Exam III Definitions

Question 1

Sergei Shchukin

Answer 1

Russian businessman turned art collector after 1897 trip to Paris. Collection included Matisse, Gaugin, Van Gogh, Picasso. Opened his home for public viewings on Sundays.

Question 2

Ivan Morozov

Answer 2

Russian businessman and art collector.

Question 3

Rayonism

Answer 3

Style of abstract art originating in Russia in 1911.

Developed by Mikhail Larionov and Natalia Goncharova after a lecture on Futurism.

Question 4

Jack of Diamonds

Answer 4

Group of avant-garde artist founded in 1910 in Moscow. Active until 1917. Founded by Mikhail Larionov.
First exhibition included Larionov, Goncharova, Malevich.

Question 5

Donkey’s Tail

Answer 5

Russian group created from most radical members of the Jack of Diamonds group. 1912-13.

Question 6

Russian Futurism

Answer 6

December 1912, when the Moscow-based literary group Hylaea issued a manifesto entitled A Slap in the Face of Public Taste. Mostly centered in Moscow.

Question 7

Cubo-Futurism

Answer 7

The main school of painting and sculpture practiced by the Russian Futurists. When Aristarkh Lentulov returned from Paris in 1913 and exhibited his works in Moscow, the Russian Futurist painters adopted the forms of Cubism and combined them with the Italian Futurists’ representation of movement.

Question 8

zaum

Answer 8

“transreason”

linguistic experiments in sound symbolism and language creation of Russian-empire Futurist poets such as Velimir Khlebnikov and Aleksei Kruchenykh

Question 9

ostranenie

Answer 9

“Making Strange” or Defamiliarization

presenting common things in an unfamiliar or strange way in order to enhance perception of the familiar

Question 10

Suprematism

Answer 10

Russian abstract art movement developed by Kazimir Malevich c1915, characterized by simple geometric shapes and associated with ideas of spiritual purity.

Question 11

Proletkult

Answer 11

experimental Soviet artistic institution which arose in conjunction with the Russian Revolution of 1917

Question 12

agitprop

Answer 12

political (originally communist) propaganda, especially in art or literature

Question 13

Constructivism

Answer 13

a theory of knowledge that argues that humans generate knowledge and meaning from an interaction between their experiences and their ideas

Question 14

construction v. compostion

Answer 14

x

Question 15

faktura

Answer 15

The visual demonstration of properties inherent to materials.

Question 16

INKhUK (Institute of Artistic Culture)

Answer 16

Artistic society and institute established in Moscow in March 1920 to determine the course of artistic experiment in post-Revolutionary Russia

Question 17

Vkhutemas

Answer 17

“Higher State and Technical Studios”

the Russian state art and technical school founded in 1920 in Moscow, replacing the Moscow Svomas. The workshops were established by a decree from Vladimir Lenin[1] with the intentions, in the words of the Soviet government, “to prepare master artists of the highest qualifications for industry, and builders and managers for professional-technical education.”

Question 18

UNOVIS

Answer 18

“Champions for the New Art”

a short-lived but influential group of Russian artists, founded and led by Kazimir Malevich at the Vitebsk Art School in 1919, chiefly focusing on his ideas on Suprematism and producing a number of projects and publications whose influence on the avant-garde in Russia and abroad was immediate and far-reaching. The group disbanded in 1922.

Question 19

Proun

Answer 19

“Project for the Establishment”

Lissitzky’s exploration of the visual language of suprematism with spatial elements, utilizing shifting axes and multiple perspectives; both uncommon ideas in suprematism.

Question 20

Beaux-arts Style

Answer 20

a theatrical and heavily ornamented classical style taught during the 19th century at the Ecole des Beaux-Arts in Paris. This style strongly considers the function of the space.

Question 21

art nouveau

Answer 21

a style of decorative art, architecture, and design prominent in western Europe and the US from about 1890 until World War I and characterized by intricate linear designs and flowing curves based on natural forms.

Question 22

iron construction

Answer 22

x

Question 23

ferro-concrete

Answer 23

a system of reinforced mortar or plaster applied over layers of metal such as chicken wire or woven or expanded metal mesh and possibly closely spaced small-diameter steel rods such as rebar. It is used to form relatively thin, hard, strong forms in many shapes for such applications as hulls for boats, shell roofs, and water tanks. Ferrocement originated in the 1840s in France and is the origin of reinforced concrete.

Question 24

reinforced concrete

Answer 24

a composite material in which concrete’s relatively low tensile strength and ductility are counteracted by the inclusion of reinforcement having higher tensile strength and/or ductility. The reinforcement is usually, though not necessarily, steel reinforcing bars and is usually embedded passively in the concrete before the concrete sets.

Question 25

ribbon windows

Answer 25

a series of windows set side by side to form a continuous band horizontally across a facade

Question 26

Chicago School

Answer 26

also known as Commercial style. Used the new technologies of steel-frame construction in commercial buildings, and developed a spatial aesthetic which co-evolved with, and then came to influence, parallel developments in European Modernism.

Question 27

Prairie Style

Answer 27

integration with the surrounding landscape, horizontal lines, flat or hipped roofs with broad eaves, windows assembled in horizontal bands, solid construction, craftsmanship, and restraint in the use of decoration.

Question 28

cantilever

Answer 28

a rigid structural element, such as a beam or a plate, anchored at only one end to a (usually vertical) support from which it is protruding.

Question 29

Werkbund

Answer 29

German assoc. of artists, architects, designers, and industrialists initially to establish a partnership of product manufacturers with design professionals to improve the competitiveness of German companies in global markets. The Werkbund was less an artistic movement than a state-sponsored effort to integrate traditional crafts and industrial mass-production techniques, to put Germany on a competitive footing with England and the United States.

Question 30

Bauhaus

Answer 30

an art school in Germany that combined crafts and the fine arts, and was famous for the approach to design that it publicised and taught. It operated from 1919 to 1933.

founded by Walter Gropius in Weimar. Later moved to Dessau (1925-32) and Berlin (32-33).

Question 31

functionalism

Answer 31

an aesthetic doctrine developed in the early 20th cent. out of Louis Henry Sullivan’s aphorism that form ever follows function.

Question 32

purism

Answer 32

a movement, and variation on Cubism, that took place between 1918–1925 that influenced French painting and architecture. led by Amédée Ozenfant and Le Corbusier.

Question 33

pilotis

Answer 33

supports such as columns, pillars, or stilts that lift a building above ground or water

Question 34

open plan

Answer 34

any floor plan which makes use of large, open spaces and minimizes the use of small, enclosed rooms such as private offices

Question 35

urbanism

Answer 35

constitutes the core interest of disciplines such as urban planning (as concerns the physical design and management of urban structures) and urban sociology (as concerns the study of urban life and culture)

Question 36

brutalism

Answer 36

a movement in architecture from the 1950s to the mid-1970s, term originates from the French word for “raw” in the term used by Le Corbusier to describe his choice of material béton brut (raw concrete).

typically massive, fortress-like, with a predominance of exposed concrete construction. often an emphasis on graphically expressing in the external elevations and in the whole-site architectural plan the main functions and people-flows of the buildings

Question 37

Psychoanalysis

Answer 37

a set of psychological and psychotherapeutic theories and associated techniques, created by Austrian physician Sigmund Freud and stemming partly from the clinical work of Josef Breuer and others.

Question 38

unconscious

Answer 38

the part of the mind that is inaccessible to the conscious mind but that affects behavior and emotions.

Question 39

Andre Breton

Answer 39

a French writer, poet, anarchist and anti-fascist. the founder of Surrealism. His writings include the first Surrealist Manifesto, 1924, in which he defined surrealism as “pure psychic automatism”.

Question 40

Metaphysical School

Answer 40

style of painting founded by Chirico, Savinio, and Carra

painting that which cannot be seen

dreamlike works with sharp contrasts

Question 41

Automatism

Answer 41

the avoidance of conscious intention in producing works of art, especially by using mechanical techniques or subconscious associations.

an action performed unconsciously or involuntarily.

Question 42

Exquisite Corpse

Answer 42

a method by which a collection of words or images is collectively assembled. Each collaborator adds to a composition in sequence, either by following a rule or by being allowed to see only the end of what the previous person contributed.

Question 43

frottage

Answer 43

technique or process of taking a rubbing from an uneven surface to form the basis of a work of art.

Question 44

grattage

Answer 44

a surrealist technique in painting in which (usually wet) paint is scraped off the canvas. It was employed by Max Ernst and Joan Miró

Question 45

biomorphism

Answer 45

models artistic design elements on naturally occurring patterns or shapes reminiscent of nature and living organisms.

Question 46

Les Maudits

Answer 46

x

Question 47

La Ruche

Answer 47

“The beehive” an artist’s residence in the Montparnasse district of Paris.

Question 48

Montparnasse

Answer 48

an area of Paris, France, on the left bank of the river Seine, centred at the crossroads of the Boulevard du Montparnasse and the Rue de Rennes

Question 49

Le Rappel a l’ordre

Answer 49

“the call to order”

followed the First World War, rejecting the extreme avant-garde art of the years up to 1918 and taking its inspiration from traditional art instead. Return to naturalism

Question 50

Regionalism

Answer 50

or American Scene painting is an American realist modern art movement that was popular from 1920s through the 1950s in the United States. The artistic focus was from artists who shunned city life, and rapidly developing technological advances, to create scenes of rural life.

Question 51

Social Realism

Answer 51

a naturalistic realism focusing specifically on social issues and the hardships of everyday life. The term usually refers to the urban American Scene artists of the Depression era, who were greatly influenced by the Ashcan School of early 20th century New York.

Question 52

WPA (Works Progress Administration)

Answer 52

the largest and most ambitious American New Deal agency, employing millions of unemployed people (mostly unskilled men) to carry out public works projects, including the construction of public buildings and roads.

Question 53

Farm Security Administration

Answer 53

an effort during the Depression to combat American rural poverty.

Question 54

Harlem Renaissance

Answer 54

he cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem between the end of World War I and the middle of the 1930s. During this period Harlem was a cultural center, drawing black writers, artists, musicians, photographers, poets, and scholars.

Question 55

Mexican Muralism

Answer 55

promotion of mural painting starting in the 1920s, generally with social and political messages as part of efforts to reunify the country under the post Mexican Revolution government. It was headed by “the big three” painters, Diego Rivera, José Clemente Orozco and David Alfaro Siqueiros.

Question 56

AAA (American Abstract Artists)

Answer 56

formed in 1936 in New York City, to promote and foster public understanding of abstract art. American Abstract Artists exhibitions, publications, and lectures helped to establish the organization as a major forum for the exchange and discussion of ideas, and for presenting abstract art to a broader public

Question 57

mobiles

Answer 57

a type of kinetic sculpture constructed to take advantage of the principle of equilibrium.