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 …

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    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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James Rosenquist, ‘Marilyn’ 1974

A Airbrushing

Airbrushing is a painting technique which uses an airbrush to give an even and consistent surface, often used to create …

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John Singer Sargent, ‘Carnation, Lily, Lily, Rose’ 1885–6

B British impressionism

British impressionism describes the work of artists working in Britain in the late nineteenth-century who were influenced by the ideas …

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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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Philip Mercier, ‘The Schutz Family and their Friends on a Terrace’ 1725

F Fancy picture

Fancy picture refers to a type of eighteenth century painting that depict scenes of everyday life but with elements of …

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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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Minoru Hirata, ‘Kyushu Faction Street Happening at the Tenjin Intersection of Fukuoka, 26 February 1970’ 1970, printed 2011

H Hi-Red Center

Hi-Red Center was a short-lived radical art collective that emerged in post-war Japan and was active between 1963 and 1964

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Giorgio de Chirico, ‘The Painter’s Family’ 1926

I Il Novecento Italiano

Il Novecento Italiano was an Italian group formed in 1922 with the aim of reviving the tradition of large format …

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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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James Abbott McNeill Whistler, ‘Harmony in Grey and Green: Miss Cicely Alexander’ 1872–4

T Tone

The lightness or darkness of something – this could be a shade, or how dark or light a colour appears

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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

Lionel Wendt, ‘[title not known]’ c.1934–7

0–9 43 Group

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