Art styles
Painting styles have originated over the years as processes of exploration of techniques and concepts, which have also been a product of social and political circumstances of each era, region, and group. But they are also part of a romantic idea that we generally have of the most famous painters in history, that they were born with that talent and that their pictorial styles are a product of divine inspiration. On the contrary, the most complex and aesthetically achieved works required hours of study, dozens of sketches, and years of experience and discipline.
But how does a painter choose a pictorial style or a movement? Often, painters chose a style similar to their master because their learning method was empirical, so they developed their craft through emulation of the master’s technique and processes. In many of these occasions, the theme was also inherited, and even shared sponsors and art sales agents.
Developing a single painting style allows the artist to perfect a theme, a technique in color and brushstroke, as well as enabling the viewer to easily identify the painter. Conceptually, the painter integrates a single message that he or she tries to communicate through separate but connected paintings with related ideas and a single graphic style.
Most great painters began by reproducing copies of other paintings and developing a realistic style, which allowed them to know and learn the formal rules of color, light, shapes, and materials. Some of them, like Michelangelo or Caravaggio, remained in this style throughout their profession, while others explored other styles and even created new currents such as Picasso, Mondrian, or Van Gogh. In most cases, both in the past and in current painting, the market also influences the painter’s style, as well as the tastes of clients and the public.
It is difficult to find a skilled painter who has created through different styles, as it requires a certain skill and mastery, as well as freedom and a bit of rebellion. Some of the most famous explorers of different pictorial techniques and even disciplines were Picasso, Michelangelo, Toulouse Lautrec, or Salvador Dali, from whom we can perceive an excellent handling of form, technique, and concept in the different disciplines in which they developed.
Art requires exploring new horizons, because when the artist stays the same, art dies.