Open Continuity

Despite the rise of digital tools, many artists are returning to traditional methods and materials. This article examines the resurgence of interest in techniques like oil painting, printmaking, and sculpture, exploring how contemporary artists are combining classical approaches with modern sensibilities to create work that bridges past and present.

The Digital Saturation Point

We live in an era defined by digital technology. From the smartphones in our pockets to the algorithms shaping our online experiences, digital tools have become so ubiquitous that they often fade into the background of our awareness. This saturation has created a curious countertrend in the art world: a renewed appreciation for the tangible, the handmade, and the physically demanding techniques that have defined artistic practice for centuries.

This movement isn't simply nostalgia or technophobia. Rather, it represents a sophisticated response to our digital condition—a recognition that different mediums offer distinct expressive possibilities and that the haptic qualities of traditional art-making provide experiences that digital tools, for all their versatility, cannot replicate.

The Resurgence of Oil Painting

Despite being declared "dead" multiple times throughout the 20th century, oil painting has experienced a remarkable resurgence in contemporary art. Artists like Cecily Brown, Jenny Saville, and Kehinde Wiley have reinvigorated the medium, demonstrating its continued relevance for addressing contemporary subjects and concerns.

What draws artists back to this centuries-old technique? Many cite the unparalleled luminosity and depth achievable with oils. The medium's slow drying time allows for extended working periods and subtle blending techniques that create effects difficult to achieve with faster-drying acrylics or digital tools. The materiality of oil paint—its texture, viscosity, and the way it catches and reflects light—creates a physical presence that resonates with viewers in increasingly screen-mediated environments.

Contemporary oil painters aren't simply replicating historical approaches, however. Many integrate photographic references, digital sketching techniques, or conceptual frameworks that reflect 21st-century sensibilities. For example, Kehinde Wiley's grand portraits place young Black subjects in poses borrowed from Old Master paintings, simultaneously honoring painting traditions while critiquing their historical exclusions.

The Tactile Appeal of Printmaking

Printmaking techniques—woodcut, etching, lithography, screen printing—have also seen renewed interest. These processes, which involve creating matrices that can produce multiple images, have particular resonance in our age of digital reproduction.

Unlike digital printing, traditional printmaking methods require physical engagement with materials—carving wood, etching metal plates, or drawing on limestone. Each step leaves evidence of the artist's hand and decisions, even as the final product can be reproduced multiple times. This balance between the unique and the reproducible offers an interesting parallel to digital production while maintaining distinctive material qualities.

Contemporary printmakers like Willie Cole, who creates intricate compositions using steam iron scorches, and Swoon, whose large-scale woodcuts and paper cutouts address social and environmental issues, demonstrate how traditional techniques can be repurposed for contemporary expression. The democratic potential of printmaking—its ability to create multiple originals at relatively accessible prices—also resonates with current interests in widening art's audience beyond elite collectors.

Sculpture: From Digital Design to Physical Form

Perhaps no field better illustrates the productive dialogue between traditional and digital approaches than contemporary sculpture. Many sculptors now use digital design tools and fabrication methods like 3D printing alongside traditional hand-building techniques.

Artists like Elizabeth King create works that bridge these worlds—meticulously handcrafting figurative sculptures that incorporate mechanical elements, then documenting them through digital animation. Similarly, Neri Oxman's "material ecology" approach uses computational design and 3D printing to create forms inspired by natural processes and traditional craft wisdom.

Even artists working primarily with traditional materials like clay, wood, or stone often incorporate digital planning stages or documentation strategies. This hybrid approach allows them to combine the precision and iterative potential of digital tools with the tactile knowledge and material responsiveness that come from direct physical engagement.

The Slow Art Movement

Beyond specific mediums, there's been a broader cultural shift toward what might be called "slow art"—work that emphasizes time-intensive processes and celebrates the value of meticulous craft. In a society where attention is increasingly fragmented and productivity is often measured in terms of speed and volume, the deliberate slowness of certain traditional techniques takes on political and philosophical dimensions.

Artists like Liza Lou, who creates intricate beaded installations requiring thousands of hours of labor, or Simon Starling, whose projects often involve elaborate transformations of materials through traditional craft processes, exemplify this approach. Their work asks viewers to slow down, to notice details, and to consider the value of time and attention in artistic production.

This ethos extends beyond professional artists to broader craft communities and DIY movements. The resurgence of interest in handmade books, letterpress printing, natural dyeing, and other traditional crafts reflects a desire for direct material engagement and skill development that transcends purely functional or economic considerations.

Learning from Tradition: Contemporary Art Education

The return to traditional techniques is also evident in art education. After decades where conceptual approaches often took precedence over technical training, many art schools are reintegrating foundational skills and traditional methods into their curricula.

This shift reflects recognition that technical proficiency expands rather than limits creative possibilities. Understanding historical techniques provides artists with a broader vocabulary of approaches and allows them to make more informed choices about which methods best serve their conceptual intentions.

Institutions like the Florence Academy of Art or the Grand Central Atelier offer rigorous training in classical techniques, while many contemporary MFA programs now balance conceptual development with technical workshops. Online platforms have also democratized access to traditional knowledge, with detailed tutorials available for techniques that previously required apprenticeship or institutional training.

The Environmentality of Materials

Environmental concerns have also contributed to renewed interest in traditional art practices. As awareness of art materials' ecological impact grows, many artists are reconsidering industrial products and exploring traditional alternatives with lower environmental footprints.

Natural pigments, water-based mediums, and locally sourced materials offer alternatives to petroleum-based products. Traditional knowledge about sustainable harvesting and processing of art materials—from paper-making to natural dyes—provides valuable resources for environmentally conscious artists.

Some artists explicitly incorporate environmental themes into work using traditional techniques. Erika Blumenfeld's cyanotypes created using Antarctic light and ice or Michael Pinsky's "Pollution Pods" installation, which recreates the air quality of different global cities, demonstrate how traditional methods can engage contemporary environmental concerns.

Digital-Traditional Hybrids

Perhaps the most exciting developments come from artists who refuse to see traditional and digital approaches as opposed. Instead, they create work that moves fluidly between physical and digital realms, leveraging the strengths of each.

Artists like Tauba Auerbach create paintings based on digital processes but executed with meticulous handwork. Wade Guyton uses digital printers as drawing tools, introducing elements of chance and material resistance into ostensibly automated processes. And the collaborative Studio Drift combines traditional craftsmanship with cutting-edge technology to create kinetic sculptures and installations that seem to defy physical laws.

These hybrid approaches acknowledge that our experience is increasingly split between physical and virtual realms. Rather than privileging one over the other, they explore the productive tensions and unexpected harmonies that emerge when different modes of making converge.

Case Study: The Revival of Analog Photography

Perhaps no medium better illustrates the complex relationship between traditional and digital techniques than photography. After digital cameras threatened to make film obsolete in the early 2000s, analog photography has experienced a remarkable revival.

Young photographers are embracing film for its distinctive aesthetic qualities, the discipline imposed by limited exposures, and the unpredictable elements that come with chemical processing. Vintage cameras and discontinued film stocks have become sought-after items, while darkroom workshops attract participants eager to learn hands-on processing techniques.

This revival doesn't reject digital technology—many film photographers scan their negatives and share their work on digital platforms. Instead, it represents a more nuanced approach that selects specific tools based on their unique qualities rather than simply defaulting to the newest technology.