Avant-Garde
late 19th and 20th century artists who emphasized innovation and challenged established convention in their work
Japonisme
the French fascination with all things Japanese
Modernism
an art movement that sought to capture images and sensibilities of the age (Impression:Sunrise)
Impressionism
art movement that sought to capture a fleeing moment, thereby conveying the elusiveness and impermanence of images and conditions
Post-Impressionism
term used to describe pieces that more systematically examined the properties and expressive qualities of line, pattern, form, and color (A Sunday on La Grande Jatte)
Pointillism
a system of painting in which the artist separates color into its component parts and then applies the component colors to the canvas in tiny dots.
Abstract
forms and colors arranged without reference to the depiction of the object
Cubism
art movement that rejected naturalistic depictions, preferring compositions of shapes and forms abstracted from the conventionally perceived world.
Futurism
art movement that championed war as a cleansing agent and that celebrated the speed and dynamism of modern technology (Armored Train)
Readymade
ordinary objects that an artists chooses to become art (Fountain)
Automatism
the process of yielding oneself to instinctive motions of the hands after establishing a set of conditions within which a work is to be created
Primitivism
the incorporation in early 20th century Western art of stylistic elements from the artifacts of Africa, Oceania, and the native peoples (The Portuguese)
Collage
a composition made by combining on a flat surface various materials, such as newspaper, wallpaper, printed text and illustrations, photographs, and cloth
Dada
art movement that embraced political anarchy, the irrational, and the intuitive. (Cut with the Kitchen Knife Dada Through the Last Weimar Beer-Belly Cultural Epoch of Germany)
Surrealism
incorporated the improvisational nature of its predecessor into its exploration of the ways to express in art the world of dreams and the unconscious. (The Persistence of Memory)
Drip Painting
form of abstract art in which paint is dripped or poured on a canvas
Action Painting
the kind of abstract expressionism practiced by Jackson Pollock, in which the emphasis was on the creation process, the artist's gesture in making art. (Number 1, 1950)
Abstract Expressionism
The first major American avant garde movement; artists produced abstract paintings that expressed their state of mind and that they hoped would strike emotional chords in the viewers. (Number 1, 1950)
Gestural Painting
a kind of abstract painting in which the gesture, or act of painting, is seen as the subject of the art. (Jackson Pollock)
Pop Art
art that incorporated elements from consumer culture, the mass media, and popular culture, such as images from motion pictures and advertising (just what makes today's homes so different, so appealing?)