Art Vocabulary For Mr. Halpin

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Abstraction

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Imagery which departs from representational accuracy, to a variable range of possible degrees, for some reason other than verisimilitude. Abstract artists select and then exaggerate or simpify the forms suggested by the world around them.

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Aesthetic experience

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Experience of intrinsic features of things or events traditionally recognized as worthy of attention and reflection, such as literal, visual, and expressive qualities, which are studied during the art criticism process. Also spelled esthetic.

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Architecture

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The art of designing and constructing buildings (structures), and other environmental features. A person who practices architecture is called an architect.

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Assemblage sculpture

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A three-dimensional composition made of various materials such as found objects, paper, wood, and textiles.

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Avant-garde (pr. ah'vahnt-gard")

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French for vanguard. Artists and their work which stand in the forefront of new ideas, often in opposition to established ideas and traditions; art that's ahead of its time, innovative, experimental, heterodox. The modern era has invariably had a flourishing avant-garde, but many have said it is no longer possible in a postmodern era. The bourgeoisie, once alienated by the avant-garde, rarely question any longer the presentation of any avant-garde's productions by their public institutions.

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Balance

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Equality within the composition and arrangement of subject matter in a work.

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Cartoon

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An initial sketch or outline used as a guide. A preparatory design, drawing, or painting intended as satire or humor.

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Complementary Colors

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Are located directly across from each other on the color wheel. They share no common color in their making.

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Composition

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Arrangement into specific proportion or relation and especially into artistic form.

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Contrapposto

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The principle of weight shift, in which the weight of the body rested on one leg with the body realign accordingly.

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Countermovement

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A reaction against another group of artists, society, or philosophy.

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Cultural Constructs

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Works of art that reflect the culture of a certain area (ex: the ancient pyramids of Egypt were a reflection of the social structure of the area)

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Deconstruction

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A method of literary criticism that assumes language refers only to itself rather than to an extra textual reality, that asserts multiple conflicting interpretations of art, and that bases such interpretations on the philosophical, political, or social implications of the use of language in the text rather than the author’s intention

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Decoupage

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The art of decorating surfaces by applying cutouts (as of paper) and then coating with usually several layers of finish (as lacquer or varnish).

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Design

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1: to create, fashion, execute, or construct according to plan: DEVISE, CONTRIVE
2 a: to conceive and plan out in the mind b: to have as a purpose: INTEND to devise for a specific function or end 3 archaic: to indicate with a distinctive mark, sign, or name 4 a: to make a drawing, pattern, or sketch of b: to draw the plans for intransitive senses 1: to conceive or execute a plan 2: to draw, lay out, or prepare a design

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Exaggerated

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To enlarge beyond bounds or the truth; to OVERSTATE; to enlarge or increase especially beyond the normal; OVEREMPHASIZE

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Figurative Painting

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Is defined as art that has reference to figurative reality.

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Foreground

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part of a scene or representation that is nearest to and in front of the spectator; FOREFRONT

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Foreshortening

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A way of representing a subject or an object so that it conveys the illusion of depth, in that as an object recedes into space it becomes smaller, and vice versa.

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Found Object/Readymade

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An image, material, or object, not originally intended as a work of art, that is obtained, selected, and exhibited by an artist, often without being altered in any way.

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Genre

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The kind, variety, or style of painting.

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Hatching

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Creating tonal or shading effects with closely spaced parallel lines.

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High Art

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**

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Implied Line

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A line which is not physically present but your eye draws a line or follows the path of a non-existing line.

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Industrialization

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The integration and creation of a more mechanized and technologically advanced society. Societal and cultural shift from an agrarian society to a machine dependant society. Also, a time period in which Victorians saw art and poetry as a waste of time, as they supported the industrial and scientific accomplishments of the day.

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Internal Evidence

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The work itself contains of the meaning and description of the work.

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Landscape Painting

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A painting, photograph, or other work of art which depicts scenery or the expanse of nature.

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Low Art

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Refers to the lesser or minor arts, including the decorative or applied arts, with the inference that these are low partly because of less technical skill or workmanship, or superficial kitsch, simply catering to popular taste.

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Medium

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The material or technique used by an artist to produce a work of
art. It may also refer to the vehicle or solvent with which powdered pigments are mixed to make paint of the proper consistency. Some types of media are sculpture, film, photography, drawing, painting etc.

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Modeling

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A sculpture technique in which a three-dimensional form is shaped in a soft material such as clay or wax. The term also refers to the effect of light on a three-dimensional form. The three-dimensional quality of such a form is emphasized by means of light, shadow, and color. Reproducing the effect of light, shadow, and color in a drawing of such a form makes it seem more realistic.

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Modern

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Generally refers to recent times or the present, or the sense of something being contemporary or up-to-date, recently developed or advanced in style, technique, or technology. Sometimes this refers to something being innovative or experimental.

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Monumental

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In art criticism, any work of art of grandeur and simplicity, regardless of its size, although it often connotes great size.

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Movement

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When there is no actual motion, this refers to an implied motion -- the arrangement of the parts of an image to create a sense of motion by using lines, shapes, forms, and textures that cause the eye to move over the work. A principle of design, it can be a way of combining elements of art to produce the look of action.

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Narrative Composition

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Essentially a narrative composition is a way to tell a story. It tells this story sometimes to entertain and sometimes to teach a lesson. It is probably the form of literature we are most familiar with.

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Nonrepresentational Art

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Art that does not necessarily have a subject. It deals with shapes and lines as opposed to finding inspiration for the art. Also known as nonobjective art.

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Organic Shapes

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Shapes that are derived from living things. As opposed to mechanical, they generally lack angles and hard edges. Edges tend to flow.

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Painterly

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A form of painting that has a more open form. Areas and shapes are defined by brush strokes of light and dark, and variation of color, so that the eye freely moves throughout the composition. There is generally no one dominating subject.

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Palette

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A board with which artists hold the paints they are using, as well as the actual range of colors being used by the artist for the work.

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Pastels

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Pastels are one of the many mediums that artists use in their work. They are first made when actual pure pigments of color are ground into a very fine powder by a machine. Next, a resin is added that acts as a coagulant to the powder. Different textures of pastels can be made, depending on how much of the resin is included in the mixture. Soft pastels are used for their representation of hue and color, while harder pastels are used for their display of intricate details.

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Pattern

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The idea of pattern is one of the principles of art. Pattern, as we know it, can occur when an artists repeats the same line, shape, or even color over and over again. A pattern can appear throughout the same piece, or it can be represented throughout an artists’ entire collection.

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Perspective

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A formula for projecting an illusion of the three-dimensional world onto a two-dimensional surface. The most common types of perspective are linear and atmospheric. In linear perspective all parallel lines converge to a vanishing point, while in atmospheric, as the picture plane progresses into the distance forms become hazy and diminish in size.

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Photomontage

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This idea deals mostly with the manipulation of photographs. In modern day society, artists have used the abilities of computers to digitally enhance photographs or induce certain images that could not have been in the image when it was originally taken. It also deals with the combination of several photographs to make one that is somewhat ludicrous.

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Pictorial Style

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Pictorial style is the idea of having a set group of characteristics present throughout some group of pieces. Pictorial style can deal with mosaics, paintings, sculpture, architecture, and even music. It can even deal with the types of materials used. Also, in terms of photography, the attempt to create photography that achieves the affects of painting.

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Pictoralism

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1: the use or creation of pictures or visual images 2: a movement or technique in photography emphasizing artificial often romanticized pictorial qualities.

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"en plein air" (pr. pleh-nayr')

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French for "in the open air," used chiefly to describe paintings that have been executed outdoors, rather than in the studio. Plein air painting was taken up by the English painters Richard Parks Bonington (1802-1828) and John Constable (1776-1837), and the French Barbizon School, and it became central to Impressionism. Its popularity was aided by the development of easily portable painting equipment and materials, including paints sold in tubes. The equivalent term in Italian is "alfresco," which is also used by English-speakers.

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Positive Space

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Space in an artwork that is filled with something, such as lines, designs, color, or shapes.

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Negative Space

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Empty space in an artwork, a void.

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Representational

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standing for; symbolize. Depicting or portraying subjects a viewer may recognize as having a likeness; the opposite of abstraction. A representation is such a depiction.

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Saturation

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A color's purity of hue; its intensity. A pure hue has the highest saturation. A brilliant color is strongly saturated, and also very light in value. A deep color is also highly saturated, but has little lightness. A pale color is little saturated and has great lightness. "Saturation" is also what some call the second stage of the creative process: Researching and drawing from life experiences (memory), networking, etc. This stage is sometimes referred to as "discovery."

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Style

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An artist’s characteristic manner of expression. Works of art by different artists that have certain features in common, sometimes called group style.

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Subject

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That which is being represented in an artwork. The issue, theme, or topic of the piece.

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Sublime

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A concept, thing or state of exceptional andawe-inspiring beauty and moral or intellectual expression.

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Technique

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Any method of working with art materials to create an art object. A body of technical methods.

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Texture

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An element of art which refers to the surface quality or "feel" of an object, its smoothness, roughness, softness, etc. Textures may be actual or simulated. Actual textures can be felt with the fingers, while simulated textures are suggested by the way the artist has painted certain areas of a picture. The identifying character of a work - its flavor, mode, mood, tone, or voice.

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Traditional

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Art comes from an experience of the profundity of the spiritual life, it has been trained with a living tradition and has a context and environment, it is creative and individual, yet collective and spiritual. With traditional cultures there are forms and parameters which create and guide the uniqueness of each tradition’s music and art. Islamic art is expressed within such parameters through the denying the use of the human form for the divine, hence the tradition evolves within geometrical form and abstract design. Each tradition has its forms which express it distinct perception of reality as well as the divine. These forms are more than simply images, but embody a certain experience of the timeless and that which is beyond form.

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Unity

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The appearance of similarity, consistency, or oneness. Interrelational factors that cause various elements to appear as part of a single complete form.

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Urbanization

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Is the process of becoming urban. Living together in villages, towns, and cities is a natural condition of human life that has obtained since the beginning of civilization 10,000 years ago. Cities, for better or worse, have been deeply involved in developing the main characteristics of civilization-literacy, government, high arts, commerce, and technology. Urban places have been focal points for action and ideas, and gateways for trade and migration.

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Value

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The lightness or darkness of tones or colors. White is the lightest value; black is the darkest. The value halfway between these extremes is called middle gray.