Land art

First conceived at the exhibition at the Dwan Gallery (1968), this movement is related to environment art and earth works. It rejects modern commercialization, embracing instead ecological issues through the creation of art in and with nature. Typical of this conceptual movement are the geometric arrangements in the landscape by British artist RICHARD LONG (1945- ) (for

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Lettrism

A Paris-based movement founded by Romanian-French poet ISIDORE ISOU (1925- ), who proposed incorporating letters, numerals and non-Western calligraphy into painting; fusing art with poetry to create a music of letters. Other members included G POMERAND, M LEMAITRE and R SABATIER. The Lettrism [or Letterism], founded in 1946 by Isidore Isou and Gabriel Pomerand, uses letters as “sounds” and

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Lysippan proportions

Named after Alexander the Great’s official portraitist, the Greek sculptor LYSIPPUS of SICYON (fl. c.325 BC). According to ancient tradition, he introduced a new system of proportions for the body, superseding those of POLYCLITUS (fl c. 232 BC) in which the head of a statue was made smaller in order to give the impression

Magic(al) realism

A term first used by German art historian FRANZ ROH (1890-1965) in reference to Post-Impressionism. Roh sought to distinguish this style of German painting from other contemporary objective styles (for example, neue sachlichkeit) current in the 1920s. Precise realism is contrasted with a mood of fantasy and the juxtaposition of incongruous details, as also seen

Mannerism

The Italian art historian GIORGIO VASARI (1511-1574) first coined the term maniera in reference to an effete and highly developed style now known as mannerism. This emerged in Italy from, and in reaction to, High Renaissance art, and was later disseminated in northern Europe. Seen by many as representing the degeneracy of Renaissance art,

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Marxist criticism

Prominent exponents include: CHRISTOPHER CAUDWELL (1907-1937), WALTER BENJAMIN (1892-1940), GEORG LUKACS (1885-1971), THEODOR W ADORNO (1903-1969), RAYMOND WILLIAMS (1921-1988), PIERRE MACHEREY (1938- ), FREDERIC JAMESON, TERRY EAGLETON. A number of critical approaches based on the dialectical materialism of Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Friedrich Engels (1820-1895) and other Marxist thinkers, notably Louis Althusser (1918-1990). All proceed by relating literature to the

Minimalism

An artistic trend, mainly in the USA, repudiating action painting and abstract expressionism. Minimalists use the minimum of means; favor neutral, blank canvases or mechanically produced unexpressive forms; and are opposed to all forms of illusionism. A variety of individuals and styles can be termed Minimalist, from certain works by ANDY WARHOL (1928-1987) and CLAES OLDENBURG (1929- )

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Modernism

Artistic revolution affecting all the arts throughout Europe. Modernism is generally seen as an artistic response to a range of philosophical and social changes which undermined the securities on which 19th century literature was founded, including the impact of: writings by Charles Darwin (1809-1892), Karl Marx (1818-1883) and Sigmund Freud (1856-1939); urbanisation; cultural alienation; world war.

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Movimento spaziale

Il movimento spazialista, detto anche movimento spaziale, arte spaziale e spazialismo, è un movimento artistico nato nel 1946, fondato da Lucio Fontana in Argentina in gemellaggio con la Galleria Il Cavallino di Venezia. A sua volta, questa galleria aveva stretto un forte legame con la Galleria Apollinaire di Milano, già galleria di Fontana. Descrizione Roberto Crippa, Spirali, primi anni cinquanta. Foto di Paolo Monti, 1953 Gianni Dova. Foto di Paolo

Munsell’s theory

Named after its originator, ALBERT F MUNSELL, this is a system of color notation based on the three responses of the human eye to color: perception of hue, value and chroma. Faults in the theory’s spacing of color are now being corrected and the system improved. In colorimetry, the Munsell color system is a color space that specifies colors based on

Naturalism

Naturalistic aesthetics arose out of 19th-century positivism, and were developed in literary theory above all by the French writer EMILE ZOLA (1840-1902) who spoke of the ‘experimental novel’. Rejecting the emotional emphasis of romanticism and notions of idealism and stylization, it sought to represent natural objects as they appear, acting as the mirror for nature. Its theoretical

Nazarene brotherhood

Name given to an association of artists, initiated by the German painters FRANZ PFORR (1788-1812) and FRIEDRICH OVERBECK (1789-1869), who joined together in Rome as the Lukasbruder (‘the Order of St Luke’) in July 1809. Basing their philosophy on the Art-Loving Friar by German author WILHELM HEINRICH WACKENRODER (1773-1798), they rejected academic art instruction

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Nazi art

The Nazi regime in Germany actively promoted and censored forms of art between 1933 and 1945. Upon becoming dictator in 1933, Adolf Hitler gave his personal artistic preference the force of law to a degree rarely known before. In the case of Germany, the model was to be classical Greek and Roman art, seen by Hitler as an art whose exterior form embodied

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Neo-classicism

Term used later to describe a movement beginning in the 1750s as a revival of Antique and Renaissance forms and ideals (and 17th-century classicism) throughout European art. In architecture, the classical orders and geometric forms were favored by exponents such as Sir JOHN SOANE (1753-1837). In painting, classical subject matter (especially Roman and Greek history)

Neo-impressionism

Name given to an artistic movement by the French critic FéLIX FéNéON (1861-1944) after the exhibition of Le groupe des Indépendants in 1884. Based on a color theory similar to divisionism and pointillism (all three relying on optical mixtures), the first neo-Impressionist painting was Baignade (1884) by GEORGES SEURAT (1859-1891). By applying dots of pure pigment

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Neue sachlichkeit

A German name (meaning ‘new objectivity’) for the group of artists led by OTTO DIX (1891-1969) and GEORGE GROSZ (1893-1959). They continued and emphasized the elements of social comment found in German expressionism to create works which condemned social hypocrisy, corruption and cruelty with unrelenting bitterness and realism. Their work was banned and the movement broke

Nouveau rialisme

A style named after the nouveaux rialistes (‘new realists’), a group founded by French art critic PIERRE RESTANY. JEAN TINGUELY (1925- ), YVES KLEIN (1928-1962) and ANNAN (1928- ) were adherents, rejecting traditional realism and conventional forms of paintings for the use of real materials, new lighting techniques and the recycling of artefacts. Sources: Nouveau réalisme (French: new

Nouvelle tendance

An artistic movement, the name for which originated in exhibitions called ‘Nove Tendencje’ held at the Gal. Suvremene Umjetnosti in Zagreb from 1961 and subsequent similar exhibitions in Europe and South America. Common to all the strains of the movement was an affiliation with kinetic art and programmed art, for which pure visuality and the depersonalization

Op art

Name first used at a New York exhibition, ‘The Responsive Eye’, for works using geometrical abstraction to create optical illusions. Lines (created with maximum precision) appear to move or ripple, the artists’ intention being to give the viewer an intense visual experience. Prominent exponents of Op Art include French painter VICTOR VASARELY (1908- ),

Orphism

Term used by the French poet GUILLAUME APOLLINAIRE (1880-1918) to describe paintings exhibited by Robert Delaunay (1885-1941) at the ‘Section d’Or’ exhibition in 1912 and in Berlin in 1913. Apollinaire perceived the romantic aspect of this non-representational color abstraction, which had some links with cubism and music. However, Delaunay was later to trace its links with neo-impressionism and synchromism painting, and to stress the

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