Art Terms (R)

Question 1

Rayograph

Answer 1

Photographic prints made by laying objects onto photographic paper and exposing it to light

Question 2

Rayonism

Answer 2

An early form of abstract art characterised by interacting linear forms derived from rays of light

Question 3

Readymade

Answer 3

The term readymade was first used by French artist Marcel Duchamp to describe the works of art he made from manufactured objects. It has since often been applied more generally to artworks by other artists made in this way

Question 4

Realism

Answer 4

In its specific sense realism refers to a mid nineteenth century artistic movement characterised by subjects painted from everyday life in a naturalistic manner; however the term is also generally used to describe artworks painted in a realistic almost photographic way

Question 5

Réalités Nouvelles

Answer 5

The Salon des Réalités nouvelles (new realities) was an exhibiting society devoted to pure abstract art founded in Paris in 1939

Question 6

Relational Aesthetics

Answer 6

Term created by curator Nicholas Bourriaud in the 1990s to describe the tendency to make art based on, or inspired by, human relations and their social context

Question 7

Relief

Answer 7

A relief is a wall-mounted sculpture in which the three-dimensional elements are raised from a flat base

Question 8

Renaissance

Answer 8

French word meaning rebirth, now used in English to describe the great revival of art that took place in Italy from about 1400 under the influence of the rediscovery of classical art and culture

Question 9

Replica

Answer 9

A copy of a work of art that is virtually indistinguishable from the original

Question 10

Representational

Answer 10

Blanket term for art that represents some aspect of reality, in a more or less straightforward way

Question 11

Resin

Answer 11

A usually transparent solid or semi-solid substance sometimes used as a medium by sculptors

Question 12

Resistance Art

Answer 12

A form of art that emerged in South Africa in the mid-1970s after the Soweto uprising that focused on resisting apartheid and celebrating African strength and unity

Question 13

Return to Order

Answer 13

A European art movement that came about following the First World War and characterized by a return to more traditional approaches to art-making – rejecting the extreme avant-garde tendencies of art in the years leading up to 1918

Question 14

Rococo

Answer 14

Light, sensuous, intensely decorative French style developed in the early eighteenth century following death of Louis XIV and in reaction to the Baroque grandeur of Versailles

Question 15

Romanticism

Answer 15

Term in use by the early nineteenth century to describe the movement in art and literature distinguished by a new interest in human psychology, expression of personal feeling and interest in the natural world

Question 16

Rural Naturalism

Answer 16

Nineteenth century painting movement characterized by scenes of rural life painted in a realist, often sentimentalised, manner

Question 17

Ruralists

Answer 17

Group of British artists founded in 1975 who aimed to revive the painting of figure subjects in idyllic rural settings