Art terms
Learn about the materials, techniques, movements, and themes of modern and contemporary art from around the world.
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Showing 15 of 345 art terms
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Farm Security Administration (FSA)
Established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt in 1937, the Farm Security Administration (FSA) provided relief to farmers who had been left impoverished by the drought and dust storms of the Dust Bowl and the financial devastation of the Great Depression. The agency resettled agricultural workers on new land and hired photographers to document their struggles. FSA photographers took over 65,000 pictures, which were frequently reproduced in publications to “introduce America to Americans” and encourage public support for rural rehabilitation, which was a program that provided aid and relocation assistance to struggling farmers. Importantly, the FSA’s photography division became one of the first large-scale projects to document the lives of African Americans.
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Fauvism
A style of painting in the first decade of the 20th century that emphasized strong, vibrant color and bold brushstrokes over realistic or representational qualities. Central among the loose group of artists were Henri Matisse and Andre Derain. When their paintings were exhibited in 1905, a critic derisively described the works—with their expressive and non-naturalistic palette—as the product of Fauves (“wild beasts”).
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Feminist art
Art that seeks to challenge the dominance of men in both art and society, to gain recognition and equality for women artists, and question assumptions about womanhood. Beginning in the 1960s and 1970s, feminist artists used a variety of mediums—including painting, performance art, and crafts historically considered “women’s work”—to make work aimed at ending sexism and oppression and exposing femininity to be a masquerade or set of poses adopted by women to conform to societal expectations. While many of the debates inaugurated in these decades are still ongoing, a younger generation of feminist artists takes an approach incorporating intersecting concerns about race, class, forms of privilege, and gender identity and fluidity. Both feminism and feminist art continue to evolve.
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Figurative
Art retaining strong references to or depictions of the real world and particularly to the human figure.
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Figure/ground relationship
The relationship between a depicted form (the figure) and pictorial space (the ground). Figure/ground relationships are often used to describe the construction of space in representational paintings, but the term can also be used to understand abstract paintings, such as those of Barnett Newman.
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Film
A series of moving images, especially those printed on photographic celluloid and projected onto a screen or other surface.
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Film still
A photograph often taken during the production of a film that shows a particular moment or scene. These photographs are often used as advertisements or posters for the film.
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Filmmaker
A person who directs or produces movies.
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Fluxus
Founded by George Maciunas and chiefly active from the early 1960s to the late 1970s, Fluxus was a loose international group of artists, poets, and musicians with a shared impulse to integrate art and life. Maciunas coined the name Fluxus to suggest “flow” and “effluent” and to describe a wide range of activities, which included scores or instructions; multiples; and concerts, performances, and “Happenings” that were often themselves in a state of flux. Fluxus works, both physical and performative, were often best characterized as having a critical attitude towards art itself rather than being overtly finished in their final state.
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Font
A specific size and style of a typeface—for example, Arial 12-point bold, or Times New Roman 10-point italic. The term is often confused with typeface, which refers to the design or “look” of type or lettering.
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Form
The shape or structure of an object, figure or structure
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Found object
An object—often utilitarian, manufactured, or naturally occurring—that was not originally designed for an artistic purpose, but has been repurposed in an artistic context.
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Frottage
A technique that involves rubbing pencil, graphite, chalk, crayon, or another medium onto a sheet of paper that has been placed on top of a textured object or surface. The process causes the raised portions of the surface below to be translated to the sheet. The term is derived from the French frotter, which means “to rub.”
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Furniture and interiors
An object or environment designed to accommodate human activities such as sitting, sleeping, or eating. Examples include chairs, tables, and kitchens.
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Futurism
An Italian movement in art and literature catalyzed by a 1909 manifesto published in a newspaper by Italian poet F. T. Marinetti. The text celebrated new technology and modernization while advocating for a violent and decisive break from the past. Working in the years just before World War I, the Futurists portrayed their subjects—often humans, machines, and vehicles in motion—with fragmented forms and surfaces that evoke the energy and dynamism of urban life in the early 20th century.
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