impressionism, post-impressionism, and modernism

Abstract

art that does not attempt to represent external reality

Art Nouveau

an important international architectural and design movement that developed out of similar ideas to the Arts and Crafts Movement.

Bay

space between architectural elements.

Burgher

a member of a distinct social class

Capital

the molded and often decorated block that forms the top of a column.

Cloisonné

an ancient technique for decorating metalwork objects by soldering thin metal wires to a base and then filling them with colored glass paste.

Cyclops

mythological one eyed giants.

Pointillism

a system of painting that separates color into its parts and then applies the component colors to the canvas in tiny dots.

En plein air

the practice of painting outdoors and directly observing the subject in natural light.

Femme fatale

destructive temptresses of men.

Fin de siecle

a period in Western cultural history when decadence and indulgence masked anxiety about an uncertain future. 

Gesso

a primer used to prepare a surface for painting

Japonisme

the incorporation of Japanese aesthetics into European painting.

Modernism

a movement in Western art in the second half of the 19th century that sought to capture images and the sensibilities of the age.

Wainscoting

paneling on the lower part of interior walls.

Analytic Cubism

the first phase of Cubism, where artists analyzed form from every possible vantage point to combine various views into one pictorial whole.

Art Deco

geometric style from the 1920s 1930s that include stylized geometric forms and stylized organic forms mixed with geometric.

Automatism

the creation of art without conscious control.

Avant garde

Late-19th and 20th-century artists who emphasized innovation and challenged established conventions

Bauhaus

a school of architecture in Germany that emphasized the unity of art, architecture, and design.

Collage

compositions of bits of objects glued to a surface

Constructivism

an early 20th century Russian art movement that encouraged artists to build their sculptures piece by piece instead of carving or modeling them.

Crenellation

the battlements of a castle or other building

Cubism

an early 20th century art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions and preferred compositions of shapes and forms abstracted.

Dada

an early 20th century art movement prompted by the horror of World War I that embraced anarchy, irrationality, and intuition.

De Stijl

an early 20th century art movement whose members promoted utopian ideals and developed a simplified geometric style.

Die Brücke

an early 20th century German Expressionist art movement that thought of itself as the bridge between the old and the new.

Exedra

a room or arcade with a bench or seats where people may converse.

Fauves

“wild beasts” used to describe a group of young painters who exhibited canvases so simplified in design and in bright colors

Fauvism

an early 20th century art movement where color became the formal element most responsible for coherence and the conveyor of meaning.

Ferroconcrete

concrete strengthened by a skeleton of iron bars

Flying buttress

an arched structure extending from a wall to a detached pier.

Futurism

another early 20th century movement that combined many of the ideas that Cubism and Purists explored with a well defined sociopolitical agenda.

Gobelin Tapestry

famous tapestries made in Paris, France.

Gouache

a medium consisting of watercolor mixed with gum.

Happenings

a late 1950s and 1960s art movement that is characterized by improvisational, interactive, and ephemeral performance art events.

Iconoclasm

the destruction of religious artworks

Jouer

“to play”

Jouir

“to enjoy”

Mobile

kinetic sculptures that use balanced, moving parts

Modernism

a movement in Western art in the second half of the 19th century that sought to capture images and the sensibilities of the age.

Surrealism

a 20th century art and literary movement that sought to release creative potential from the unconscious mind.

Neue Sachlichkeit

a German artistic movement to presented a clear eyed, direct, and honest image of the world.

Orphism

a movement of abstraction that focused on color and form.

Photomontage

a work created by cutting and pasting images from magazines and newspapers.

Pittura Metafisica

an Italian movement of painting that was a precursor of Surrealism.

Postmodernism

A mid 20th century movement that emerged as a response to modernism while embracing irony, eclecticism, and questioning of reality

Precisionism

an American modernist art movement that emerged after World War I, which concentrated on portraying manmade environments in a clear and concise manner to express the beauty of perfect and precise machine forms.

Primitivism

the incorporation in early 20th century Western art of stylistic elements from the artifacts of Africa, Oceania, and the native peoples of the Americas.

Purism

an art movement that opposed Synthetic Cubism because it was becoming an esoteric art.

Rayograph

a camera less photograph created by placing objects onto light sensitive paper and exposing them to light

Regionalism

20th century American art movement that portrayed American rural life in a clearly readable Realist style.

Saltimbanque

a street performer, acrobat, or tumbler.

Simultaneisme

the application of 19th century theories about the perception and psychology of color to create spatial effects and kaleidoscopic movement through color contrasts.

Suprematism

an early 20th century Russian abstract art movement that is defined by its focus on fundamental geometric shapes and pure color.

Synthetic Cubism

the later phase of Cubism, where paintings and drawings were constructed from objects and shapes cut from paper or other materials to represent parts of a subject.

Usonian

inexpensive houses designed for ordinary people

Weld

joining two or more pieces of metal, plastic or other materials by heating them