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Visit the page called Welcome to the Fine Arts Glossary for an explanation of how to use this table: click here.
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Visit the page called Welcome to the Fine Arts Glossary for an explanation of how to use this table: click here.
| Term | Definition |
| a la poupée | The French term used for a method of coloring an intaglio plate by hand. Contrary to usual methods of color printing, the different colors are all applied on one plate with the aid of a stump of rag, known as a poupée (or doll). |
| ABC art | A 1960's art movement and style that attempts to use a minimal number of textures, colors, shapes and lines to create simple three-dimensional structures. Also known as minimalism. |
| abraded | Having a worn or rubbed appearance as a result of mechanical or chemical action. An abrasion is a localized abraded area. |
| abstract | Art that looks as if it contains little or no recognizable or realistic forms from the physical world. Focus is on formal elements such as colors, lines, or shapes. Artists often abstract objects by changing, simplifying, or exaggerating what they see. |
| abstract art | Any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and its aesthetic content expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines and colors. When the representation of real objects is completely absent, such art may be called non-objective. |
| abstract expressionism | A school of painting that flourished after World War II until the early 1960s, characterized by the view that art is nonrepresentational and chiefly improvisational. It has few recognizable images with great emphasis on line, color, shape, texture, value; putting the expression of the feelings or emotions of the artist above all else. |
| accent | To stress or single out as important. As applied to art, it is the emphasis given to certain elements in a painting that allows them to attract more attention. Details that define an object or piece of art. |
| acid free paper | A paper product having a pH level of 7 or above. |
| acrylic paint | Acrylic paint is fast-drying paint containing pigment suspension in an acrylic polymer emulsion. Acrylic paints can be diluted with water, but become water-resistant when dry. Depending on how much the paint is diluted or modified with acrylic gels, media, or pastes, the finished acrylic painting can resemble a watercolor or an oil painting or have its own unique characteristics not attainable with other media. |
| aerial perspective | Refers to creating a sense of depth in painting by imitating the way the atmosphere makes distant objects appear less distinct and more bluish than they would be if nearby. Also known as atmospheric perspective. |
| aging | The continuous action of atmospheric components- oxygen, moisture, light, and temperature - on materials and structures, leading to deterioration. Natural aging deterioration may also be caused by incompatible components reacting slowly within the structure. |
| air-brush | A small air-gun capable of spraying paint, ink, varnish, or ground in a stream of fine droplets. It can be used in lithography and aquatint, for the application of a flat tint, and on drawings which are to be photographed with the half-tone technique |
| alabaster | A fine-grained, slightly translucent stone with a smooth milk-white surface. Often used for sculpture. |
| alkaline buffer | An additive used in paper-making processes and conservation treatments that will raise the pH level and make the paper less acidic. |
| alla prima | The method of oil painting in which the desired effects of the final painting are achieved in the first application of paint as opposed to the technique of covering the canvas in layers with the final painting being achieved at the end. |
| all-over space | A type of space in modern painting characterized by the distribution of forms equally over the entire the picture surface, as opposed to the traditional composing method of having a focal point or center of interest. In all-over space, the forms are seen as occupying the same spatial depth, usually on the picture plane; also, they are all seen as possessing the same degree of importance in the painting. The Action painter, Jackson Pollock, was the first to use all-over (also called infinite) space, in his famous drip paintings of the 1940's and 1950's. This spatial concept has influenced most two-dimensional art since that time. |
| aluminum | This metal is used in printmaking either as a plate or as a support for an impression. In the former case, it can be (a) engraved with the burin, (b) etched with mercuric bichloride, or (c) prepared lithographically. Impressions can also be made directly onto the metal, in particular with the screen printing technique |
| American genre painting | Usually paintings of the rural Midwest and west during the 1920s and 1930s. |
| analogous colors | Any set of three or five colors that are closely related in hue. They are usually adjacent to each other on the color wheel. |
| applied art | The use of the principles and elements of design and aesthetics to create functional works for everyday use. |
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