Art Terms Flashcards
Abbaye De Créteil
Established in 1906, the Abbaye de Créteil was a group of French writers, artists and composers who were inspired by the work of Renaissance writer François Rabelais
Abject Art
Abject art is used to describe artworks which explore themes that transgress and threaten our sense of cleanliness and propriety particularly referencing the body and bodily functions
Abstract Art
Abstract art is art that does not attempt to represent an accurate depiction of a visual reality but instead use shapes, colors, forms and gestural marks to achieve its effect
Abstract Expressionism
Abstract expressionism is the term applied to new forms of abstract art developed by American painters such as Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko and Willem de Kooning in the 1940s and 1950s. It is often characterized by gestural brush-strokes or mark-making, and the impression of spontaneity
Abstraction-Création
Abstraction-Création was an association of abstract artists set up in Paris in 1931 with the aim of promoting abstract art through group exhibitions
Académie Colarossi
The Académie Colarossi was an art school in Paris, France, established in the nineteenth century as an alternative to the official Ecole des Beaux Arts
Académie Julian
The Académie Julian was a major alternative school to the official Ecole des Beaux Arts, especially for women who were not admitted to the Beaux Arts until 1897
Academy
Established during the Renaissance and widespread by the seventeenth century, academies were artist-run organisations whose aim was to improve the professional standing of artists as well as to provide teaching
Acrylic Paint
Acrylic paint is water-based fast-drying paint widely used by artists since the 1960s. It can be used thickly or thinly depending how much water is added to it
Action Painting
The term action painters is applied to artists working from the 1940s until the early 1960s whose approach to painting emphasized the physical act of painting as an essential part of the finished work
Actionism
Actionism is the English version of the general German term for performance art, specifically used for Vienna-based group Wiener Aktionismus founded in 1962 whose actions were deliberately shocking, often including self-torture
Activist Art
Activist art is a term used to describe art that is grounded in the act of ‘doing’ and addresses political or social issues
Aesthetic Movement
The aesthetic movement was a late nineteenth century movement that championed pure beauty and ‘art for art’s sake’ emphasizing the visual and sensual qualities of art and design over practical, moral or narrative considerations
Aesthetics
Aesthetics is the branch of philosophy that is concerned with the nature of beauty and taste
Afrapix
Afrapix was a photographers’ collective and agency founded in South Africa in 1982 which encouraged its members to use photography as activism
AfriCOBRA
AfriCOBRA was a Chicago-based group of black artists whose shared aim was to develop their own aesthetic in the visual arts in order to empower black communities
Afrofuturism
Afrofuturism is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry
Agit-prop
Agit-prop is an enterprise set up by the Soviet Communist Party in 1920 intended to control and promote the ideological conditioning of the masses. The term is now used to refer to any cultural manifestation with an overtly political purpose
Airbrushing
Airbrushing is a painting technique which uses an airbrush to give an even and consistent surface, often used to create a high level of realism
Alabaster
Alabaster is a soft white or translucent stone, it is a fine-grained marble-like variety of gypsum. A popular material for carved sculpture. It is also often used for ornamental stonework.
Albumen Print
Invented in 1850, and commonly used in the late nineteenth century, the albumen print is a type of photographic print made from paper coated with albumen (egg white)
Allegory
Allegory in art is when the subject of the artwork, or the various elements that form the composition, is used to symbolize a deeper moral or spiritual meaning such as life, death, love, virtue, justice etc.
Altermodern
Altermodern is a term coined by curator Nicolas Bourriaud in 2009, to describe art made as a reaction against standardisation and commercialism, in the context of globalisation
American Social Realist Photography
American social realist photography refers to photographs that documented rural poverty during America’s Great Depression of the 1930s and 1940s
Analytical Cubism
The term analytical cubism describes the early phase of cubism, generally considered to run from 1908–12, characterized by a fragmentary appearance of multiple viewpoints and overlapping planes
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of sequences of static imagery in such a way as to create the illusion of movement. Heir to surrealism according to Dalí.
Anthropophagia
Meaning cannibalism, anthropophagia as an art term is associated with the 1960s Brazilian art movement Tropicália whose work, although being culturally and politically rooted in Brazil, took influences from Europe and America. Cultural and musical cannibalism of other cultures.
Anti-Art
Anti-art is a term used to describe art that challenges the existing accepted definitions of art (related to Dada)
Anti-Form
Anti-form is a term associated with a group of artists working in the United States in the late 1960s who embraced chance and other organic processes in the creation of their minimal sculptures
Appropriation
Appropriation in art and art history refers to the practice of artists using pre-existing objects or images in their art with little transformation of the original
Aquatint
Aquatint is a printmaking technique that produces tonal effects by using acid to eat into the printing plate creating sunken areas which hold the ink (intaglio)
Archive
Traditionally an archive is a store of documents or artifacts of a purely documentary nature
Art Autre (Art Informel)
Also known as art informel, art autre translates as ‘art of another kind’ and was used to describe the dominant trend of abstract art in the 1940s and 1950s characterised by an improvisatory approach and highly gestural technique
Art Brut
Art brut is a French term that translates as ‘raw art’, invented by the French artist Jean Dubuffet to describe art such as graffiti or naïve art which is made outside the academic tradition of fine art
Art Deco
Art deco is a design style from the 1920s and 1930s in furniture, decorative arts and architecture characterised by its geometric character
Art Intervention
The term art intervention applies to art designed specifically to interact with an existing structure or situation, be it another artwork, the audience, an institution or in the public domain
Art Noveau
Art nouveau is an international style in architecture and design that emerged in the 1890s and is characterised by sinuous lines and flowing organic shapes based on plant forms
Arts and Crafts
Arts and Crafts was a design movement initiated by William Morris in 1861 which aimed to improve the quality of design and make it available to the widest possible audience
Assemblage
Assemblage is art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or bought specially
Atelier
Atelier is a French word that translates literally as studio or workshop and is often used to denote a group of artists, designers or architects working collectively
Attribute
Attribute has different meanings as a noun and a verb: An attribute (noun) in art is an object or animal associated with a particular personage; to attribute (verb) a work of art is to suggest it may be by a particular artist
Aura
Aura is a quality integral to an artwork that cannot be communicated through mechanical reproduction techniques – such as photography
Authenticity
Authenticity is a term used by philosopher and critic Walter Benjamin to describe the qualities of an original work of art as opposed to a reproduction
Auto-Destructive Art
Auto-destructive art is a term invented by the artist Gustav Metzger in the early 1960s to describe radical artworks made by himself and others, in which destruction was part of the process of creating the work
Automatism
In art, automatism refers to creating art without conscious thought, accessing material from the unconscious mind as part of the creative process
Avant-Garde
As applied to art, avant-garde means art that is innovatory, introducing or exploring new forms or subject matter
