Multimedia Art vs. Mixed Media Art: What’s the Difference

There are many different types of art, from paintings to sculptures and so many more. Artists can meld different forms of art together, which is where mixed media and multimedia art come from. However, the difference between multimedia and mixed media can be somewhat confusing for many art lovers. If you’re considering multimedia art vs. mixed media art and wondering what the difference is, no worries! We’re going to explain how to tell them apart.

What Is a Medium in the Art World?

Before we explain the difference between multimedia and mixed media, it helps to know what a medium is. A medium is a raw material used to make art. This can be paint, charcoal, or watercolors, or it can be the clay, bronze, or marble used in sculpting. Likewise, a performer’s medium is their body, while a writer’s medium is a pen and paper. In short, anything an artist uses to create their art is a medium.

What Is Mixed Media Art?

Mixed media art is an open form with very few rules or rigidity. One example of mixed media artwork might be a sculpture made out of clay that’s painted and uses cloth, paper, and other media. Pablo Picasso was one of the first painters of the 20th century to use mixed media in his collages. He created his Still Life with Chair Caning using rope, oil paints, old newspaper clippings, and fabric.

Marcel Duchamp used a type of mixed media called found art, whereby he used ordinary objects and repurposed them as something entirely different for his artworks. For example, Duchamp created his piece Bicycle Wheel with, you guessed it, a bicycle wheel and front fork attached to a stool. This gave his piece an interactive element, as he could spin the wheel, making it the first art piece ever to have this unique feature.

What Is Multimedia Art?

Multimedia art is more involved than mixed media in that any visual art can be used, including dance, music, digital elements, drama, design, and much more. In addition, multimedia art is less constricted and has a broader scope than mixed media. For example, while a painter’s work is constrained to the four borders of their frame, a multimedia display is not. In short, the most significant difference between mixed media and multimedia is that the former has some restrictions and rules, but the latter has none.

Multimedia art vs. mixed media art: what’s the difference? At its core, the difference is that mixed media combines two (or more) forms of visual art, and multimedia is a combination of all types of art, including music, dance, literature, and more. We hope this information has been helpful and given you a clearer idea of the difference between these two beautiful art forms. If you are looking for unique ways to display multimedia or mixed media art, you should consider the advantages of digital art frames over canvases.