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Glossary of Art Terms

• Abstract (Style) Art that does not attempt to represent external reality, but seeks to achieve its effect using shapes, forms, colors, and textures.
• Action Painting (Style) A style of painting in which paint is spontaneously dribbled, splashed or smeared onto the canvas.
• Assemblages (Work Type/Process) Works that use non-art or found objects to form a work of art.
• Collage (Work Type/Process) Refers to the technique of making compositions in two dimensions or very low relief by gluing paper, fabrics, photographs, or other materials onto a flat surface.
• Collagraph (Work Type/Process) A collage of materials glued on to a "printing plate," which is a square of cardboard. When glue is dry, it is shellacked or varnished so that it can be painted with acrylics. Paper is then pressed on to the surface to produce a print.
• Collection Multiple items that are conceptually or physically arranged together.
• Conceptual (Style) A genre of art in which the ideas or concepts that a work expresses or refers to are considered to be its defining characteristic.
• Decorative or Applied Arts (Art Form) Arts or crafts, objects that are also functional.
• Digital (Work Type/Process) Describes images created entirely electronically, with pixels.
• Earthenware (Work Type/Process) Pottery with a porous body, fired below 1200 degrees Centigrade. It is not vitrified, and must be glazed to render it nonporous.
• Encaustic (Work Type/Process) Paint process created by mixing dry pigments with molten, refined wax and resin.
• Expressionism (Style) Abandonment of traditional standards of realism and proportion in favor of expressing the artist's emotions, resulting in distortions of line, color, and form.
• Fine Art (Art Form) Namely painting, drawing, photography, sculpture, etc.
• Gelatin-Silver Print (Work Type/Process) Photographic prints having gelatin as the binder, holding silver as the final image material; always black-and-white, though they may be toned to a monochrome hue.
• Giclee Digital prints made with an ink jet process.
• Graphic Art (Art Form) Typically includes typography, calligraphy, some digital art, etc.
• Impressionism (Style) A theory or practice in painting depicting the natural appearances of objects by means of dabs or strokes of primary unmixed colors in order to simulate actual reflected light.
• Impasto (Work Type/Process) Technique of laying paint in thick layers that stand out from a surface.
• In the Round (Work Type/Process) Sculpture in which forms are carved or modeled about their full circumference.
• Linocut (Work Type/Process) Prints made from a design cut in linoleum-faced blocks on which a knife or gouge has been used to recess the non-printing area and leave the image to be printed in relief.
• Lithograph (Work Type/Process) Prints made using the process of lithography, which is a planographic printing process in which a design is deposited on the stone or plate with a greasy substance which will accept ink.
• Minimal (Style) Simplicity and lack of decoration to the point of starkness.
• Mobile (Work Type/Process) Delicately balanced constructions of movable parts made to be suspended in such a way that parts will be set in motion by the movement of air.
• Monotype (Work Type/Process) A type of printmaking made by drawing or painting on a smooth, non-absorbent surface, then transferred to a sheet of paper.
• Mosaic (Work Type/Process) Images or patterns composed of small, regularly shaped pieces of durable material, usually stone or colored glass.
• Needlework (Work Type/Process) Refers to works done with one or more needles and thread, yarn or cord. The term generally refers to work done by hand.
• Pastels (Work Type/Process) Works of art, typically on a paper or vellum support, to which designs are applied using crayons made of ground pigment held together with a binder, typically oil or water and gum.
• Plein-Air (Work Type/Process) Painting scenes while outdoors, rather than in a studio from sketches that may or may not have been made outdoors.
• Pop Art (Style) Everyday imagery, such as advertisements, signs, and comic strips, executed in the techniques and graphic styles of mass media.
• Print (Classification) Pictorial works produced by transferring images by means of a matrix such as a plate, block, or screen, using any of various printing processes.
• Raku (Work Type/Process) Pottery covered with a lead glaze and fired at a very low temperature, leaving the body soft and porous.
• Readymade or Found Art (Work Type/Process) Mass-produced utilitarian objects which the artist transforms into works of art by placing them in an artistic context.
• Realism (Style) Precise, objective rendering of subject matter.
• Reliefs (Work Type/Process) Sculptures in which the ornaments or figures are attached to a background from which they stand out to a greater or lesser degree.
• Reproduction (Classification) Copies of art images or objects.
• Seriagraph (Work Type/Process) Prints made by exclusively using the process of screen printing.
• Series A number of works created by the same artist, to be seen together or in succession as a cycle of works.
• Statue (Work Type/Process) Sculpture in the round, usually but not always depicting humans, animals, mythical beings, or small figure groups. Statues are relatively large in scale, being life-size, larger than life-size, or only slightly smaller than life-size.
• Stoneware (Work Type/Process) A type of pottery midway between earthenware and porcelain being made of clay and a fusible stone.
• Surrealism (Style) An emphasis on exploring the limits of experience by fusing reality with the instinctual, the subconscious, and the realm of dreams, in order to create an absolute reality.
• Tapestry (Work Type/Process) Heavy, woven textiles used as wall hangings, curtains, upholstery, or to hang from windows or balconies.
• Woodcut (Work Type/Process) Prints made using the process of woodcut, which is a relief process in which the design is cut into and printed from the plank side of a wood block.