ART EXAM - Vocab Words

Fin de Siecle

A French phrase meaning “end of the century”. Referring to the 19th century and its cultural, literary and artistic climate.

Polychrome

Meaning “Multi-colored”. Refers to any painting that uses several colors.

Passage

Painting technique characterized by small, intersecting planes of patchlike brushwork that blend together to create an image.

Plein Air

A French term for painting outside as opposed to in a studio.

Positivism

Approach to art that focuses on the objective image rather than things that are magical or mystical.

Repoussoir

French term that means an object placed in the extreme foreground of a composition to help frame the scene and create a sense of depth.

Jungendstil

German and Austrian form of Art Nouveau.

Arbitrary Color

The intentional use of a specific color that is unnatural to the subject.

Ukiyo-e

A school of Japenese art depicting subjects from everyday life.

Onna-e

A picture depicting a woman or feminie side of Japan.

Rosicrucianism

Drawing from Christian Mysticism typically with roses and the cross.

Salon de Refuses

French for Exhibition of the Refused. Exhibition for those artists whose works had been refused by the jury of the official salon in 1863

Divisionism

Same term as pointillism. A technique of dots of color.

Chevreul

theorist that wrote about the idea of opposing colors next to each other would appear more vivid.

Flaneur

A leisurely urban observer who strolls through the city, absorbing and reflecting modern life.

Armory Show

First large exhibition of modern art in America, introduced americans to European art.

Color Modeling

Defining colors through a mathematical system.

Synaesthesia

When a sense activates another sense, like sound creating visual color or when an artwork represents one sense as a different sense, like representing certain sounds with color.

Lithograph

A printmaking process made by drawing an image on a flat stone or metal plate and then printing it onto paper.

Contour Line

A line that defines the outer edges, boundaries, and surfaces of an object or figure without relying on heavy shading.

Impasto

The thick build up of paint on a surface to create texture that stands out.

Animalier

Someone who depicts animals primarily in a naturalistic manner or an artist whose main focus is realistic animals.

Photojournalism

telling a story or narrative using the photography medium.

Precisionism

A style that uses sharp and clean linework with minimal details and smooth geometric shapes

Pentimento

A visible trace left over from an earlier part of the work that the artist first painted but later changed or painted over.

Nocturne

Painting that depicts night or a night scene