Abstract art

Synonymous with ‘abstraction’, this term has been employed since the first decades of the 20th century to describe non-representational painting; a style which persists today. Although elaborated upon and refined in its precise manifestations, abstract art essentially comprises non-figurative art, as first exemplified by the color abstracts of Russian painter WASSILY KANDINSKY (1866-1944) around

Abstract expressionism

An artistic movement whose title was first used by the American critic ROBERT MYRON COATES (1897-1973) in the New Yorker magazine to describe contemporary painting in New York. Its roots lie in surrealism and automatism, from which it adopted and developed theories of improvisation, spontaneity and the importance of the process of artistic creation. Stylistically, the painters

Action painting

Term invented by the American art critic HAROLD ROSENBERG, with reference to abstract expressionism. It was used to describe the approach of American artists such as Willem de Kooning (1904-1997) and JACKSON POLLOCK (1912-1956), whose works emphasized the actions of artistic creation. Background The style was widespread from the 1940s until the early 1960s, and is closely

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Actualism

Term first employed by French writer ALAIN JOUFFREY to account for the effect of revolutionary situtations on art, for instance during the Paris riots in May 1968. During such events the division between art and social reality ceases to exist, and its significance or irrelevance is made manifest. In analytic philosophy, actualism is the view that everything

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Pioneer Artists

Artist n A person who employs creative talent to produce works of art. History Pioneer Works was founded by artist Dustin Yellin who purchased a colossal brick building in Red Hook in 2010.[2] Yellin’s artistic aim was to improve the culture as a whole, and he sought to provide a place where a variety of thinkers and artists could

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Aerial perspective

The illusion of recession through the depiction of atmospheric effects. In painting, distant landscapes or objects appear progressively fainter, cooler in hue and less distinct in outline. The technique is recognizable in the landscape backgrounds of LEONARDO DA VINCI (1452-1519), and in Chinese landscape painting. Aerial perspective, or atmospheric perspective, refers to the effect the atmosphere has

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Aestheticism

An awareness of aesthetics in British artistic and literary society in the late 19th century. Although it had no manifesto, the Aesthetic Movement, led by figures such as American artist JAMES WHISTLER (1834-1903) and Irish writer OSCAR WILDE (1854-1900), was important for its cult of ‘art for art’s sake’ which pervaded all forms of

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Alexander Calder

Alexander Calder was born in 1898, the second child of artist parents – his father was a sculptor and his mother a painter. Because his father Alexander Stirling Calder received public commissions, the family traversed the country throughout Calder’s childhood. Calder was encouraged to create, and from the age of eight he always had

Alexander Rodchenko

Russian artist, photographer and designer. He is one of the leaders of the new Soviet art after 1917, but from 1930 on relatively ignored though not wholly unemployed. He studied art in Kazan (where he met his wife, Varvara Stepanova) and St Petersburg, and in 1915 moved to Moscow to join the avant-garde circles

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All-over painting

Term used for a non-formal style of American painting in which no differentiation is made between areas of the painted surface of a canvas; as exemplified by the color field painters or the ‘drip paintings’ of American artist JACKSON POLLOCK (1912-1956). All-over painting refers to the non-differential treatment of the surface of a work of two-dimensional art,

Amedee Ozenfant

French painter, trained in his native Saint-Quentin and in Paris. He became interested in Cubism but thought it confused and unstructured. In 1917 he allied himself to Le Curbusier. They published the book After Cubism in 1918, launching Purism Which they further discussed and contex-tualised in the journal L’Esprit Nouveau, (1920-25), and summarized in

Antonio Canaletto

Venetian vedute painter working largely for the English markel and mainly resident in England 1746-55. He trained first as a scene painter under his father Bernardo Canal, and worked with his father and brother Cristoforo in theatres in Venice and Rome, 1719-20. Little is known of his training in easel painting, although he must

Antonio Canova

Italian sculptor, a dominant figure in Western art in his day. Born near Venice, he settled in Rome in 1781 – where he soon belonged to an international group of neoclassical artists intent in revolutionary change. Public commissions showed him chastening his originally lively, naturalistic style in search of the beauty afforded by clear

Arte mat

The name given by Italian artists Giorgio de Chirico (1888-1978) and Carlo Carra (1881-1966) to the style of painting that resulted from their encounter at the military hospital in Ferrara in 1917. In English it is often referred to as ‘metaphysical painting’. Although short-lived and not strictly a school, according to de Chirico’s brother ALBERTO SAVINIO (1891-1952), its

Arte povera

An Italian art movement which began after a similarly named exhibition (Turin, Mus. Civ.) organized by critic Germano Celant. Relations with conceptual art and minimalism are evident, but its most typical expression is the happening. Practitioners refuse to recognize the ‘product’ or ‘work’, concentrating on the process rather than the result. This term also refers to the base materials

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Art informel

A French term meaning ‘art without form’, this was adopted by the critic MICHEL TAPIE to describe abstract painting (similar to American abstract expressionism) opposed to the rigor of cubism or the geometrical abstraction of de stijl and suprematism, where the artist’s emotions and subconscious fantasies are expressed. Pioneers of this movement were the German painter WOLS (1913-1951) and French

Art of the Third Reich

Following the rise to power of Nazi leader Adolf Hitler (1889-1945), German art came under the tight control of Paul Joseph Goebbels (1897-1945). As propaganda minister, he brought artists under the control of the Reichskulturkammer, which body decreed that all forms of art should be racially conscious. The art which was subsequently produced until

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Arts and crafts movement

A name coined by the English printer and bookbinder Thomas Cobden-Sanderson (1840-1922), a member of the Arts and Crafts Exhibition Society, for a philosophy which proved significant in the development of British design at the end of the 19th century. Espousing an idealistic approach to design and the arts, the movement, whose champions included

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Asymmetry

A term referring to the absence of symmetry in a painting or object. In order to achieve a realistic effect, a certain degree of asymmetry is necessary; for instance, in the representation of the human face, which exemplifies the lack of absolute symmetry in nature. This lack of symmetry was exploited in Baroque and

Automatism

This term describes both the aims and methods of surrealism in allowing unconscious images and chance effects to form a work; for example, the use of ink blots by French painter FRANCIS PICABIA (1879-1953). The principle was adopted by the New York Surrealists of the 1940s and provided the basis for action painting, art informel; and, particularly, a