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Visual Arts 

According to the definition of visual arts: ”[Visual arts] is the area of visual arts and design. Essentially, it is any art that you can see, excluding performance.”  Visual art then can be the following:  design (such as graphic design, painting, drawing, sculpture, printmaking, photography, film and different arts and crafts, including ceramics and textile art.   Then there’s new media (or multi media) which is a term that is sometimes applied to anything that involves art created with a use of a technology, especially a computer.  Mixed media is sort of explanatory – it can be any combined media.  For example, Patricia Piccinini, an Australian artist, uses digital media – such as Photoshop created images – combined with sculpture combined with video stills. 

It would be impossible to try to describe the full scope of visual arts spectrum.  The history of visual arts is probably as old as civilization itself, starting from cave paintings, through religious depictions, portraits, landscapes… The art movements itself are vast, just in the 20th century alone there were more than thirty different art movements.  Some of the most famous are: impressionism (1874-1880), pointillism (late 1800s),  art nouveau / jugendstil (1890-1914), expressionism (starting in early 1900), futurism (1909-1924), dadaism (1916-1922), surrealism (1924-1930), pop art (1950s), minimalism (starting in 1958) and conceptual art (began in 1960s).  

What unites all of the visual art movements and styles and media… is that the artists are constantly revising what already exists, they are always making changes, making sure that art stays exciting, that art stays alive.  Artists are always inventing; they continue to introduce new ways of expressing emotions and conveying messages.  Art is never stagnant – it is as much of a living entity as are all the other human endeavors.

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