Rayonism

Theory devised by the Russian painter MIKHAIL LARIONOV (1881-1964) and his wife NATALIA GONCHAROVA (1881-1962). Larionov’s manifesto (1913) stated that ‘Rayonism is a synthesis of Cubism, Futurism and Orphism’, and much of his thesis was closely linked to Futurist ideas. Colors are dispersed as light rays emanating from objects; demonstrated by parallel lines or

Realism

Realism in the NOVEL and in painting was identified and defended in mid-19th century France and applies paradigmatically to the practices of the novelists STENDHAL (1783-1842), HONORE de BALZAC (1799-1850) and GUSTAVE FLAUBERT (1821-1880); by extension, to much 19th-century English fiction. It is a mode of fictional representation which gives an illusion of a

2 Comments

Regionalism

An artistic movement that emerged during the 1930s and 1940s from the American ‘Ash Can School’ of the early decades of the century. Its subject matter was drawn from American urban provincial life. Foremost among its exponents were THOMAS HART BENTON (1889-1975), JOHN SLOAN (1871-1951) and EDWARD HOPPER (1882-1967), whose occasionally xenophobic works also

2 Comments

Richard Hamilton

British painter, trained in art in evening classes and through advertising work, then at St Martin’s School and the Royal College of Art, all in London. To this he added in 1940 a course in engineering drawing and further art study at the Slade School. In 1952-53 he taught design at the Central School

1 Comments

Robert Delaunay

His early work was dependent on impressionism and neo-impressionism; then came the impact of Cezanne and some awareness of early cubism, also an impulse towards bright color from the young Russian painter, Sonia Terk, who became his wife in 1910. From 1909 he was painting series – Saint-Severin, Eiffel Tower, The City – in which rhythmically disrupted or patterned forms

Romanticism

Movement in the arts and in artistic theory, developed principally in Germany and England. In English literature, it is mainly associated with the poets William Blake (1757-1827), WILLIAM WORDSWORTH (1770-1850), SAMUEL TAYLOR COLERIDGE (1772-1834), LORD BYRON (1788-1824), PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY (1792-1822) and JOHN KEATS (1795-1821). Romantic artists include William Blake (again), Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775-1851) and Caspar David

1 Comments

Rubenism

The view that color is of equal importance to drawing and design; exemplified in the work of the Flemish artist PETER-PAUL RUBENS (1577-1640) and championed by those opposed to poussinism in French academic circles. A success for the Rubenists was achieved when Roger de Piles was elected a member (as an amateur) of the French Academy

1 Comments

Scapigliatura

Movement in Italian art and literature, centred around Milan and typified by the novels of G ROVANI. A reaction against the UTILITARIANISM of bourgeois culture, its adherents attempted to revive the spirit of romanticism. They rebelled against academic mannerisms, and artists such as L CONCONI, L BAZARRO, C TALONE and L PREVIATI painted in a

1 Comments

Section d’or

A French term meaning ‘golden section’, this refers to an irrational proportion known since the time of EUCLID (c.3rd century BC) and once thought to possess a hidden harmonic proportion in tune with the universe. It may be defined as a line divided in such a way that the smaller part is to the

Simultaneisme

Term adopted by the French painter Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) from an 1839 publication by color theorist MICHEL EUGENE CHEVREUL (1786-1889). Delaunay sought to create an abstract art that was dependent on color alone to suggest form and movement. Simultaneity became crucial in the arts just before World War I. Multiple awareness, knowledge of things happening concurrently, and the concept

1 Comments

Situationism

This term is applied to works (particularly, large monochromatic paintings) where the spectator’s aesthetic response is determined by the intensity and saturation of color. In Great Britain, the Situation group exhibited together in 1960, its adherents including B COHEN, R DENNY, J HOYLAND and W TURNBULL. Their work was strongly related to Color Field

3 Comments

Socialist realism

The official Marxist artistic and literary movement established in the USSR in 1934. Used as a propaganda device and painted in a naturalistic and idealized style, its art was faithfully and unflinchingly to depict history and phenomena relative to Marxism, and to promote the concept of the classless society. Socialist realism is a style of idealized realistic

1 Comments

Sotto in su

An Italian term meaning ‘from below upwards’, used from the 15th to the 18th century to describe ceiling painting in which the extreme foreshortening of figures and architecture promotes the impression of objects suspended in space. Sotto in su, også skrevet sotto in sù, italiensk for «nedenfra og oppover», er en kunstfaglig betegnelse på forkortninga og den sugende dybdevirkningen

Spatialism

Movement founded by the Italian artist LUCIO FONTANA (1899-1968) as the movimento spaziale, its tenets were repeated in manifestos between 1947 and 1954. Combining elements of concrete art, dada and tachism, the movement’s adherents rejected easel painting and embraced new technological developments, seeking to incorporate time and movement in their works. FONTANA’s slashed and pierced paintings exemplify his theses.

2 Comments

Structurism

Theory developed by the American artist CHARLES BIEDER, and so named to distinguish it from an earlier concept of ‘constructionism’. With the use of abstract reliefs he attempted to synthesize qualities of painting, sculpture and architecture which he viewed as structural processes of nature. Some confusion has arisen about the application of this term

2 Comments

Sublimity

In aesthetics, the sublime (from the Latin sublīmis) is the quality of greatness, whether physical, moral, intellectual, metaphysical, aesthetic, spiritual, or artistic. The term especially refers to a greatness beyond all possibility of calculation, measurement, or imitation. Since its first application in the field of rhetoric and drama in ancient Greece it became an important concept not just in philosophical aesthetics

3 Comments

Suprematism

A movement in abstract art launched by Russian Kasimir Malevich (1878-1935). In painting, Suprematism aims for pure art using pristine geometrical shapes (particularly the square) devoid of personal feeling, but expressing ‘non-objective sensation’. Art should be non-utilitarian. In the (former) Soviet Union, such ideas greatly influenced LIUBOV POPOVA (1889-1924), Alexander Rodchenko (1891-1956), El Lissitzky (1890-1941) and Naum Gabo (1890-1977), although some moved towards industrial

4 Comments

Surrealism

A term coined by the French poet GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE (1880-1918) in 1917, and adopted as a name in the first Surrealist manifesto (1924), written by poet and critic ANDRE BRETON (1896-1966) in Paris. It included the following declaration: ‘Surrealism rests in the belief in the superior reality of certain forms of association neglected heretofore;

1 Comments

Symbolism

In art, the movement’s aims were set out by the French critic ALBERT AURIER in an article in the Mercure de France (March, 1891). He asserted that a work of art must be ‘ideaed’; that is, the expression of the idea. Symbolist, since it expresses idea through form; synthetic as its method of representation

Synchromism

Color theory proposed by the American artists STANTON MacDONALD-WRIGHT (1890-1973) and MORGAN RUSSELL (1886-1953) at joint exhibitions held in Munich and Paris. Related to the color theories of neo-impressionism and orphism, synchromism asserts that color alone provides the form and subject of a painting. Synchromism was an art movement founded in 1912 by American artists Stanton Macdonald-Wright (1890–1973) and Morgan Russell (1886–1953). Their abstract “synchromies,” based

2 Comments