The Visual Arts comprise a broad range of art and design practices. When people say that they are visual artists, it is usually followed up with the question, ‘What kind of visual arts?’ In this chapter you will learn about the many branches of Visual Arts and get a brief insight into the respective careers relating to each of these branches.

Note to the Teacher

Encourage students to explore types of Visual Arts that they are interested in. Assign groups to enquire about each branch mentioned here. For the benefit of the entire class, a presentation can be made by each group.

Forms of Visual Arts

Drawing and painting

Both of these involve creating pictures on two-dimensional surfaces with mediums like pencils, pens, pastels, inks, oil paints, watercolours, acrylic paints, tempera, and natural dyes on surfaces like paper, fabrics, walls, etc.

• Nandalal Bose (Padma Vibhushan)
• Abanindranath Tagore
• Jamini Roy (Padma Bhushan)
• Amrita Sher-gil
• Ganga Devi (Padma Shri)
• Jivya Soma Mashe (Padma Shri)
• Ram Kumar (Padma Bhushan)
• Nasreen Mohammedi
• K.C.S. Panicker
• K.M. Adimoolam
• Raja Ravi Verma

Sculpture

It involves creating three-dimensional artwork using a variety of materials like clay, wood, stone, metal, fibre glass, plaster, fabric, natural fibres, recycled materials, etc.

• Devi Prasad Roy Choudhury (Padma Bhushan)
• Amarnath Sehgal (Padma Bhushan)
• Ramkinkar Baij (Padma Bhushan)
• Sankho Chaudhuri (Padma Shri)
• Meera Mukherjee (Padma Shri)
• P. V. Janakiraman (Padma Shri)
• Mrinalini Mukherjee
• Pilloo Pochkhanawala
• Raghav Kaneria
• Nagji Patel
• Somnath Hore

Printmaking

Techniques in printmaking allow artists to make multiples of the same artwork in editions. The processes involve creating an image on a surface like a woodblock, metal plate, stone, linoleum, etc., with carving/ engraving tools and mediums that make it suitable for inking. After the surface is inked with a roller, a sheet of paper is placed over it and pressed either manually or using a printing press. In the case of wood-block printing on textiles, the inked wood block is pressed onto the fabric in specific patterns.

Woodcut, lithography, etching, and screen printing are some of the commonly known printmaking processes.

• Chittoprasad Bhattacharya
• Haren Das
• Krishna Reddy (Padma Shri)
• Jyoti Bhatt (Padma Shri)

Photography

It involves creating artwork using digital tools, software applications, still/ video cameras. It may be clarified that photography is different from photo journalism

Photo journalism focuses mainly on documenting events, people, places, and nature for reportage.

Fine art photography might include documentation but also extends to explorations in image-making, visual effects, compilation, and photo-montage (compilation of different photographs/ images).

• Lala Deen Dayal
• Sawai Ram Singh II
• Umrao Singh Sher-gil
• Homai Vyarawala (Padma Vibhushan)

Applied arts and design disciplines

The applied arts contain many subcategories of design disciplines like graphic design, product design, industrial design, animation, film and video, textile, fashion design, etc. Designers find creative solutions for many problems and necessities of everyday life by creating functional objects and spaces and effective visual communication.

• Dashrath Patel (Padma Shri)
• R.K. Joshi (Padma Shri)
• Martand Singh
• Rohit Khosla
• Satya Paul
• G.K. Gokhale
• Ram Mohan (Padma Shri)
• Satyajit Ray (Bharat Ratna)

Heritage crafts

These include a rich variety of arts traditions that involve handcrafting and simple machines to design and produce objects, fabrics, toys, and artefacts for various everyday needs of people. India is a treasure trove of heritage crafts that specialise in various materials and processes.

Many of these traditions have been integrated with other design disciplines like product design, furniture design, ceramics, glass, textiles, and so on.

• Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay (Padma Vibhushan) — crafts revival
• Pupul Jayakar (Padma Vibhushan) — crafts revival
• Haku Shah (Padma Shri)
• Nilima Baruah

Find out about Padma awardees or any craftsperson from your region or state.

Arts research and management

Let us explore the importance of Art History and its connection to museology:

Art History is a discipline where one studies the development of art in various geographic regions across time and the social, cultural, and environmental factors that influenced changes.

Museology is another discipline which gives evidences of Art History. It is an important discipline that involves museum management, museum education, and preservation (restoration and conservation).

Disciplines that are closely related to the Visual Arts

Architecture combines structural engineering and design to make buildings for a variety of functions.

Archaeology combines various branches of science and history to study artefacts and other evidences that help us formulate a picture of the past.