Art terms
Learn about the materials, techniques, movements, and themes of modern and contemporary art from around the world.
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Showing 9 of 351 art terms
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Varnish
Transparent, hard protection or film, like a drying oil, that is often applied to paintings to seal and protect the surface
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Vaudeville
A type of theatrical variety show, developed in the early 1880s in America, that remained the most popular form of entertainment until radio and film supplanted it in the late 1920s. It incorporated an array of short performances like singing, ventriloquism, plate-spinning, contortionists, dancing, performing animals, and, at its heart, comedy. Reflecting both the cultural diversity of early-20th-century America and its prejudices, vaudeville fused such traditions as the English Music Hall, minstrel shows of antebellum America, and Yiddish theater.
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Vehicle
An industrial object designed to transport people or objects. Examples include cars, bicycles, airplanes, and boats.
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Velocity
Term for measurement of speed, often used with “viscosity” and “muscular” to describe gestural painting
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Vernacular photography
An umbrella term used to distinguish fine art photographs from those made for a huge range of purposes, including commercial, scientific, forensic, governmental, and personal. Snapshots capturing everyday life and subjects are a major form of vernacular photography.
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Video
A term describing moving-image artworks recorded onto magnetic tape or digital formats, or generated using other mechanisms such as image-processing tools.
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Viscosity
The thickness of a liquid
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Visualization design
Visualization design aims to make information understandable and even beautiful. It translates and synthesizes highly complex ideas and experiences into clearer formats, bridging the gap between quantitative and qualitative data through visual means. Visualization design is not a new field: maps and diagrams are common examples of how information can be translated visually for practical uses. Architects and designers are working together using visualization data to expand the limits of how we digest data and make information transparent and accessible for all.
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Vorticism
A short-lived British avant-garde movement, formed in London in 1914, with the aim of creating art that expressed the dynamism of the modern world. Visually, it may be thought of as the British equivalent to Italian Futurism. Vorticist art features Cubist fragmentation combined with hard-edged imagery inspired by machines and the urban environment.
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