Paul Cezanne

French painter, a key figure among those who experienced impressionism and moved on to a more considered and constructive art, and for several reasons seen as the father of modern art. He was born in Aix-en-Provence and, apart from a period (1861-70) in Paris, lived and worked in and near Aix in isolation. The strength and

Paul Gauguin

French painter, whose life as well as work has been seen as representing an all-out rejection of western civilization. He was born in Paris, lived in Peru during 1851-55, and then again in France. From 1865 to 1871, he was in the merchant service and the French navy. He took up painting in 1871

Perspective

The study and theory of the scientific representation of three-dimensional objects on a two-dimensional plane, now considered to belong to the science of geometry. Although perspective painting existed in Roman art, it is only since the Renaissance that artists and theorists have attempted to give a theoretical basis (by the application of linear diagrams)

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Photo-realism

Also known as Super Realism, this is a painting style which emulates the most sharply focused photographs; using precise, undifferentiated technique with no particular psychological meaning. It grew from pop art and is best represented by the New York-based artist JOHN SALT. Photorealism is a genre of art that encompasses painting, drawing and other graphic media, in which an artist

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Picture plane

Part of the theory of perspective, as it applies to painting. This is the plane of the surface (canvas, panel) upon which the artist depicts objects, and from which these objects appear to recede or project. In painting, photography, graphical perspective and descriptive geometry, a picture plane is an image plane located between the “eye point” (or oculus) and the object being viewed and is

Picturesque

Closely related to 18th- and 19th-century concepts of the SUBLIME and romanticism, the term is derived from the Italian word pittoresco meaning ‘relating to a painter’. It originally referred to landscape scenes which appeared to be copied from paintings by French artists like CLAUDE LORRAINE (1600-1682) and NICOLAS POUSSIN (1594-1665), but later developed into the

Piet Mondrian

Dutch painter, born at Amersfoort and trained at the Amsterdam Academy. He first followed the naturalism of the Haguc school but awareness of new tendencies and also an interest in Theosophy led him to become more selective from among the form’s before him and the colors on his palette. By 1908, he was using

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Pointillism

A technique closely related to divisionism, first systematically applied by French painter GEORGES SEURAT (1859-1891) in his La Grande Jatte (1886). Following the theories of CHARLES BLANC and OGDEN N ROOD, Seurat developed a technique of applying pigment of complementary color in small dots which are additively mixed by the eye at a certain distance.

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Polyclitan school

Named after the Greek sculptor POLYCLITUS of SAMOS (fl. 5th century BC) whose works were characterized by equilibrium, rhythm and perfection. His greatest statues, the Diadumenus and the Doryphorus established the canon for correct proportions of the ideal male form. Name A Polykleitan Diadumenos, in a Roman marble copy, National Archaeological Museum of Athens His

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Pop art

This term was used for the first time in 1959 by the British-born critic LAWRENCE ALLOWAY (1926- ) in an article entitled ‘The Arts and Mass Media’. From the 1960s onwards, it was used to describe the figurative work of such British and American artists as RICHARD HAMILTON (1922- ), EDUARDO PAOLOZZI (1924- )

Post-impressionism

A name first used by British critic and painter ROGER FRY (1886-1934) for artists of the same or next generation as the Impressionists, who rejected the latters’ preoccupation with surface effects of light and color. Three artists – Paul Cezanne (1839-1906), Paul Gauguin (1848-1903) and Vincent van Gogh (1853-1890) – while benefiting from the technical achievements of the Impressionists and

Post-modernism

Term coined in its artistic sense by the American critic and architect CHARLES JENCKS (1939- ). In its application to art and, above all, architecture, Jencks identified an eclectic revival of the classical tradition, where an often ironic or ambiguous use of its elements are applied to architecture and design. Important in this trend

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Post-painterly abstraction

This was the title given to a major exhibition of American painting organized by Clement Greenberg at the County Museum of Art, Los Angeles in 1964. The use of the phrase ‘painterly’ derived from Heinrich Wolfflin’s ‘malerisch’, and was used by Greenberg in relation to a group of artists who broke away from abstract-expressionism. Resisting

Poussinism

This term refers to a preference for drawing and design over color. Exemplified by the work of NICHOLAS POUSSIN (1594-1665) and his followers amongst the artistic establishment in France in the 1670s, Poussinism was opposed to rubenism. In 1671 an argument broke out in the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture in Paris about whether drawing

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Pre-Raphaelite

Term adopted by seven British artists who organized themselves into the ‘Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood’ in 1848. They wished to return to the simplicity of painting which had existed before Italian artist RAPHAEL (1483-1520). Founding members included Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), JOHN EVERETT MILLAIS (1829-1896) and WILLIAM HOLMAN HUNT (1827-1910). Their compositions were inspired by poetry, Arthurian legend

Primitivism

A term used to describe the work of untrained ‘Sunday painters’ whose naively produced works fall outside the canon of aesthetic principles. This style is distinguished by extreme detail, overcrowded compositions, the use of brilliant and saturated color and little attention to correct perspective. A popular movement in Eastern Europe, its style is also

Process art

In its use of poor materials, this movement developed against a background of increasing concern with environmental and ecological issues. As in the arte povera movement, nature itself became art and the representation and symbolization of nature were rejected. The very insubstantiality and ephemeral nature of some materials was highlighted. Process art is an artistic movement where the end

Proportion

The mathematical and geometrical rules conditioning the relationship of the parts to each other and to the whole. Since the days of the Ancient Egyptian civilization, artists have employed some system of proportional canon. The Greek canon was established with the famous statue of Doryphorus by POLYCLITUS of SAMOS (5th century BC), and was

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Purism

Purismo was an early 19th-century movement in Italian art and literature, advocating a return to the pure forms of the Renaissance. Whilst allied to neo-classicism, it sought greater spirituality and was closer to the nazarene brotherhood. The theorist was ANTONIO BIANCHINI; the leading painter, T MINARDI (1787-1871), and the leading sculptor, PIETRO TENERANI (1789-1869). Purism, referring

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Purism (of ‘machine art’)

Movement based on the aesthetic of ‘machine art’, founded in Paris by Amédée Ozenfant (1886-1966) who, with CHARLES-EDOUARD JEANNERET (Le Corbusier) (1887-1965), published Apres le Cubisme in 1918 and collaborated on a periodical called L’Esprit Nouveau (1920-1925). Purists admired machine-made objects and the avoidance of emotion, and had similar aims to the German bauhaus movement. After 1925, the