The following key terms are copied directly from the UK Association for Art History. Additional resources include: Met Museum Keywords and MOMA Themes.
- Abstract: A term associated with early twentieth-century art which communicates meaning through lines, shapes, colours, forms, textures, rather than imitating material objects in the real world.
- Acrylic paint: A synthetic, quick-drying and versatile medium, capable of being applied thickly or thinly, but perhaps best suited to areas of flat, unmodulated color.
- Assemblage: A form of sculpture comprised of objects being assembled (put together) to create a work of art. The objects are often found objects.
- Avant-garde: Art and artists regarded to be at the forefront of artistic development because their work challenges established conventions and norms.
- Binder: Any material that binds (holds together) other materials (e.g. linseed oil in oil paint).
- Canon: Authoritative rule or criterion; accepted standard.
- Collaged: From the French coller to ‘gum’ or ‘glue’; a technique in which pasted paper or other materials are stuck down as part of or to create a whole pictorial composition.
- Complementary colors Pairs of colors which, when placed next to each other, create a strong contrast.
- Essentialism: A focus on the fundamental truth and basic elements of a person or thing.
- Found object: A natural or human-made object used in an artwork.
- Genre: French term meaning ‘kind’, ‘type’ or ‘category’. In painting a genre might be ‘still life’, ‘landscape’, ‘portrait’, ‘history painting’ and, rather confusingly, ‘genre’ (see next entry).
- Genre-genre: A painting depicting an ‘everyday’ scene.
- Glaze: A thin and transparent layer of paint applied over the top of an opaque layer.
- Hyperrealism: A detailed, accurate, life-like manner. With a capital ‘H’, a movement in painting in the late 1960s and 1970s that is an accurate and detailed imitation of the real world much like a photograph. Also referred to as Superrealism or Photorealism.
- Iconography: The study of the symbolic meaning of images in a work of art, such as particular objects, animals, plants, physical gestures, etc.
- Installation: A work of art created for a specific location, which then becomes an integral aspect of the work experienced by the viewer. This may be indoor (in a gallery or a non-art setting) or outdoor. Sometimes the viewer must physically enter the installation.
- Linear perspective: The method of representing solid, three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional surface using the optical impression that parallel lines converge as they recede to a vanishing point on a horizon or eyelevel line. This geometry allows the artist to plot the relative size of objects.
- Material: The type of material used by artists (such as oil, acrylic, bronze) and architects (such as brick and stone). Also referred to as medium.
- Medium: The type of material used by artists (such as oil, acrylic, bronze) and architects (such as brick and stone).
- Modelling: In two-dimensional work, the way artists achieve volume and a sense of three dimensional realism by shading from light to dark. It is often used inter-changeably with the more technical term chiaroscuro, although this implies a dramatic use of extreme light and dark. It can also refer to the making of a sculpture in clay, plaster or wax by adding and forming material to create form.
- Monochromatic: A term referring to objects or images with a narrow range of colors. The term is often applied when black and white is used.
- Naturalism: In art, depicting the natural appearance of things as closely as possible.
- Opacity: Describes being unable to see through, lacking transparency.
- Plane: A flat surface.
- Primary colors: In pigments, red, yellow and blue are the colors from which all other colors are derived.
- Screen printing: Also known as silkscreen printing and serigraphy. A method of printmaking which places a cut, painted or photographically applied stencil design on a screen of polyester or other fine mesh. In areas not blocked out by the stencil, printing ink is forced through the mesh (screen) onto the printing surface. A separate stencil is required for each color printing. The technique is said to have originated in China during the Song Dynasty (c.960–1279) where silk was used. Nowadays, cheaper, modern and more durable materials (such as nylon filament fiber) are used.
- Secondary colors: Colors made by mixing two primary colors to form green, orange and purple in pigments.
- Soft sculpture: A type of sculpture made using soft materials such as fabric, wool, foam and other natural or man-made non-rigid materials.
- Subject: Refers to the literal and visible topic or theme of a work. This can be almost anything, but common examples include the nude, war and animals.
- Techniques and processes: Describes the various ways artists and architects handle the materials they use.
- Tone: Relating to the quality of brightness; a shade of color.
- Truth to medium: Responding to and taking advantage of the natural and inherent properties of the medium.
