Module 1 - Introductions and Definitions

ARTISTIC CATEGORIES

Visual arts are generally divided into categories that make distinctions based on the context of the work. For example, Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Mona Lisa’ would not fall into the same category as, say, a graphic poster for a rock concert. Some artworks can be placed in more than one category. Here are the main categories:

Fine Art

This category includes drawings, paintings, sculptures, photographs and, in the last decade, new media that are in museum collections and sold through commercial art galleries. Fine art has a distinction of being some of the finest examples of our human artistic heritage. Here is where you will find Leonardo Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa (below), also ancient sculpture, such as the Gandhara figure from India (also below), and stunning ceramics from different cultures and time periods.

Mona Lisa, Leonardo Da Vincic. 1503-19. Oil on poplar. 30” x 21”. The Louvre, Paris
Image licensed through Creative Commons

Stucco Ganhara figure, India, 4^th–5^th century CE. Victoria & Albert Museum, London.
Licensed through GNU

Popular Culture

This category contains the many products and images we are exposed to every day. In the industrialized world, this includes posters, graffiti, advertising, popular music, television and digital imagery, magazines, books, and movies (as distinguished from film, which we’ll examine in a different context later in the course). Also included are cars, celebrity status and all the ideas and attitudes that help define the contemporary period of a particular culture.

Handbills posted on telephone poles or the sides of buildings are graphic, colorful and informative, but they also provide a street-level texture to the urban environment most of us live in. Public murals serve this same function. They put an aesthetic stamp on an otherwise bland and industrialized landscape.

Street handbills. Image by Christopher Gildow
Licensed through Creative Commons

Public Mural, Seattle. Image by Christopher Gildow
Licensed through Creative Commons

Craft

Craft is a category of art that shows a high degree of skilled workmanship in its production. Craftworks are normally associated with utilitarian purposes but can be aesthetic works in themselves, often highly decorated. The Mexican ceramic vessel below is an example. Handmade furniture and glassware, fine metalworking and leather goods are other examples of craft.

Ceramic bowl, Mexico. Date unknown. Painted clay. Anahuacalli Museum, Mexico City.
Licensed through GNU and Creative Commons.