Art History Terms 3

Neoclassicism

style of art and architecture that emerged in mid- 18th century; adopted themes and styles from ancient Greece and Rome

 Romanticism

• 1815-1840

• emphasis on emotion, passion, and has exotic, mysterious, or violent subject matter

• power of nature over enlightenment rationality

Orientalism

constellation of false assumptions underlying Western attitudes toward North Africa and the Middle East

Sublime

involves an exaltation of the soul in response to the power and beauty of the world; a feeling of awe inspired by power and vastness

Odalisque

French term that refers specifically to a concubine or female slave in a harem; popular subject in 19th -20th century art, usually nude or semi-nude, posing as if on display for (presumed) male viewer

Harem

women’s quarters in a Muslim leader’s house hold

Realism

• 1840-end of 19th century

• Depictions of everyday lives of the working class

• Attempt to convey truthful, objective vision of contemporary life

• Unidealized, ordinary, based on direct observation

• Challenged the idealized style and subject matter of Neoclassical and Romantic art

Lithography

A print made by drawing on a flat limestone block with a greasy crayon, then wetting the stone and applying greasy ink, which adheres only to the drawn lines. Dampened paper is applied to the stone and run through a press to make the print

Photography

Invented in 1826 by Joseph Nicéphore Niépce

Daguerreotype

• coating a copper plate in silver and sensitizing it with

  iodine

• shortens exposure time and a better way to fix the image

Calotype

• involves a negative and positive image

• like using a negative to shine the light to make a positive

Wet-plate photography

• Involved fixing a substance known as “gun cotton” (cotton soaked in nitric and sulfuric acid, then dried) onto a glass plate

• even shorter exposure tiems

Salon

official art exhibition organized by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture and its successor, the Academy of Fine Arts; most influential art event in the western world in the 18th and 19th centuries

Modernism

refers to art after the Industrial Revolution; from ca.1850 to 1960 (Realism through Abstract Expressionism

Impressionism

art movement that sought to capture a fleeting moment, conveying the elusiveness and impermanence of images and conditions

En plein air

Working outdoors, artists used rapid brushstrokes to quickly capture effects

of light and color on the atmosphere (impressionism)

Japonisme

term refers to the fashion for Japanese art in the West and to Japanese

influence on Western art and design following the opening of (formerly isolated) Japan to world trade in 1853.

Post impressionism

catch-all term referring to the stylistically heterogenous work of late- nineteenth century artists, primarily in France. artists more systematically examined the properties and expressive qualities of line, pattern, form, and color and moved away from naturalistic depiction

Impasto

Paint applied thickly, so it stands out in relief on the painted surface

Symbolism

• Late nineteenth-century movement that advocated the expression of an idea over the realistic description of the natural world

• Rejected realistic depiction of natural world in favor of imaginary dream worlds populated by mysterious figures from literature, the bible, and and Greek mythology

Arts and Crafts Movement

1861 aimed to improve the quality of design and make it available to the

widest possible audience

Founders were disenchanted with the impersonal, mechanized direction of society in the 19th century

Art Nouveau

international style in architecture and design that emerged

in the 1890s and is characterized by sinuous lines and flowing organic shapes based on plant forms

fin-de-siècle

characterized by a blend of sophistication, decadence, world-weariness, and intense anxiety regarding the future of the late 19th century

Fauvism

• early 20th century

• focused on expressive potential of color

• Pure vivid color, bold dynamic brushstrokes, simplified forms, lively patterns

Expressionism

early 20th century art movement in which the image of reality is distorted in order to make it expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas

• focuses on visually describing the empirical world

Cubism

early 20th -century art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions, preferring compositions of shapes and forms abstracted from the conventionally perceived world.

• motifs are fragmented and re-assembled, with multiple views coexisting within the same picture.

Orphism

• cubist influenced painting style from around 1912

• incorporates concepts from color theory and interlocking or overlapping patches of contrasting or complementary colors

Futurism

Italian art movement of the early twentieth century that aimed to capture in art the dynamism and energy of the modern world

• Futurism glorified modernity, speed, technology, youth, and violence

Suprematism

Characterized by basic geometric forms, such as circles, squares, lines, and rectangles, painted in a limited range of colors

• started 1913

Dada

‘anti-art’ movement formed during World War I in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and folly of the war

• Aimed to destroy traditional values in art