Terminology
A tendency in art that emerged in the late 1800/early 1900s and focused on moving away from representing the 'real world'.
What is Abstract/Abstraction?
A mid-twentieth-century, largely American movement characterized by its artists' emphatically idiosyncratic handling of paint, which was often thrown or dripped across large canvases.
What is Abstract Expressionism?
This American visual artist was a leading figure in the pop art movement. His works explore the relationship between artistic expression, advertising, and celebrity culture that flourished in the 1960s, and span a variety of media, including painting, silkscreening, photography, film, and sculpture.
Who is Andy Warhol?
In one of the exhibition reviews we read, Rosalind Krauss is critical of later generations of this form of early-twentieth-century art, largely for what she saw as its overly representational trend.
What is Cubism?
"Pure" Cubism vs. "academic".
The term first used by French artist Marcel Duchamp to describe works of art he made from nothing more than industrially manufactured objects. It has since been applied more generally to artworks 'made' using this same method.
What is a Readymade?
The movement that emerged in Zurich after the onset of WWI; its works incorporated absurd gestures to spotlight the increasing absurdity of modern life—parodic performances of wacky poetry, or collages that juxtaposed wildly diverse images, are just two examples.
What is Dada?
This Dutch artist was a pioneer of abstract art, particularly in the form known as De Stijl ("The Style"). His art style is characterized by geometric abstraction, where he reduced forms to their most basic elements of vertical and horizontal lines and primary colors.
Who is Piet Mondrian?
Building on the medium-specific criticism of Clement Greenberg, Michael Fried refers to this term as 'the condition of non-art'.
What is objecthood?
A (former) military term term meaning ahead of the times, often involving a visionary artist or group, and often referring to the association of art and politics.
What is the avant-garde?
First appearing in the USSR, these two movements concerned themselves with the creation of objects that could be of interest or use to, by, and for the working class.
What are Constructivism and Productivism?
This Russian artist pioneered abstract art in early 20th century. His unique, mystically-inflected perspective on the form and function of art emphasized the synthesis of the visual and the auditory. He heard sounds as color, and this unusual perception was a guiding force in the development of his artistic style.
Who is Wassily Kandinsky?
The process by which Paris was rebuilt and reshaped as an aesthetic experience in the middle of the 19th century, as described by T. J. Clark.
What is Haussmannization?
A photograph of a collage; it's typically associated with the extreme juxtaposition of ostensibly disparate images, often for overtly political purposes.
What is a photomontage?
An art style emerging in the 1950s and 1960s that aimed to highlight the processes by which artworks are made and viewed, rather than any inherent aesthetic qualities they might be said to have. Its works typically feature an overtly industrial materiality and are often thought to direct viewers' attention to the physical space around them rather than to the works themselves as aesthetic objects.
What is Minimalism?
This French artist broke down the boundaries between works of art and everyday objects. His irreverence for conventional aesthetic standards led him to devise his famous readymades and heralded an artistic revolution.
Who is Marcel Duchamp?
Darby English's "Fantasias of the Museum" frames the artist Fred Wilson as partaking in this kind of practice, one typically associated with probing the various power relations that help to structure everything going on within the art world.
What is 'Institutional Critique'?
It's the process through which the elements of an artistic medium become a concern for the production of future works in that medium.
What is autonomization?
A German art school active between 1919-1933. It sought to merge all artistic mediums into a unified approach, combining individual artistry with mass production and utility. Its design were often abstract, angular, and geometric, with little ornamentation.
What is the Bauhaus?
This Berlin Dada artist is primarily associated with the development of photomontage, which she used to take up issues typically relating to contemporary politics and/or women's role in Germany's burgeoning consumer society.
Who is Hannah Höch?
It's the term Michael Fried uses to describe an experience of instantaneous conviction as to the quality of a modernist work of art.
What is presentness?