Art test

Academic Art

Academic Art

Favored heroic subjects from the
ancient past (especially Greece and
Rome)
 Forms should look realistic, but also
idealistic (more perfect than reality)
 Highly finished artworks
◦ Intense study of subject beforehand
◦ The use of preparatory drawings
◦ Smooth finish

Realism

a realistic appearance, but just as important is the commitment to representing social truth. They represented the lower class, hard work, the drudgery of common life, and so-called “ugliness” (at least according to the critics of this art) movement)

Impressionism

favor short, choppy brushstrokes of pure
color applied quickly and loosely to the canvas. lacked heavy social commentary. This is the first art movement to systematically break
away from surface realism!

Post Impressionism

– This movement comes after Impressionism
– It also builds on the advances of Impressionism
• As in Impressionism, these artists use bright colors and visible
brushstrokes
• But, their forms tend to be more solid than Impressionist ones
• These artists are arguably adding to Impressionism the things they
feel the movement lacks

Avant Garde

new and unusual or experimental ideas, especially in the arts, or the people introducing them. (Ahead of their time)

Pointillism

systematic application of paint (system of
dots and dashes – mechanical-looking)

Color Theory

juxtaposing complementary colors
contribute to any color’s intensity

Optical mixing

viewers mix colors simply by looking
at the work of art

Japonisme

Japanese aesthetic
• Influence of Japanese prints on Western
civilizations

Features:
- Simple spatial
constructions with flat
planes
- Juxtaposition of things
near and far (forms often cut
across the frontal plane of
the composition)
- Simplistic color harmonies
with mostly unmodulated
colors
- Linear quality – reliance on
the line
- Use of patterns (tends to
flatten space even further)
- Enhanced decorative
quality

Symbolism

Descendent of 19th century Romanticism
movement (subjectivity, emotionalism, intimacy,
spirituality) but darker
• Art should spring from the emotions / inner
spirit of the artist – a tremendous variety of style
and subjects
• Artists: Gustave Moreau, Odilon Redon, Henri
Rousseau

Still life painting

A work of art that depicts collections of objects is called “still life.”

Naive Art

usually defined as visual art that is created by a person who lacks the formal education and training that a professional artist undergoes

primitivism

strip painting of its conventions to find
something simpler, honest, wild (this is a problematic
attitude!)

Art nouveau

International art movement
-Response to industrialization (both positive
and negative)
-diversity in style, medium, art categories,
high vs. low-brow
Names: French – Art Nouveau – means
“New Art” (self-consciously new)
Germany – Jugendstil / Jugend
Austria – Secession

Arts and craft movement

elevate the
position of craftsmen, hand-made products,
traditional materials, organic forms

Art for arts sake

art liberated from
having a purpose, aesthetics are most
important, formal experimentation

femme fatale

an attractive and seductive woman, especially one who is likely to cause distress or disaster to a man who becomes involved with her.

expressionism

a painting style in which the artist or writer seeks to express emotional experience rather than impressions of the external world.

Early expressionism

• Precursors to the German Expressionism
Movement
• Worked within the Art Nouveau climate, but
these work tends to be more expressive
• How do these artists achieve more expressive art:
– Turbulent subject matters
– Rough application of paint
– Distortion/abstraction of form
• Artists include Edvard Munch, Ferdinand Hodler, James Ensor

fauves

“wild beasts,” which refers to their radical
use of color
– Art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the phrase after viewing a traditonal
statue situated amongst intensely colored paintings
– He jokingly quipped that he had seen “Donatello au milieu des
fauves.”

fauvism

Short-lived art movement (1905-1908) that had a lasting
impression on the art world
• Fauves-translates to “wild beasts,” which refers to their radical
use of color
– Art critic Louis Vauxcelles coined the phrase after viewing a traditonal
statue situated amongst intensely colored paintings
– He jokingly quipped that he had seen “Donatello au milieu des
fauves.”
• Bright colors, garish color contrast (unnatural and jarring)
– The liberation of color – builds new pictorial values apart from reality
• Goal was to return to pure form (power of color for expression,
‘primitivism’ is sought for its originality)
• Looseness of style, vigorous roughness of handling
• Expressive because of handling of paint and colors that don’t
correspond with nature (borrowed from the Post-Impressionists)

German expressionism

Northern European movement that took place in
the first few decades of the 20th century
• Emphasis on the emotional or expressive content
in a work of art (over descriptive accuracy)
• uses color, line, and visible techniques to evoke
powerful responses from the viewer
• Die Brücke and Der Blaue Reiter were the best
known in defining the German Expressionist style

Die Brucke

1905-1913
• Four bohemian young artists formed this movement in Dresden (later
moved to Berlin)
• None of these artists were academically trained: emphasized their youth
and intuition
• United by opposition to academic art and Impressionism
• Die Brücke translates to “The Bridge” in German
• Name derives from the writings of the German philosopher Friedrich
Nietzsche
• The bridge is a metaphor for the connection between the ‘barbarism’ of
the past and the modernity of the future
• Wanted to link the rich German art traditions to subjects and forms that
were thoroughly modern
• bright, often arbitrary colors and a “primitive” aesthetic
• addressed modern urban themes of alienation and anxiety, and sexually
charged themes in their depictions of the female nude

Der Blaue Reiter

1911-1914
• Based in the German city of Munich
• Translates to “The Blue Rider,” a reference to a painting /
publication of artist Vasily Kandinsky
• Group displays no single style or common stylistic principles
• Some commonalities include:
– free use of form, color, and space
– Interest in conveying intense moods and ideas through formal
experimentation
– explored the spiritual in their art, which often included
symbolism and allusions to ethereal concerns
– Mistrust of industrialization (no direct critiques like Die Brücke –
instead, there is a retreat from the city)
– philosophical approach

Non- Objective/ abstract

w/out a literal subject matter; does not take
its form from the observed world