Accession: a process of increasing an art collection by addition; something added to what you already have ("the art collection grew through accession").

Figure  Separate shape(s) distinguishable from a background or ground.

Accent: to stress, single out as important. As applied to art it is the emphasis given to certain elements in a painting that allows them to attract more attention. Details that define an object or piece of art.

FIXATIVE  A solution, usually of shellac and alcohol, sprayed onto drawings, to prevent their smudging or crumbling off the support.

FORM  1. The physical appearance of a work of art - its materials, style, and composition. 2. Any identifiable shape or mass, as a “geometric form.”

GEOMETRIC SHAPES  Shapes created by exact mathematical law.

GOTHIC  A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 12th to the 15th century. Gothic architecture features pointed arches, ribbed vaults, and often large areas of stained glass.

GLAZE  A very thin, transparent colored paint applied over a previously painted surface to alter the appearance and color of the surface. In ceramics, washes applied to the clay body which, when fired to temperature, vitrify to form a thin, usually colored, glass layer.

GENRE  Art that depicts the casual moments of everyday life and its surroundings.

FRESCO  A painting technique in which the pigments are dispersed in plain water and applied to a damp plaster wall. The wall becomes the binder, as well as the support.

FORESHORTENING  A method of portraying forms on a two-dimensional surface so that they appear to project or recede from the picture plane.

FIRING  Heating pottery or sculpture in a kiln or open fire to bring the clay to maturity. The temperature needed to mature the clay varies with the type of body used. Also, heating glazed ware to the necessary point to cause the glaze to mature.

FINE ART  An art form created primarily as an aesthetic expression to be enjoyed for its own sake. The viewer must be prepared to search for the intent of the artist as the all-important first step toward communication and active participation.

GOUACHE  Opaque watercolors used for illustrations.

FOLK ART  Primitive art, by an untrained artist who paints in the common tradition of his community and reflects the life style of the people. Also called ‘Outsider art’ & ‘Art brut’.

FAUVISM  A short lived painting style in early 20th century France, which featured bold, clashing, arbitrary colors - colors unrelated to the appearance of forms in the natural world. Henri Matisse was its best- known practitioner. The word fauve means “wild beast.”

EXPRESSIONISM  Any art that stresses the artist’s emotional and psychological reaction to subject matter, often with bold colors and distortions of form. Specifically, an art style of the early 20th century followed principally by certain German artists.

ETCHING  The technique of reproducing a design by coating a metal plate with wax and drawing with a sharp instrument called a stylus through the wax down to the metal. The plate is put in an acid bath, which eats away the incised lines; it is then heated to dissolve the wax and finally inked and printed on paper. The resulting print is called the etching.

FUTURISM  Art movement founded in Italy in 1909 and lasting only a few years. Futurism concentrated on the dynamic quality of modern technological life, emphasizing speed and movement.

ABSTRACT  Not realistic, though the intention is often based on an actual subject, place, or feeling. Pure abstraction can be interpreted as any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and whose aesthetic content is expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines and colors. When the representation of real objects is completely absent, such art may be called non-objective.

ROMANESQUE  A style of architecture and art dominant in Europe from the 9th to the 12th century. Romanesque architecture, based on ancient Roman precedents, emphasizes the round arch and barrel vault.

ASSEMBLAGE  The technique of creating a sculpture by joining together individual pieces or segments, sometimes “found” objects that originally served another purpose.

FAUVISM  A short lived painting style in early 20th century France, which featured bold, clashing, arbitrary colors - colors unrelated to the appearance of forms in the natural world. Henri Matisse was its best- known practitioner. The word fauve means “wild beast.”

Futurism A group movement that originated in Italy in 1909. One of several movements to grow out of Cubism. Futurists added implied motion to the shifting planes and multiple observation points of the Cubists; they celebrated natural as well as mechanical motion and speed. Their glorification of danger, war, and the machine age was in keeping with the martial spirit developing in Italy at the time.

SERIGRAPH 

Serigraphy is a color stencil printing process in which a special paint is forced through a fine screen onto the paper beneath. Areas that do not print are blocked with photo sensitive emulsion that has been exposed with high intensity arc lights. A squeegee is pulled from back to front, producing a direct transfer of the image from screen to paper. A separate stencil is required for each color and one hundred colors or more may be necessary to achieve the desired effect. A serigraph, also referred to as a screen print, differs from other graphics in that its color is made up of paint films rather than printing ink stains. This technique is extremely versatile, and can create effects similar to oil color and transparent washes, as well as gouache and pastel.

Folk Art Art of people who have had no formal, academic training, but whose works are part of an established tradition of style and craftsmanship.

ROMANTICISM  A movement in Western art of the 19th century generally assumed to be in opposition to Neoclassicism. Romantic works are marked by intense colors, turbulent emotions, complex composition, soft outlines, and sometimes heroic subject matter.

ROCOCO  A style of art popular in Europe in the first three quarters of the 18th century, Rococo architecture and furnishings emphasized ornate but small-scale decoration, curvilinear forms, and pastel colors. Rococo painting has a playful, light-hearted romantic quality and often pictures the aristocracy at leisure.

Representational   Works of art that closely resemble forms in the natural world. Synonymous with naturalistic

Renaissance   Literally, “rebirth”. The period in Europe from the 14th to the 16th century, characterized by a renewed interest in Classical art, architecture, literature, and philosophy. The Renaissance began in Italy and gradually spread to the rest of Europe. In art, it is most closely associated with Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.

Relief   

1. Sculpture in which figures or other images are attached to a flat background but project out from it to some degree (bas-relief, haut-relief). 

2. A printmaking technique in which portions of a block meant to be printed are raised above the surface.

Relative Position  We view nature from our own eye level. Objects in the foreground appear lower and distant objects appear higher relative to the imaginary line created by our level of sight.

Ground  

1. A substance applied to a painting or drawing support in preparation for the pigmented material.

2. The preparatory substance used as a coating for a printmaking plate. 

3. The background in a work of two-dimensional art.

Relative Apparent Size   Objects appear smaller as their distance from the viewer increases.

Environmental Art  

1. Art that is large enough for viewers to enter and move about in. 

2. Art designed for display in the outdoor environment. 

3. Art that actually transforms the natural landscape.

Etching  An intaglio printmaking process in which a metal plate is first coated with acid-resistant wax, then scratched to expose the metal to the bite of nitric acid where lines are desired. Also, the resulting print.

Encaustic  A painting medium in which pigment is suspended in a binder of hot wax.

Engraving  Printmaking method in which a sharp tool (burin) is used to scratch lines into a hard surface such as metal or wood.

Dynamic  Giving an effect of movement, vitality, or energy.

Eclecticism  The practice of selecting or borrowing from earlier styles and combining the borrowed elements.

Fauvism  A style of painting introduced in Paris in the early 20th century, characterized by areas of bright, contrasting color and simplified shapes. The name les fauves is French for "the wild beasts."

Facade  In architecture, a term used to refer to the front exterior of a building. Also, other exterior

sides when they are emphasized.

Eye Level The height of the viewer's eyes above the ground plane. 

Expressionism  The broad term that describes emotional art, most often boldly executed and making free use of distortion and symbolic or invented color. More specifically, Expressionism refers to individual and group styles originating in Europe in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. See also Abstract Expressionism.

Engraving  An intaglio printmaking process in which grooves are cut into a metal or wood surface with a sharp cutting tool called a burin or graver. Also, the resulting print.

Drypoint  An intaglio printmaking technique, similar to engraving, in which a sharp needle is used to draw on a metal plate, raising a thin ridge of metal that creates a soft line when the plate is printed. Also, the resultant print.

Entasis  In classical architecture, the slight swelling or bulge in the center of a column, which corrects the illusion of concave tapering produced by parallel straight lines.

Earthenware  Ceramic ware, usually coarse and reddish in color, fired in the lowest temperature ranges. Used for domestic ware, glazed or unglazed.

Earth Art; Earthworks  Sculptural forms of earth, rocks, or sometimes plants, often on a vast scale

and in remote locations. Some are deliberately impermanent.

Drypoint  An intaglio printmaking process in which lines are scratched directly into a metal plate

with a steel needle. Also, the resulting print. 

Dominance  The principle of visual organization which suggests that certain elements should assume more importance than others in the same composition. It contributes to the organic unity by emphasizing the fact that there is one main feature and that other elements are subordinate to it.

Elevation  In architecture, a scale drawing of any vertical side of a given structure. 

Color  The visual perceptual property corresponding in humans to categories called red, green, blue and others. Color derives from light spectrum (distribution of light energy versus wavelength) interacting in the eye with the spectral sensitivities of the light receptors. Color categories and physical specifications of color are also associated with objects, materials, light sources, etc., based on their physical properties such as light absorption, reflection, or emission spectra. By defining a color space, colors can be identified numerically by their coordinates.

The science of color is sometimes called chromatics. It includes the perception of color by the human eye and brain, the origin of color in materials, color theory in art, and the physics of electromagnetic radiation in the visible range.

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Color

Encaustic  Literally, to burn in. A painting technique in which the pigment is mixed with melted wax and resin and then applied to a surface while hot.

Edition  In bronze sculpture and printmaking, the number of pieces/images made from a single mold/plate and authorized by the artist.

ABC Art  A 1960's art movement and style that attempts to use a minimal number of textures, colors, shapes and lines to create simple three-dimensional structures. Also known as minimalism.

Coffer  In architecture, a decorative sunken panel on the underside of a ceiling.

Abstract Expressionism  An art movement, primarily in painting, that originated in the United States in the 1940s and remained strong through the 1950s. Artists working in many different styles emphasized spontaneous personal expression in large paintings that are abstract or nonrepresentational One type of Abstract Expressionism is called action painting. See also expressionism.

Abstract Art  Art that departs significantly from natural appearances. Forms are modified or changed to varying degrees in order to emphasize certain qualities or content. Recognizable references to original appearances may be slight. The term is also used to describe art that is nonrepresentational.

Cartoon
1. A humorous or satirical drawing. 

2. A drawing completed as a full-scale working drawing, usually for a fresco painting, mural, or tapestry.

Cubism  The most influential style of the twentieth century, developed in Paris by Picasso and Braque, beginning in 1907. The early mature phase of the style, called Analytical Cubism, lasted from 1909 through 1911. Cubism is based on the simultaneous presentation of multiple views, disintegration, and the geometric reconstruction of objects in flattened, ambiguous pictorial so space; figure and ground merge into one interwoven surface of shifting planes. Color is limited to neutrals. By 1912 the more decorative phase called Synthetic (or Collage) Cubism, began to appear; it was characterized by fewer, more solid forms, conceptual rather than observed subject matter, and richer color and texture.

Woodcut  A type of relief print made from an image that is left raised on a block of wood.

Collage  From the French coller, to glue. A work made by gluing materials such as paper scraps, photographs, and cloth on to a flat surface.