Featured Art Terms

  • Mona Hatoum, ‘Performance Still’ 1985, 1995

    Performance art

    Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous …

  • Sir John Everett Millais, Bt, ‘Ophelia’ 1851–2

    Pre-Raphaelite

    The Pre-Raphaelites were a secret society of young artists (and one writer), founded in London in 1848. They were opposed …

  • Claude Monet, ‘Water-Lilies’ after 1916

    Impressionism

    Impressionism developed in France in the nineteenth century and is based on the practice of painting out of doors and …

  • Richard Long, ‘Sahara Circle’ 1988

    Land art

    Land art or earth art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks …

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Albert Gleizes, ‘Portrait of Jacques Nayral’ 1911

A Abbaye de Créteil

Established in 1906, the Abbaye de Créteil was a group of French writers, artists and composers who were inspired by …

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Mario Merz, ‘Igloo, Do We Go Around Houses, or Do Houses Go Around Us?’ 1977, reconstructed 1985

B Bricolage

Bricolage refers to the construction or creation of an artwork from any materials that come to hand

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Joseph Kosuth, ‘Clock (One and Five), English/Latin Version’ 1965

C Conceptual art

Conceptual art is art for which the idea (or concept) behind the work is more important than the finished art …

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Joseph Kosuth, ‘Clock (One and Five), English/Latin Version’ 1965

D Deconstruction

Deconstruction is a form of criticism first used by French philosopher Jacques Derrida in the 1970s which asserts that there …

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Bruce Nauman, ‘Violent Incident’ 1986

E Electronic media

The most common examples of electronic media are video recordings, audio recordings, slide presentations, CD-ROM and online content

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Guerrilla Girls, ‘Do Women Have To Be Naked To Get Into the Met. Museum?’ 1989

F Feminist art

Feminist art is art by artists made consciously in the light of developments in feminist art theory in the early …

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Joseph Mallord William Turner, ‘The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire ...’ exhibited 1817

G Genres

Genres are types of painting. These were codified in the seventeenth century as (in descending order of importance) history, portrait, …

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Jo Spence, ‘The Highest Product of Capitalism (after John Heartfield)’ 1979

H Hackney Flashers

Hackney Flashers was a women’s arts collective active between 1974 and 1980. Most of the group were photographers and defined …

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Cornelia Parker, ‘Cold Dark Matter: An Exploded View’ 1991

I Installation art

The term installation art is used to describe large-scale, mixed-media constructions, often designed for a specific place or for a …

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James Abbott McNeill Whistler, ‘Three Figures: Pink and Grey’ 1868–78

J Japonisme

Japonisme is a French term coined in the late nineteenth century to describe the craze for Japanese art and design …

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Christopher Richard Wynne Nevinson, ‘Study for ‘Returning to the Trenches’’ 1914–15

K Kinaesthetic art

Kinaesthetic art is art that deals with the body in movement

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Richard Long, ‘Sahara Circle’ 1988

L Land art

Land art or earth art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks …

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Július Koller, ‘NO ART!’ 1970

M Mail art

Mail art is a movement based on the principle of sending small scale works through the postal service

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William Dyce, ‘Madonna and Child’ c.1827–30

N Nazarenes

The Nazarenes were a group of German artists founded in 1809. Their aim was to regenerate German painting by returning …

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Rodrigo Moynihan, ‘Objective Abstraction’ c.1935–6

O Objective abstraction

The term objective abstraction refers to a non-geometric style of abstract art developed by a group of British artists in …

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Pablo Picasso, ‘Bottle of Vieux Marc, Glass, Guitar and Newspaper’ 1913

P Papier collé

French term which translates as pasted paper, papier collé is a specific form of collage that is closer to drawing …

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Natalia Goncharova, ‘Rayonist Composition’ c.1912–13

R Rayonism

An early form of abstract art characterised by interacting linear forms derived from rays of light

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Henry Moore OM, CH, ‘Recumbent Figure’ 1938

S Sculpture

Three-dimensional art made by one of four basic processes: carving, modelling, casting, constructing

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Bruce Nauman, ‘MAPPING THE STUDIO II with color shift, flip, flop, & flip/flop (Fat Chance John Cage)’ 2001

T Time-based media

Refers to art that is dependent on technology and has a durational dimension

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Tania Bruguera, ‘Tatlin’s Whisper #5’ 2008

U Useful Art Association

The Useful Art Association was started in New York by the Cuban artist Tania Bruguera and promotes the idea of …

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Jeff Koons, ‘Three Ball Total Equilibrium Tank (Two Dr J Silver Series, Spalding NBA Tip-Off)’ 1985

V Vitrine

A large, glass cabinet used for displaying art objects

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Edward Calvert, ‘The Brook’ 1829

W Wood engraving

A printmaking method distinct from woodcut in that the line is incised into the woodblock, rather than the background being …

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Damien Hirst, ‘Mother and Child (Divided)’ exhibition copy 2007 (original 1993)

Y Young British Artists (YBAs)

The label Young British Artists (YBAs) is applied to a loose group of British artists who began to exhibit together …

Heinz Mack, ‘Light Dynamo’ 1963

Z Zero

Group of artists who practised a form of kinetic art using light and motion

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0–9 43 Group

43 Group was a modern art movement formed in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1943 by a group of …