What Is Plastic Arts

Question

There is a saying, "Picasso, Henri Matisse and Marcel Duchamp are commonly regarded as the three artists who most defined the revolutionary developments in the plastic arts in the opening decades of the 20th century, responsible for significant developments in painting, sculpture, printmaking and ceramics." But what is plastic arts?

Answer 1

Plastic arts are art forms which involve physical manipulation of a plastic medium by moulding or modeling such as sculpture or ceramics. The term has also been applied more broadly to all the visual (non-literary, non-musical) arts. Materials for use in the plastic arts, in the narrower definition, include those that can be carved or shaped, such as stone or wood, concrete or metal. "Plastics" meaning certain synthetic organic resins have been used ever since they were invented, but the term "plastic arts" long preceded them. The term should not be confused with Piet Mondrian's concept of "Neoplasticism."