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 17 of 314 art terms
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Illustrated book
A term referring to any book to which an artist has contributed imagery, but often designating deluxe limited-edition volumes created in collaboration
4 examples
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Impasto
An Italian word for “mixture,” used to describe a painting technique wherein paint is thickly laid on a surface, so that brushstrokes or palette knife
8 examples
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Impressionism
A label applied to a loose group of mostly French artists who positioned themselves outside of the official Salon exhibitions organized by the Académie In 1874, they held their first group exhibition in Paris. Most critics derided their work, especially Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872), which was called a sketch or impression, rather than a finished painting. From this criticism, they were mockingly labeled Impressionists. They continued exhibiting together until 1886, at which point many of the core artists were taking their work in new directions.
2 examples
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Improvisation
To make, compose, or perform on the spur of the moment with little or no preparation
3 examples
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Indigenism
A multifaceted cultural movement spanning several Latin American countries, Indigenism advocated for the defense, rights, and recognition of Indigenous
4 examples
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Industrial design
A process of design that emerged after the Industrial Revolution, applied to products that are mass-produced and machine-made.
12 examples
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Industrialization
During the end of the 1700s, a rapid proliferation of factory-based industry and mass production began in urban areas of Great Britain, before sweeping In the late 1800s and early 1900s, artists drew inspiration from these changes, using a wide range of mediums to depict these changing environments. For example, Lewis Hine’s early 20th-century photographs of exploited youth workers helped bring about the United States’ first child labor laws.
7 examples
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Ink
Traditional black drawing ink, which originated in Asia and is therefore often referred to as India ink or Chinese ink, consists of very fine particles
12 examples
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Inkjet print
A print created by a contact-free printer that distributes droplets of ink over a surface to create an image. Most often a print head with nozzles moves
8 examples
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Installation
An art form that comprises visual elements in any medium and the space they inhabit.
8 examples
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Institutional critique
A form of conceptual art, which emerged in the late 1960s, centered on the critique of museums, galleries, private collections, and other art institutions.
8 examples
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Intaglio
A general term for metal-plate printmaking techniques, including etching, drypoint, engraving, aquatint, and mezzotint. The word comes from the Italian
8 examples
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Interactive design
The field that shapes the conversation between people and machines. Successful interactive design translates and simplifies this relationship so that we
8 examples
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Interface
An object, like a phone, or a virtual program, like an app, that facilitates the communication between a person and a machine.
8 examples
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Interior design
A discipline of design that focuses on the functional and aesthetic aspects of indoor spaces
12 examples
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International Style
A style of modern architecture that emerged in Europe (principally Germany and France) in the 1920s and 1930s. Historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect
8 examples
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Intertitle
Dialogue or narration conveyed in text that is shown between scenes of a silent film.
0 examples
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