How to read a painting? .. Your guide to the understanding of plastic arts

Hind Massad

Those interested in plastic arts usually face the problem of understanding the paintings and what they mean, what are the schools of plastic art and what is the difference between them? This has made the question of "how to read a painting" fertile material singled out by many critics a lot of articles and publications to help followers of this area to understand.

Many of the pioneers and critics of the plastic arts believe that learning to read paintings is very easy to master only requires some perseverance and passion.

Several museums on their websites have listed a number of smooth steps that amateurs can simply follow to understand artwork.

According to the National Gallery of Art, understanding a work of art is like understanding a book, where the reader decodes to understand the meaning, then listens to body language, and then reads it extensively.

However, as the exhibition was published on its website, there is a fundamental difference between reading a book and reading a work of art. The first is when we read it, we imagine the scene through sentences and phrases. In the painting, the scene is already painted and presented to us, and all we have to understand is its meaning only.

Access to the same panels does not require the great effort of amateurs. A large number of sites offer a large number of paintings and are available online with explanations such as the Louvre, the Orsay Museum and others.

Interested people can write "19th century paintings" in any search engine and find themselves in front of a huge amount of artwork.

If the interested person is looking for paintings dealing with specific artistic subjects, such as landscapes or religious subjects, all he has to write is "18th century landscape paintings", for example, searching with keywords or a period of time puts the researcher in front of a sea of ​​works of art. He can pick from them what he wants.

It is worth mentioning that the interested can change the era to reach the greatest amount of works such as writing the nineteenth and eighteenth century when research or any number of centuries.

The World Encyclopedia Wikipedia has an explanation of all plastic arts schools arranged in alphabetical order, and deals with the historical division from the Stone Age to the present, and each school is accompanied by paintings indicating its style that distinguished it from others.

However, many critics argue that writing a short review of any painting does not require extensive knowledge of art schools or art history at all.

If the researcher or interested does not know the type of school to which the painting belongs, can write the name of the painting and the painter in any search engine. Here will show him a lot of information about the painter and painting and the school to which it belongs and the circumstances of the drawing and so on.

After we get to the panel information, we come to the stage of writing or writing the review. Anyone can submit a review of the painting without being a seasoned writer or technical editor.

Suffice it to explain the content of the work in your own way. Just type .. what do you see? And what do you like? For example a child holding a rose: an innocent child and a beautiful rose. There is no need to review any written muscles.

In the same regard, the understanding of schools comes abundant collection of paintings and reading about them. Over time, the follower is formed with a knowledge of the nature of each school, so they will know the type of school once they see the painting.

Repeated practice is therefore the most important way to master reading. As the collection of the largest number of works help the follower on a personal level will feel that his spirit has expanded as much as the capacity of this beauty.

The interested can resort to a number of books to learn more if he wants. There is the author of "Secrets of Plastic Art" by Dr. Mahmoud Bassiouni, a simplified book aimed at the Arab reader, where he deals with the entrance of plastic arts, accompanied by examples and comparisons so that the reader has visual experience.

There is also the book "History of the geniuses of plastic art in the world .. The most famous of the masterpieces of timeless through the ages," written by Mohiuddin Talo, which deals with the most famous and most important painters in the history of plastic art.

The book also examines the different time periods that are landmarks in the history of art. The author also has an important book on Islamic arts entitled "Art Guide to the Origins of Creation and Formation of Islamic Ornamentation" dealing with the emergence and development of Islamic art in particular.

There is also the book "The Confusion of Arab Art Between the Roots and Alienation" by Khairuddin Abdul Rahman, and deals with the nature and origin of the Arab identity of plastic art with a focus on the religious and political currents that influenced him.

Bernard Myers' Fine Arts and How We Taste It is one of the simplest and most accessible books for the arts world. It was translated by Dr. Saad Al Mansouri and Mosaad Al Qadi. It is available online.