When people ask me what my art style is I can usually tell them quickly what it is. It is my creative process. I tend to think of my art style as a way of organizing my thoughts and my experiences and putting together a story.
In the visual arts, art style is an "...over-all approach to how an object or an image is produced or presented "," an approach that questions the representational content of a work of art...that question may be expressed in various ways...by painting with a variety of media, or with the help of different techniques, or by applying different strategies to a painting". Or "the style is an innovative approach to the production of visual art". Or "a signature which expresses one's distinctive personality". Or "a style that employs a number of highly stylized techniques and employs different conventions on different subjects".
Now, art historians can go on forever about these definitions because the meaning of art styles is still up for grabs. But it would not be accurate to say that anyone has a monopoly on being a "style", even if someone did call themselves an "artful conservative". Different art styles can be indistinguishable from each other, except when you're talking about abstract art styles. Which is the art styles I'm referring to.
So, let's talk a little bit more about this subject. We'll start with the Baroque style, sometimes referred to as the Pre-Raphaelites or the British Dadaist Style. The term "Baroque" derives from the paintings of Michelangelo, which were based on ancient Greek art themes. These images take the forms of animals, humans, insects, wine, music, nature, and many others. Their goal was to replicate reality as close as possible. And they often succeeded beyond their wildest dreams.
The Baroque art styles are characterized by their stylized renderings of nature and reality. They are typically realistic but sometimes they are filled with fantasy, for instance in paintings by Leonardo da Vinci. Da Vinci is usually portrayed as an angel, a being from above who'sologize nature. In paintings from the Baroque movement, there's almost always a great deal of human element because artists wanted to express their thoughts on humanity, on art, on the imperfections of human existence. In paintings from the Baroque era, you can almost always tell what era the artist was living in.
The Art Deco art style came on during the first part of the twentieth century, with artists like Piero de Montalcino, El Greco, Olin Muffet, and others influencing the art world. This art style was characterized by bold geometric layouts, a sense of spontaneity, and art that looked very real. The work of these artists helped to bring art to the public's attention, but it was the Art Deco artists who were truly the progenitors of modern art.
After the death of the Great Artist Sir Alphonse Mucha in 1937, the Modernist style started to flourish. This style, which was born out of the Futurist school of art, took as its inspiration many of the decorative arts from the Renaissance, for example, chandeliers and pendants. However, due to the popularity of overcrowded art styles, this style became less "artistic" and more "commercialized." Many of the Futurists' favorite subjects were comical images like a horse kicking a horse, fish leaping out of the water, or airplanes flying across the sky. Due to their commercial value, many Modernists used their art in advertisements. Some even began their careers as artists and end up writing articles for various magazines in their own right.
Expressionism was a later, less well-known, but nevertheless significant art style. Expressionism is the artistic movement characterized by the use of bright, sometimes garish, paintings, to express a particular thought or feeling. Though many artists used Expressionism as an outlet for their creative juices, it was Christopher Columbus who really popularized it. He was so excited about Expressionism that he went on a "journey of discovery" to find the best Expressionist artists. He returned with many works, one of which is still famous to this day. Louis Sullivan was responsible for the creation of the Mona Lisa, but a lot of people will agree that Sullivan's artwork captured the essence of Expressionism.
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