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Curriculum Materials: Art in America
Glossary
ABSTRACT
To represent something in a way that is not
NATURALISTIC, by means of
exaggeration, simplification, or other manipulation. The
term is also used to describe forms that are abstracted or
works of art that incorporate abstraction. Recognizable
references in abstract art may be only slight or
nonexistent.
ABSTRACT
EXPRESSIONISM
A 20th-century American painting style, also called "action
painting." Artists working in this style applied paint
freely with sweeping, flinging, and dripping gestures in an
effort to express their subconscious emotions.
ADDITIVE
SCULPTURE
Sculpture formed by building up material, such as clay
or plaster. Wood pieces, welded metal, or bonded plastic
have also been employed in contemporary additive sculpture.
Contrast SUBTRACTIVE
SCULPTURE.
AESTHETIC
A system of criteria used for evaluating works of art.
Criteria may be visual, moral, social, or any combination of
these. The term may also refer to the quality of beauty that
defines or is perceived in a work of art.
AIRBRUSH
A tool similar to a spray gun, with a container holding
fluid paint connected to a source of compressed air. Used
most often by commercial artists, airbrushes create smooth
gradations of colors and tones.
ALLEGORY
An imaginative device used in literature and the visual
arts whereby a work takes on a secondary meaning conveyed by
SYMBOLS and allusions. Specialized
knowledge may be required to interpret the secondary
meaning.
AMULET
Something worn as a charm against evil or injury.
ASSEMBLAGE
A technique of arranging and assembling unrelated
objects, parts, and materials to form a sculptural
COLLAGE.
ASYMMETRY
An arrangement of forms that do not appear the same on
either side of an imaginary line.
COMPOSITIONS arranged in this
manner are called asymmetrical
ATMOSPHERIC
PERSPECTIVE
A technique for representing
THREE-DIMENSIONAL space on
a flat surface. As objects get farther away, atmospheric
perspective shows color gradually fading to a bluish gray
and details blurring, imitating the way distant objects
appear to the human eye. Also called aerial perspective.
AVANT-GARDE
Describes art that departs from the existing norm or
popular styles in an original or experimental way.
BACKGROUND
That part of an image that appears to be farthest from
view. Contrast FOREGROUND.
BALUSTER
One of the upright supports of a handrail or chair back.
Also called a banister.
BIOMORPHIC
Describes a form whose CONTOURS
are related to plant and animal shapes rather than to
GEOMETRIC ones.
BROKEN PEDIMENT
In CLASSICAL architecture, the
wide, low- pitched gable on a building's facade. Later the
pediment became a decorative element, often used above
doorways. In a broken pediment, the top of the triangular
gable is removed to add visual interest.
BRUSHSTROKE
The mark left by a loaded (filled) brush on a surface.
Brushstrokes can be distinguished by their direction,
thickness, TEXTURE, and quality. Some
artists purposefully obscure individual brushstrokes to
achieve a smooth surface. Other artists make their
brushstrokes obvious to reveal the process of painting or to
express movement or emotion.
BUST
A SCULPTURE, usually a
PORTRAIT, that represents the head
and shoulders of a person.
CITYSCAPE
An art work whose subject is the physical aspects of a
city-streets, buildings, etc.
CLASSICAL
Referring specifically to the art of ancient Greece of
the 5th and 4th centuries B.C. More generally, the term
refers to Greek and Roman art created from 600 B.C. until
the fall of Rome. It may also describe any art thought to be
inspired or influenced by ancient Greek or Roman examples.
Classical is also used to describe perfection of form, with
an emphasis on harmony, unity, and restraint of emotion.
COLLAGE
The technique of creating
TWO-DIMENSIONAL or
LOW RELIEF artworks by adhering
materials such as paper, photographs, cloth, and string to a
surface. The technique takes its name from the French verb
coller, meaning "to glue or paste." Also, a work created
using this technique.
COMMISSION
To hire an artist or workshop to make a work of art. The
individual or company paying the artist will often give some
guidelines concerning the subject,
MEDIUM, or size of the artwork. The
artwork itself may be called a commission.
COMPOSITION
The arrangement of shapes, forms, colors, areas of light
and dark, and other elements in a work of art.
CONTOUR
The outline or external boundary of a form.
CONTOUR LINE
A line that defines the boundaries of a form.
COOL COLORS
Colors often having tints of blue or white. Examples:
blue, green, purple.
ENGRAVING
The process of cutting or otherwise incising a design in
a hard material, such as metal. In metal work and sculpture,
engraving is used primarily for surface decoration. In
printmaking, an engraving is a PRINT
made from a metal or wooden plate that has been engraved.
EXPRESSIONIST
Describes art that exploits and often exaggerates color,
line, and form to express strong feelings.
FIGURATIVE
Describes art that represents the human form through the
depiction of a figure, SYMBOL, or likeness.
FLUTING
Closely spaced parallel grooves, commonly used as
embellishment for columns, MOLDINGS,
PILASTERS, and other surfaces in architecture. An object
decorated with fluting is described as fluted.
FOLK ART
A broad term used to describe a range of artistic
expression of the people of a country or region as well as
the art of some individuals. Many folk artists are not
academically trained. Folk painters are often concerned with
recording the ordinary activities of life. Their direct and
honest depiction of subjects usually reflects social and
cultural characteristics. Simple flat figures and decorative
design, bright colors, and unrealistic spatial relationships
often characterize folk painting.
FOREGROUND
The part of an image that appears to be closest to the
viewer. Contrast BACKGROUND.
GELATIN SILVER
PRINT
A print made from a photographic negative exposed on
gelatin silver paper. Developed in the 1880s, this
light-sensitive paper could be exposed by artificial light,
making the production of photographic enlargements possible.
Gelatin silver paper is made by coating a heavy sheet of
paper with a gelatin emulsion of silver bromide and silver
iodide.
GEOMETRIC
Describes shapes with regular
CONTOURS, such as squares,
rectangles, circles, and ovals. These are usually mechanical
or human-made.
GILDED
Describes an object that has been covered with very thin
GOLD LEAF to imitate the effect of
solid or INLAID metal.
GLAZIER
A person who cuts and fits window glass.
GOLD LEAF
A very thin sheet or layer of beaten gold.
GOUACHE
An opaque watercolor paint usually applied to paper.
Also, a work of art produced using gouache watercolors.
HIGH RELIEF
RELIEF sculpture in which the
image greatly protrudes from the surrounding surface.
HORIZON LINE
The most distant line marking the juncture of earth and
sky.
HUE
The name by which a color is distinguished from other
colors in the visible spectrum. The spectrum is usually
divided into six basic hues: red, yellow, purple, blue,
green, and orange.
ICON
Things or persons that are considered the most admirable
or recognizable examples of something.
IDEALIZE
To give an ideal form or value to something.
IDEALIZED
Describes art in which people, objects, or nature have
been altered or modified to present perfect or ideal types.
IMPLIED LINE
A line that is visually suggested by the arrangement of
forms, lights and darks, or other elements in a work of art.
IMPRESSIONISM
An extremely influential 19th-century modern art
movement. Impressionist artists frequently used unmixed
color and broken BRUSHSTROKES to
record the way they perceived the affects of color and
light. They chose nontraditional subjects and scenes from
the modern world.
INLAY
To set material such as metal, stone, wood, tile, or
ivory into a surface in order to create a design or picture.
LACQUER
A natural varnish obtained from the sap of an Asian
sumac tree.
LANDSCAPE
A painting, photograph, or other work of art whose
subject is natural scenery such as mountains, valleys,
trees, rivers, and lakes.
LINEAR
Describes forms that are defined by line rather than by
mass.
LINEAR
PERSPECTIVE
A system for creating the illusion of depth on a
TWO-DIMENSIONAL surface. The
system is based on a scientifically or mathematically
derived series of actual or IMPLIED
LINES that intersect at a vanishing point on the
horizon. Linear perspective determines the relative size of
objects from the FOREGROUND of an
image to the BACKGROUND.
LOW RELIEF|
A RELIEF sculpture in which the image
protrudes only slightly from the surrounding surface
material.
MEDIA
The plural form of MEDIUM.
MEDIUM
The physical material with which an artist works
(marble, clay, paint, wood, ink, etc.). The plural form of
the word is MEDIA.
MIDDLEGROUND
The part of an image that lies between the
FOREGROUND and
BACKGROUND.
MOBILE
A sculpture made by balancing objects attached to thin
rods or stiff wires. Mobiles are usually suspended from a
ceiling or balanced on a pedestal so that the parts will
move freely in response to air currents.
MODELING
In painting, the use of light and shadow to give the
appearance of
THREE-DIMENSIONAL forms.
MOLDING
An ornamental strip used to embellish a surface. A
molding may be wood, metal, plastic, or other materials.
MOTIF
A theme, image, or PATTERN in a
work of art. Motifs are often repeated.
NATURALISM
The accurate depiction of a subject. Truth to
appearance.
NATURALISTIC
Describes art in which the subject is depicted as
closely as possible to the way it is seen by the human eye.
NEOCLASSICISM
A European revival style based on ancient Greek and
Roman art, architecture, literature, and culture, prevalent
during the late 18th and the 19th centuries. Aided by the
archaeological discoveries of the remains of Pompeii and
Herculaneum, the movement used
CLASSICAL
MOTIFS and techniques to convey
SYMBOLIC and often moral messages.
Neoclassical COMPOSITIONS are
generally balanced and controlled.
NONREPRESENTATIONAL
Characteristic of art in which visual form is used
without reference to anything outside of itself.
ORGANIC
Describes curving, natural forms. Contrast to
GEOMETRIC.
OVERLAPPING
A technique for creating the illusion of depth by
placing one object in front of another.
PAINTING
As an object (as opposed to the action), it is an
AESTHETIC work created by applying
paint to a TWO-DIMENSIONAL
surface such as canvas, panel, or a wall.
PALETTE
The selected group of colors an artist has chosen to use
in a particular work of art.
PANORAMA
A very large LANDSCAPE painting
that was either installed in a room or attached to rollers
that moved the landscape in relation to the viewer.
PATTERN
An artistic or decorative design created by the regular
repetition of shapes, lines, colors, and
MOTIFS.
PERIOD ROOM
A room taken from an historical building and recreated
in a museum to illustrate the styles and social customs of
the time. The furnishings of a period room are not
necessarily original to the buildings, but are from
contemporaneous times and arranged as they would have been
in homes.
PERSPECTIVE
Various methods for suggesting three dimensions and
spatial depth on a
TWO-DIMENSIONAL surface.
LINEAR PERSPECTIVE and
ATMOSPHERIC
PERSPECTIVE are the most commonly used methods.
PHOTOGRAVURE
A commercial printing process that produces high-quality
reproductions of artworks using etched copper plates or
cylinders.
PHOTO REALISM
A painting STYLE that achieves an
extreme amount of REALISM. Often the
subject is reproduced from a photograph.
PICTURESQUE
Describes paintings, usually
LANDSCAPES, that emphasize the
interesting or unusual elements in a scene. Common subjects
include ruins, river valleys, and natural phenomena.
PILASTER
A rectangular column set into a wall, often fulfilling a
purely ornamental function.
POP ART
An art movement that developed in New York City in the
1950s. Pop art is derived from commercial art forms and
typically magnifies items from mass culture such as comic
strip panels, popular foods, and brand-name packages. The
name pop art refers to the use of popular culture images.
Pop artists used commercial techniques as well.
PORTRAIT
A painting, drawing, sculpture, photograph, or other
representation of a real person, living or dead, especially
of the face. An artist who specializes in portraits is known
as a portraitist.
PRIMARY COLORS
Red, yellow, and blue. All other colors are mixed from
these three primary colors.
PRINT
An image reproduced, usually on paper, from a prepared
block, stone, or plate. Images made from photographic
negatives may also be called prints. Numerous copies of a
print are usually made, allowing for a wide distribution of
the images.
RAISED RELIEF
RELIEF sculpture in which the
image is raised by carving or scraping away the surface
materials. Most reliefs are raised. Contrast with
SUNKEN RELIEF.
RAISING
A technique used to decorate metal by hammering the
design in from the back of the sheet of metal. The design is
raised from the surface.
REALISM
A STYLE of art in which the subject
is portrayed as closely as possible to the way the human eye
sees it.
REGIONALISM
A movement in 20th-century American art that peaked
during the Great Depression in the 1930s and celebrated life
in small-town, rural America. The most important regionalist
artists, Thomas Hart Benton, John Steuart Curry, and Grant
Wood, were all from the Midwest. Their styles, though
different, all have traditional, conservative, and
nationalistic overtones.
RELIEF
Sculpture in which a figure or design projects out or up
from the surface material from which it is modeled or
carved. Reliefs are classified by the degree of projection,
ranging from sunken, to low, to high relief.
REPRESENTATIONAL
Describes art in which the subject is based on something
from the physical world. The degree of
NATURALISM (truth to appearance)
with which the subject is presented may vary widely.
ROCOCO
An 18th-century STYLE of art and
architecture which originated in France. Decorative curving
forms and light colors characterize rococo art.
SCALE
The relative size of an object when compared to others
of its kind, to its environment, or to humans.
SCULPTURE
A THREE-DIMENSIONAL
work of art formed by carving, modeling, casting, or
ASSEMBLAGE.
SECONDARY COLORS
Colors formed by mixing together equal parts of two
PRIMARY COLORS. Examples: red
and yellow form orange, blue and yellow form green, and red
and blue form violet.
SHADE
A color that has been darkened by the addition of black.
Example: navy is a shade of blue.
SILKSCREEN
A printing process in which the ink or paint is forced
through a fine screen onto the surface below. A coating on
the screen allows color to pass through in some places but
not others.
SOCIAL REALISM
Art with subject or content culled from the contemporary
scene, usually focusing on people or groups who are
socially, politically or economically disenfranchised.
SPLAT
A slat of wood usually placed in the middle of a chair
back. Splats are often decorated.
STILL LIFE
A representation of a group of inanimate objects
arranged by the artist according to a theme, either
SYMBOLIC or
AESTHETIC.
STRAIGHT
PHOTOGRAPHY
A style founded on the separation of photography from
the AESTHETIC principles followed
by other visual arts and an emphasis on photography's
functional properties. Typically the practitioners of
straight photography took rapid exposures, did not
manipulate the exposure or the print, and did not pose their
subjects.
STYLE
A manner, treatment, or execution of a work or works of
art that is characteristic of a civilization, a people, or
an individual.
STYLIZED
Describes the simplification or generalization of forms,
often according to specific conventions.
SUBTRACTIVE
SCULPTURE
Sculpture formed by the cutting, chiseling, chipping, or
scraping away of a material such as wood or stone.
SUNKEN RELIEF
A RELIEF sculpture made by carving
the image into the surface rather than carving away the
surrounding materials.
SURREALISM
An art movement of the 1920s that began in France. The
artistic goals of the movement were to tap the subconscious
as a source of creativity. The artists used juxtaposition of
unexpected objects or themes, odd and vacillating view
points, and distorted figures and objects to convey an
atmosphere of fantasy or a dreamlike quality. During World
War II, many of the movement's primary artists left France
and came to New York City.
SYMBOL
An object or image that represents a concept, ideology,
or thing.
SYMBOLISM
The representation of things or ideas by means of
SYMBOLS.
SYMMETRY
Balance achieved in a work of art by distributing visual
weight (objects or designs) equally on either side of the
center.
TEXTURE
Both the tactile surface of an artwork itself (real
texture) and the visual illusion of tactile surfaces within
an artwork (illusionistic texture).
THREE-DIMENSIONAL
Occupying three dimensions, or giving the illusion of
depth or varying distances from the viewer.
TINT
A color diluted with white. Tints are high-
VALUE colors. Example: pink is a tint
of red.
TWO-DIMENSIONAL
Having two dimensions; referring to something that is
flat.
VALUE
The degree of lightness on a scale of grays running from
black to white. Colors are similarly evaluated: the darker
ones (SHADES) are said to be lower in
value, the lighter ones (TINTS) higher
in value.
WARM COLORS
Colors with TINTS or
SHADES of yellow or orange.
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