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ART TERMS

Tate's online glossary is designed to explain and illuminate some of the art terminology you will find on our website

Work by Ithell Colquhoun (1906-1988), watercolour and gouache on paper, from the uncatalogued archive recently transferred to Tate from the National Trust 2019. (c) Tate

Featured Art Terms

  • Mona Hatoum Performance Still 1985–95

    Performance art

    Artworks that are created through actions performed by the artist or other participants, which may be live or recorded, spontaneous or scripted

  • Pre-Raphaelite

    The Pre-Raphaelites were a secret society of young artists (and one writer), founded in London in 1848. They were opposed to the Royal Academy’s promotion of the ideal as exemplified in the work of Raphael

  • Impressionism

    Impressionism developed in France in the nineteenth century and is based on the practice of painting out of doors and spontaneously ‘on the spot’ rather than in a studio from sketches. Main impressionist subjects were landscapes and scenes of everyday life

  • Land art

    Land art or earth art is art that is made directly in the landscape, sculpting the land itself into earthworks or making structures in the landscape using natural materials such as rocks or twigs

Browse 461 Art Terms

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Art Term

a Abbaye de Créteil

Established in 1906, the Abbaye de Créteil was a group of French writers, artists and composers who were inspired by …

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Art Term

b Baroque

Baroque was the dominant style in art and architecture of the seventeenth century, characterized by self-confidence, dynamism and a realistic …

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Art Term

c Cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse)

Cadavre exquis (exquisite corpse) is a collaborative drawing approach first used by surrealist artists to create bizarre and intuitive drawings

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Art Term

d Dada

Dada was an art movement formed during the First World War in Zurich in negative reaction to the horrors and …

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Art Term

e Edition

An edition is a copy or replica of a work of art made from a master. It commonly refers to …

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Art Term

f Fairy painting

Fairy painting is particularly associated with the Victorian period, art that depicts fairies and other subjects from the supernatural

See 22 art terms
Art Term

g Generative art

Generative art is art made using a predetermined system that often includes an element of chance – is usually applied …

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Art Term

h Hackney Flashers

Hackney Flashers was a women’s arts collective active between 1974 and 1980. Most of the group were photographers and defined …

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Art Term

i Iconography

The iconography of an artwork is the imagery within it

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Art Term

j Japonisme

Japonisme is a French term coined in the late nineteenth century to describe the craze for Japanese art and design …

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Art Term

k Khartoum School

The Khartoum School was a modernist art movement formed in Sudan in 1960 that sought to develop a new visual …

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Art Term

l Laboratoire Agit’Art

Founded in Dakar in 1974, Laboratoire Agit’Art was a revolutionary and subversive art collective that sought to combine traditional African …

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Art Term

m Magic realism

The term magic realism was invented by German photographer, art historian and art critic Franz Roh in 1925 to describe …

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Art Term

n Nabis

Les Nabis were a group of post-impressionist French painters active from 1888–1900 whose work is characterised by flat patches of …

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Art Term

o Objective abstraction

The term objective abstraction refers to a non-geometric style of abstract art developed by a group of British artists in …

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Art Term

p Painterly

Painterly refers to the application of paint in a 'loose' or less than controlled manner, resulting in the appearance of …

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Art Term

r Rayograph

Photographic prints made by laying objects onto photographic paper and exposing it to light

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Art Term

s Salon

Originally the name of the official art exhibitions organised by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Académie Royale …

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Art Term

t Tableau

Tableau is used to describe a painting or photograph in which characters are arranged for picturesque or dramatic effect and …

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Art Term

u Underground art

First used in relation to the cultural phenomenon of the 1960s and early 1970s where groups of artists, writers and …

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Art Term

v Vanishing point

The point at which receding parallel lines viewed in perspective appear to converge

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Art Term

w War artists

War artists are artists who are commissioned through an official scheme to record the events of war

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Art Term

y Young British Artists (YBAs)

The label Young British Artists (YBAs) is applied to a loose group of British artists who began to exhibit together …

Art Term

z Zero

Group of artists who practised a form of kinetic art using light and motion

Art Term

0-9 43 Group

43 Group was a modern art movement formed in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) in 1943 by a group of …

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