Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Contemporary Figurative And Genre Art

By Elsa Noel


In Academy's genre hierarchy, genre art is one of the genres, together with other types, for example, landscape and portraits. The main subject on these artworks are people, and they have to do something. If they don't, the painting is actually a portrait. Both figurative and genre art have people as their main subject, but these terms aren't synonyms. All genre art can be considered as figuratism, just like most other non-abstract works.

Figurative art is any form of art that has strong and recognizable references to the real world. The importance is given to perspective, volume, shape and structure. Artists use lines, shades, color and different materials to accentuate volume and perspective, or to achieve other effects. All techniques are accepted, as long as everything is based on the real world.

Although figuratism may contain different simplifications of the form, especially when it comes to paintings, this type of art is basically representational rather than abstract. Generally it may be said that figurative may be applied to all art before abstract. Today, this term is mostly used to define any art form that isn't abstract. In short, if you can tell what it is, it is definitely figuratism.

All types of media are accepted, including watercolor, oil, acrylic or any other form o expression. This art-form is focused on human figures, and they are the main subject on most paintings. They can be dressed or not. The obvious conclusion is that all portraits have to be figuratism, as long as you can recognize the subject. The artist can be more focused on shape and colors, or on emotions, depending on his style.

The best example for this art-form is expressionism, but all other types can also be considered as figuratism, as long as they aren't abstract. For example, cubism. Although it belongs to abstract form, numerous artworks are actually figurative. Picasso is the best example for this. Although his artworks can sometimes be really distorted, you can still recognize the main subject. There are no special limitations.

Figuratism covers extremely wide area. One extreme is the photo realism, and all the way on the other side is nearly abstract, barely recognizable form of expression. Again, cubism. Cubism is abstract or not, depending on the author. Unrecognizable as something based on the real world, it is abstract. If you can tell what it is, however distorted it is, it can be considered as figuratism.

Contemporary artists became more interested in this form in last few decades. Some of them can really offer something extraordinary. For example, John Currin, Jas Knight, Gillian Carnegie and Jenny Saville. If you aren't familiar with their work, you should definitely correct this mistake. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Although this type of art, especially painting, was mostly neglected during twentieth century, it became more popular during eighties. Twentieth century was mainly about avant-garde movements, yes, but skills and crafts are popular again. One of the shiniest examples of this re-born art is definitely John Currin. This artist believes that art cannot be improved, that it can only be developed into something that will reflect the world of today.




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