Contemporary Art Terms 1

Hans Hoffmann

Early impresionist artist that introduces the younger generation to expressionist coloar and impressionist lines, asking what art “should” be.

Psychoanalysis and Jungian theory

Evolutions in psychoanalysis, inspired by the studies of Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud. Believed in the collective unconsciousness and exploration of the human psyche.

Existentialism

Emphasis on the individual freedom of a singular person.

Abstract Expressionism

Gestural or Colorfield. Shows tendency towards abstraction, loosely connected but mostly individualized to the artist.

Gestural Painting/”Action Painting”

Paintings where you can trace the movement the artist made involved in it’s creation.

Color-field painting

Abstract area including wide areas of flat color. 

l’art brut

Raw, self-taught art

l’art informel

art shifting towards abstract

arte povera

italian art movement focussed on the art of the poor, using easily gained materials

CoBrA

Scandinavian art scene including Copenhagen, Brussels, and Austria

Pierced Forms (sculpture)

Single form of a sculpture shifted into desired shape.

Op(tical) Art

Art that distorts vision

Fluxus movement

international group movement, wanting to recognize that the world was in flux. Art and life wer separate things that merged. Variety of mediums involved. dada poets of before were a bible, preferring art in every day spaces, anti-museum, and anti-establishment.

Encaustic

Hot wax painting

Minimalism

Features geometric, cubic, purged of metaphor/narrative, equality, balance, contributing to the Gestalt (wholeness, perceiving all things at once)