VAISHNAVI SCHOOL OF ARCHITECTURE AND PLANNING – HYDERABAD

AR22B1.4C: INTRODUCTION TO ART AND ARCHITECTURE

SEMESTER I
Reference Notes Subject Faculty:[Link] S

Unit III: Exploration of Art Forms

The art is a human activity of creating visual or auditory artworks to express emotions as well as
ideas of aesthetics. It is also used for expressing imaginative and technical skills. Its role changes
through time, acquiring more of an aesthetic component and a socio-educational function. It
transmits ideas and values present in every culture across space and time.

Nature and characteristics of art forms

1. Painting: Painting is the practice of applying paint,
pigment, colour or other medium to a solid surface.
The medium is commonly applied with a brush, but
other tools, such as knives, sponges, and airbrushes,
can also be used. Paintings may have for their support
such surfaces as walls, paper, canvas, wood, glass,
lacquer, clay, leaf, copper or concrete, and may incorporate multiple other materials including
sand, clay, paper, gold leaf as well as objects. However, painting is also used outside of art as a
common trade among craftsmen and builders. Different Painting media are
oil,pastel,acrylic,water color,fresco,spray paint, Gouache.
2. Sculpture: Sculpture is the branch of the visual arts in which hard or plastic materials are
worked into three dimensional art objects. The four well-known techniques to make sculpture
are:
 Carving using stone, wood, ivory or bone.
 Modeling in clay or wax.
 Casting is a very popular method, where liquid in the form of bronze is poured into a cast
and hardened.
 Assemblage sculpture is a technique that involves the collation of several different, often
found materials and objects within one work.
3. Dance: Dance is a performing art form consisting of purposefully selected sequences of
human movement. This movement has aesthetic and symbolic value.
4. Drama: A drama is the portrayal of fictional or non fictional events through the performance
of written dialog.

5. Music: Music is an art form and cultural activity whose medium is sound organized in time. It
consists of common elements such as pitch, rhythm, dynamics, and the sonic qualities of timbre
and texture.
6. Films: Film is a visual art used to simulate experiences that communicate ideas, stories or
feelings by the means of recorded or programmed moving images.
7. Literature: Literature is an art form deemed to have artistic or intellectual value, often by using
a style of language in ways that differ from ordinary usage.

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Relationship between art and architecture
Art and architecture are products of nature as artists and architects are both inspired by Mother
Nature. As artists try to imitate nature through their paintings, sculptures and even abstract
expressions, architects build in unity with nature and purpose. Probably because most of the early
architects were also artists, their works were closely associated with nature. Frank Lloyd Wright’s
falling water house is a very good example, coupled with his ingenuity in his organic architecture
style. Le Corbusier was a sculptor, and saw most of his architecture from the perspective of
sculpting.

Art cannot be completely separated from architecture as both evolved at the same time as evident
from historical studies. Art is defined as the making of things that are considered to be expressive or
beautiful. Architecture is defined as “the art and science in theory and practice of design, erection,
commissioning, maintenance and management and coordination of all allied professional inputs
thereto buildings, or part thereof and the layout and master plan of such building or group of
buildings forming a comprehensive institution, establishment or neighborhood as well as any other
organized space, enclosed or opened, required for human and other activities”.

Architecture, sculpture, and painting once belonged together. Indeed, they were admirably
intertwined at various points in history—in the ancient cultures of East and West, and in the
European Gothic, Renaissance, and Baroque periods. It is only during relatively recent times in
human civilization that the separation of art and architecture was attempted. Their separation
enabled them to influence each other in ways they never did before, as paintings and sculptures
have been found to have direct influence on architectural designs especially in the beginning of the
20th century. It is as though their independence from each other gave them an intellectual and
artistic parity, and allowed architects and painters to learn from each other’s works.

The difference between a painting and architecture is that a building has a function and must be
designed with safety in mind. The early artists, especially those of the renaissance period were also
architects. The likes of Michelangelo, Leonardo Da Vinvi and Raphael Sangio, where all painters,
sculptors, mathematicians, architects and much more. They influenced the study of art, architecture,
medicine, technology and other fields at the time they lived. Michelangelo’s collaborative design of
St Peter’s basilica and his four year paintings in the Sistine Chapel in France is worthy of mention
here.

Secord Medical centre (Plate 1), believed to have

been inspired by Picasso’s work “The Reader”
(Plate 2).

With the emerging knowledge in scientific fields and the rise of new materials and technology,
architecture and engineering began to separate, and the architect began to concentrate on
aesthetics and the humanist aspects, often at the expense of technical aspects of building design.
Formal architectural training began in the 19th century, for example at Ecole des Beaux Arts in
France, gave much emphasis to the production of beautiful drawings and little to context and

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feasibility. Effective architects generally received their training in the offices of other architects,
graduating to the role from draughtsmen or clerks.

Art is defined as a skill. It also defines skill as ability to do something well. Skills can be found in all
dimensions of both art and architecture. In art, drawing, painting and sculpting all require requisite
skills. Likewise in architecture, draughting and design, are skills that must be learned by architects.
Even the process of construction involving masonry works, fittings and finishes all require the right
skill acquisition to produce a well finished architecture. According to the Vitruvian principle, one of
the qualities of a good architecture is that a building must be visually aesthetic. Visual aesthetics is
the field that is closely related to art and architecture, as it creates a common ground for both fields.
Aesthetics is the study of the principles behind beauty, either of objects or of nature.

Architecture is a combination of both art and science. It posits that Architecture is a blend of
science and art. Scientifically, architecture must adhere to the laws of nature and respond to
program, function, schedule and budget. Architecture must engage the senses in a poetic and
phenomenological fashion while performing its ultimate purpose of shelter. The architect is
responsible to design the building "visually" and "functionally".

The role of art in architecture cannot be overemphasized as art plays a vital role in shaping a
building’s identity. From time immemorial, man has made attempts to integrate art into
architecture beginning with the paintings on the walls of caves, and the intricate carvings during the
prehistoric era. Art in architecture, in addition to the visual, have spatial and notional role to play as
well. Spatial role refers to modulation of scale, proportioning, nature of movement as well as
perceived sense of belonging and boundaries.

The works of the artist and the architect have a significant and close relationship, with both being
concerned with a number of common areas – the human condition, the use of light, composition,
culture, ideas and the relationship of ideas to the physical world. Other common areas where art
and architecture share common grounds are in the basic fundamentals and theories of design, which
include; the elements of design (which are point, line, color, texture and form), and the principles of
design (which are unity, rhythm, repetition, symmetry and balance/harmony). These design theories
in both art and architecture emphasize visual character and enhance the finished design products.

Art cannot be completely separated from architecture, as both are intertwined and interrelated.