Art History Exam Definitions Sem 2

Appropriation

borrow and re-use pre-existing images to create new meaning

Avant-garde

art new or radical for the time

Baroque art/architecture

a highly ornate, dramatic style originating in Rome to promote Counter-Reformation ideals, later spreading across Europe and the Americas

Chiaroscuro

light, contrast between light and dark, models figures, depth and volume

Co-extensive space

compositional device bring subject into viewer’s space

Counter-reformation

reaction by Catholic and Protestant Church to the Reformation

Curtain wall

architectural feature, outer wall hangs from steel structure

DADA

Art movement rejecting tradition - rejection of reason and logic in face of chaos

Deconstructivism

postmodern architectural movement characterized by fragmentation of form; questions conventional or traditional architecture forms’ harmony and order

Form follows function

exterior form determined by what it was designed to do (function)

Iconography

images with meaning

Industrial Revolution

19th early 20th c. - period in which changes took place in manufacturing moving society from agrarian to industrial

International Style

a major 20th-century architectural movement (1920s–1970s) characterized by minimalist, functional designs using steel, glass, and concrete

Modernism

reaction to, solutions for modernity (conditions of modern life) - order, truth, idealism

Naturalism

more human, as would appear in real life

Optical painting/mixing

 painting technique where colors are placed side-by-side or layered in thin, allowing the viewer's eye to blend them from a distance rather than physically mixing pigments

Pop Art

a mid-1950s/60s art movement that revolutionized art by incorporating imagery from popular culture, such as advertising, comic books, and mundane consumer products

Postmodern theory

skepticism toward universal truths, absolute knowledge, and grand narratives

Readymade

existing object presented as art

Realism

subject matter blunt depiction of everyday life

Revisionism

reexamines, reinterprets established ideas, questions historical “truths”

Tenebrism

a dramatic Baroque painting technique characterized by violent contrasts of light and dark, where darkness is the dominant feature.