Showing 1–30 of 41 art terms
Art Term
Salon
Originally the name of the official art exhibitions organised by the French Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture (Académie Royale …
Art Term
Sampling
In its most basic form sampling simply re-processes existing culture, usually technologically, in much the same way a collage does
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School of Altamira
Avant-garde art school (Academia Altamira) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, founded in 1946 with the aim of promoting the idea that …
Art Term
School of London
School of London was a term invented by artist R.B. Kitaj to describe a group of London-based artists who were …
Art Term
School of Paris
In the early years of the twentieth century, Paris became a magnet for artists from all over the world and …
Art Term
Scottish Colourists
Group of four Scottish artists, who were among the first to introduce the intense colour of the French fauve movement …
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Screenprint
A variety of stencil printing, using a screen made from fabric (silk or synthetic) stretched tightly over a frame
Art Term
Sculpture
Three-dimensional art made by one of four basic processes: carving, modelling, casting, constructing
Art Term
Scuola romana
Scuola romana (School of Rome) is an umbrella term for the artists based in Rome, or having close links with …
Art Term
Secession
The breaking away of younger and more radical artists from an existing academy or art group to form a new …
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Serial art
Serial art is art that adheres to a strict set of rules to determine its composition or to determine a …
Art Term
Significant form
Term coined by art critic Clive Bell in 1914 to describe the idea that the form of an artwork or …
Art Term
Simulacrum
A term from Greek Platonic philosophy that meant a copy of a copy of an ideal form
Art Term
Simultanism
Term invented by artist Robert Delaunay to describe the abstract painting developed by him and his wife Sonia Delaunay from …
Art Term
Site-specific
The term site-specific refers to a work of art designed specifically for a particular location and that has an interrelationship …
Art Term
Situationist International
Revolutionary alliance of European avant-garde artists, writers and poets formed at a conference in Italy in 1957 (as Internationale Situationiste …
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Social realism
Refers to any realist painting that also carries a clearly discernible social or political comment
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Social sculpture
Social sculpture is a theory developed by the artist Joseph Beuys in the 1970s based on the concept that everything …
Art Term
Social turn
Social turn was first used in 2006 to describe the recent return to socially engaged art that is collaborative, often …
Art Term
Socialist realism
A form of modern realism imposed in Russia by Stalin following his rise to power after the death of Lenin …
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Socially engaged practice
Socially engaged practice describes art that is collaborative, often participatory and involves people as the medium or material of the …
Art Term
Solarisation
Technique that involves exposing a partially developed photograph to light, before continuing processing, creating halo-like effects
Art Term
Sound art
Art which uses sound both as its medium (what it is made out of) and as its subject (what it …
Art Term
Spazialismo
Italian movement started by the Argentine-born Italian artist Lucio Fontana in 1947 who, in its manifesto, stated that art should …
Art Term
Spiral
Spiral was a New York based African American collective formed in 1963 with the aim of addressing how African American …
Art Term
St Ives School
Although they did not see themselves as part of a group or school, the term St Ives School is often …
Art Term
St John’s Wood clique
A loose association of painters who lived in the St John’s Wood area of London in the 1870s and 1880s, …
Art Term
Stars group
Stars group were a short-lived avant-garde group of self-taught artists operating in Beijing between 1979 and 1983, staging outdoor exhibitions, …
Art Term
Still life
One of the principal genres (subject types) of Western art – essentially, the subject matter of a still life painting …
Art Term
Street art
Street art is related to graffiti art in that it is created in public locations and is usually unsanctioned, but …