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F
Fauves
originally a derogatory term (Les Fauves) meaning "wild beasts",
used of a group of painters who exhibited at the Salon d' Automne in Paris
in 1905, including Matisse; hence Fauvism, Fauvist.
fin de Siecle
late 19th-century style of ART NOUVEAU, also associated with the SYMBOLIST
and DECADENT movements.
Futurism
Italian artistic movement founded in 1909 by Philippo Marinetti, which
exalted the modern world of machinery, speed, and violence.
G
Geometric Abstraction
loose and somewhat inaccurate term for abstract art in which the image
is composed of non-representational geometric shapes. It has been used
of various artists and movements, including the Suprematists, Piet Mondrian,
and Ben Nicholson.
Georgian
General term describing the styles of art associated with the reigns of
King George I, II, II and IV in Britain (1714-1830), notably in architecture,
silver, furniture, and silver. Its unifying atrribute is a certain classical
restraint and harmony.
Gothic
the last period of medieval art and architecture. Early Gothic usually
refers to the period 1140-1200; High Gothic c.1200-50; late Gothic from
1250. "Gothic" was used in the RENAISSANCE as a pejorative adjective
for medieval architecture.
Graffiti Art (1970s onwards)
Also referred to as "Writing", "Spraycan Art" and
"Aerosol Art", Graffiti is a movement or style of art associated
with hip-hop, a cultural movement which sprang up in various American
cities, especially on New York subway trains, during the 1970s and 1980s.
Later it spread to Europe and Japan and eventually crossed over from the
street into the gallery. Its most famous exemplar was Jean-Michel Basquiat.
Gruppo Origine
Italian group founded in Rome by Alberto Burri, Ettore Colla, Giuseppe
Capogrossi and Mario Ballocco, in response to the disagreeably decorative
quality of abstract art at the time. In their initial manifesto they proclaimed
a return to fundamentals, notably by renouncing three-dimensional forms,
restricting colour to its simplest, and by evoking elemental images. Began
and ended during 1951.
Gutai (concrete) (1954-72)
The Gutai Bijutsu Kyokai (Gutai Art Association), a Japanese avant-garde
group, was founded in 1954 in Osaka by Yoshihara Jiro, Kanayma Akira,
Murakami Saburo, Shiraga Kazuo, and Shimamoto Shozo. Held a number of
public exhibitions in 1955 and 1956, with works prefiguring later Happenings
and Performance and Conceptual art. According to art historian Yve-Alain
Bois, the group's activities constituted one of the most important moments
of post-war Japanese culture.
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H-J
Hard edge painting
term coined in 1959 to describe ABSTRACT (but not geometric) painting,
using large, flat areas of colour with precise edges.
Harlem Renaissance
An African-American artistic movement centered in the Harlem borough of
New York City, and originally known as the New Negro Movement, it had
a profound influence throughout the United States. Influential members
were William H. Johnson, Lois Mailou Jones and the sculptor and printmaker
Sargent Claude Johnson, as well as Jacob Lawrence, Archibald Motley and
Romare Bearden.
Hudson River school
group of American landscape painters, working from 1825 to 1875. Includes
Thomas Doughty, Thomas Cole, Asher B. Durand, J. F. Kensett, Henry Inman,
Jasper Cropsey, and Frederick E. Church.
Humanism
A cultural and philosophical movement of the Italian Renaissance, focusing
on the capabilities of human beings as opposed to the abstract concepts
and problems of science or theology.
Hyper-Realism
Also known as Super-Realism or Photo-realism, it describes a form of 1970s
hyper-realistic sculpture and painting as exemplified by Chuck Close,
Richard Estes, Audrey Flack, and Ralph Goings.
Impressionism
19th-century French art movement, from 1874. Various artists such as Pissarro,
Monet, Renoir, and Sisley, were linked by their common interest in capturing
immediate visual impressions, and an emphasis on light and colour; hence
Impressionist; Impressionistic.
Independent Group
The name of a radical association of young avant-garde painters and sculptors
within the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London, who was responsible
for the dissemination of the basic tenets of British Pop art during the
late 1950s. Leading participants included Richard Hamilton, Nigel Henderson,
Eduardo Paolozzi and William Turnbull, as well as critics Lawrence Alloway
and Rayner Banham, and the architects Colin St John Wilson, and Alison
and Peter Smithson.
Intimism
French genre painting of domestic, intimate interiors, such as the work
of Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard; hence intimiste.
Jacobean Art
General artistic idiom associated with the culture of the reign of James
I (reigned 1603-25) notably in theatre as well as painting. Leading exemplars
include the eminent Elizabethan miniaturist Nicholas Hilliard and the
Dutch born artists Paul Van Somer and Daniel Mytens the Elder.
Jugendstil
German term for ART NOUVEAU.
K
Kitchen Sink art
term originally used as the title of an article by David Sylvester in
the journal Encounter refering to the work of the realist artists known
as the Beaux Arts Quartet, John Bratby, Derrick Greaves, Edward Middleditch
and Jack Smith.
L
London Group
group of English artists who were influenced by Post-Impressionism, and
who exhibited together from 1913.
Luminism
term applied to American landscape painters of the Hudson River School
from about 1830-70, as many of their paintings were dominated by intense,
dramatic light effects. A form of Luminism underlies Whistler's 'Nocturnes'.
Lyrical abstraction
term coined by the French painter George's Mathieu in 1947 to describe
the more decorative style of L'Art Informel and abstract expressionism.
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M
Magic Realism
term invented by German photographer, art historian and art critic Franz
Roh to describe late 19th early 20th realist paintings with fantasy or
dream-like subjects.
Mannerism
artistic style originating in Italy c.1520-90 that tends to employ distortion
of figures, and emphasize an emotional content: hence Mannerist.
Metaphysical painting (It. Pittura Metafisica)
movement of c.1915-18 associated with the painter Giorgio de Chirico;
partly a reaction against Futurism.
Mexican Muralism
Term applied to the resurgence of large-size public mural painting in
Mexico during the 1920s and 1930s, as practised by the left-wing artists
Diego Rivera, Jose Clemente Orozco, and David Alfaro Siqueiros.
Minimalism
A non-representational style of painting, sculpture and architecture in
the late 1960s, which was severely restricted in its use of visual elements
and limited itself to simple geometric shapes or masses.
Modern Realism
An umbrella term covering a style of painting and sculpture that emerged
under Courbet and Millet during mid-19th century France, and which continues
to this day. Encompasses early 20th century styles like Post-Impressionist
art, the Neue Sachlichkeit movement and Magic Realism. In America it was
exemplified by the Ashcan School, American Regionalism, and the works
of Edward Hopper. In Britain, modern realist schools included the Euston
Road and the British Kitchen Sink artists. Also includes individuals like
Balthus, Freud, the portraiture of Hockney, Gwen John, Morandi, and Spencer.
Munich Secession
withdrawal in 1892 of German artists in Munich from the traditional institutions;
it remained relatively conservative, and was followed by the VIENNA SECESSION
(1897) and the BERLIN SECESSION (1908).
N
Nabis (Fr. Les Nabis)
group of French artists working from c.1892 to 1899, influenced by Gauguin
in their use of colour and lightly exotic decorative effects. They included
Pierre Bonnard, Jean-Edouard Vuillard, Felix Vallotton and Paul Serusier.
Nazarenes
group of German painters working in Rome in the early 19th century; inspired
by Northern art of the 15th and early 16th centuries.
Neoclassicism
the late 18th-century European style, lasting from c.1770 to 1830, which
reacted against the worst excesses of the BAROQUE and ROCOCO, reviving
the Antique. It implies a return to classical sources which imposed restraint
and simplicity on painting and architecture.
Neo-Dada
term often used to describe works by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns
in New York in the late 1950s because of their use of collage, assemblage
and found materials, and their apparent anti-art agenda.
Neo-Gothic
revival of the Gothic style in 18th-century England, especially in architecture.
Neo-Impressionism
the development of IMPRESSIONISM through Georges Seurat's scientific analysis
and treatment of colour; see DIVISIONISM; POINTILLISM.
Neo-Plasticism
a rigid Dutch style of Abstraction, based on rectangles, horizontal and
vertical lines founded by Piet Mondrian in the early 1920s.
Neo-Romanticism
broad term for several 20th-century European art movements that draw on
mystical, dreamlike subjects; expressive, emotional forms; and Surrealism.
Neue Kunstlervereinigung (Ger. "New Artists' Association")
founded in Munich in 1909 with Wassily Kandinsky as president, and influenced
by the Munich JUGENDSTIL and Fauvism. Kandinsky and Franz Marc later formed
the BLAUE REITER group.
Neue Sachlichkeit (New Objectivity)
German modern realist movement of the 1920s founded by Otto Dix and George
Grosz, who vividly depicted the corruption and hedonism in Germany during
the 1920s.
New Bauhaus
the Bauhaus founded in Chicago by Laszlo Moholy-Nagy, which later became
the Institute of Design.
New English Art Club
antiacademic, pro-Impressionist art club founded in 1886. Its founder
members included Walter Sickert and Wilson Steer.
Newlyn School
Led by Stanhope Alexander Forbes and Frank Bramley, the artists who settled
in the West Cornish town of Newlyn from the early 1880s pursued the Impressionist
derived pleinairism doctrine of working directly from nature.
New Realism (or Nouveau Realisme)
term coined in 1960 by the French critic Pierre Restany for art derived
partly from DADA and SURREALISM, which reacted against more abstract work,
especially by using industrial and everyday objects to make junk art or
sculpture.
New Spirit Painting
Synonymous with Neo-Expressionism and its sub-cultures of Neue Wilden
and Transavanguardia, its name being derived from the 1981 Royal Academy
Exhibition "A New Spirit in Painting", the movement promoted
certain styles of contemporary British expressionism. Participants included
the American painters David Salle and Eric Fischl, as well as British
painters Paula Rego, Stephen McKenna, Stephen Campbell and the abstract
Irish-American painter Sean Scully.
New York School
the core of Abstract EXPRESSIONISM in New York in the 1940s and early
1950s including Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning, and Mark Rothko.
Northern Renaissance
Western art from Northern Europe (eg. Flanders, Holland, Germany, Britain)
of the period c 1420-1600.
Norwich School
Important English school of landscape painting, dating from 1803, led
by John Crome and John Sell Cotman.
New Subjectivity (Nouvelle Subjectivité)
Name applied by the French curator and art historian Jean Clair, to a
1976 international art show at the Musée National d'Art Moderne
at the Pompidou Centre in Paris. The exhibition showcased works by American,
British and European artists who rejected the dominant and highly fashionable
styles of abstraction and conceptualism, preferring a return to depicting
the reality of things. Leading practitioners included David Hockney, R
B Kitaj, Samuel Buri, Christian Zeimert, Michel Parre and Sam Szafran.
Il Novecento Italiano
Italian artist group founded in 1922 by Funi, Sironi, Carra and others,
with the aim of promoting large format history painting in the classical
manner. Launched in 1923 in Milan, the group quickly split and reformed,
staging its first group show in Milan in 1926.
Objective Abstraction
A style of non-geometric form of abstract art practised by a group of
British artists in the early 1930s, notably in the 1934 show entitled
Objective Abstraction staged at the Zwemmer Gallery in London, whose participants
included Graham Bell, William Coldstream, Rodrigo Moynihan, and Geoffrey
Tibble.
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