Is Naturalism Modern Art?

Art|Modern Art

Naturalism in art is a modern art style that is based on the principles of nature and the natural world. Naturalism as an art movement is based on the idea that nature is ultimately more complex and beautiful than any human-made object or structure. Naturalism in art focuses on accurately depicting nature, as opposed to abstract or surrealistic styles of painting and sculpture.

Naturalism has its roots in the Renaissance period when artists such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo began to focus on realistic depictions of nature. Naturalistic paintings later developed into what we now call landscape painting, which incorporates elements such as rocks, trees, grasses, and the sky into a single composition. Naturalism has also been used in sculpture to create lifelike figures that appear almost real.

In more recent years, naturalism has become popular in modern art movements such as Impressionism, Expressionism, and Cubism. Impressionists used bright colors and quick brushstrokes to capture a momentary impression of a scene or object without attempting to be overly realistic.

Expressionists attempted to convey certain emotions through their work by using exaggerated colors and shapes to create an overall feeling of energy or tension. Finally, Cubists broke down objects into geometric shapes in order to show them from multiple points of view simultaneously.

Although the use of naturalistic elements can be found in all these styles of modern art, they are all meant to represent something other than nature itself—whether it be emotion or multiple perspectives—in order to make a statement about contemporary life or culture. Therefore, while naturalistic elements may be used as part of modern art movements, strictly speaking it cannot be said that naturalism is itself a form of modern art.

To conclude, Naturalism is not strictly speaking a form of modern art although it does have its roots in Renaissance period painting and its elements can be found within some more contemporary movements such as Impressionism, Expressionism and Cubism; however each movement seeks to represent something other than nature itself making them distinctly different from pure naturalistic artwork.