Wall art is a genre of painting whose
purpose is to decorate the interior of a
home.
Since the earliest periods of human
history artists have worked to achieve
this purpose. Since ancient times, people
have always decorated their homes with
the help of cave paintings, and later -
with frescoes and other forms of
monumental art such as mosaics, panels
and stained glass windows. Application
of carpets and tapestries also belongs to
wall decor.
Tapestry is a single-sided carpet without
a pile, which is used as wall decor.
Tapestry can be made both manually
and on a machine. It can be decorated
with an ornament or a picture.
Tapestries first appeared in ancient
Egypt, Assyria and Babylon.
In the old days tapestries were a luxury.
Artistic panels were also used to
decorate walls. Artists used paints, stone
or wood to decorate walls, ceilings or
doors with various images or elements
of sculpture.
Of course, among other home decor
elements, paintings have been used most
often.
Of course, a painting is an independent
artwork, and it should not be
intentionally created as home decor.
Its message cannot depend on the place
in which it is placed.
Some paintings, however, can be
considered perfect, for example, as a
living room wall decor…unless they
contradict the overall idea of the
interior, created by a designer.
As elements of interior decoration,
paintings began to spread in Europe
since about the 14th century. They were
used to decorate residences of rulers and
rich people.
Wall art is in fact the most popular
genre of fine art, and is very profitable
for artists.
Although it may be thought to be
inferior in class to paintings created as
milestones in art, and intended for
exhibitions, galleries and other biennials
where they must surprise or even shock
the public.
What is peculiar of this genre? It is
important for canvas wall art to be
clear to the general public, pleasant and
not annoying.
Refined aesthetes, of course, resent such
criteria and accuse artists of wall art of
supporting the undemanding tastes of a
mass audience.
But let the reproaches remain on those
aesthetes’ conscience. After all, artists
are people too and they need to eat.
Therefore, they create and sell wall
paintings for home decor. By the way,
some artists, now recognized and
famous, used to sell their paintings for a
bowl of soup in taverns, where those
paintings were hung to decorate the
walls. Let’s recall Niko Pirosmani, for
example.
