Any art form that does not employ representational forms.

Art sponsored by and produced within schools for the arts or private studios of established artist and teachers, especially in Europe; the education received in such schools and studios. Academic painting typically denotes a highly finished style of painting: each element is rendered in meticulous detail, while undetectable brushstrokes create an extremely smooth and polished [...]

Founded by the wrestler, artist, circus manager and entrepreneur Rodolph Julian in the Latin Quarter of Paris in 1868, the school became one of the best-known private art establishments in Paris in the second half of the 19th Century. Julian persuaded artists to serve as visiting professors. So successful was his operation that the school [...]

Having no colour or hue; without identifiable hue. Most blacks, whites, greys, and browns are achromatic.

A painting style and method calling for vigorous physical activity, specifically associated with the New York School of Abstract Expressionism. Jackson Pollock often used the technique, which describes an application of paint with fast, forceful, and impulsive (unplanned) motions. Process dictated the subject matter. The term was coined by the art critic Harold Rosenberg in [...]

Term invented by Leonardo da Vinci to describe the optical effect of short ‘blue’  light wavelengths on the distant atmosphere. Light wavelengths are scattered as they pass through the atmosphere, the short blue more than most and therefore, are more visible to the human eye when seen over distance.   This results in heavier blues being [...]

Term coined by Man Ray and given to the process of painting with a spray gun, which he often used in the period 1918-20, sometimes on glass.

An overall brownish tone to old paper, often uniform but sometimes more pronounced in specific areas, e.g. the margins. Not to be confused with Foxing.
 

An image or story that uses figures or other elements symbolically, especially to illustrate moral or spiritual principles.

Closely related hues, especially those in which we can see a common hue; hues that are neighbours on the colour wheel, such as blue, blue-green, and green.

In art, a term referring specifically to the structure of the human body, especially the bones and muscles. Traditional art training for artists intending to be figure painters has had the study of anatomy, including nude figures as part of the curriculum. In the late-19th and early-20th centuries, much controversy arose over whether women should [...]

Term introduced by Franco-American Marcel Duchamp (c. 1914) for a form of art, Dada or in its tradition, where conventional forms and theories are rejected. The term may either refer to the materials, techniques, or method of display.

The period when the ancient Greek and subsequently Roman civilisations flourished.

Name of a rural region of classical Greece known for the simplicity and contentment of its rustic inhabitants. Arcadian landscapes and scenes typically reflect the idealised serenity of rural life.

In fresco painting, the preliminary layer of plaster laid slightly coarsely onto the masonry to provide a key or ‘grip’ for the intonaco. It must be allowed to dry, usually for some days, before the final very thin, smooth layer, the intonaco, is applied and painted on whilst still wet.
 

Term coined by Jean Dubuffet to describe art produced by people who were outsiders to art culture. ’Outsider art’ as it is mostly referred to in the English language, is usually produced by prisoners, psychiatric patients or maladjusted individuals with no background in art culture. In short, anyone not producing art for profit or recognition.

The term was coined by the Italian art critic and curator, Germano Celant, in 1967. His pioneering texts and a series of key exhibitions provided a collective identity for a number of young Italian artists based in Turin, Milan, Genoa and Rome. Arte Povera emerged from a network of urban cultural activity in these cities, [...]

A decorative art movement that flourished in western Europe and the USA in the late 19th century.  It is characterised by dense asymmetrical ornamentation in sinuous forms. The term is derived from a Paris gallery named ‘L’Art Nouveau’. It was a deliberate rejection of past past styles and is characterised by organic, elegant flowing lines, often [...]

A type of modern sculpture consisting of combining multiple objects or forms, often ‘found’ objects. (A found object is one that the artist comes upon and uses, as is or modified, in an artwork.) The most well known assemblages are those produced by Robert Rauschenberg in the 1950’s and ’60’s; for example, one assemblage consisted [...]

Term derived from Old French  ‘astelier’,  meaning a carpenter’s shop. Its modern meaning is an artist’s studio-school, where a trained painter teaches the skills of his profession to a small group of qualified students. In art education, a late 17th to 19th-century modification of the earlier apprenticeship system.

A work of art is attributed to an artist if documentation, an aesthetic association, or an iconographic connection suggests, but does not prove definitively, that a particular artist made a particular work. However, it is important to note that attributions can change as new historical or scientific evidence is discovered.

A French term, meaning vanguard or advance guard, which denotes art that overturns conventions and rebels against prevailing artistic and social standards. The label referred to many artists at the turn of the twentieth century, but among the most famous of avant-garde artists are Picasso and Braque, who broke with traditions of naturalistic representation to [...]