Mary’s Landscape Art Info

For most of human history, realism was the pervading influence in visual art. Even before “realism” was given a name by academics, people were attempting to document what they saw around them by painting it or sculpting it. Of course there was some imagination involved, but for the most part the rules of art were rigidly defined and few dared to stray far outside the box.

That changed to some extent in the mid 19th century, when the impressionists provided a response to the rise of photography. Suddenly paintings could not represent the physical world as well as this competing medium. Fortunately, painters were forced to imbue their art with more emotion, imaginative flourishes and outrageous colors. Abstract art took that idea to a whole new extreme. In some cases it would be impossible to guess an abstract artist’s inspiration just by studying the finished work. Other times the work will deviate only slightly from a realistic depiction.