Academy  An institution of artists and scholars, originally formed during the Renaissance to free artists from control by guilds and to elevate them from artisan to professional status. In an academy, art is taught as a humanist discipline along with other disciplines of the liberal arts.

Edition  In printmaking, the total number of prints made and approved by an artist, usually numbered consecutively. Also, a limited number of multiple originals of a single design in any medium.

Ceramic  Objects made of clay hardened into a relatively permanent material by firing. Also, the process of making such objects.

Casting  A process that involves pouring liquid material such as molten metal, clay, wax, or plaster into a mold. When the liquid hardens, the mold is removed, leaving a form in the shape of the mold.

Academic Art  Art governed by rules, especially art sanctioned by an official institution, academy, or school. Originally applied to art that conformed to standards established by the French Academy regarding composition, drawing, and color usage. The term has come to mean conservative and lacking in originality.

Abstract Surrealism  See Surrealism.

Dada A movement in art and literature, founded in Switzerland in the early twentieth century, which ridiculed contemporary culture and conventional art. The Dadaists shared an antimilitaristic and antiaesthetic attitude, generated in part by the horrors of World War I and in part by a rejection of accepted canons of morality and taste. The anarchic spirit of Dada can be seen in the works of Duchamp, Man Ray, Hoch, Miro, and Picasso. Many Dadaists later explored Surrealism.

The area of sharp focus in a photograph. Depth of field becomes greater as the f- stop number is increased.

curtain wall A non-load-bearing wall.

cross-hatching See hatching.

Cool colors Colors whose relative visual temperatures make them seem cool. Cool colors generally include green, blue-green, blue, blue-violet, and violet. The quality of warmness or coolness is relative to adjacent hues. See also warm colors.

Design  Both the process and the result of structuring the elements of visual form; composition.

Contrapposto  Italian for "counterpoise." The counterpositioning of parts of the human figure about a central vertical axis, as when the weight is placed on one foot, causing the hip and shoulder lines to counterbalance each other, often in a graceful S-curve.

Acrylic (acrylic resin)  A clear plastic used as a binder in paint and as a casting material in sculpture.

Action Painting  A style of nonrepresentational painting that relies on the physical movement of the artist in using such gestural techniques as vigorous brushwork, dripping, and pouring. Dynamism is often created through the interlaced directions of the paint. A subcategory of Abstract Expressionism.

Additive Color Mixture  When light colors are combined (as with overlapping spotlights), the result becomes successively lighter. Light primaries, when combined, create white light. See also subtractive color mixture.

Additive Sculpture  Sculptural form produced by combining or building up material from a core or armature. Modeling in clay and welding steel are additive processes.

Aerial Perspective

See perspective. 

Aesthetic

Relating to the sense of the beautiful and to heightened sensory perception in general.

Aesthetics

The study and philosophy of the quality and nature of sensory responses related to, but not limited by, the concept of beauty.

Afterimage

The visual impression that remains after the initial stimulus is removed. Staring at a single intense hue may cause the cones, or color receptors, of the eye to become so fatigued that they perceive only the complement of the original hue when it has been removed.

Airbrush

A small-scale paint sprayer that allows the artist to control a fine mist of paint. 

Contour

The edge or apparent line that separates one area or mass from another; a line following a surface drawn to suggest volume.

De Stijl

Dutch for "the style," a purist art movement begun in the Netherlands during World War I by Mondrian and others. It involved painters, sculptors, designers, and architects whose works and ideas were expressed in De Stijl magazine. De Stijl was aimed at creating a universal language of form that would be independent of individual emotion. Visual form was pared down to primary colors, plus black and white, and rectangular shapes. The movement was influential primarily in architecture.

Analogous Colors or Analogous Hues

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

Content

Meaning or message contained and communicated by a work of art, including its emotional, intellectual, symbolic, thematic, and narrative connotations.

Analytical Cubism

See Cubism.

Aperture

In photography, the camera lens opening and its relative diameter. Measured in f-stops, such as f/8, f/ I 1, etc. As the number increases, the size of the aperture decreases, thereby reducing the amount of light passing through the lens and striking the film.

Aquatint

An intaglio printmaking process in which value areas rather than lines are etched on the printing plate. Powdered resin is sprinkled on the plate and heated until it adheres. The plate is then immersed in an acid bath. The acid bites around the resin particles, creating a rough surface that holds ink. Also, a print made using this process.

Dome A generally hemispherical roof or vault. Theoretically, an arch rotated 360 degrees on its vertical axis. 

Art Nouveau

A style that originated in the late 1880s, based on the sinuous curves of plant forms, used primarily in architectural detailing and the applied arts.

Classical

1. The art of ancient Greece and Rome. More specifically, Classical refers to the style of Greek art that flourished during the fifth century B.C. 

2. Any art based on a clear, rational, and regular structure, emphasizing horizontal and vertical directions, and organizing its parts with special emphasis on balance and proportion. The term classic is also used to indicate recognized excellence.

Chroma

See intensity.cinematography The art and technique of making motion pictures, especially the work done by motion picture camera operators.

Caricature

A representation in which the subject's distinctive features are exaggerated.

Capital

In architecture, the top part, capstone, or head of a column or pillar. 

Color Wheel

A circular arrangement of contiguous spectral hues used in some color systems. Also called a color circle.