GLOSSARY OF ART TERMS

ABC art – a 1960's art movement and style that attempts to use a minimal number of textures, colors, shapes and lines to create simple three-dimensional structures. Also known as minimalism. Abstract art - A 20th century style of painting in which nonrepresentational lines, colors, shapes, and forms replace accurate visual depiction of objects, landscape, and figures. The subject is often stylized, blurred, repeated or broken down into basic forms so that it becomes unrecognizable. Intangible subjects such as thoughts, emotions, and time are often expressed in abstract art form. Early Abstract artists include French artist Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) and Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky (1866-1944).

Abstract Expressionism Art - Movement in American painting that began in the 1940's and became a dominant trend in the 1950's. It combines Action Painting, which emphasizes spontaneous paint application, and Color Field Painting, which emphasizes large unbroken fields of color. Prominent Abstract Expressionist artists of the era include American artist Jackson Pollock (1912-1956) and Dutch artist Willem de Kooning (1904-1997).

Acrylic colors - synthetic painting colors made by distributing pigments in a vehicle made of a polymethyl methacrylate solution in mineral spirits. Often called plastic paints to distinguish them from polymer colors that also contain acrylic. First used in the 1940's, they are valued for their versatility. Aquarelle - a technique or work derived from the technique of using transparent watercolors in painting.

Art Deco - popular in the U.S. and Europe in the 1920's and 1930's, a style of design and decoration with designs that are geometric and use highly intense colors, to reflect the rise of commerce, industry and mass production.

Art Movements and Classification- Classicism, Cubism, Impressionism, Surrealism, Expressionism, Abstraction, Fauvism

Art nouveau - French for "new art". A painting, printmaking, decorative design, and architectural style developed in England in the 1880s. Art Nouveau, primarily an ornamental style, was not only a protest against the sterile Realism, but against the whole drift toward industrialization and mechanization and the unnatural artifacts they produced. The style is characterized by the usage of sinuous, graceful, cursive lines, interlaced patterns, flowers, plants, insects and other motifs inspired by nature. Henri Toulouse-Latrec and Gustav Klimt were among those greatly influenced by the movement

Avant-garde - French term for "vanguard", a term that describes artists and their art that stand at the beginning of a movement that often does not conform to the traditional or previously accepted ideas or standards

Brushwork - The characteristic way each artist brushes paint onto a medium, such as canvas.

Canvas - the support used for an acrylic or oil painting that is typically made of linen or cotton, stretched very tightly and tacked onto a wooden frame. Linen is considered far superior to the heavy cotton for a canvas.

Canvas Giclée Print - A reproduction in which an image is printed directly onto canvas using the Giclée Printmaking method.

Certificate of Authenticity - A statement of authenticity of a limited edition print that states the title of the work, the print's number within the edition, the number of artist's proofs and the release date. It guarantees that the edition is limited and that the image will not be published again in the same form. Each Giclée Print that we offer comes with this Certificate.

Classicism - typically referring to what are considered characteristics of classical art that include simplicity, harmony, proportional representation and emotional restraint

Constructivism - a modern art movement beginning in Russia that aimed to create abstract sculpture for an industrialized society. The movement utilized technology and building materials such as glass, plastic, steel and chrome. Vladimir Tatlin was the first artist to develop such art.

Contemporary Art - The term contemporary art encompasses all art being done now. It tends to include any art made from around the 1960s to the present, or after the end of the modern art period. The use of the literal adjective "contemporary" to define this period in art history is due to the lack of any recognized or dominant form or genre of art as recognized by artists or art historians and critics.

Cubism - An art style developed in 1908 by Picasso and Braque whereby the artist breaks down the natural forms of the subjects into geometric shapes and creates a new kind of pictorial space. In contrast to traditional painting styles where the perspective of subjects is fixed and complete, cubist work can portray the subject from multiple perspectives.

Dadaism - An art style founded by Hans Arp in Zurich after WW1, which challenged the established canons of art, thoughts and morality etc. Disgusted with the war and society in general, Dadaist expressed their feelings by creating "non-art." The term Dada, nonsense or baby talk term, symbolizes the loss of meaning in the European culture. Dada art is difficult to interpret since there is no common foundation. Marcel Duchamp's photograph of the Mona Lisa with a mustache is one example of the Dada movement's creations.

Etching - Printing technique in which a metal plate is first covered with an acid-resistant material and then worked with an etching needle to create an intaglio image. The exposed metal is eaten away in an acid bath, creating depressed lines that are later inked for printing.

Eclecticism - an art method of borrowing and combining styles from multiple art movements, schools, styles or other artists into one work of art.

Expressionism - an art movement of the early 20th century in which traditional adherence to realism and proportion was replaced by the artist's emotional connection to the subject. These paintings are often abstract, the subject matter distorted in color and form to emphasize and express the intense emotion of the artist.

Figurative - art that represents a human, animal or object's form by means of a symbol or figure.

Fine art - art that is created for its own aesthetic purpose rather than for a practical, utility purpose. "Art for art's sake.

Formalism - strict observance of the established rules, traditions and methods employed in the arts. Formalism can also refer to the theory of art that relies heavily on the organization of forms in a work rather than on the content.

Genre painting - painting that represents a phase or aspect of common everyday life and people.

Giclée - a printmaking process usually on an IRIS inkjet printer to make reproductions of a photograph of a painting; the printer can produce a very wide range of colors resulting in prints that are of very high quality.

Grand manner - a type of painting where figures of great importance are painted in a way that elevates them above the everyday and common. Other elements in the painting are reduced by means of simplifying or eliminating, shifting the focus to the significance of the primary subject.

Grotesque - a style of painting or other art that either greatly distorts or where fantastic animal forms and human figures are combined with leaves, flowers and other objects in an ornamental way.

Illusionism - in a work of art, the creation of a deception image of reality by using certain techniques including perspective.

Impressionism - Referred to as the most important art movement of the 19th century, impressionism is still widely practiced today, and influenced many successive art movements. The term impressionism emerged in the 1860's and came from a painting by Claude Monet (1840-1926) entitled Impression Sunrise. The term became widely used to describe the painting methods used by artists of this time period, including French painters Pierre-Auguste Renoir (1841-1919) and Paul Cezanne (1839-1906). Impressionists usually worked quickly in open air, and were very concerned with capturing light, color and surface.

Kitsch - art that is considered to be overly sentimental, pretentious design. Work that is kitschy is usually mass-produced and met with critical disfavor. Interestingly, what is kitsch in one time period becomes art in another, an example being the work of Norman Rockwell.

Landscape - Painting or artwork depicting an expanse of natural scenery that can be seen in a single view. The movement toward a landscape being primary in a painting, rather than the background, began in the 17th century.

Lithography - Printing technique using a Plano graphic process in which prints are pulled on a special press from a flat stone or metal surface that has been chemically sensitized so that ink sticks only to the design areas and is repelled by the non-image areas. Alois Senefelder invented lithography in 1798 in Germany.

Luminism - the American art style in the 1850's to 1870's which used light or lighting effects as a major characteristic; also, the school of painting that focuses on the expression of the effects of light whether as the above American art style or the French Impressionists.

Magic Realism - An American art movement that began in 1943 to the 1950's which blends precise and detailed realistic images with the imaginary and fantastic. The art style had its early influences from the Surrealism movement.

Magical Realism - Describes the genre of Latin American literature during the 1960's, in which magical themes were combined with realistic subject matter.

Modern Art – Modern Art is a general term, used for most of the artistic production from the late 19th century until approximately the 1970s. (Recent art production is more often called contemporary art). Modern art refers to a new approach to art where it was no longer important to literally represent a subject (through painting or sculpture) -- the invention of photography had made this function of art obsolete.

Media – The materials to be printed, such as watercolor papers, canvas, copper, wood veneer, cotton, plastic.

Mixed media - The art technique where the artist employs two or more media such as painting, charcoal, collage, etc. and combines them in a single work.

Minimal art - Also known as minimalism, a movement and style of art from the 20th century which attempts to reduce art to the basic geometric shapes with the fewest colors, lines, and textures. Minimal art does not seek to be representational of any object. Also known as ABC art.

Naïve art - usually referring to art by artists who have no formal art education or training, a style of painting that is often simple with bright colors, unrepresentative perspective and childlike subject matter.

Native American Art - artwork created by the indigenous peoples of North America, including but not limited to painting and drawings on paper as well as stone surfaces, weaving, jewelry and pottery.

Neoclassical art - art that is reflective of the Classical period of art, that is, the art of ancient Rome or Greece.

Neo-impressionism - a movement in painting as a reaction to Impressionism; originated by Georges-Pierre Seurat in the late 19th century, the movement used the technique of pointillism which uses dots or points of color which the brain automatically blends upon viewing it.

Op art - from the early 1960's, an abstract style of art. This style is unique in its attempt to show movement on the surface by using optical illusion.

Painting - in art, the creation by an artist of a piece with aesthetic value using the application of paint to a surface.

Pastel - a crayon made from pigment mixed with gum and water and pressed into a stick-shaped form. A work of art created from these crayons is also called a pastel. Pastel can also indicate a pale color.

Picturesque - common in 19th century Europe and America, a style of representational landscape painting which focuses on unusual designs and rustic or quaint features.

Pointillism - an area of French impressionism where color is broken up into dots or points. These points compose forms that are visible to the viewer only from a distance where the eye blends the points to create such forms or objects.

Pop art - developed in New York in the 1960's, a style of art that derives from mass popular culture including consumer products and cartoon characters. Some leading artists of the style include Richard Hamilton, Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol.

Portrait - a representation of a person or group or animal on a two-dimensional medium that typically also shows some aspect symbolic of the subject.

Post-Impressionist Movement - In reaction to the Impressionists, this style focused on the emotional content, structure and form of artistic subjects rather than on the importance of natural, fading light. The movement had its beginnings in the 1880's to 1900 in France. Dutch artist Vincent Van Gogh (1853-1890) and French artist Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) were classic painters of this period

Prehistoric art - art created during the first known period of human culture about two million years ago. The period is broken into three major periods: Old, Middle and New Stone Ages. The old is dominated by the use of stone tools, carvings and paintings while the Middle is characterized by pottery and the New by pottery, spinning and weaving. The three periods illustrate the evolution of a previously nomadic group to urban civilizations who domesticated animals and plants.

Realism - Art term referring to the accurate depiction of natural objects, without the addition of imaginative representation. In addition, it refers to a 19th century art movement in France, which moved away from the Romanticism movement by creating paintings that provided accurate representations of everyday life. Early Realism artists include French artists Jean-Baptiste-Camille Corot (1796-1875) and Jean Francois Millet (1814-1875).

Representational art - Artistic piece, i.e. painting, in which it is the artist's intention to present a realistic portrayal of a particular subject matter.

Reproduction - An Original work of art that has been duplicated by photographic or other printmaking methods. 18th and early 19th centuries that celebrated nature, as opposed to civilization, and valued emotion and imagination rather than rationality. Impressionism, as well as 20th century art in general, was greatly influenced by the Romantic movement.

Seascape - A painting representing an expansive view of the ocean or sea.

Serigraphy (Silk-screen) - A printing technique that makes use of a squeegee to force ink directly onto a piece of paper or canvas through a stencil creating an image on a screen of silk or other fine fabric with an impermeable substance. Serigraphy differs from most other printing in that its color areas are paint films rather than printing ink stains.

Silk screen - the process of making a print during which an image is imposed on a screen of silk and blank areas have been blocked out. Ink is then forced through the mesh onto the paper surface. Andy Warhol is known for his use of the silkscreen method in his painting.

Still life - A 35mm transparency. Not recommended for art Copy Work. High-quality 35mm slides can be printed up to 30" or even larger depending on the nature of the image, grain of the film, and the "look" desired by the photographer.

Super realism - similar to photo-realism, a style of painting in which the details of the subject are represented in such realistic detail as to mimic photography.

Surrealism - A successor to Dadaism, which began in the 1920's, dedicated to the expression of dreams and the activities of the subconscious mind, through fantastic imagery. The period was influenced greatly by Freud's focus on dreams. Early artists of the period include Salvador Dali (1904-1989) and Rene Magritte (1898-1967). Although the Surrealism movement influenced the creation of the Magic Realism art movement, Surrealists focus primarily on psychological themes, while Magic Realists tend to focus on alterations of physical reality.

Symbolism - An art style developed in the late 19th century characterized by the incorporation of symbols and ideas, usually spiritual or mystical in nature, which represent the inner life of people. Traditional modeled, pictorial depictions are replaced or contrasted by flat mosaic-like surfaces decoratively embellished with figures and design elements.

Technique - a method or way of working with materials to create a work of art.

Tenebrism - meaning dark and gloomy, a style of painting in which light is rendered in great contrast to dark to create a dramatic effect. Often, a work appears to have a single source of illumination to highlight the primary subject.

Tonalism - a style of painting in which the artist attempts to accurately capture the visual effects of the sunlight on the subject.

Trompe l'oeil (Trick of the Eye) - A style of painting in which architectural details are rendered in extremely fine detail in order to create the illusion of tactile (tangible) and spatial qualities. This form of painting was first used by the Romans thousands of years ago in frescoes and murals.

Verism - the 20th century concept that not only items or subjects of great beauty are worthy of art but that everyday subjects also have aesthetic value for art.

Vignette - a picture or painting where the borders are undefined and seem to fade or blur away.

Visual Arts- All those that you enjoy with your eyes. Painting is one of them.

Watercolors - A painting in which the artist uses water-based paint containing water-soluble pigments.