Art terms
Learn about the materials, techniques, movements, and themes of modern and contemporary art from around the world.
All
A
B
C
D
E
F
G
H
I
J
K
L
M
N
O
P
Q
R
S
T
U
V
W
X
Y
Z
Showing 30 of 351 art terms
-
A
-
Abstract Expressionism
The dominant artistic movement in the 1940s and 1950s, Abstract Expressionism was the first to place New York City at the forefront of international modern art. The associated artists developed greatly varying stylistic approaches, but shared a commitment to an abstract art that powerfully expresses personal convictions and profound human values. They championed bold, gestural abstraction in all mediums, particularly large painted canvases.
-
Abstraction
Non-representational works of art that do not depict scenes or objects in the world or have discernible subject matter
-
Acrylic paint
A fast-drying paint made of pigment suspended in acrylic polymer emulsion. A key difference between acrylic paint and oil paint is that acrylics are water-based whereas oils are oil-based.
-
Action painting
Art critic Harold Rosenberg coined the term “action painting” in 1952 to describe the work of artists who painted using bold gestures that engaged more of the body than traditional easel painting. Often the viewer can see broad brushstrokes, drips, splashes, or other evidence of the physical action that took place upon the canvas.
-
Actuality
A nonfiction film, usually lasting no more than one to two minutes, showing unedited, unstructured footage of real events, places, people, or things. Actualities, the predecessor of documentaries, were popular forms of entertainment from the early 1890s until around 1908.
-
African diaspora
Refers to the many peoples of African descent who live across the globe. For many of the people in this diaspora, their present place of residence is the result of forced migration due to historical events like the transatlantic slave trade or contemporary life-threatening events such as war or famine. Other reasons for migration include job opportunities, community finding, political exile, etc.
-
Afrofuturism
First coined in 1993 by the cultural critic Mark Derry, afrofuturism refers to a literary and artistic mode of reimagining Black history and culture—and possible futures—through the lens of science fiction and fantasy. Black artists in many disciplines, including music, dance, painting, and literature, use afrofuturism to recover the past, understand the present, and envision a future on their own terms.
-
AIDS activism
The start of the AIDS crisis is often identified as June 1981, when the United States’ Centers for Disease Control first reported on cases of the disease in gay men. In the subsequent decades, people living with HIV/AIDS, as well as their family, friends, partners, and caretakers, have led actions to honor people impacted by the disease, condemn governmental neglect of the ongoing epidemic, and resist widespread discrimination against people living with HIV/AIDS. Motivated by this political and public-health crisis, and the profound loss and suffering it has caused, a wide range of artists, working both collectively and individually, have used their artwork to bring attention to and demand support for people living with HIV/AIDS.
-
Albumen silver print
A photographic print that uses albumen, more commonly known as egg white, as a binder layer. To make the print, a glass-plate negative is placed in direct contact with the sensitized paper and exposed. The result is that the print and the negative are the same size. Albumen prints are admired for their tonal range and strong blacks. To increase stability, these prints were often toned with gold, which turned the warm yellow image to a lush purple. Albumen silver prints were the dominant process from 1850 through the 1880s, when they were replaced by collodion and gelatin silver prints.
-
Alkyd enamel paint
Common household commercial paint made with a chemically modified version of linseed oil that dries quickly to a hard, often glossy finish
-
Alligator skinning
A texture that often forms on the surface of dry paints that have a very high medium content and an extended drying time.
-
Allover painting
An approach to painting that emerged with the Abstract Expressionists, in which each area of the composition is given equal attention and significance. Compositions vary widely and include canvases entirely covered in layers of paint, or filled with brushstrokes, drips, stains, or other markings, sometimes with unorthodox materials embedded in the surface.
-
Ambrotype
A lightly exposed wet-plate glass negative that appears as a positive when placed on a black backing.
-
Animal skin glue
Natural adhesive created from animal bones, used in woodworking until synthetic glues were invented
-
Appropriation
As an artistic strategy, the intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images, objects, and ideas
-
Aquatint
An intaglio printmaking technique that creates tonal areas. Its name reflects its watercolor-like effects. Powdered resin is sprinkled on a metal plate and adheres through heating. When the plate is submerged in acid, tiny areas unprotected by the resin are “bitten” by the acid, creating recesses. After the resin coating is removed, the plate is inked to fill in these recesses. When damp paper is laid on the plate and run through a press, the tiny ink-filled recesses print as tonal fields.
-
Architectural drawing
Also called a rendering, an architectural drawing is used to illustrate a building or portion of a building. These renderings can be done by hand or using computer software, and can represent different visual perspectives by showing buildings or a portion of a building straight on (e.g., elevation drawing), from above (e.g., plan drawing), etc. Architectural drawings can appear in a variety of forms, from watercolor over a flat structure drawn in pencil to three-dimensional scenes of photorealistic images.
-
Architectural fragment
An object formerly part of a built structure, intended to be part of a built structure, or representing a structural element of a building.
-
Architectural model
A presentation of an architectural concept in three-dimensional form. Can also refer to digital files representing the same.
-
Architecture
The science, art, or profession of designing and constructing buildings and other structures for use or habitation by humans; a building, or buildings collectively; any framework, system, or other organizing structure.
-
Art Nouveau (New Art)
An international artistic movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that emphasized the unity of the arts and sought to reflect the intensive psychic and sensory stimuli of the modern city. Although it influenced painting and sculpture, the movement’s chief manifestations were in design, performance art, and architecture. Variants of the movement in cities throughout Europe and the US accrued labels such as Arte Nova, Glasgow Style, Stile Liberty, and Arte Modernista. The version commonly referred to as Art Nouveau (“New Art” in French) flourished in France and Belgium and was characterized by curving, uneven lines based on organic forms.
-
Arte concreto (Brazilian Concrete art)
Two groups interested in Concrete art emerged in the 1950s in the rapidly industrializing country of Brazil. Based in both São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro, the artists connected to both groups, Grupo Frente and Grupo Ruptura, departed from both abstraction and figuration to create geometric works focused solely on the principles of color, line, and shape. Some Brazilian concrete artists, such as Lygia Clark, Helio Oiticica, and Lygia Pape, grew frustrated with the limits of Concrete art and pushed it to a new level of experimentation. Around 1960 Oiticica said, “All real art does not separate technique from expression.” They called this work, which often included the viewer as a participant, Neo-concrete art. The mostly Rio-based Neo-concretists embraced a more active, participatory relationship to objects.
-
Arte Povera
A movement of young Italian artists who attempted to create a new sculptural language through the use of humble, everyday materials. Meaning “poor art,” the term was introduced in 1967 by Italian art critic and curator Germano Celant to describe the work by these artists. In them, Celant found a shared revolutionary spirit inextricably linked to the increasingly radical political atmosphere in Italy at the time. By using non-precious and impermanent materials such as soil, rags, and twigs, Arte Povera artists sought to challenge and disrupt the commercialization of art.
-
Artist collective
A pair or group of artists who work together under one name.
-
![Tauba Auerbach. Cubearc from [2,3]. 2011](jpg/w1siziisiji0ndywmsjdlfsiccisimnvbnzlcnqilcitcxvhbgl0esa5mcatcmvzaxplidi2mhgxnzrcdtawm2uixv0c673.jpg)
Artist’s book
A term referring to publications conceived, designed, and illustrated by artists, often self-published or published by arts organizations in large or unlimited editions. These books are usually printed commercially with the photolithography (offset) technique and meant to be an affordable art form.
-
Arts and Crafts movement
Founded in England in the 1860s in response to mass industrialization, this design and architecture movement was focused on changing workers’ relationship with machines and the objects they created. In addition to their deep appreciation for handmade labor, makers emphasized functional forms, simple and clear construction, and the use of local or natural materials. The resulting international network of arts and craft knowledge and techniques had widespread influence on the global Art nouveau movement, the Bauhaus school of art and design in Germany, and many others.
-
Assemblage
A three-dimensional work of art made from combinations of materials including found or purchased objects.
-
Audio
Sound as recorded, transmitted, or reproduced. Could include or refer to the use of noise and/or silence.
-
Automatism
Strategies of writing or creating art that aimed to access the unconscious mind. The Surrealists, in particular, experimented with automatist techniques of writing, drawing, and painting.
-
Avant-garde
French for “advanced guard,” originally used to denote the vanguard of an army and first applied to art in France in the early 19th century. In reference to art, the term means any artist, movement, or artwork that breaks with precedent and is regarded as innovative and boundaries-pushing. Because of its radical nature and the fact that it challenges existing ideas, processes, and forms, avant-garde art has often been met with resistance and controversy.
-