Important of Art Principles to Understand Art

This article will discuss why is it important to know the elements and principles of art to understand what art is.

Although, if you're anything like me, the basis of art comes as quite a shock. Just what are art galleries, what is the history of art, how do you define art and which element makes up art?

Let's go through the history of art together so that we can understand why art should be important to us all, and what we can all learn about the individual elements and principles.

History Of Art

Before we can go further into art and why it is so important, we should take a quick glance back at art history and how it all began.

Art History As A History

How many of you know about art history? Or have a good knowledge on how art evolved? Take a look at the following quote for a quick history lesson:

"The first anthropologists and archeologists (they were people of the mind, you understand) generally regarded the evolution of civilization as the growth of man from the simple tools of primitive tribes, so that until the arrival of the scientific method at the end of the 18th century the intellectual history of the world was known and treated by a handful of educated people in Europe and America."

In other words, art history is the history of humanity, through art and artifacts that are found.

Contemporary Art

Let's face it; contemporary art is the art of the present. In other words, you can't help but take a look at contemporary art, because it speaks of our contemporary society.

Contemporary art is now everywhere, and most of it is shown in museums and galleries. In other words, it's the new art of the present, and we should understand that.

The Elements And Principles Of Art

Emblem

A symbol is a design that represents something and is often displayed in a permanent form. It could be something really simple like a name, a significant number or a kind of image or it could be really complex like a personality trait or an emotion.

The most important thing with these symbols, is that the interpretation of them should be left to the individual.

Uniformity

The perfect example of uniformity is a computer. Your computer is the perfect example of uniformity.

All the units on your computer have the exact same size and shape, the same material and even have the exact same number of tiny zeroes and ones next to them.

There is absolutely nothing that you can do to change a computer, and yet, your computer can be amazing, or a complete failure, depending on how you treat it.

Difficulty

Art is a subjective subject. It's not easy to tell whether something is really good or not, but you can still get an idea of how good something is by simply looking at it.

Contour

Contour is defined as what is visible on a person's face and on objects and surfaces as a result of sunlight bouncing off it. For example, as I've mentioned before, a face is an excellent example of contour.

The shape of the face is determined by where the light is hitting the face, so a lot of the artistic style is determined by how light reflects off the face and what shapes it makes.

Collage

A collage is made up of many pieces of paper and pictures stuck together. Each piece of paper or picture has been put together in a certain way, or even layered on top of each other in a very random pattern.

Cross

The cross in art is the most famous symbol in the world. It is said that it is the most common symbol, and is used around the world to signify religion.

And for that reason alone, the cross is still an art piece that still has a huge impact on people, many centuries after it was first created.

Duality

I'm not going to explain much about this one because it's hard to explain.

But when you see art, you don't have to understand what it means. You just have to understand what it makes you feel.

Distinction

The distinction of art is the result of either how it is perceived or how it is created. For example, you could create a sculpture, and the difference is in its creation.

It's just a different form of art.

Form

The form of a painting is, of course, determined by the content that's going on the canvas. To create a masterpiece of a piece of art, it really needs to look good, but also to be visually appealing.

This is the thing that is most important in art.

Essence

Essence is more than just beauty. It's the soul, the feeling, the idea. But this is also something that most people overlook.

A lot of artists tried to copy nature, but you still have to create something that has a soul of its own.

Precise

In today's day and age, art is really often made precise. Everything is measured and often there is a really precise shape.

But the thing with precision is that it is really limited, not limitless. There is a point where you have to stop and draw a line and you can't create something anymore that's more precise than the previous one.

Postmodern

This is the idea that a piece of art has to show all the flaws that life has to offer. It has to include all the emotions, all the emotions and everything that people want to see.

Grace

Grace is one of the most important things in art. It is the quality of how something looks to the viewer, and how it seems to run in contrast with the rest of the picture.

It is a balance. There is a delicate balance in the art, in the design, in the form, and in the emotion.

Intricacy

Intricacy is the level of detail that is put into a piece of art. The reason that intricacy is so important is because a lot of people don't understand the work as well as they should.

A lot of people are afraid of a little bit of stuff, and the way that they appreciate it is because they are scared of it.

Highlighting

Highlighting is basically to highlight. It is to bring attention to something and to make something really important in a painting.

If you take a car and you make it a little more visible, it shows the most. There's a little detail that makes it more attractive.

Humble

When you draw a picture of Jesus, you are not saying you are the best artist out there. You are saying that you are inspired by a great artist.

You are saying that this man who created the universe gave himself into your hands. You should take that.

Induction

Induction is an art form that has an intention of making.