Art terms
This glossary explains some of the techniques, mediums, art movements, and other terms you’ll encounter on our website, along with links to examples in the collection.
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Showing 19 of 190 art terms
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Canvas
A closely woven, sturdy cloth of hemp, cotton, linen, or a similar fiber, frequently stretched over a frame and used as a surface for painting.
5 examples
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Cartes-de-visite
Small photographs mounted to cardstock, patented in 1854. These “visiting” cards, most often featuring individual or celebrity portraits, were popularly
2 examples
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Cast
(verb) To form a material, such as molten metal or plastic, into a particular shape by pouring or pressing into a mold; (noun) something formed in a mold;
6 examples
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Charcoal
Among the earliest known drawing materials, charcoal sticks are produced by burning vines or twigs of wood in an airless atmosphere. The black tonality
9 examples
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Chine collé
A technique, used in conjunction with printmaking processes such as etching or lithography, that results in a two-layered paper support: a tissue-thin
4 examples
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Choreography
The art of creating and arranging a wide range of dance, from classical ballet to experimental performance; a work created by this art. A person who creates
4 examples
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Chromogenic color print
The dominant photographic color process of the 20th century is made up of three gelatin layers containing cyan, magenta, and yellow organic dyes. Together,
6 examples
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Cinématographe
A combination motion-picture camera, printer, and projector invented by French photographers, photographic equipment manufacturers, and brothers Auguste
0 examples
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CoBrA
A European avant-garde movement active in the aftermath of World War II (from 1948 to 1951), whose name was derived from the first letters of the three
2 examples
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Collage
Derived from the French verb coller, meaning “to glue,” collage refers to both the technique and the resulting work of art in which fragments of paper
12 examples
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Collotype
A reproductive printmaking technique that is photographically based. Although collotype is increasingly rare, in the early 20th century it was employed
1 example
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Colored pencil
An implement for drawing that contains a rod of pigments or dyes, known as “colorants,” mixed with fillers (including kaolin, chalk, or talc), synthetic
5 examples
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Color Field painting
A form of abstract painting that emerged in the 1950s and 1960s, characterized by large areas of color, typically without strong tonal contrasts or a defined
4 examples
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Combine
Term coined by Jasper Johns to describe a body of work by Robert Rauschenberg consisting of three-dimensional objects integrated into paintings. Rauschenberg
3 examples
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Conceptual art
In the 1960s, many artists experimented with art that emphasized ideas over objects and materials traditionally associated with art making. In 1967, Sol
7 examples
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Constructivism
Developed by the Russian avant-garde at the time of the October Revolution of 1917. Declaring that a post-Revolutionary society demanded a radically new
6 examples
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Contact print
When light-sensitized paper is placed in direct contact with a negative and then exposed, the result is a contact print. A printing frame is often used
3 examples
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Critical Design
A term first used by Anthony Dunne in his book, Hertzian Tales (1999), referring to an attitude toward design rather than a movement or method. It follows
1 example
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Cubism
Originally a term of derision used by a critic in 1908, Cubism describes the work of Pablo Picasso, Georges Braque, and those influenced by them. Working
7 examples
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