ARTISTIC LANGUAGE: CHARACTERISTICS AND TYPES - ART - 2025

The artistic language refers to the communication codes that an artist uses to convey your message. Part of that message is aesthetic, but it should also provoke feelings, reflection and other interpretations considered by the author.

One of the main characteristics of the human being is his communication capacity. It is essential in all aspects of life: from the psychological sphere to facilitating survival. Man uses language to communicate.

Although the word is possibly the most powerful communicative language available to anyone, gestures, body expressions, silence and many other tools are also used.

The only thing that is needed is that the sender and receiver can share the codes used, and thus they can understand each other properly.

In the case of art, this communication is also essential. From music - one of the first communicative methods in human history - to cinema, everything is part of a system for transmitting feelings and information.

The codes of each artistic manifestation are different, although there are some common characteristics that are similar to those of other types of languages.

Main characteristics of artistic language

The artistic language has a particularity compared to the rest of the messages that makes it somewhat more complicated.

With oral language (as long as the language is shared), gestural (with almost universal gestures) or writing, it is possible to be sure that the same codes will be shared. However, in art that situation does not always occur.

In addition, since they are individual creations in which the receiver does not know the intention of the author, it is often common for each observer to interpret the work of art in a different way.

Subjective perception

This is an important characteristic of this type of language: the perception of the receiver is more subjective.

Apart from that subjectivity, we must continue to insist that art codes are important for effective communication.

It has been said many times that music is a universal language. While it may be true, not all listeners will interpret it the same.

There are even cultural differences that sometimes make it difficult for Westerners to appreciate or understand a composition made in the Far East.

The levels of the language of art

Three levels have been described in the language of art. The first is in charge of attracting attention. In order to be paid attention to and to try to understand what is meant, the artist needs to be sufficiently interested.

The second level is done unconsciously; the observer contemplates (or listens to) the work and draws analogies in his mind.

If the other two have been successful, at the third level a kind of dialogue is established between the receiver and the author.

Types of artistic language: codes and ways of communicating

Music

Known many times as the universal language and as one of the first ways of communicating in history, music is capable of causing a great impact on the recipient, both sentimental and aesthetic.

To convey his message he uses all the means that allow him to combine different sounds harmonically.

In addition to musical instruments, the tools are rhythm, tones, harmonies, repetitions, silence, and others.

All this ends up forming a whole that reaches the receiver, who decodes it to receive the message. Keep in mind that this understanding is personal.

According to the convictions of some people, Wagner's music may sound warlike to them, and it may even remind them of the Nazis, who used it as part of their symbolic language. Other people will have totally different reactions.

Painting

Painting is the best known plastic and visual art.

Despite the apparent ease for the receiver to grasp the author's message, there are scholars who affirm that it is an undemocratic art and that it needs prior knowledge to be able to capture it in its entirety.

Certainly, it is not the same to contemplate a hyperrealistic painting than an abstract one, since the language used is different, which implies that the perception of the observer can also vary.

The tools used by the pictorial language are those of this art. Among these, color and light stand out, with many variables of meaning.

Volume and perspective are also used, which make the painting more realistic and close. Finally, the line, the pictorial material and the technique can be named as other elements of this language.

Dance

Dance is another of the oldest modes of human communication. In addition, it is a type of communication that uses several different codes: from music to costumes.

But without a doubt, the main tool is the dancers' own body. The message or story is transmitted through the rhythmic movements of the protagonists.

Despite its obvious plasticity, it is a modality that requires a certain complicity from the viewer and that they have some prior knowledge to decode what they are being told.

Writing

It is the clearest way to communicate, apart from speech. Writing, once you can read and learn certain common codes, expresses very directly what the author wants to tell.

The main tool is the word. There are numerous stylistic devices that help create the story or provoke the reader's reaction.

Architecture

Architecture has a double function: one of these is merely functional, and the other is artistic. This artistic function has its own language that wants to express something to those who look at a certain construction.

To do this, it plays with various codes, ranging from the materials used to the shape of its plant, its height or its structure.

A good example may be the ancient Gothic cathedrals designed to overwhelm believers and make them fear God. For that they used the great height of its walls and the different architectural, pictorial and sculptural elements.

Movie theater

Leaving aside the most modern artistic manifestations found on the Internet, cinema is the art that has developed more complete linguistic codes.

There is no mode of communication that does not appear on the screen and, therefore, it is one of the most complete when it comes to reflecting stories.

Among its tools is the word, one of its foundations. In the silent film era, this resource was compensated with a gestural language closer to the theatrical.

In addition, in the cinema music is used to emphasize situations, costumes to give information, as well as staging and non-verbal communication, among other resources.

Theater

Like the cinema, the theater is an art that uses almost all the communication tools that man possesses.

Thus he has created a very rich own language, in which he can use music, gestures, rhythm and, of course, the word.

In the same way, the montage of the work is another way through which the viewer can receive the message, accompanied by the lighting that is used or the visual effects.

This language requires complicity from the viewer. He has to get involved with the play and believe what he is seeing, decode the message and not just see a group of actors on a nearby stage.

Photography

Reflecting reality on paper (now on a computer screen) also has its own artistic language.

Photography, although it lacks movements or words, is capable of transmitting emotions, information, suggestions, among other elements.

For this, it uses various codes and tools. The most obvious is color; the expressive difference between black and white and color is enormous.

The use of rhythm is also important. A good photographer will be able to direct the eye of the viewer where he wants and, together with the framing and depth, create a recognizable message.

References

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2. Wikiteka. Artistic Communicational Languages. Retrieved from wikiteka.com
3. Martínez-Salanova Sánchez, Enrique. The language of cinema. Obtained educomunicacion.es
4. Przybylek, Stephanie. Art as a Form of Communication. Retrieved from study.com
5. Casey, Edward S. Expression and Communication in Art. Recovered from pdfs.semanticscholar.org
6. Donougho, Martin. The Language of Architecture. Recovered from jstor.org
7. LaFrance, Adrienne. How Brains See Music as Language. Retrieved from theatlantic.com
8. Elam, Keir. Language in the Theater. Recovered from jstor.org