The history of painting reaches back in time to artifacts and artwork created by pre-historic artists, and spans all cultures. It represents a continuous, though periodically disrupted, tradition from Antiquity. Across cultures, continents, and millennia, the history of painting consists of an ongoing river of creativity that continues into the 21st century. Until the early 20th century it relied primarily on representational, religious and classical motifs, after which time more purely abstract and conceptual approaches gained favor.
Abstract expressionism in the United States emerged as a distinct art movement in the immediate aftermath of World War II and gained mainstream acceptance in the 1950s, a shift from the American social realism of the 1930s influenced by the Great Depression and Mexican muralists. The term was first applied to American art in 1946 by the art critic Robert Coates. Key figures in the New York School, which was the center of this movement, included such artists as Arshile Gorky, Jackson Pollock, Franz Kline, Mark Rothko, Norman Lewis, Willem de Kooning, Adolph Gottlieb, Clyfford Still, Robert Motherwell, Theodoros Stamos and Lee Krasner among others.
Visual art of the United States or American art is visual art made in the United States or by U.S. artists. Before colonization, there were many flourishing traditions of Native American art, and where the Spanish colonized Spanish Colonial architecture and the accompanying styles in other media were quickly in place. Early colonial art on the East Coast initially relied on artists from Europe, with John White the earliest example. In the late 18th and early 19th centuries, artists primarily painted portraits, and some landscapes in a style based mainly on English painting. Furniture-makers imitating English styles and similar craftsmen were also established in the major cities, but in the English colonies, locally made pottery remained resolutely utilitarian until the 19th century, with fancy products imported.
Thanjavur painting is a classical South Indian painting style, originating in the town of Thanjavur in Tamil Nadu. The art form draws its immediate resources and inspiration from way back about 1600 AD, a period when the Nayakas of Thanjavur under the suzerainty of the Vijayanagara Rayas encouraged art—chiefly, classical dance and music—as well as literature, both in Telugu and Tamil and painting of chiefly Hindu religious subjects in temples. However, it can safely be surmised that Thanjavur painting, as we know it now, originated in the Maratha court of Thanjavur (1676–1855). It has been recognized as a Geographical indication by the Government of India in 2007–08.
Mughal painting is a South Asian style of painting on paper confined to miniatures either as book illustrations or as single works to be kept in albums (muraqqa), originating from the territory of the Mughal Empire in the Indian subcontinent. It emerged from Persian miniature painting and developed in the court of the Mughal Empire of the 16th to 18th centuries. Battles, legendary stories, hunting scenes, wildlife, royal life, mythology, as well as other subjects have all been frequently depicted in paintings.
Indian painting has a very long tradition and history in Indian art. The earliest Indian paintings were the rock paintings of prehistoric times, such as the petroglyphs found in places like the Bhimbetka rock shelters. Some of the Stone Age rock paintings found among the Bhimbetka rock shelters are approximately 10,000 years old. Because of the climatic conditions in the Indian subcontinent, very few early examples survive today.
The National Museum in New Delhi, also known as the National Museum of India, is one of the largest museums in India. Established in 1949, it holds a variety of articles ranging from the pre-historic era to modern works of art. It functions under the Ministry of Culture, Government of India. The museum is situated on Janpath. The blueprint of the National Museum had been prepared by the Gwyer Committee set up by the Government of India in 1946. The museum has around 200,000 works of art, mostly Indian, but some of foreign origin, covering over 5,000 years.
Modern Greek art is art from the period between the emergence of the new independent Greek state and the 20th century. As Mainland Greece was under Ottoman rule for all four centuries, it was not a part of the Renaissance and artistic movements that followed in Western Europe. However, Greek islands such as Crete, and the Ionian islands in particular were for large periods under Venetian or other European powers' rule and thus were able to better assimilate the radical artistic changes that were occurring in Europe during the 14th-18th century.
Felix Samoilovich Lembersky was a Russian/Soviet painter, artist, teacher, theatre stage designer, and organizer of artistic groups. He is known for his 'Execution: Babi Yar' series (1944–52), which are considered to be among the earliest artistic representations of the Nazi massacres of Jews in Kyiv.
Mysore painting is an important form of classical South Indian painting style that originated in and around the town of Mysore in Karnataka. The painting style was encouraged and nurtured by the Mysore rulers. Painting in Karnataka has a long and illustrious history, tracing its origins back to the Ajanta Caves period. The distinct school of Mysore painting evolved from the paintings during the Vijayanagara Empire period, the rulers of Vijayanagara and their feudatories encouraged literature, art and architecture as well as religious and philosophical discussions. With the fall of the Vijayanagara Empire after the 1565 Battle of Talikota, the artists who were until then under royal patronage migrated to various places such as Mysore, Tanjore and Surpur among others. Absorbing the local artistic traditions and customs, the erstwhile Vijayanagara school of painting gradually evolved into the many styles of painting in South India, including the Mysore and Tanjore schools of painting.
The history of Western painting represents a continuous, though disrupted, tradition from antiquity until the present time. Until the mid-19th century it was primarily concerned with representational and traditional modes of production, after which time more modern, abstract and conceptual forms gained favor.
George Bouzianis was a major Greek expressionist painter.
Painting is a visual art, which is characterized by the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a solid surface. The medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush, but other implements, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes, may be used. One who produces paintings is called a painter.
20th-century Western painting begins with the heritage of late-19th-century painters Vincent van Gogh, Paul Cézanne, Paul Gauguin, Georges Seurat, Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec, and others who were essential for the development of modern art. At the beginning of the 20th century, Henri Matisse and several other young artists including the pre-cubist Georges Braque, André Derain, Raoul Dufy and Maurice de Vlaminck, revolutionized the Paris art world with "wild", multi-colored, expressive landscapes and figure paintings that the critics called Fauvism. Matisse's second version of The Dance signified a key point in his career and in the development of modern painting. It reflected Matisse's incipient fascination with primitive art: the intense warm color of the figures against the cool blue-green background and the rhythmical succession of the dancing nudes convey the feelings of emotional liberation and hedonism.
Zvi Malnovitzer is an expressionist painter born to a Haredi, or ultra-Orthodox, religious family in Bnei Brak, Israel. His upbringing in a society isolated from the modern world, where he was dedicated to intensive and uninterrupted Talmudic study from a young age, makes his decision to become an artist unusual, bold, and one of accomplishment. During his training in Reichenau, Austria, where he studied under the auspices of artist Wolfgang Manner and under the direction of Ernst Fuchs, Malnvotizer developed a unique style portraying themes that straddle the religious and secular worlds.
Krishen Khanna is an Indian painter known for his abstracted figurative artworks depicting street scenes of the country. He is a self-taught artist whose paintings showcase Indian idioms and human values. Notable works by Khanna include the Truckwallahs and Bandwallahs series as well as his paintings on Christian themes.
N. Srinivasan is an Indian digital artist in the fields of art and architecture. He uses technology and traditional subject matter for most of his artwork.
C. Kodiya Raju was a popular Calendar artist well known for his depictions of Hindu Gods and Goddesses in a typical style, amalgamating the features of contemporary calendar art and traditional South Indian paintings. He reached the peak of his fame during the heyday of the lithographic printing presses in Sivakasi. Kondiah Raju has an important place in the evolution of Indian Calendar art, which gained popular attention with Ravi Varma and continued on through artists such as S. M. Pandit, Mulgaonkar and others in the 20th century. In addition to his painting skills he also displayed a spiritual streak, as also a starkly austere simplicity, that prompted many of his students to call him an 'artist-saint'.
Boston Expressionism is an arts movement marked by emotional directness, dark humor, social and spiritual themes, and a tendency toward figuration strong enough that Boston Figurative Expressionism is sometimes used as an alternate term to distinguish it from abstract expressionism, with which it overlapped.
Jorge Rando is a Spanish painter and sculptor, considered one of the most recognised artist of the Neo-expressionist art movement. A world class study of key figures of Expressionism and Neo-expressionism, from the Museum of Modern Art in Salzburg, identified Rando as one of the best advocates of neo-expressionism in the world. The expert study selected Rando and Miguel Barceló as the only two representatives of this artistic movement in Spain. Therefore, in recognition of Rando's fruitful artistic career, the first Expressionist museum in Spain, inaugurated in Málaga in 2014, bears his name Museum Jorge Rando. Currently, the painter lives and works between Málaga, Spain and Hamburg, Germany.
