Familiarizing the students with the following vocabulary will help in preparing them for the tour. Definitions are written on a level intended for the teacher.

GENERAL TERMS

museum: an institution dedicated to the collection, care, study, and display of works of art, history, and natural science as objects of lasting value or interest

gallery: a room or building devoted to the exhibition of works of art

label: a small card describing a work of art, usually attached to the wall next to the artwork

school: a “school” of artists is a group of individuals linked often geographically and always philosophically. Artists in a “school” or “movement” share the same approach toward technique and/or share a similar attitude regarding the purpose of making art. Sometimes a school’s philosophy is very much in synch with attitudes in society, other times a school of artists can be at odds with the rest of society.

STYLES OF ART

portrait: a painting, sculpture, drawing, or other representation of a specific, recognizable person

self-portrait: a portrait depicting the artist who created it

landscape: an artistic representation of natural inland scenery

cityscape: an artistic representation of a city scene

seascape: an artistic representation of an ocean scene

abstraction: an artwork which may depict only vaguely identifiable forms or which does not feature recognizable forms at all. In other words, when you look at abstract art you often cannot tell “what it is.”

sculpture: a three-dimensional work of art

sketch: an unstudied or spontaneous drawing or painting usually used as a draft for a finished painting or sculpture

still-life: a picture consisting predominantly of a grouping of objects

realism: to represent the external world in an objective and factual manner

representational: to represent recognizable images, but not necessarily factually or realistically. The opposite of abstract.

folk art: works usually done by a self-taught artists. Also sometimes called “naïve” art.

COLOR

primary: the pure colors of red, blue, and yellow which are the source for all other colors

secondary: the colors formed by mixing primary colors; the colors orange, violet and green obtained by mixing primary colors: red and yellow = orange, red and blue = violet, yellow and blue = green

complementary: each primary color has a complementary color which is produced by mixing the other two primary colors. The complementary color of red is green, a mixture of blue and yellow. The complementary color of blue is orange, a mixture of red and yellow. The complementary color of yellow is violet, a mixture of red and blue. Red and green are opposite to each other on the color wheel, as are blue and orange, and yellow and violet. One complementary color completes and intensifies its complementary color.

SPACE

two-dimensional: possessing the measurements of length and width but lacking thickness or depth

three-dimensional: possessing the measurements of length, width, and thickness; a solid surrounded by space

foreground: the part of a picture which appears closest to the viewer

middle ground: the part of a picture between the foreground and the background

background: the part of a picture representing what lies behind objects in the foreground or middle ground

AMERICAN ART MOVEMENTS & SCHOOLS (advanced vocabulary)

The following terms will enrich an understanding of the unique progression of American art as trends influence and sometimes blend with one another. These “isms” are not essential vocabulary for your Art & SOL tour.

Hudson River School
The first group of American landscape painters emerged in the 1820s and became known as the Hudson River School because many of them painted in and around the Hudson River Valley and the nearby Catskill and Adirondack Mountains. This was the first coherent American art movement, in the sense that the artists involved shared a similar outlook and approach to making art. They depicted panoramic scenes in precise detail, and regarding nature as a spiritual resource.

Luminism
The pervasive glow of sunlight in a landscape is characteristic of Luminism, a trend among mid-nineteenth-century artists who saw light as landscape’s most important binding ingredient as well as a symbol of divine presence.

Impressionism
Impressionists shared a style of painting that did not hide the brushstroke nor blobs of paint on the surface. To them, light was even more important than it had been to the earlier Luminists. In fact, for many Impressionists, capturing the quality of light, often shimmering and diffused, was more important than the subject of their painting.

Regionalism
Artists led by Thomas Hart Benton used a robust style to celebrate ordinary working people and the rhythms of rural American life, politics, and society.

Ashcan School (also known as New York Realism or The Eight)
A group of painters and illustrators interested in capturing the gritty atmosphere of urban scenes and details of the lives of ordinary working people.

Harlem Renaissance
A movement of the 1920s that marked the first period of intense activity by African-Americans in the fields of literature, visual art and music. The center of this movement was the Harlem neighborhood of New York City.