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Ackland Art Museum - Sculpture info Category: Arts > Sculpture and other art forms Date & country: 28/02/2011, USA Words: 252

abstract art
Art that departs significantly

Abstract Expressionism
An art movement, primarily in painting, that originated in the United States in the 1940s and remained strong through the 1950s. Artists working in many different styles emphasized spontaneous personal expression in large paintings that are abstract or nonrepresentational One type of Abstract Expressionism is called action painting. See also expres...

Abstract Surrealism
See Surrealism.

academic art
Art governed by rules, especially art sanctioned by an official institution, academy, or school. Originally applied to art that conformed to standards established by the French Academy regarding composition, drawing, and color usage. The term has come to mean conservative and lacking in originality.

academy
An institution of artists and scholars, originally formed during the Renaissance to free artists from control by guilds and to elevate them from artisan to professional status. In an academy, art is taught as a humanist discipline along with other disciplines of the liberal arts.

achromatic
Having no color or hue; without identifiable hue. Most blacks, whites, grays, and browns are achromatic.

acrylic
(acrylic resin) A clear plastic used as a binder in paint and as a casting material in sculpture.

action painting
A style of nonrepresentational painting that relies on the physical movement of the artist in using such gestural techniques as vigorous brushwork, dripping, and pouring. Dynamism is often created through the interlaced directions of the paint. A subcategory of Abstract Expressionism.

additive color mixture
When light colors are combined (as with overlapping spotlights), the result becomes successively lighter. Light primaries, when combined, create white light. See also subtractive color mixture.

additive sculpture
Sculptural form produced by combining or building up material from a core or armature. Modeling in clay and welding steel are additive processes.

aerial perspective
See perspective.

aesthetic
Relating to the sense of the beautiful and to heightened sensory perception in general.

aesthetics
The study and philosophy of the quality and nature of sensory responses related to, but not limited by, the concept of beauty.

afterimage
The visual impression that remains after the initial stimulus is removed. Staring at a single intense hue may cause the cones, or color receptors, of the eye to become so fatigued that they perceive only the complement of the original hue when it has been removed.

airbrush
A small-scale paint sprayer that allows the artist to control a fine mist of paint.

analogous colors or analogous hues
Closely related hues, especially those in which we can see a common hue; hues that are neighbors on the color wheel, such as blue, blue-green, and green.

Analytical Cubism
See Cubism.

aperture
In photography, the camera lens opening and its relative diameter. Measured in f-stops, such as f/8, f/ I 1, etc. As the number increases, the size of the aperture decreases, thereby reducing the amount of light passing through the lens and striking the film.

applied art
Art in which aesthetic values are used in the design or decoration of utilitarian objects.

aquatint
An intaglio printmaking process in which value areas rather than lines are etched on the printing plate. Powdered resin is sprinkled on the plate and heated until it adheres. The plate is then immersed in an acid bath. The acid bites around the resin particles, creating a rough surface that holds ink. Also, a print made using this process.

arabesque
Ornament or surface decoration with intricate curves and flowing lines based on plant forms.

arcade
A series of arches supported by columns or piers. Also, a covered passageway between two series of arches or between a series of arches and a wall.

arch
A curved structure designed to span an opening, usually made of stone or other masonry. Roman arches are semicircular; Islamic and Gothic arches come to a point at the top.

armature
A rigid framework serving as a supporting inner core for clay or other soft sculpting material.

Art Nouveau
A style that originated in the late 1880s, based on the sinuous curves of plant forms, used primarily in architectural detailing and the applied arts.

assemblage
Sculpture using preexisting, sometimes "found" objects that may or may not contribute their original identities to the total content of the work.

asymmetrical
Without symmetry.

atmospheric perspective
See perspective.

automatism
Automatic or unconscious action. Employed by Surrealist writers and artists to allow unconscious ideas and feelings to be expressed.

avant-garde
French for advance guard" or "vanguard." Those considered the leaders (and often regarded as radicals) in the invention and application of new concepts in a given field.

axis
An implied straight line in the center of a form along its dominant direction.

balance
An arrangement of parts achieving a state of equilibrium between opposing forces or influences. Major types are symmetrical and asymmetrical. See symmetry.

Baroque
The seventeenth-century period in Europe characterized in the visual arts by dramatic light and shade, turbulent composition, and exaggerated emotional expression.

barrel vault
See vault.

bas-relief
See relief sculpture.

Bauhaus
German art school in existence from 1919 to 1933, best known for its influence on design, leadership in art education, and a radically innovative philosophy of applying design principles to machine technology and mass production.

beam
The horizontal stone or timber placed across an architectural space to take the weight of the roof or wall above; also called a lintel.

binder
The material used in paint that causes pigment particles to adhere to one another and to the support; for example, linseed oil or acrylic polymer.

buttress
A support, usually exterior, for a wall, arch, or vault, that opposes the lateral forces of these structures. A flying buttress consists of a strut or segment of an arch carrying the thrust of a vault to a vertical pier positioned away from the main portion of the building. An important element in Gothic cathedrals.

Byzantine art
Styles of painting, design, and architecture developed from the fifth century A.D. in the Byzantine Empire of eastern Europe. Characterized in architecture by round arches, large domes, and extensive use of mosaic; characterized in painting by formal design, frontal and stylized figures, and a rich use of color, especially gold, in generally religi...

calligraphy
The art of beautiful writing. Broadly, a flowing use of line, often varying from thick to thin.

camera obscura
A dark room (or box) with a small hole in one side, through which an inverted image of the view outside is projected onto the opposite wall, screen, or mirror. The image is then traced. This forerunner of the modern camera was a tool for recording an optically accurate image.

cantilever
A beam or slab projecting a substantial distance beyond its supporting post or wall; a projection supported at only one end.

capital
In architecture, the top part, capstone, or head of a column or pillar.

caricature
A representation in which the subject's distinctive features are exaggerated.

cartoon
1. A humorous or satirical drawing. 2. A drawing completed as a full-scale working drawing, usually for a fresco painting, mural, or tapestry.

carving
A subtractive process in which a sculpture is formed by removing material from a block or mass of wood, stone, or other material, using sharpened tools.

casein
A white, tasteless, odorless milk protein used in making paint as well as plastics, adhesives, and foods.

casting
A process that involves pouring liquid material such as molten metal, clay, wax, or plaster into a mold. When the liquid hardens, the mold is removed, leaving a form in the shape of the mold.

ceramic
Objects made of clay hardened into a relatively permanent material by firing. Also, the process of making such objects.

chiaroscuro
Italian for "light-dark." The gradations of light and dark values in two-dimensional imagery; especially the illusion of rounded, three-dimensional form created through gradations of light and shade rather than line. Highly developed by Renaissance painters.

chroma
See intensity.cinematography The art and technique of making motion pictures, especially the work done by motion picture camera operators.

classical
1. The art of ancient Greece and Rome. More specifically, Classical refers to the style of Greek art that flourished during the fifth century B.C. 2. Any art based on a clear, rational, and regular structure, emphasizing horizontal and vertical directions, and organizing its parts with special emphasis on balance and proportion. The term classic is...

closed form
A self-contained or explicitly limited form; having a resolved balance of tensions, a sense of calm completeness implying a totality within itself.

cluster houses
Residential units laced close together in order to maximize the usable exterior space of the surrounding area, within the concept of single-family dwellings.

coffer
In architecture, a decorative sunken panel on the underside of a ceiling.

collage
From the French coller, to glue. A work made by gluing materials such as paper scraps, photographs, and cloth on to a flat surface.

colonnade
A row of columns usually spanned or connected by beams (lintels).

color field painting
A movement that grew out of Abstract Expressionism, in which large stained or painted areas or "fields of color evoke aesthetic and emotional responses.

color wheel
A circular arrangement of contiguous spectral hues used in some color systems. Also called a color circle.

complementary colors
Two hues directly opposite one another on a color wheel which, when mixed together in proper proportions, produce a neutral gray. The true complement of a color can be seen in its afterimage.

composition
The bringing together of parts or elements to form a whole; the structure, organization, or total form of a work of art. See also design.

content
Meaning or message contained and communicated by a work of art, including its emotional, intellectual, symbolic, thematic, and narrative connotations.

contour
The edge or apparent line that separates one area or mass from another; a line following a surface drawn to suggest volume.

contrapposto
Italian for "counterpoise." The counterpositioning of parts of the human figure about a central vertical axis, as when the weight is placed on one foot, causing the hip and shoulder lines to counterbalance each other, often in a graceful S-curve.

cool colors
Colors whose relative visual temperatures make them seem cool. Cool colors generally include green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and violet. The quality of warmness or coolness is relative to adjacent hues. See also warm colors.

cross-hatching
See hatching.

Cubism
The most influential style of the twentieth century, developed in Paris by Picasso and Braque, beginning in 1907. The early mature phase of the style, called Analytical Cubism, lasted from 1909 through 1911. Cubism is based on the simultaneous presentation of multiple views, disintegration, and the geometric reconstruction of objects in flattened, ...

curtain wall
A non-load-bearing wall.

curvilinear
Formed or characterized by curving lines or edges.

Dada
A movement in art and literature, founded in Switzerland in the early twentieth century, which ridiculed contemporary culture and conventional art. The Dadaists shared an antimilitaristic and antiaesthetic attitude, generated in part by the horrors of World War I and in part by a rejection of accepted canons of morality and taste. The anarchic spir...

De Stijl
Dutch for "the style," a purist art movement begun in the Netherlands during World War I by Mondrian and others. It involved painters, sculptors, designers, and architects whose works and ideas were expressed in De Stijl magazine. De Stijl was aimed at creating a universal language of form that would be independent of individual emotion. Visual for...

depth of
field The area of sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field becomes greater as the f-stop number is increased.

design
Both the process and the result of structuring the elements of visual form; composition.

divisionism
See pointillism.

dome
A generally hemispherical roof or vault. Theoretically, an arch rotated 360 degrees on its vertical axis.

drypoint
An intaglio printmaking process in which lines are scratched directly into a metal plate with a steel needle. Also, the resulting print.

earth art; earthworks
Sculptural forms of earth, rocks, or sometimes plants, often on a vast scale and in remote locations. Some are deliberately impermanent.

eclecticism
The practice of selecting or borrowing from earlier styles and combining the borrowed elements.

edition
In printmaking, the total number of prints made and approved by an artist, usually numbered consecutively. Also, a limited number of multiple originals of a single design in any medium.

elevation
In architecture, a scale drawing of any vertical side of a given structure.

encaustic
A painting medium in which pigment is suspended in a binder of hot wax.

engraving
An intaglio printmaking process in which grooves are cut into a metal or wood surface with a sharp cutting tool called a burin or graver. Also, the resulting print.

entasis
In classical architecture, the slight swelling or bulge in the center of a column, which corrects the illusion of concave tapering produced by parallel straight lines.

etching
An intaglio printmaking process in which a metal plate is first coated with acid-resistant wax, then scratched to expose the metal to the bite of nitric acid where lines are desired. Also, the resulting print.

expressionism
The broad term that describes emotional art, most often boldly executed and making free use of distortion and symbolic or invented color. More specifically, Expressionism refers to individual and group styles originating in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. See also Abstract Expressionism.

eye level
The height of the viewer's eyes above the ground plane.

facade
In architecture, a term used to refer to the front exterior of a building. Also, other exterior sides when they are emphasized.

Fauvism
A style of painting introduced in Paris in the early twentieth century, characterized by areas of bright, contrasting color and simplified shapes. The name les fauves is French for "the wild beasts."

figure
Separate shape(s) distinguishable from a background or ground.

fine art
Art created for purely aesthetic expression, communication, or contemplation. Painting and sculpture are the best known of the fine arts.

flamboyant
Any design dominated by flamelike, curvilinear rhythms. In architecture, having complex, flamelike forms characteristic of fifteenth- and sixteenth-century Gothic style.

flying buttress
See buttress.

folk art
Art of people who have had no formal, academic training, but whose works are part of an established tradition of style and craftsmanship.

foreshortening
The representation of forms on a two-dimensional surface by presenting the length in such a way that the long axis appears to project toward or recede away from the viewer.

form
In the broadest sense, the total physical characteristics of an object, event, or situation.

formalist
Having an emphasis on highly structured visual relationships rather than on subject matter or nonvisual content.

format
The shape or proportions of a picture plane.

fresco
A painting technique in which pigments suspended in water are applied to a damp lime-plaster surface. The pigments dry to become part of the plaster wall or surface.

frontal
An adjective describing an object that faces the viewer directly, rather than being set at an angle or foreshortened.