Art terms
Learn about the materials, techniques, movements, and themes of modern and contemporary art from around the world.
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Showing 18 of 351 art terms
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Illustrated book
A term referring to any book to which an artist has contributed imagery, but often designating deluxe limited-edition volumes created in collaboration with specialized publishers who provide various levels of input.
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Impasto
An Italian word for “mixture,” used to describe a painting technique wherein paint is thickly laid on a surface, so that brushstrokes or palette knife marks are visible. A pastose surface is one that is thickly painted.
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Impressionism
A label applied to a loose group of mostly French artists who positioned themselves outside of the official Salon exhibitions organized by the Académie des Beaux-Arts. Rejecting established styles, the Impressionists began experimenting in the early 1860s with a brighter palette of pure unblended colors, synthetic paints, sketchy brushwork, and subject matter drawn from their direct observations of nature and of everyday life in and around Paris. They worked out of doors, the better to capture the transient effects of sunlight on the scenes before them. With their increased attention to the shifting patterns of light and color, their brushwork became rapid, broken into separate dabs that better conveyed the fleeting quality of light. In 1874, they held their first group exhibition in Paris. Most critics derided their work, especially Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872), which was called a sketch or impression, rather than a finished painting. From this criticism, they were mockingly labeled Impressionists. They continued exhibiting together until 1886, at which point many of the core artists were taking their work in new directions.
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Improvisation
To make, compose, or perform on the spur of the moment with little or no preparation
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Indigenism
A multifaceted cultural movement spanning several Latin American countries, Indigenism advocated for the defense, rights, and recognition of Indigenous peoples. Arising during the first decades of the 20th century, the movement aimed to raise political awareness of their concerns through a range of strategies and mediums, including paintings, murals, magazines, and books. Artists from both Indigenous and non-Indigenous backgrounds played an important role in bringing Indigenism to the forefront of national and regional discourses.
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Industrial design
A process of design that emerged after the Industrial Revolution, applied to products that are mass-produced and machine-made.
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Industrialization
During the end of the 1700s, a rapid proliferation of factory-based industry and mass production began in urban areas of Great Britain, before sweeping across Western Europe and the United States, changing these regions’ economies and society. Many domestic and international migrants moved from largely agrarian areas to Manchester, England, New York City, and other new urban industrial centers looking for work opportunities in factories and other industrial workplaces. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, artists drew inspiration from these changes, using a wide range of mediums to depict these changing environments. For example, Lewis Hine’s early 20th-century photographs of exploited youth workers helped bring about the United States’ first child labor laws.
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Ink
Traditional black drawing ink, which originated in Asia and is therefore often referred to as India ink or Chinese ink, consists of very fine particles of carbon pigment, usually lampblack (soot), dispersed in an aqueous solution with a glue or gum binder. Modern liquid India ink has a resinous shellac binder and may also include dye-based colorants. Sold in bottles it can be applied with a nib pen or in washes with a brush. Once dry, India ink is opaque and indelible. Brown inks such as bister and sepia were made from wood tar and cuttlefish ink, respectively.
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Inkjet print
A print created by a contact-free printer that distributes droplets of ink over a surface to create an image. Most often a print head with nozzles moves across paper depositing liquid ink in cyan, magenta, yellow, and black, although some professional-grade printers employ up to 12 colors. Many different printer types exist, and they can be used with a wide range of supports including papers, textiles, and metals. Introduced in the 1980s, inkjet prints became increasingly common in the 1990s. The process, which produces prints that can closely resemble photographs made in a darkroom, continues to improve in sophistication, and is widely used today.
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Installation
An art form that comprises visual elements in any medium and the space they inhabit.
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Institutional critique
A form of conceptual art, which emerged in the late 1960s, centered on the critique of museums, galleries, private collections, and other art institutions. Artists working in this vein use a range of strategies to expose the ideologies and power structures underlying the circulation, display, and discussion of art.
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Intaglio
A general term for metal-plate printmaking techniques, including etching, drypoint, engraving, aquatint, and mezzotint. The word comes from the Italian intagliare, meaning “to incise” or “to carve.” In intaglio printing, the lines or areas that hold the ink are incised below the surface of the plate, and printing relies on the pressure of a press to force damp paper into these incised lines or areas, to pick up ink.
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Interactive design
The field that shapes the conversation between people and machines. Successful interactive design translates and simplifies this relationship so that we are able to manage our increasingly tech-heavy lives without extensive technical training. Interactive design governs how we use all mechanical and digital devices, from the buttons and menus of ATM machines to motion-sensitive controls for video games on smartphones.
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Interface
An object, like a phone, or a virtual program, like an app, that facilitates the communication between a person and a machine.
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Interior design
A discipline of design that focuses on the functional and aesthetic aspects of indoor spaces
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International Style
A style of modern architecture that emerged in Europe (principally Germany and France) in the 1920s and 1930s. Historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect Philip Johnson coined the term International Style to describe this plain, unadorned architecture of rectilinear forms built of steel, reinforced concrete, and glass. The style transformed the skylines of many major cities around the world.
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Intertitle
Dialogue or narration conveyed in text that is shown between scenes of a silent film.
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Investigating identity
Identity is the way we perceive and express ourselves. Factors such as race, ethnicity, or gender—often play a role in defining our identity. However, many aspects of a our identities change throughout our lives. Our experiences can alter how we see ourselves or are perceived by others. Conversely, our identities also influence the decisions we make: Individuals choose their friends, adopt certain fashions, and align themselves with political beliefs based on their identities. Many artists use their work to express, explore, and question ideas about identity.
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