THE VISUAL ARTS PORTAL Visual arts are a class of art forms focusing on the creation of works which are primarily visual in nature, such as painting, drawing, illustration, photography, graphic design, printmaking, and filmmaking. Those that involve three-dimensional objects, such as sculpture and architecture, are more narrowly referred to as plastic arts. The visual arts are distinguished from the performing arts, language arts, culinary arts and other such classes of artwork, but those boundaries are not rigid. Many artistic endeavors combine aspects of visual arts with one or more non-visual art forms, such as music or spoken word. The current use of the term "visual arts" includes fine arts as well as crafts, but this was not always the case. Prior to the Arts and Crafts movement in Britain and elsewhere at the turn of the 20th century, "visual artist" referred to a person working in the fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, or printmaking) and not the handicraft, craft, or applied art disciplines. The scope of study and appreciation of visual arts spans the globe, and reaches through time back to people drawing on stone walls. All societies have embellished their tools and toys with more visual interest than is functionally necessary.
| Northwest Coast art is a style of art created primarily by artists from Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakwaka'wakw and Nuu-chah-nulth First Nations of the northwest coast of North America, from pre-European-contact times up to the present. Northwest Coast art is distinguished by the use of form lines, and the use of characteristic shapes referred to as ovoids, U forms and S forms. Before European contact, the most common media were wood (often Western red cedar), stone, and copper; since European contact, paper and canvas have also been used. If paint is used, the most common colours are red and black, but yellow is also often used, particularly among Kwakwaka'wakw artists. The patterns depicted include natural forms such as bears, ravens, eagles, and humans; legendary creatures such as thunderbirds and sisiutls; and abstract forms made up of the characteristic Northwest Coast shapes. Totem poles are the most well-known artifacts produced using this style. Northwest Coast artists are also notable for producing characteristic "bent-corner" or "bentwood" boxes, masks, and canoes. Northwest Coast designs were also used to decorate traditional First Nations household items such as spoons, ladles, baskets, hats, and paddles; since European contact, the Northwest Coast art style has increasingly been used in gallery-oriented forms such as paintings, prints and sculptures. |
| “ | When I've painted a woman's bottom so that I want to touch it, then the painting is finished. | ” | | — Pierre-Auguste Renoir, unknown |
Henry Moore was a British artist and sculptor. Born into a poor mining family in the Yorkshire town of Castleford, he became well-known for his large-scale abstract cast bronze and carved marble sculptures; substantially supported by the British art establishment, Moore helped to introduce a particular form of modernism into Britain. His ability to satisfy large-scale commissions made him exceptionally wealthy towards the end of his life. However, he lived frugally and most of his wealth went to endow the Henry Moore Foundation, which continues to support education and promotion of the arts. His signature form is a pierced reclining figure, first influenced by a Toltec- Maya sculpture known as " Chac Mool", which he had seen as a plaster cast in Paris in 1925. Early versions are pierced conventionally as a bent arm reconnects with the body. Later, more abstract versions, are pierced directly through the body in order to explore the concave and convex shapes. These more extreme piercings developed in parallel with Barbara Hepworth's sculptures. Hepworth first pierced a torso after misreading a review of one of Henry Moore's early shows.
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