The A, B, C of Fine Art Terms

Welcome to the joyful world of art and art vocabulary!

As a professional artist, whether you are creating, writing or discussing your art or art movements and art history, it can be exciting when you dive into and expand your art vocabulary. There are thousands of terms that describe artistic styles and movements. To inspire you, here is an article that introduces the A, B, C of Fine Art terms. (If you want to contiue this journey, there’s another article “The D, E, F of Fine Art terms”.)

Perhaps you will identify with one or more of these terms and consider adding something about them the next time you give a talk, workshop, and/or revise your Artist’s Statement.

A

Allover Painting

A canvas covered in paint from edge to edge and from corner to corner, in which each area of the composition is given equal attention and significance. Jackson Pollock is a perfect example of an artist who used the allover painting technique with an astounding immediate impact on the viewer.

Here is some trivia: In 1964, the puzzle making company, Springbok Editions, released “Convergence”, a 340-piece puzzle of Pollock’s painting. It was promoted as “the world’s most difficult puzzle” and I’m sure you can understand why.

Read Keeping An Open Mind About Artists and Art Movements

Appropriation

This is an artistic strategy used by many artists. It involves the intentional borrowing, copying, and alteration of preexisting images, objects, and ideas. This can be fun for the artist using it and eye-catching for viewers; however, it can get tricky, because sometimes if you practice this technique you may attract some legal / copyright problems. If “appropriation” is something you apply in your artwork, proceed with caution when choosing to venture in this artistic territory.

Assemblage

According to the Tate Museum, “Assemblage” is “art that is made by assembling disparate elements – often everyday objects – scavenged by the artist or bought specially.” It is commonly known as a three-dimensional work of art made from combinations of materials including found objects or non-traditional art materials.

This artistic process began between 1911 and 1912 by artists such as Georges Braque and Pablo Picasso and Assemblages were also created by Kurt Schwitters and Jean Dubuffet. Many contemporary artists you may know have taken this step further adding all kinds of elements to their assemblages. It has become very popular with the recycled materials movement. It can often be described literally as turning trash into treasure!

Automatism

Automatism involves the creative process that aims to access the unconscious mind. It allows the artist to turn off the mental chatter and create art more freely. It is a method of art-making in which the artist suppresses conscious control over the making process. This drawing technique was popularized in the early 1920s, by Andre Masson, whose drawing is shown above, and Hans Arp. Many Abstract artists such as Jackson Pollock have used this method.  Writers also use this technique. No matter what style you normally work in, automatism can be a very beneficial practice.

Read What is An Artist’s “Signature Style” and Why is it Important?

Analogous Colors

Analogous colors are those colors that exist next to each other on the color wheel. For example, yellow, yellow-green, and green are categorized as analogous colors. The word “analogous” is defined as two things with a similar function or feature that are comparable to one another. Georgia O’Keeffe’s painting shown above is a good example of a painting with analogous colors. She incorporated a range of them — from blue to green to yellow and even a touch of orange.

B

Biophilia Design

This is a growing concept used by the architectural and interior design fields. It emphasizes the need for living creatures to be surrounded by living things or items — such as works of art that are inspired by nature. This is particularly useful to be aware of when selling your art to interior designers and also to the healthcare art market.

Read “Increase Your Art Sales With These Important Design Concepts”.

Biomorphic

Biomorphic is a word derived from the Greek words bios (life) and morphe (form). In artspeak, the term refers to abstract forms or images that evoke associations with living forms such as plants and the human body.

Biomorphic came into use around the 1930’s to describe the imagery in the more abstract types of surrealist painting and sculpture. We see biomorphic forms in the art by Joan Miró, Henry Moore, and Barbara Hepworth. Later, Louise Bourgeois also created some very sensual biomorphs.

As you see here in Miró’s “The Smile of the Flamboyant Wings” he developed a distinctly symbolic language of simplified, biomorphic, or lifelike, forms.

Baroque

Baroque is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1740s. However, it is not as old and outdated as you may think, as many contemporary artists are fusing elements of Baroque with new artistic visions. The Baroque style epitomizes a sense of drama and awe and makes use of a wide range of artistic elements including contrast, movement, exuberant detail, complexity, deep color, grandeur, extravagance and surprise. It is characterized by bold, curving forms, elaborate ornamentation, and overall balance of disparate parts.

Belle Époque Period

French for “beautiful era,” a term that describes the period in French history from 1871 to the start of World War I in 1914. It which was characterized by optimism, relative peace across Europe, and new discoveries in art and architecture, technology and science. During this period the construction of the Eiffel Tower was completed. It became a nostalgic term for what seemed a simpler time of optimism, elegance, and progress. French artist Auguste Renoir painted scenes that depicted the period of time.

Read Art and Artist’s Statements – Quotes by Famous Artists by Famous Artists

C

Collage

This term is derived from the French verb coller, which means “to glue.” The origins of collage can be traced back hundreds of years, but this technique made a dramatic reappearance in the early 20th century. It refers to both the technique and the resulting work of art in which fragments of paper and other materials are arranged and glued or otherwise affixed to a supporting surface.

Through this artistic medium, what we really see isn’t that important, in the way it was before, since the Renaissance. At the time, this was quite controversial, in that it defied the established notion of high art. Picasso questioned the traditional idea that art should be created solely from scratch using traditional artistic materials, and the separation between art and life.

Collage can also include other media such as painting and drawing, and contain three-dimensional elements. According to Wikipedia, Picasso may have been the first artist to use the collage technique in his oil paintings. He incorporated chair caning in the above still life. He pasted an oilcloth onto an oval-shaped canvas framed with rope.

Another form of collage is made from photographs, or parts of photographs. Called photomontage this process is made by cutting and joining a number of other photographs. The composite picture is sometimes photographed and the final image is converted back into a seamless photographic print. The same method is accomplished today using image-editing software. The technique is referred to by professionals as “compositing” and the art form is known as “photographic composites”.

Color Field Paintings

Paintings of large areas of color, typically with no strong contrasts of tone or obvious focus of attention. Color Field painting was a style inspired by European modernism and closely related to abstract expressionism, while many of its notable early proponents were among the pioneering abstract expressionists.

An artist known for creating color field paintings is Mark Rothko. His color field period spanned from 1949 to 1970. He is often described as having created groundbreaking works of art, imbued with emotional and spiritual power and expressive color.  Rothko’s signature multiform style was characterized by several blocks of layered, contrasting colors on a large canvas.

Complementary Colors

Colors located opposite one another on the color wheel. In their most basic form, they are one primary color and the secondary color that is created by mixing the other two primaries. For instance, the complementary color to yellow is purple, which is a mix of blue and red. When mixed together, complementary colors produce a shade of gray or brown.

Imagine bright red tulips growing in a vibrant green field or orange fall leaves in a tall tree that contrasts against a bright blue sky!

Did you know, when you stare at a color for a sustained period of time and then look at a white surface, an afterimage of the complementary color will appear!

Read “Do You Know These Facts About Color?”

Conceptual Art

Art that emerged in the late 1960s, emphasizing ideas and theoretical practices rather than the creation of visual forms. In 1967, the artist Sol LeWitt gave the new genre its name in his essay “Paragraphs on Conceptual Art,” in which he wrote, “The idea itself, even if not made visual, is as much a work of art as any finished product.” Conceptual artists used their work to question the notion of what art is, and to critique the underlying ideological structures of artistic production, distribution, and display.

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