AH III Final Exam Vocab

The Independent Group (at the Institute of Contemporary Art, London)

The roots of British pop art lie in the establishment of the Independent Group in 1952. They were meeting for discussions in the Institute of Contemporary Art in London. They concentrated on aspects of contemporary mass culture, its impact
on art, and particularly its current manifestations in the United States

Combine painting

A term used by Robert Rauschenberg
to describe his works that combined painting and sculpture. Later on, it is called assemblages (more known as assemblage)

Assemblage

An artwork (usually in 3D) that includes in its composition everyday
objects. These non-art objects acquire symbolic-aesthetic significance while partially retaining their original identity

Happening

An event that may combine elements of visual arts, theater, dance, and music. Happenings are limited in time, and are usually staged and directed by the artist, but they often involve audience participation as well. Many different goals for happenings

"Fine art/popular culture continuum"

A concept by Lawrence Alloway, viewing "high art" (fine art) and "low culture" (popular expression like advertising, comics) not as separate, but as linked points on a spectrum, where art draws from mass media, and vice versa.

Stain painting (or staining)

Painting on an unprimed canvas- the paint sinks in, and does not rest on top

Seriality

Objects that repeat the same form (think Warhol)

De-skilling

Eliminate the skill of art making. The philosophy is more important than the art itself

“Dematerialization of the art object” Lucy Lippard

Minimalism and Conceptualism lay ground for a variety of art practices (almost all originating in the 1960s) that shift focus away from a material object as the final goal in art

Self-reflexivity

It is the art about the conditions of making, perceiving, and exhibiting art

Entropy

The increase in disorder. This term originally comes from physics (the second law of thermodynamics), where it
describes the inevitability of the dissipation of more complex organizational forms into simple and basic ones

Site-specificity

Means that a project cannot be moved. The site itself is important to the piece

Anarchitecture

Combines both "architecture" and "anti-architecture," order and destruction, making and undoing. Like Smithson with entropy, but he felt like it should go further, and he should do the destruction, not leave it up to nature

"Social Sculpture" – Joseph Beuys

Expanded art that Joseph Beuys developed in the
1970s. It refers to Beuys’s idea that everything is art. The whole life is art, and everyone has the potential to be an artist. Includes human actions and seeks to transform society and the environment

“Relational Aesthetics”

The type of art whose goal is to create human relations,
communities, collaborations, or a sense of togetherness

Feminism

Advocacy for women’s rights and equality within the social, economic and political spheres. The feminist movement in the United States began in the 1960s

Decolonialism (postcolonialism)

The effects of colonialism and imperial oppression.
Most frequently postcolonialism focuses on the impact on the cultures that were colonized, and examines the experiences of colonizer-colonized encounters, shared histories, emergence of new identities, and persistence of certain stereotypes

Hybridity

Hybridity in art is the fusion of two or more distinct elements—like cultures, mediums, techniques, or disciplines—to create new, complex forms that challenge traditional boundaries and reflect a blended, interconnected world

The "Decisive Moment" aesthetics

The simultaneous recognition, in a fraction
of a second, of the significance of an
event as well as the precise organization
of forms which give that event
its proper expression

Exhibition "Pictures," Artists Space, New York, 1977; curated by Douglas Crimp

An exhibition of appropriation art curated by Douglas Crimp, Artists Space, New York. Artists: Troy Brauntuch, Jack Goldstein, Sherrie Levine, Robert Longo, and Philip Smith

Postmodernism

The techniques of pastiche (appropriating/imitating), quotation, and appropriation are strongly associated with postmodern art and culture