Unit IV: Subject and Content of Art Flashcards

A complete list of vocabulary flashcards covering the concepts, art styles, movements, sources, and levels of content defined in Unit IV.

Subject of Art

Refers to the main idea that is represented in the artwork, basically the essence of the piece.

Representational/Objective Art

Art that depicts objects that are commonly recognized by most people, attempts to copy what is real, uses 'form', and is concerned with 'what' is to be depicted.

Non-Representational/Non-Objective Art

Art without any reference or recognizable objects that is abstract, uses 'content', and is concerned with 'how' the artwork is depicted.

Sacred Oriental Text

A source of art subjects comprising sacred texts of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Confucianism, Zoroastrianism, Jainism, and Islam.

Realism

An artistic movement that began in France in the 1850s which describes what the eyes can see, what the ear can hear, and what faculty of sense can receive.

Abstraction

Art derived from the Latin 'abstractus' or 'abstrahere', where the artist presents the subject as their idea or feeling (exaggerated emotionalism) rather than an objective fact.

Bird in Space

A sculptural work by Constantin Brancusi intended to convey an image of grace and pace of a bird in flight.

Symbolism

An art style that uses symbols to systematically focus or amplify meaning, rendering the artwork more subjective and traditional.

Fauvism

An artistic movement derived from 'les fauves' ('the wild beasts') from the late 19th century that stressed spontaneity and the use of excessively bright colors.

Dadaism

A nonsensical art movement named after the French word 'dada' (meaning hobby-horse) that acts as an assault on convention and good taste.

Readymade

An ordinary manufactured object designated by the artist as a work of art, epitomized by Marcel Duchamp's Fountain.

Fountain

A famous 1917 readymade work consisting of a standard urinal laid flat on its back and signed 'R. Mutt 1917'.

Futurism

A modernist movement embracing the future age of technology, urban life, and the technological success of man beyond nature.

Surrealism

An offshoot of Dadaism, known as 'super' realism, which revolves around making ordinary things look exceptional and illustrating dreamlike images from the subconsciousness.

The Persistence of Memory

A 1931 Surrealist painting by Salvador Dalí famous for depicting melting clocks and using ants as a symbol of decay.

Impressionism

An art style often called optical realism because of its interest in actual visual experience, color, light, motion, and visual stimuli directly originating from nature.

Pointillism

A technique developed from Impressionism involving the use of many small dots of color to give a painting a greater sense of vibrancy and shimmering effect when seen from a distance.

Expressionism

An intense, passionate, and highly personal artistic movement where artists express their innermost feelings rather than represent the external world, characterized by violent, unreal color and dramatic brushwork.

Cubism

An art trend introduced between 1906 and 1914 that utilized geometric forms to represent what is seen, rebelling against traditional visual representation.

Guernica

Pablo Picasso's famous political statement and anti-war symbol depicting the tragedies of war and civilian suffering during the Spanish Civil War.

Social Realism

Art characterized by realism allied with social consciousness, particularly in Mexico and the US (1930-50), focusing on subjects about social problems.

Pop Art

The visual art movement of popular culture that characterized a sense of optimism during the post-war consumer boom of the 1950s and 1960s.

Op Art

Also known as optical art, a style of visual art that makes use of optical illusions.

Performance Art

An interdisciplinary presentation to an audience involving four basic elements: time, space, the performer's body/presence, and a relationship between performer and audience.

Happening

A form of avant-garde creative expression closely associated with performance art that combines elements of painting, poetry, music, dance, and theater as a live action.

Flash Mob

A group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place and perform an unusual and seemingly pointless act for a short time before quickly dispersing.

Content of Art

The meaning, message, and/or feeling imparted by a work of art, communicated through factual, conventional, and subjective levels.

Factual Meaning

According to Cleaver (1966), the literal statement or narrative content in a work that can be directly understood because the objects presented are easily recognized.

Conventional Meaning

According to Cleaver (1966), the special meaning that a certain object or color has for a particular culture or group of people.

Subjective Meaning

According to Cleaver (1966), any personal meaning consciously or unconsciously conveyed by the artist using private symbolism from past experiences.