Mural Painting

Murals are named after the Latin word murus, which means wall. Any piece of concave, flat, or convex artwork painted or affixed directly to a ceiling, wall, or other larger permanent surface qualifies. Murals are works of art that are painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling, or another permanent surface. The architectural characteristics of the given space are beautifully incorporated into the artwork, which is a distinguishing feature of mural painting. Some large canvases are used to produce wall paintings, which are subsequently hung on the wall (e.g., with marouflage). Since the late 1800s, this approach has been widely used. Mural Paintings or artwork date back beyond the pages of history and serve as a valuable testament to life from prehistoric times to the present. It's linked to Modern Man, who initially appeared in Africa approximately 200,000 BC and began moving northwards into Europe and Asia around 100,000 BC. In this article, we will discuss the concept, definition, and mural painting history, styles of art and its characteristics, which will be relevant for competitive exams such as SSC, State Services, CDS, UPSC prelims, NDA, and Railways, among others.

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Image of mural painting.

Mural Painting History Styles of Art

• Antique Art

Cave paintings in the Lubang Jeriji Saléh cave in Borneo (40,000-52,000 BP) and Chauvet Cave in the Ardèche department of southern France are examples of Upper Paleolithic murals (around 32,000 BP). Many ancient murals have been discovered in Egyptian tombs (about 3150 BC), Minoan palaces (Middle phase III of the Neopalatial period, 1700–1600 BC), Mexico's Oxtotitlán cave and Pompeii (around 100 BC-AD 79) and Juxtlahuaca (approximately 1200-900 BC). Mural paintings were typically painted on dry plaster during the Middle Ages. The large collection of Kerala mural paintings dating from the fourteenth century features Fresco secco. The technique of painting frescos on wet plaster was revived in Italy around 1300, resulting in a major improvement in the quality of the mural painting.

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• Modern Art

The Mexican muralism art movement (Diego Rivera, David Siqueiros, and José Orozco) popularised the term mural. There are numerous styles and ways to choose. The most well-known is arguably fresco, which combines water-soluble paints with a moist lime wash, allowing for quick application of the resulting combination over a broad area and in portions (but with a sense of the whole). As the colours dry, they get lighter. People have utilised the technique of marouflage for millennia. Murals are currently painted in a variety of ways using oil or water-based mediums. From abstract to Trompe-Lil, there are many different styles to choose from (a French term for "fool" or "trick the eye"). Trompe-Lil painting, popularised in the 1980s by muralists such as Graham Rust and Rainer Maria Latzke, has seen a rebirth in private and public buildings around Europe. A technology that transfers a painting or photographic image to poster paper or canvas, which is then affixed to a wall surface to give the illusion of a hand-painted mural or realistic scene, has made the beauty of a wall mural much more readily available (see Frescography, wallpaper). Lüftlmalerei is a unique style of mural painting that is still practised in Alpine valley settlements today. Lüftlmalerei is a unique style of mural painting that is still practised in Alpine valley settlements today. Mittenwald, Garmisch, Unter- and Oberammergau are well-known examples of similar façade designs from the 18th and 19th centuries.

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Features and Techniques of Indian Mural Paintings

1. Mural Paintings differ from all other forms of graphic art in several ways. Their organic relationship to architecture and broad public importance are two major qualities that distinguish them. The expressive practicality of Indian murals is abundant.

2. The use of colour, design and thematic treatment in mural paintings can drastically alter the perception of the building's spatial dimensions. Mural Paintings are the only kind of art that is three-dimensional, as they alter and share space.

3. Natural resources such as terracotta, chalk, red ochre, and yellow ochre mixed with animal fat were used to create the colour pigments used in ancient Indian mural paintings. Human and animal representations, hunting, family scenes, court life, deities, and stories from the Buddhist ‘Jataka' were among the subjects. The paintings were painted by ancient painters with deft hands and keen eyes. The colourful themes, packed compositions, figure types, and outfit details in the Ajanta cave paintings, which were created during the second century BC and persisted until the 5th-6th century AD, demonstrate this. Other important mural paintings from this period may be found in Bagh, Madhya Pradesh, Badami Caves, Karnataka, Sittannavasal, Tamil Nadu, and the Kailasanatha temple in Ellora, Maharashtra, and are recognised for their linear techniques.

4. Mud plaster was placed in two coats, the first being rough to fill in the crevices of the rocks and the second being a final coat of lime plaster. The painting of the mural was done in stages. The contours are recreated in brown, deep red, or black after the line is made in red ochre and the colours are applied. Except for lampblack, all of the paint pigments were sourced from nearby volcanic rocks. There was also the usage of animal glue and vegetable gums. Patches of light colours emphasised the facial expressions. Various techniques were employed to generate the appearance of depth.

Significance of Mural painting

Murals are significant because they introduce art into the public domain. Muralists are frequently commissioned by sponsors due to the size, cost, and time required in producing a mural. Often, it is the local government or a business, but patronage donations have sometimes been used to fund murals. For artists, their work reaches a wider audience who might not otherwise visit an art gallery. The beauty of a work of art enriches a city. Murals can be a rather effective instrument for accomplishing social emancipation or political goals. Murals have been created illegally on occasion or commissioned by local taverns and coffee shops. Totalitarian governments frequently deploy state-sponsored public art manifestations, particularly murals, as a propaganda tool. Nonetheless, despite their propagandist nature, several of these pieces have artistic worth.

When murals are put to areas where people live and work, they can have a tremendous impact on passers-attitudes, whether consciously or subconsciously. It can also be argued that the existence of enormous public murals might improve the aesthetics of residents' or employees' daily lives in a corporate setting. Before the emergence of vinyl and digital posters, large-format hand-painted murals were the norm for advertisements in cities across America.

It was an expensive form of advertising with strict signage restrictions, but it garnered attention and improved the aesthetics of the area. Mexico, New York City, Philadelphia, Belfast, Derry, Los Angeles, Nicaragua, Cuba, the Philippines, and India all have world-famous murals. During times of conflict, they have served as an essential form of communication for members of socially, ethnically, and racially divided communities. They also proved to be a successful instrument for initiating communication and, as a result, resolving the schism in the long run. Kerala, India, is home to unique murals. These mural paintings from Kerala can be found on the walls of Hindu temples. They date back to the 9th century AD.

Mural Painting Characteristics

• It is the world's oldest human art form, as evidenced by cave paintings found in several ancient human settlements. The following are the characteristics of Mural Painting:

• It depicts the activities of a civilization's people at a specific point in time and can include scenes of hunting, gathering, and family life, as well as religious and burial scenes.

• It combines a wide range of artistic styles, including realism with a dramatic sense of scale and amazing depth.

• The expression of emotions through hand postures is depicted in the artwork.

• It frequently served as a means of raising public awareness about certain topics and, in certain cases, as a sort of socio-political critique, as well as a means of reinforcing political and community identities.

• It serves as a go-between for the general people, the government, and artists. This relationship is complicated and thorny at times, especially when art is politicised and politics is aestheticized, as it frequently is in Iran.

• It's a three-dimensional piece of art.

Did you know?

List of Folk Paintings of India:

Village painters' pictorial expressions are distinguished by topics drawn from epics such as the Ramayana and Mahabharata, the Bhagavata Purana, as well as everyday village life, birds and animals, and natural phenomena such as the sun, moon, plants, and trees. In this article, we will provide a selection of Indian folk paintings that would be useful for competitive examinations such as UPSC prelims, SSC, State Services, NDA, CDS, and Railways, among others. In India, there are eight recognised folk paintings, which are detailed below:

1. Madhubani Paintings

2. Pattachitra Art

3. Pithora Painting

4. Kalamkari Paintings

5. Kalighat Pat Art

6. Floor Paintings

7. Warli Art

8. Thangka Paintings

The Mural Painting or artwork is from a time that is beyond history's pages. It provides a valuable record of life from prehistoric times to the present. The arts are a vital cultural tool for expressing concerns and affection for the world in which we live. Allowing your creativity to flow via the arts, especially the medium of ceramics, is a portal into regions of thinking and fascination that (in an average everyday existence) may not have surfaced.