of painting in pigment mixed with water on a thin layer of wet, fresh lime mortar or plaster, for which the Italian word for plaster, intonaco, is used. A secco painting, in contrast, is done on dry plaster (secco is «dry» in Italian). The pigments require a binding medium, such as egg (tempera), glue or oil to attach the pigment to the wall.

Oil[edit]

Oil painting is the process of painting with pigments that are bound with a medium of drying oil, such as linseed oil, which was widely used in early modern Europe. Often the oil was boiled with a resin such as pine resin or even frankincense; these were called ‘varnishes’ and were prized for their body and gloss. Oil paint eventually became the principal medium used for creating artworks as its advantages became widely known. The transition began with Early Netherlandish painting in northern Europe, and by the height of the Renaissance oil painting techniques had almost completely replaced tempera paints in the majority of Europe.

Pastel[edit]

Pastel is a painting medium in the form of a stick, consisting of pure powdered pigment and a binder.^[38] The pigments used in pastels are the same as those used to produce all colored art media, including oil paints; the binder is of a neutral hue and low saturation. The color effect of pastels is closer to the natural dry pigments than that of any other process.^[39] Because the surface of a pastel painting is fragile and easily smudged, its preservation requires protective measures such as framing under glass; it may also be sprayed with a fixative. Nonetheless, when made with permanent pigments and properly cared for, a pastel painting may endure unchanged for centuries. Pastels are not susceptible, as are paintings made with a fluid medium, to the cracking and discoloration that result from changes in the color, opacity, or dimensions of the medium as it dries.

Acrylic[edit]

Acrylic paint is fast drying paint containing pigment suspension in acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted (with water) or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting, or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media. The main practical difference between most acrylics and oil paints is the inherent drying time. Oils allow for more time to blend colors and apply even glazes over under-paintings. This slow drying aspect of oil can be seen as an advantage for certain techniques, but may also impede the artist’s ability to work quickly.

Spray paint[edit]

Aerosol paint (also called spray paint) is a type of paint that comes in a sealed pressurized container and is released in a fine spray mist when depressing a valve button. A form of spray painting, aerosol paint leaves a smooth, evenly coated surface. Standard sized cans are portable, inexpensive and easy to store. Aerosol primer can be applied directly to bare metal and many plastics.

Speed, portability and permanence also make aerosol paint a common graffiti medium. In the late 1970s, street graffiti writers’ signatures and murals became more elaborate and a unique style developed as a factor of the aerosol medium and the speed required for illicit work. Many now recognize graffiti and street art as a unique art form and specifically manufactured aerosol paints are made for the graffiti artist. A stencil protects a surface, except the specific shape to be painted. Stencils can be purchased as movable letters, ordered as professionally cut logos or hand-cut by artists.

Water miscible oil paint[edit]

Water miscible oil paints (also called «water soluble» or «water-mixable») is a modern variety of oil paint engineered to be thinned and cleaned up with water, rather than having to use chemicals such as turpentine. It can be mixed and applied using the same techniques as traditional oil-based paint, but while still wet it can be effectively removed from brushes, palettes, and rags with ordinary soap and water. Its water solubility comes from the use of an oil medium in which one end of the molecule has been altered to bind loosely to water molecules, as in a solution.

Digital painting[edit]

Digital painting is a method of creating an art object (painting) digitally or a technique for making digital art on the computer. As a method of creating an art object, it adapts traditional painting medium such as acrylic paint, oils, ink, watercolor, etc. and applies the pigment to traditional carriers, such as woven canvas cloth, paper, polyester, etc. by means of software driving industrial robotic or office machinery (printers). As a technique, it refers to a computer graphics software program that uses a virtual canvas and virtual painting box of brushes, colors, and other supplies. The virtual box contains many instruments that do not exist outside the computer, and which give a digital artwork a different look and feel from an artwork that is made the traditional way. Furthermore, digital painting is not ‘computer-generated’ art as the computer does not automatically create images on the screen using some mathematical calculations. On the other hand, the artist uses his own painting technique to create a particular piece of work on the computer.^[40]

Painting styles[edit]

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 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:

Western[edit]

Modernism[edit]

Modernism describes both a set of cultural tendencies and an array of associated cultural movements, originally arising from wide-scale and far-reaching changes to Western society in the late 19th century and early 20th century. Modernism was a revolt against the conservative values of realism.^[41][42] The term encompasses the activities and output of those who felt the «traditional» forms of art, architecture, literature, religious faith, social organization, and daily life were becoming outdated in the new economic, social, and political conditions of an emerging fully industrialized world. A salient characteristic of modernism is self-consciousness. This often led to experiments with form, and work that draws attention to the processes and materials used (and to the further tendency of abstraction).^[43]

Impressionism[edit]

The first example of modernism in painting was impressionism, a school of painting that initially focused on work done, not in studios, but outdoors (en plein air). Impressionist paintings demonstrated that human beings do not see objects, but instead see light itself. The school gathered adherents despite internal divisions among its leading practitioners and became increasingly influential. Initially rejected from the most important commercial show of the time, the government-sponsored Paris Salon, the Impressionists organized yearly group exhibitions in commercial venues during the 1870s and 1880s, timing them to coincide with the official Salon. A significant event of 1863 was the Salon des Refusés, created by Emperor Napoleon III to display all of the paintings rejected by the Paris Salon.

Abstract styles[edit]

Abstract painting uses a visual language of form, colour and line to create a composition that may exist with a degree of independence from visual references in the world.^[44][45] Abstract expressionism was an American post-World War II art movement that combined the emotional intensity and self-denial of the German Expressionists with the anti-figurative aesthetic of the European abstract schools—such as Futurism, Bauhaus and Cubism, and the image of being rebellious, anarchic, highly idiosyncratic and, some feel, nihilistic.^[46]

Action painting, sometimes called gestural abstraction, is a style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas, rather than being carefully applied.^[47] The resulting work often emphasizes the physical act of painting itself as an essential aspect of the finished work or concern of its artist. The style was widespread from the 1940s until the early 1960s, and is closely associated with abstract expressionism (some critics have used the terms «action painting» and «abstract expressionism» interchangeably).

Other modernist styles include:

• Color Field
• Lyrical Abstraction
• Hard-edge painting
• Pop art

Outsider art[edit]

The term outsider art was coined by art critic Roger Cardinal in 1972 as an English synonym for art brut (French: [aʁ bʁyt], «raw art» or «rough art»), a label created by French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art created outside the boundaries of official culture; Dubuffet focused particularly on art by insane-asylum inmates.^[48] Outsider art has emerged as a successful art marketing category (an annual Outsider Art Fair has taken place in New York since 1992). The term is sometimes misapplied as a catch-all marketing label for art created by people outside the mainstream «art world,» regardless of their circumstances or the content of their work.

Photorealism[edit]

Photorealism is the genre of painting based on using the camera and photographs to gather information and then from this information, creating a painting that appears to be very realistic like a photograph. The term is primarily applied to paintings from the United States art movement that began in the late 1960s and early 1970s. As a full-fledged art movement, Photorealism evolved from Pop Art^[49][50][51] and as a counter to Abstract Expressionism.

Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is a fully-fledged school of art and can be considered an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures. The term is primarily applied to an independent art movement and art style in the United States and Europe that has developed since the early 2000s.^[52]

Surrealism[edit]

Surrealism is a cultural movement that began in the early 1920s, and is best known for the artistic and literary production of those affiliated with the Surrealist Movement. Surrealist artworks feature the element of surprise, the uncanny, the unconscious, unexpected juxtapositions and non-sequitur; however, many Surrealist artists and writers regard their work as an expression of the philosophical movement first and foremost, with the works being an artifact. Leader André Breton was explicit in his assertion that Surrealism was above all a revolutionary movement.

Surrealism developed out of the Dada activities of World War I and the most important center of the movement was Paris. From the 1920s onward, the movement spread around the globe, eventually affecting the visual arts, literature, film and music of many countries, as well as political thought and practice, philosophy and social theory.

East Asian[edit]

• 

  

  Yun Bing, Album Leaf (17th century), ink and color on paper

  Chinese

  • Tang Dynasty
  • Ming Dynasty
  • Shan shui
  • Ink and wash painting
  • Hua niao
  • Southern School
    • Zhe School
    • Wu School
  • Contemporary
• Japanese
  • Yamato-e
  • Rimpa school
  • Emakimono
  • Kanō school
  • Shijō school
  • Superflat
• Korean

Southeast Asia[edit]

• Indonesian

Islamic[edit]

• Arabic miniature
• Ottoman miniature
• Persian miniature

Indian[edit]

Miniature painting[edit]

Miniature paintings were the primary form of painting in pre-colonial India. These were done on a special paper (known as wasli) using mineral and natural colours. Miniature painting is not one style but a group of several styles of schools of painting such as Mughal, Pahari, Rajasthani, Company style etc.

Mughal miniature painting is a particular style of South Asian, particularly North Indian (more specifically, modern day India and Pakistan), painting confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums (muraqqa). It emerged^[53] from Persian miniature painting (itself partly of Chinese origin) and developed in the court of the Mughal Empire of the 16th to 18th centuries. Mughal painting immediately took a much greater interest in realistic portraiture than was typical of Persian miniatures. Animals and plants were the main subject of many miniatures for albums, and were more realistically depicted.^[54][55][56]

Rajasthani painting evolved and flourished in the royal courts of Rajputana^[57] in northern India, mainly during the 17th century. Artists trained in the tradition of the Mughal miniature were dispersed from the

imperial Mughal court, and developed styles also drawing from local traditions of painting, especially those illustrating the Sanskrit Epics, the Mahabharata and Ramayana. Subjects varied, but portraits of the ruling family, often engaged in hunting or their daily activities, were generally popular, as were narrative scenes from the epics or Hindu mythology, as well as some genre scenes of landscapes, and humans.^[58][59][60]
Punjab Hills or Pahari painting of which Kangra, Guller, Basholi were major sub-styles. Kangra painting is the pictorial art of Kangra, named after Kangra, Himachal Pradesh, a former princely state, which patronized the art. It became prevalent with the fading of Basohli school of painting in mid-18th century.^[61][62] The focal theme of Kangra painting is Shringar (the erotic sentiment). The subjects are seen in Kangra painting exhibit the taste and the traits of the lifestyle of the society of that period.^[63] The artists adopted themes from the love poetry of Jayadeva and Keshav Das who wrote ecstatically of the love of Radha and Krishna with Bhakti being the driving force.^[64][65]

Company style is a term for a hybrid Indo-European style of paintings made in India by Indian artists, many of whom worked for European patrons in the British East India Company or other foreign Companies in the 18th and 19th centuries.^[66] Three distinct styles of Company Painting emerged in three British Power Centres- Delhi, Calcutta and Madras. The subject matter of company paintings made for western patrons was often documentary rather than imaginative, and as a consequence, the Indian artists were required to adopt a more naturalistic approach to painting than had traditionally been usual.^[67][68]

The Sikh style and Deccan style are other prominent Miniature painting styles of India.

Pichwai painting[edit]

Pichwai paintings are paintings on textile and usually depicting stories from the life of Lord Krishna. These were made in large format and often used as a backdrop to the main idol in temples or homes. Pichwai paintings were made and are still made mainly in Rajasthan, India. However very few were made in the Deccan region, but these are extremely rare.

Folk and tribal art[edit]

Pattachitra is a general term for traditional, cloth-based scroll painting, based in the eastern Indian states of Odisha and West Bengal.^[69] The Pattachitra painting tradition is closely linked with the worship of Lord Jagannath in Odisha.^[70] The subject matter of Pattachitra is limited to religious themes. Patachitra artform is known for its intricate details as well as mythological narratives and folktales inscribed in it. All colours used in the Paintings are natural and paintings are made fully old traditional way by Chitrakaras that is Odiya Painter. Pattachitra style of painting is one of the oldest and most popular art forms of Odisha. Patachitras are a component of an ancient Bengali narrative art, originally serving as a visual device during the performance of a song.^[71][72][73]

Madhubani Art is a style of Indian painting, practiced in the Mithila region of India and Nepal. The style is characterized by complex geometrical patterns, these paintings are famous for representating ritual content used for particular occasions like festivals,religious rituals etc.^[74]

Warli is another folk tribal art form from India.

Bengal School[edit]

The Bengal School^[75] was an art movement and a style of Indian painting that originated in Bengal, primarily Kolkata and Shantiniketan, and flourished throughout the Indian subcontinent, during the British Raj in the early 20th century.^[76] The Bengal school arose as an avant garde and nationalist movement reacting against the academic art styles previously promoted in India, both by Indian artists such as Raja Ravi Varma and in British art schools. The school wanted to establish a distinct Indian style which celebrated the indigenous cultural heritage.In an attempt to reject colonial aesthetics, Abanindranath Tagore also turned to China and Japan with the intent of promoting a pan-Asian aesthetic and incorporated elements from Far Eastern art, such as the Japanese wash technique.^[77][78][79]

Others[edit]

• Mysore painting is an important form of classical South Indian painting that originated in and around the town of Mysore in Karnataka encouraged and nurtured by the Mysore rulers. Mysore paintings are known for their elegance, muted colours, and attention to detail. The themes for most of these paintings are Hindu gods and goddesses and scenes from Hindu mythology.^[80][81]
• Samikshavad
• Tanjore
• Kerala mural painting

African[edit]

• Tingatinga

Contemporary art[edit]

1950s[edit] Abstract Expressionism American Figurative Expressionism Bay Area Figurative Movement Lyrical Abstraction New York Figurative Expressionism New York School

1960s[edit] Abstract expressionism American Figurative Expressionism Abstract Imagists Bay Area Figurative Movement Color field Computer art Conceptual art Fluxus Happenings Hard-edge painting Lyrical Abstraction Minimalism Neo-figurative Neo-Dada New York School Nouveau Réalisme Op Art Performance art Pop Art Postminimalism Washington Color School Kinetic art

1970s[edit] Arte Povera Ascii Art Bad Painting Body art Artist’s book Feminist art Installation art Land Art Lowbrow (art movement) Photorealism Postminimalism Process Art Video art Funk art Pattern and Decoration

1980s[edit] Appropriation art Culture jamming Demoscene Electronic art Figuration Libre Graffiti Art Live art Mail art Postmodern art Neo-conceptual art Neo-expressionism Neo-pop Sound art Transgressive art Video installation Institutional Critique NeoGeo

1990s[edit] Bio art Cyberarts Cynical Realism Digital Art Information art Internet art Massurrealism Maximalism New media art Software art New European Painting Young British Artists

2000s[edit] Digital Painting Hyperrealism Classical Realism Relational art Street art Stuckism Superflat Pseudorealism Videogame art Superstroke VJ art Virtual art

Types of painting[edit]

Allegory[edit]

Allegory is a figurative mode of representation conveying meaning other than the literal. Allegory communicates its message by means of symbolic figures, actions, or symbolic representation. Allegory is generally treated as a figure of rhetoric, but an allegory does not have to be expressed in language: it may be addressed to the eye and is often found in realistic painting. An example of a simple visual allegory is the image of the grim reaper. Viewers understand that the image of the grim reaper is a symbolic representation of death.

Bodegón[edit]

In Spanish art, a bodegón is a still life painting depicting pantry items, such as victuals, game, and drink, often arranged on a simple stone slab, and also a painting with one or more figures, but significant still life elements, typically set in a kitchen or tavern. Starting in the Baroque period, such paintings became popular in Spain in the second quarter of the 17th century. The tradition of still life painting appears to have started and was far more popular in the contemporary Low Countries, today Belgium and Netherlands (then Flemish and Dutch artists), than it ever was in southern Europe. Northern still lifes had many subgenres: the breakfast piece was augmented by the trompe-l’œil, the flower bouquet, and the vanitas. In Spain, there were much fewer patrons for this sort of thing, but a type of breakfast piece did become popular, featuring a few objects of food and tableware laid on a table.

Figure painting[edit]

A figure painting is a work of art in any of the painting media with the primary subject being the human figure, whether clothed or nude.
Figure painting may also refer to the activity of creating such a work. The human figure has been one of the contrast subjects of art since the first Stone Age cave paintings, and has been reinterpreted in various styles throughout history.^[82] Some artists well known for figure painting are Peter Paul Rubens, Edgar Degas, and Édouard Manet.

Illustration painting[edit]

Illustration paintings are those used as illustrations in books, magazines, and theater or movie posters and comic books. Today, there is a growing interest in collecting and admiring the original artwork. Various museum exhibitions, magazines, and art galleries have devoted space to the illustrators of the past. In the visual art world, illustrators have sometimes been considered less important in comparison with fine artists and graphic designers. But as the result of computer game and comic industry growth, illustrations are becoming valued as popular and profitable artworks that can acquire a wider market than the other two, especially in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and the United States.

Landscape painting[edit]

Landscape painting is a term that covers the depiction of natural scenery such as mountains, valleys, trees, rivers, lakes, and forests, and especially art where the main subject is a wide view, with its elements arranged into a coherent composition. In other works landscape backgrounds for figures can still form an important part of the work. The sky is almost always included in the view, and weather is often an element of the composition. Detailed landscapes as a distinct subject are not found in all artistic traditions and develop when there is already a sophisticated tradition of representing other subjects. The two main traditions spring from Western painting and Chinese art, going back well over a thousand years in both cases.

Portrait painting[edit]

Portrait paintings are representations of a person, in which the face and its expression is predominant. The intent is to display the likeness, personality, and even the mood of the person. The art of the portrait flourished in Ancient Greek and especially Roman sculpture, where sitters demanded individualized and realistic portraits, even unflattering ones. One of the best-known portraits in the Western world is Leonardo da Vinci’s painting titled Mona Lisa, which is thought to be a portrait of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo.^[85]

Still life[edit]

A still life is a work of art depicting mostly inanimate subject matter, typically commonplace objects—which may be either natural (food, flowers, plants, rocks, or shells) or man-made (drinking glasses, books, vases, jewelry, coins, pipes, and so on). With origins in the Middle Ages and Ancient Greek/Roman art, still life paintings give the artist more leeway in the arrangement of design elements within a composition than do paintings of other types of subjects such as landscape or portraiture. Still life paintings, particularly before 1700, often contained religious and allegorical symbolism relating to the objects depicted. Some modern still life breaks the two-dimensional barrier and employs three-dimensional mixed media, and uses found objects, photography, computer graphics, as well as video and sound.

Veduta[edit]

A veduta is a highly detailed, usually large-scale painting of a cityscape or some other vista. This genre of landscape originated in Flanders, where artists such as Paul Bril painted vedute as early as the 16th century. As the itinerary of the Grand Tour became somewhat standardized, vedute of familiar scenes like the Roman Forum or the Grand Canal recalled early ventures to the Continent for aristocratic Englishmen. In the later 19th century, more personal impressions of cityscapes replaced the desire for topographical accuracy, which was satisfied instead by painted panoramas.

See also[edit]

• 20th-century Western painting
• Cobweb painting
• Drawing
• Graphic arts
• Index of painting-related articles
• List of most expensive paintings
• Outline of painting
• Painting outsourcing in China
• Visual arts
• Image

Notes[edit]

Further reading[edit]

• Howard Daniel (1971). Encyclopedia of Themes and Subjects in Painting: Mythological, Biblical, Historical, Literary, Allegorical, and Topical. New York: Harry N. Abrams Inc.
• W. Stanley Taft, Jr. and James W. Mayer (2000). The Science of Paintings. Springer-Verlag.