ap art history pre unit

Vanitas

a still-life painting of a 17th-century Dutch genre containing symbols of death or change as a reminder of their inevitability.

momento mori

Latin, "reminder of death." In painting, a reminder of human mortality, usually represented by a skull.

Printmaking

process in which an artist repeatedly transfers an original image from one prepared surface to another

History Painting

Paintings based on mythological or biblical narratives. Once considered the noblest form of art. They generally convey a high moral or intellectual idea and are often painted in a grand pictorial style.

facture

The quality of the execution of a painting; an artist's characteristic handling of the paint.

Impasto

painting that applies the pigment thickly so that brush or palette knife marks are visible

Cubism

an early 20th-century style and movement in art, especially painting, in which perspective with a single viewpoint was abandoned and use was made of simple geometric shapes, interlocking planes, and, later, collage.

geometricize

to draw, design, or form in geometrical shapes or patterns.

Narrative

The telling of a story or an account of an event or series of events.

Iconography

the images and symbolic representations that are traditionally associated with a person or a subject

Action Painting

an abstract painting in which the artist drips or splatters paint onto a surface like a canvas in order to create his or her work

Color Field Painting

A technique in abstract painting developed in the 1950s. It focuses on the lyrical effects of large areas of color, often poured or stained onto the canvas. Newman, Rothko, and Frankenthaler painted in this manner.

Perspective

development in the Renaissance that included realistic three-dimensional perspective, mathematical system of depicting naturalistic 3d space on a 2d surface

shifting perspective

Divides work into foreground and background. Details in the foreground reach back to middle area, background seems suspended behind middle space.

Daoism

Chinese religion that believes the world is always changing and is devoid of absolute morality or meaning. They accept the world as they find it, avoid futile struggles, and deviate as little as possible from 'the way' or 'path' of nature.

Assemblage

An art form in which the artist mixes and/or assembles "found objects," such as scraps of paper, cloth, or junk, into a three-dimensional work and then adds paint or other decorations to it.

Readymade

an everyday object presented as a work of art

the gaze

who is looking at whom in an image, relationship between viewer and viewed, traditionally referenced power and social dymanics

Installation Art

The combining of elements into a singular artwork that is specifically located in one place; an artwork that exists only in the place in which it was/is installed, and is not able to be relocated like a painting or print.

kitsch

art, objects, or design considered to be in poor taste because of excessive garishness or sentimentality, but sometimes appreciated in an ironic or knowing way. Cheesy, low class items available through mass production and marketing

Cultural Revolution

(1966-1976) Political policy in started in China by Mao Zedong to eliminate his rivals and train a new generation in the revolutionary spirit that created communist China. The Cultural Revolution resulted in beatings, terror, mass jailings, and the deaths of thousands along with the destruction of traditional and academic elements of society.

Chairman Mao

Leader of the Chinese Communist Party from the 1930s to his death in 1976. He instituted many far-reaching but ill-advised reforms which led to some modernization and collectivization, but caused untold famine, death, and terror.

dissident

rebel

genre painting

a style of painting depicting scenes from ordinary life, especially domestic situations.

Hierarchy of Genres

1.history painting, 2.portraits, 3.genre scenes, 4.landscape, 5.still life, formalization which ranks different genres in an art form in terms of their prestige and cultural value