As a type of art that focuses more on aesthetic values, fine arts indulge people with a level of beauty and depth that possess the decorative power to glamorize a space, elevating its artistic atmosphere. Fine arts allow the artists to freely express themselves with no boundaries, as long the work is still grounded in aesthetics.
In Indonesia, there is a particular category of art called the Archipelago Fine Art, where artists incorporate Indonesian culture into their work. But the nature of the art itself is still the same as any other fine art. To learn more about fine arts, here is some insight into the types and styles used.
Forms of Fine Art
There are two forms of fine arts, divided by the perception of the art’s dimension. The first one, 2-dimensional (2D) art is the most common and consists of two aspects, length and width. 2D art can only be seen from a certain angle since it can’t project in all directions. Artists might insert secrets inside the piece, leaving it up to the audience to appreciate.
The second type is the 3-dimensional (3D) art, which consists of dimension, length, width, and height, giving volume to the art. 3D art is a more complex and sophisticated form of art — think sculptures and installations.
Types of Fine Arts
Fine arts manifest in various types of art with the same basic idea but with very distinctive features in its outcome. In the 2D form, fine arts can manifest in the types of paintings, graphic art, photography, calligraphy, carving, and mosaic art.
Painting is the most popular type of all, as it has a higher selling value that appreciates overtime. The popularity of painting has even led to researches conducted by scholars. Meanwhile, graphic art is similar to paintings, but focuses more on the usage of lines and tone rather than colours. At first, graphic art is drawn manually by hand, but as technology grows, graphic art is now created using printing technologies.
The concept of photography is to capture precious moment and to create beautiful scenes through the manipulation of the surrounding light. Calligraphy is a type of visual art based in writing that involves creatively emphasizing lettering in a unique design. Calligraphy is commonly found on Arabian and Mandarin scripts. Mosaic art creates a larger visual by arranging small pieces of things like paper, coloured ceramics, etc.
Now, under 3D, there are fine arts in the form of statues and choreography. Statue art is a part of sculpting art, using certain media like wood, stone, metal, etc. Statue art goes way back to the early days when historical temples were built. On the other hand, choreography is made of a sequence of dance moves that as a whole gives an enthralling performance to the audience.
Styles of Fine Arts
Fine art is divided into three different periods: Traditional, Modern, and Post-modern. Each has its own set of characteristics that are distinct from each other. Traditional refers to hereditary art that is made by the conventional society - one type of it is Classical style, mainly influenced by the Indian Hindu and Buddhism; and then there's the primitive style, which is less sophisticated and reflects the primitive cultures.
During the modern period, regular society elements are the main subjects of art, represented as it is in reality with no significant alterations — otherwise known as Representation. This stream of art can be categorized into three styles: Romanticism (focuses on human and animal life), Naturalism (focuses on nature), and Realism (focuses on delivering the reality as it is).
The second type of modern art is the Deformative style, whereby the subject of the art is portrayed in an altered version, like Surrealism (exaggerating reality), Impressionism (an impression of an object), Expressionism (spontaneous reaction toward an object), and Cubism (portraying an object in cubicle form).
Last but not least, the modern period sees a lot of abstract style, with arts bearing no clear image or forms, and instead relishes in arrangements of lines, shapes, and colours.
In addition to Traditional and Modern, there is still one more one time period of style, and that is Post-Modern. This style enjoys more freedom and is bound to no rules, think avant-garde.