Art Appreciation: World of Art, Design Elements, and Principles

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering the art world, art market roles, the GAMABA award, elements of design, and principles of design from the Art Appreciation lecture notes.

Artist

A person who creates art through fine arts (such as painting, sculpture, and music) using conscious skill and imagination.

Artisan

A craftsman who produces objects focused on functionality and commercialization (such as textiles, pottery, and furniture).

Curator

An art professional who manages collections; origin comes from the Latin word cura, meaning "to take care."

Art Dealer

A professional who brokers art sales and actively buys or sells artworks.

Art Collector

An individual who purchases works of art to build their own personal collection.

Art Consultant

A specialist who advises clients on which artworks to purchase.

The Artist's Studio

A dedicated room designed for work completion, such as a study, serving as a safe space for the artist.

The Artist's Medium

The artistic material used to create a piece, or a specific type or category of art.

The Artist's Technique

The methods, skills, and tools that an artist employs to create their work.

GAMABA

Gawad sa Manlilikha ng Bayan, or the National Living Treasures Award, institutionalized in April 1992 under Republic Act No. 7355 to recognize traditional folk artists.

Republic Act No. 7355 (R.A. 7355)

The Philippine law aimed at acknowledging the importance of traditional folk artists as conduits between past and future skills, revitalizing community artistic traditions, and establishing mechanisms to transfer their skills.

Executive Order No. 236

The Honors Code of the Philippines under which the rank and title of Manlilikha ng Bayan is officially proclaimed by the President of the Philippines.

Line

A foundational design element produced through the movement of the artist's hand, arm, or body, functioning as a kind of dance with the material.

Gesture Line

A kind of expressive line used by artists to capture movement and energy.

Contour Line

A line drawn to outline the edges of objects and define their shape.

Continuous Contour Line

A contour line executed in an unbroken fashion without lifting the drawing instrument from the canvas.

Varied Contour Lines

Lines whose weight and darkness are modulated to represent changes in an object's surface or to provide emphasis.

Crosshatching

The use of uniformly spaced intersecting lines that generally follow an object's shape to create the perception of value, light, and dark.

Implied Line

A line that is not physically drawn but is suggested by the intentional alignment of shapes, such as the perceived edges of a square within a circle.

Psychic Line

A mental connection or line that is not physically drawn, such as when lines converge beyond an artwork's edge or when two figures gaze at one another.

Expressive Content (of Line)

The property of a line that compels the viewer to follow its path, allowing its character to control the viewer's direction, speed, and attention.

Shape

A two-dimensional design element having length and width, representing the step following line on the dimensional ladder.

Mass / Volume

The final step up the dimensional ladder possessing three dimensions (length, width, and height), capable of having interior or exterior contours and an open or closed form.

Perspective

The technique used to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on a flat surface.

Linear Perspective

A geometric system for creating space discovered in fifteenth-century Italy based on regular geometric recession, utilizing a vanishing point and a horizon line.

Orthogonal Lines

Lines that appear to meet at the vanishing point and imply the regular recession of three-dimensional space on a two-dimensional surface.

Texture

An element of design describing the surface quality of an artwork, engaging both the sense of touch and vision.

Color

The most prominent and subjective element of design, recognized as one of the most powerful visual components in art.

Hue

The wavelength of a given color, where longer wavelengths appear on the red end of the spectrum and shorter wavelengths appear on the violet end.

Saturation

The purity of a color, ranging along a spectrum from a neutral gray to the pure color.

Brightness

The relative lightness or darkness of a color, ranging from fully illuminated (pure hue) to fully darkened (black).

Monochromatic

A color scheme that employs only a single color throughout the composition.

Complementary Color

Pairs of colors located directly opposite each other on the color wheel.

Analogous Color

Colors situated next to each other or occupying only one specific area on the color wheel.

Elements of Design

The physical and visual components (line, shape, mass/volume, perspective, texture, and color) used by artists to construct artworks.

Principles of Design

The organizational concepts (unity, variety, scale, proportion, balance, emphasis, movement, and rhythm) governing how visual elements are combined in an artwork.

Unity

A design principle grounded in similarity, where the visual elements or relationships between them are similar or identical.

Variety

A design principle found in difference, introducing visual contrast to complement unity.

Scale / Proportion

A design principle concerning the size of visual elements, assessed both individually and in relation to other elements.

Balance

A design principle addressing the distribution of visual "weight" within an artwork, directing the viewer's attention through lines and shapes.

Symmetrical Balance

A form of visual balance where design elements are arranged equally on either side of a central axis.

Asymmetrical Balance

A form of balance achieved when differing visual weights do not correspond directly to one another yet maintain equilibrium.

Emphasis / Movement

A design principle characterized by the deliberate use of directional forces to control viewer attention.

Rhythm / Repetition

A design principle involving the recurring use of visual elements to establish an organized pattern.