Art Appreciation

Glossary

Adapted from “Key Art Terms for Beginners”

by Philip Yenawine

aboriginal refers to any art that

is native to an area or ethnic group.

Two Kangaroos. Australian aboriginal, 19-20th century. Pg. 20

abstractionart that looks as if it

contains no recognizable forms from the physical world.

All the artist gives us to focus on are colors, lines, shapes, and materials.

Vasily Kandinsky. Improvisation 31. pg. 20

aestheticsa branch of

philosophy concerned with the study of beauty.

How do the following two art pieces differ in their idea of aesthetics?

Female head. Ugba Laja, Owo, Nigeria. Pg. 9 Aphrodite, from Melos. Pg. 9

African refers to art from the

continent of Africa, including Egyptian, Nubian, and Ethiopian art and the Islamic art of North Africa.

Olowe. Pg. 24

Ancestor figures. Mali. Pg. 24 King Mounted, with Attendants. Nigeria. Pg. 23

American refers to art created

in North America beginning when it was a set of European colonies and sometimes including the art of Canada, Mexico, and of American Indians.

It is difficult to pin down a specifically “American” identity because we have influences from all over the world.

ancient refers to cultures that

existed when history began to be recorded as it is today. Includes:

Paleolithic period (c. 2 million Y.A. — 10,000 BCE)

Neolithic period (c. 800 — 3500 BCE)

Bronze Age (c. 3500 — 1000 BCE) from cultures of Mesopotamia

Classical Greece

Winged Victory (Nike of Samothrace). Pg. 27

Art Decostyle in decorative

arts and architecture popular in the 1920s and 1930s, mostly in Europe and the United States.

It can be identified by its slim geometric, often symmetrical forms and linear patterns.

William Van Alen. Chrysler Building, New York City. Pg. 28

Art Nouveaustyle with dense

swirling lines and lines are usually asymmetrical.

They are often based on plants, flowers, or other natural forms such as waves of water and the curves of a woman’s body or hair.

Antoni Gaudi. East facade, Church of the Sagrada Familia, Barcelona, Spain. Pg. 28

Asianart from the entire

continent of Asia, but usually referring to art from India, China, Korea, Japan, and the Southeast Asian nations, such as Cambodia, Thailand, and Indonesia.

avant gardeexperimental or

daring art, usually of the twentieth century, taken from a French military term meaning the “front line.”

Baroque a style that flowered in

Europe and Latin America from about 1600 to 1750.

In sculpture and architecture, Baroque represents energy and boldness and contains many ornate touches and embellishments.

The paintings are alive with bright and contrasting colors, filled with activity and motion. Artists often worked on a grand scale, painting on canvases and creating huge wall and ceiling murals.

Diego Velazquez. The Maids of Honor. Pg. 31

Buddhistart based on the

ideas of Buddha, a religious teacher who lived in India from around 563 to 483 BCE.

Key themes involve reflection (meditation) and quiet.

classical art of classical Greece

(480-400 BCE) or in a general sense when referring to the civilizations of both ancient Greece and Rome.

Characterized by symmetrical, harmonious architecture on a human scale and sculpture whose idealized forms seem too good to be true.

contemporarya term that

designates art being made today, often seen as a response to modernism.

Jean-Michel Basquiat. Flexible. Pg. 35

context the social or

historical situation in which something happens.

What is the context in which the artist created the work to the right?

Cubism

one of the first radical developments of modern art, it is a style of making pictures that tends to abstract objects people, or places.

The subjects are often incomplete, simplified into geometric shapes and forms.

Pablo Picasso. Man with a Pipe. Pg. 37

culturedescribes the human-

made world — what it looks and sounds like, what people surround themselves with, what they believe, and what they value.

What might be the culture depicted in this painting?

Edo a period when Japan

was ruled by the warlords of Edo (1615-1868).

A few of the most common Edo arts were paintings and prints that depicted “fleeting moments” in both nature and everyday life (also known as “Floating World”).

Hiroshige. Mannen Bridge, Fukagawa. Pg. 38

Egyptian refers to object,

paintings, and architecture made between 3000 and 1000 BCE in the area known as Egypt.

Much of the art represented the human figure with head, pelvis, legs, and feet in profile an eye and shoulders facing front.

Pair Statue of Mycerinus and His Queen. Pg. 40

Expressionismstyle of art that

particularly emphasizes the expression of feelings.

Artists use colors in an outrageous way, inscribing lines very boldly, or employing very jarring shapes.

Edvard Munch. The Scream. Pg. 41

folkhanded down from generation to generation

and usually reflects commonly help regional values and customs (such as quilts).

Zofia Wiankowska. Musicians. Pg. 43

Futurism developed in the early part

of the 20th century where a group of Italian artists saw change taking place in the world — particularly in the mechanical and technological areas.

Their art embodies the energy of a world that was constantly changing, building, growing.

The use of bright colors, overlapping and repeated lines and shapes, and blurred edges are common.

Giacomo Balla. Dynamism of a Dog on a Leash. Pg. 44

Gothic a style that dominated

the architectural form in Europe from the late 12th to the 15th century.

Gothic churches are characterized by soaring heights and light-filled open spaces through the use of stained-glass scenes of religious figures and stories.

Rose window and lancets, north transept, Chartres Cathedral, France. Pg. 46

graffiti refers to the age-old

practice of writing or drawing on public walls.

Keith Haring. Keith Haring: New York City Subway System Drawing. Pg. 45

Greek artart created on the

peninsula now called Greece and many nearby islands in the Aegean Sea, including Crete.

Sculptures and vase painting dominated this period.

Kouros from Anavyssos, Greece. Pg. 47

Ictinus and Callicrates. Parthenon. Pg. 48 The Laocoon Group. Pg. 48

Guptaart made as a result

of the “Golden Age” in Indian Art under the rule of the Gupta dynasty (c. 320-355 CE).

Gupta art achieved a high degree of realism in objects of worship that balanced refined simplicity with a love of decoration.

Han art made as a result of

the “imperial age” in China under the reign of the Han dynasty (206 BCE – 220 CE).

Includes work in many mediums — terra-cotta tiles and figures, decorated bronze vessels and mirrors, elaborate costumes, exquisitely refined craftsmanship in ceramics, metalwork, and silk.

Heian era (where the court

and government were located in the area now known as Kyoto) marked by a move away from Chinese cultural influence and toward themes and stories more distinctly Japanese.

Dominant mediums were scrolls (painting on paper or silk).

First illustration to the Azumaya chapter, from The Tale of the Genji. Pg. 50

Hinduart of Hinduism, the

principal religion of India.

Best-known forms are sacred bronze and stone sculptures of gods such as Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and Krishna.

idealizeattempting to create perfection.

Hans Holbein the Younger. Henry VIII.

How do the artists idealize

leadership in their works of

art? What aspects of

leadership do they

emphasize in their view of

royal figures?

Jacques-Louis David. Bonaparte Crossing the Saint-Bernard.

image“picture,” “imagery”

— what is depicted. depict – (v.)

1: to represent by or as if by a picture

2: to describe

Impressionismstarted in Europe in

the late 19th century and focused on using bright colors and how light strikes various surfaces in different weather and at different times of day.

Claude Monet. Houses of Parliament, London, with the sun breaking through the fog.

Islamic art that comes from

areas of the world — primarily northern Africa, the Middle East, and Pakistan — that follow the teachers of the prophet Mohammed and the religion known as Islam.

Colorful mosaics and tile work are characteristics of Islamic design.

Mannerism a European style in

painting and architecture that lasted throughout the second half of the 16th century.

Artists distorted reality, especially scale, and experimented with unbalanced proportions, twisted elongated shapes, and uncomfortably posed figures.

El Greco. View of Toledo. Pg. 53

Medieval refers to an era in

European history also known as the Middle Ages, and encompasses Byzantine, Carolingian, Ottonian, Romanesque, and Gothic art.

Chalice of the Abbott Suger of Saint-Denis. Pg. 55

memorialsart created to recall

and honor the memory of some person, group or event.

Maya Ying Lin. Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Pg. 56

Tomb pit with part of earthenware army of the First Emperor of Qin, Lintong, Shaanxi, China. 221-206 BCE.

Ming

one of the most famous periods in Chinese art history (1368-1644).

Artists of the Ming dynasty are acclaimed for beautiful porcelain — sculptures of jade, ivory, and glass.

Minimalismdeveloped in the

1960s and 1970s particularly in the United States and Europe.

These artists brought about a trend toward great simplicity, and pared art down to the barest essentials: just materials and shapes.

modern a time period

beginning in the 1880s when a radical change in artists’ attitudes toward art took place.

They broke away from tradition and focused on invention and innovation, along with individuality. Many genres fall under the “modern” category.

Frank Lloyd Wright. Exterior of The Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York. Pg. 59

Momoyama a period in Japanese

history (1573-1615) when the country was governed by warlords living in the castle towns of Anzuchi and Momoyama.

Characteristic of the period is its architecture: stone buildings many stories high with curving tile roofs that overhang each ascending story.

Hime-ji, Hyogo, near Osaka, Japan. Pg. 60

Native American refers to art of ethnic

groups scattered all over the North American continent when its conquest and colonization began more than five hundred years ago.

Much of the art is made of natural materials, and it often has an important function in daily life.

Kachina doll, Butterfly Maiden (PALHIK MANA) American Southwest, Arizona, Hopi. Collected by Phoebe A. Hearst, acc. 1913.

neo- or revivala prefix placed

before an artistic style to indicate that it is being borrowed back from history.

Neoclassicism a reference to the

revival of ancient Greek and Roman models and standards of achievement occurring at various moments in more recent history.

These influences were most easily seen in architecture — consider courthouse buildings with grand columns and wide steps.

U.S. Capitol Building. Washington, D.C.

Neo-Expressionism a style, particularly of

the 1980s, that revived the use of jarring colors and very obvious brushstrokes to infuse painting with energy feeling.

The movement included both abstract and representational art and borrowed its techniques from earlier Expressionists.

Luis Cruz Azaceta. AIDS Counts III. Pg. 64

Op Art a type of painting and

drawing that concentrates on creating optical effects to convince our eyes that there is motion where there is none.

The sensation of movement is achieved by the interactions of colors that seem to vibrate when placed next to others, by strong contrasts in light and dark, and by certain kinds of patterns, such as wavy lines that run parallel but vary in distance from one another.

Bridget Riley. Cataract 3.

Pointillisma late 19th century

painting technique that used small dots of paint to compose a picture.

Georges Seurat. A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte. Pg. 68

Pop Arta movement that

dominated the 1960s in which artists used the intensely rich world of popular and commercial images from soup cans to comic strips and billboards, both for inspiration and as subject matter for their art.

Marisol. Women and Dog. Pg. 70

post - literally mean “after,”

this term is used in art to describe periods that define themselves in response to those that came just before.

Post-Impressionismpainters in this late

19th-century period turned away from the interests of the Impressionists, focusing less on surfaces and fleeting effects and more on personal concerns, emotions, and even spiritual matters.

Vincent van Gogh. The Starry Night. Pg. 69

pre- a prefix attached to a

word to identify a period of art that comes before an important event, or before another significant school or style.

Realism refers to techniques in art by which a

recognizable subject is depicted with accuracy, or “realistically.”

Rosa Bonheur. Plowing in the Nivernais. Pg. 76

Renaissance name given to the period in European history when the

Middle Ages gave way to a “rebirth” of ideals.

Artistically, the focus shifted from God to humankind, and interest grew in classical models.

Piero della Francesca. The Legend of the True Cross (Sheba Worships the Wood and the Meeting of Solomon and Sheba). Pg. 76

Roman the art of the Roman

Empire, dating from 30 BCE to the end of the 4th century.

Though greatly influenced by the Greeks, Roman artists seemed less interested in idealization than in visual accuracy.

Roman art tended to serve the interests of government more than those of the gods, partly because the Roman emperors often set themselves up as gods.

Bearded Man (Lucius Junius Brutus). Pg. 80

Romanticism an artistic revolt in the

late 18th and 19th century against what artists believed was a confining emphasis on reason and order.

The Romantics turned away from classical influences and sought to represent spiritual concerns, such as humanity’ innate goodness, or the truths to be found in nature.

Eugene Delacroix. Jacob Wrestling with the Angel. Pg. 82

schoola term used to refer

to groups of artists who work in a similar style or with similar attitudes.

It’s not an actual school people attend!

It is a term art historians used first to describe the students of a particular artist, or people who were strongly influenced by one but whose names were lost in history.

A museum label will sometimes identify an unknown artist as “School of …”

Song a dynastic period in Chinese

history (960-1279) during which landscape painting reached its peak.

Following Confucian principles, the magnificent landscapes dominated small figures set within them. Also during this time emerged the “monumental detail” — a single flow, tree, or bird as the subject of a painting — an aspect of Asian painting that has been very influential in Western culture.

by Fan Kuan of Song Dynasty

stylizethe act of eliminating or exaggerating details in order to portray a subject based on a stylistic pattern rather than nature.

Both art pieces are of people. How are they

stylized differently?

Constantin Brancusi. Mademoiselle Pogany III. Pg. 10

Nkondi Nkisi. Bas-Zaire. Kongo, acquired 1907. pg. 11

Surrealisma movement in

modern art (started in Paris in 1924) where artists believed that imagination was the most exciting and alive when it was the expression of unconscious, nonlogical sensations and inspirations.

Joan Miro. Birth of the World. Pg. 84

Symbolisma school of artists

who at the end of the 19th century began to experiment with increasingly abstract ways of conveying ideas, often through distorted or exaggerated figures as well as symbols.

Paul Gauguin. The Day of the God. Pg. 84

traditiona long history of

doing something the same way.

Westernart that comes from

Europe and the Americas.