Abstract
Art Twentieth-century art containing shapes that
simplify shapes of real objects to emphasize form instead of subject matter.
Abstract
Expressionism Painting style developed after WW II in
Aesthetic
Experience Your personal interaction with a work of
art.
Aesthetic
The philosophy or study
of the nature and value of art.
Architect
A person who designs
buildings that are well constructed, aesthetically pleasing, and functional.
Architecture
Art form of designing
and planning construction of buildings, cities, and bridges.
Art
Criticism An organized approach for studying a work
of art. It has four stages: description,
analysis, interpretation, and judgment.
Artistic
style The artist's personal way of using the
elements and principles of art to express feelings and ideas.
Artists
Creative individuals
who use imagination and skill to communicate in visual form.
Asymmetrical balance Another name for informal balance, in which
unlike objects have equal visual weight or eye attraction.
Background
Part of the picture
plane that seems to be farthest from the viewer.
Balance
Principle of art
concerned with equalizing visual forces, or elements, in a work of art.
Baroque
Artistic style that
emphasized dramatic lighting, movement, and emotional intensity.
Byzantine
Art It featured very rich colors and heavily
outlined figures that appeared flat and stiff.
Calligraphy
An Asian method of
beautiful handwriting.
Chiaroscuro
The arrangement of
light and shadow.
Classical
The Greeks created art
based on the ideals of perfect proportion and logic instead of emotion.
Collage
An artwork onto which
materials such as textured paper and fabric have been attached.
Color An
element of art that is derived from reflected light.
Color
wheel The spectrum bent into a circle.
Composition
The way the principles
of art are used to organize the elements of art.
Contour
drawing Drawing in which only contour lines are used
to represent the subject matter.
Contour
line A line that defines the edges and
surface ridges of an object.
Contrast
Technique for creating
a focal point by using differences in elements.
Crafts
Art forms that are both
beautiful and useful. Include weaving,
fabric design, ceramics, and jewelry making.
Credit
line A list of important facts about a work of art. Includes the artist's name, the title of the
work, year completed, medium used, size height, width, and depth), location
(gallery, museum, or collection and city), donors, and date donated.
Criteria
Standards of judgment.
Crosshatching
The technique of using
crossed lines for shading.
Cubism
Twentieth-century art
movement that emphasizes structure and design.
Three-dimensional objects are pictured from many different points of
view at the same time.
Description
A list of all the
things you see in the work.
Design
qualities How well the work is organized.
Dimension
The amount of space an
object takes up in one direction.
Emotionalism
Theory that
requires that a work of art must arouse a response of feelings, moods, or
emotions in the viewer.
Emphasis
Principle of art that
makes one part of a work dominant over the other parts.
Expressionism
An art style that
emphasized the expression of innermost feelings.
Fauves
A group of early
twentieth-century painter who used brilliant colors and bold distortions in an
uncontrolled way.
Fine
Art Art made to be experienced visually.
Focal
point The first part of a work to attract the
attention of the viewer.
Foreground
Part of the picture
plane that appears closet to the viewer.
Foreshortening To shorten an object to make it look
as if it extends backward into space.
Form Objects
having three dimensions.
Formalism
A theory that places
emphasis on the design qualities.
Freestanding
Work of art surrounded
on all sides by space.
Functional
Art Works of art made to be used instead of only
enjoyed.
Futurist
Early
twentieth-century Italian artists who arranged angular forms to suggest motion.
Geometric
Shapes Precise shapes that can be described using
mathematical formulas.
Gesture
Drawing Line
drawing done quickly to capture movement of the subject’s body.
Gothic
Artistic style
developed in western Europe between the twelfth and sixteenth centuries. Featured churches that seemed to soar upward,
pointed arches, and stained-glass windows.
Harmony
The principle of art
that creates unity by stressing similarities of separate, but related parts.
Hatching
Techniques of shading
with a series of fine parallel lines.
Highlights
Small areas of
white used to show the very brightest spots.
Imitationalism
An aesthetic theory
focusing on realistic presentation.
Implied
lines A series of points that the viewer’s
eyes automatically connect.
Impressionism
Style of painting
started in
Individual
Style The artist’s personal way of using the
elements and principles of art to express feelings and ideas.
Intensity
The brightness or
dullness of a hue.
International
Style A style of architecture developed after
World War II that emphasizes a plain, austere building style.
Interpretation
In art criticism, the step in which you explain or tell the
meaning or mood of the work.
Judgment
In art criticism, the
step in which you determine the degree of artistic merit.
Line An
element of art that is the path of a moving point through space.
Literal
qualities The realistic qualities that appear in the
subject of the work.
Logos Symbols
or trademarks that are immediately recognizable.
Mannerism
European
sixteenth-century artistic style featuring highly emotional scenes and
elongated figures.
Matte
Surface Surfaces that reflect a soft, dull light.
Media
or Medium Material used to
make art.
Mexican
Muralists Early twentieth-century artists whose paintings
on walls and ceiling used solid forms and powerful colors to express their
feelings about the Mexican Revolution.
Middleground
The area in a picture
between the foreground and the background.
Minimalism
The twentieth-century
artistic style that uses a minimum of art elements.
Movement The principle of art used to create the
look and feeling of action and to guide the viewer’s eyes throughout the work
of art.
Mosaics
Pictures made with
small cubes of colored marble, glass, or tile and set into cement.
Negative
spaces Empty spaces surrounding shapes and forms of
the subject.
Neoclassicism
The French artistic
style developed in the nineteenth century after the Rococo style. An approach to art that borrowed subject
matter and formal design qualities from the art of
Nonobjective
Art Art that has no recognizable subject
matter.
Optical
Art Twentieth-century artistic style in which
artists use scientific knowledge about vision to create optical illusions of
movement.
Organic
shapes Shapes or forms made by nature.
Outline
A line that shows or
creates the outer edges of a shape.
Pattern
A two-dimensional
decorative visual repetition.
Perceive
To become deeply aware
through the senses of the special nature of a visual object.
Perspective
A graphic system that
creates the illusion of depth and volume on a two-dimensional surface.
Pop
Art The artistic style used in the early 1960s
in the
Positive
space Shapes or forms in two- and three-dimensional
art that make up the subject.
Post-Impressionism The French painting style of the late
nineteenth century that stressed a more individual approach to painting, unique
to each artist working at the time.
Post-Modernism An approach to art that incorporates
traditional elements and techniques while retaining some characteristics of
modern art styles or movements.
Proportion
Principle of art
concerned with the size relationships of one part to another.
Realism
Mid-nineteenth-century
artistic style in which presented familiar scenes as they actually appeared.
Realists
Artist in the
nineteenth-century who portrayed political, social, and moral issues.
Regionalists
Artist who painted
the farmlands and cities of the
Relief
Sculpture A type of sculpture in which forms
project from a flat background.
Renaissance
The name given to the
period at the end of the Middle Ages when artists, writers, and philosophers
were “re-awakened” to art forms and ideas from ancient
Reproduction
A copy of a work of
art.
Rhythm
The principle of art
that indicates movement by the repetition of elements.
Rococo
An art style that
stressed free graceful movement, a playful use of line, and delicate colors.
Romanesque
The style of
architecture and sculpture that featured buildings of massive size; solid,
heavy walls; wide use of the rounded Roman arch; and many sculptural
decorations.
Romanticism
An art style that
found its subjects in the world of the dramatic and in cultures foreign to
Scale Size as measured against a standard
reference.
Sculpture
A three-dimensional
work of art created our of wood, stone, metal, or clay by carving, welding,
casting, or modeling.
Shading
The use of light and
dark lines to give a feeling of depth and texture.
Shade A
dark value of a hue made by adding black
to it.
Shape A
two-dimensional area that is defined in some way.
Sketch A
quick, rough drawing without much detail that can be used as a plan or
reference for later work.
Space The
element of art that refers to the emptiness or area between, around, above,
below, or within objects.
Still
life A painting or drawing of inanimate (nonmoving)
objects.
Subject The
image viewers can easily identify in a work of art.
Surrealism
A twentieth-century
artistic style in which dreams, fantasy, and the subconscious served as
inspiration for artists.
Symbol
Something that stands
for, or represents, something else.
Symmetry
A special type of
formal balance in which two halves of a balanced composition are identical,
mirror images of each other.
Texture
The element of art that
refers to how things feel, or look as if they might feel if touched.
Tint A
light value of a hue made by mixing the hue with white.
Unity The
quality of wholeness or oneness that is achieved through the effective use of
the elements and principles of art.
Value The
element of art that describes the darkness or lightness of an object.
Variety
The principle of art
concerned with difference or contrast.