Art Appreciation Terms

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Aestetics

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The philosophical study of the nature of art and beauty. The term might also apply to the philosophy of art or "aesthetic" of an individual, group, or movement.

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Form

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The visual or formal qualities of an artwork; specifically the work's element (line, color, shape, space texture) and their arrangement or composition.

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formalism

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the approach to art that focuses on the sensuous appreciation of the visual or "formal" qualities of an artwork such as it's line,shape, color, texture, and composition.

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content

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the driving force and reason behind the for and subject matter of an artwork; the feelings, thoughts, and meanings embodied in the work.

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context

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the physical, social, and cultural background or setting of a work of art.

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contextualism

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an approach to the understanding of art that centers on the study of art "in context" that is, in relation to the rest of life. Contextualism emphasizes the study of everything that surrounds and relates to the work of art: the viewer; the artist; the physical setting of the work; and the art, culture, and society that gave birth to it.

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texture

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the tactile surface quality of the artwork itself or the simulated surface qualities of objects represented in the work.

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values

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the range of light to dark in terms of both individual colors and gradations between white and black.

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unity

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the organization of all elements or aspects of a work into a single, indivisible whole.

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balance

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the sense of equilibrium in an artistic composition between different or opposing forces.

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emphasis

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the principle of composition by which certain elements or parts assume more importance than others; also called focus or dominance

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rhythm

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the ordering of time. In visual terms, the ordering of elements or features in regular or irregular ways.

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Pattern

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an ordered repetition of line, space, shape, or texture on a visual surface.

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Proportion

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the comparison of art elements or subjects to one another in terms of their size, quantity, or degree of emphasis.

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Scale

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the principle of composition that refers to proportional relationships of size relative to a standard or normal size

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Style

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the constant form-- manifested in recurring elements, compositional approaches, and content-- in an individual's or a group's art. It is common to speak of personal, group, cultural, and period styles.

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humanism

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the philosophy or cultural movement that places the highest emphasis on the human individual and his or her interests and accomplishments. The credo of the Greek philosopher Protagoras that " man is the measure of all things" epitomizes this outlook.

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picturesque

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in general terms, seeing and representing nature as if it were a pleasing picture; more specifically, the aesthetic movement in England and North America in late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that sought to create landscape art and design characterized by charming subjects, playful variety, and pleasing asymmetrical arrangements.

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sublime

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a state of mind, valued by nineteenth-century romantics, wherein nature at its most passionate and powerful is experiences as awesome and terrifying but simultaneously inspiring and exalting. The romantic way of seeing and representing nature as Sublime is visualized in J.M.W. Turner's painting Rain, Steam, and Speed and in Frederic Edwin Church's painting Niagara.

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pictoralism

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a movement in vangaurd photography at one with the symbolist aesthetics of the late nineteenth century that emphasized the artistic (pictorial) possibilities of the camera's imagery. Turn-of-the-century photographers such as Alfred Stieglitz, Edward Steichen, and Gertrude Kaebier considered themselves pictoralists and strove for formal beauty, suggestive moods, and poetic truths in their work.