Visual arts
Visual arts are art forms whose primary expression is visual, including painting, sculpture, drawing, photography, and printmaking.
Visual elements: The basic perceptual components of images, including line, shape, color, value, texture, and space. These components recur across visual media, from drawings to photographs.
Painting: The practice of applying pigment to a surface to create images or other visual compositions. Painting is a central visual art form organized around color and surface.
Prehistoric art: Visual objects and images created before written historical records, including cave paintings and carved figures. It shows visual expression long predates recorded art histories.
Performing arts: Art forms expressed through live or recorded performance, including theater, dance, and music. Performance unfolds through action and time rather than primarily through visual objects.
Art museum: An institution that collects, preserves, studies, and exhibits works of art. Museums influence which visual artworks enter public and historical view.
Principles of design: Organizing strategies such as balance, emphasis, rhythm, contrast, and unity used to structure compositions. They describe how visual elements are arranged into coherent artworks.
Sculpture: Three-dimensional art made by shaping, assembling, or casting materials. Sculpture extends visual art into physical space.
Renaissance: A period of European cultural change, roughly from the fourteenth through sixteenth centuries, marked by renewed classical learning. Renaissance artists transformed perspective, anatomy, and the status of artistic practice.
Literature: Written works valued for their imaginative, expressive, or intellectual qualities. Literature relies primarily on language, though it can intersect with visual form.
Art market: The network of transactions and institutions through which artworks are bought and sold. Market prices and collecting practices affect artists' careers and artworks' circulation.