- Industry: Art history
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An image or mark in a sheet of paper visible when viewed by transmitted light. It is created using a pattern of wire sewn into the mould on which the sheet of pulp is dried; the paper which settles above the wires is thinner, and so more translucent. The image usually represents the papermaker's trademark design or logo, sometimes with a name, initials or date. Although more common in historical papers (handmade) modern specialist printmaking papers often contain a watermark.
Industry:Art history
English term for the highest style of art in academic theory. Given currency by Reynolds and extensively discussed in his Discourses on Art—fifteen lectures delivered to students at Royal Academy between 1769 and 1790. Reynolds argued that painters should not slavishly copy nature but seek a generalised and ideal form. This 'gives what is called the grand style to Invention, to Composition, to Expression, and even to Colouring and Drapery' (Fourth Discourse). In practice meant painting human figure in style drawing on ancient Greek and Roman (classical) art and the Italian Renaissance masters such as Raphael. Grand Style strictly used for History painting, but Reynolds adapted very successfully to portraiture, inventing the High Art portrait.
Industry:Art history
In eighteenth century became essential part of education for those who could afford it. Developed from enormous admiration for classical civilisation, especially that of Rome, for the Italian Renaissance, and to a lesser extent for the civilisation of France as exemplified by the court of Louis XIV at Versailles. Italy was seen as a vast museum of Western culture. Typical itinerary would be Paris, then the great art cities of Italy—Venice, Florence, Rome and Naples. Large quantities of art were brought home by Grand tourists, and British artists went to Italy if they could.
Industry:Art history
Graphite is a crystalline form of carbon and is useful as a writing and drawing tool, as only the slightest pressure is needed to leave a mark. However, as graphite is soft and brittle it requires some form of protective casing. The exact date and origin of the first graphite pencils is unknown but it is thought that the first graphite sticks encased in wood appeared around 1565, shortly after the discovery of natural graphite in Cumberland in Britain. Graphite also occurs naturally in Siberia, Bavaria in Germany, and in the United States of America. It can, however be made artificially by heating cokes at high temperatures, known as the Asheson process. Graphite has a greasy texture and is dull metallic grey in colour. Graphite is a stable and permanent material but can easily be removed using an eraser. Today graphite is referred to as 'pencil' or occasionally 'lead pencil'. This name came about because prior to the discovery of graphite, lead had been used since ancient times as a writing tool. Graphite was thought to be a form of lead until 1779, when KW Scheele, a Swedish chemist, discovered that the so-called lead used in pencils, was in fact a mineral form of carbon. It was named 'graphite' from the Greek word for writing. The term pencil derives from the Latin word for brush, 'penicillum'.
Industry:Art history
Short lived British group formed by Wyndham Lewis in 1920 to provide a continuing focus for avant-garde art in Britain following the First World War. It was an attempt to revive Lewis's pre-war Vorticist group. One group exhibition was held in 1922. Other artists associated with it included William Roberts, Cuthbert Hamilton and Edward McKnight Kauffer.
Industry:Art history
A group of anonymous American female artists who, since their formation in New York in the mid 1980s, have sought to expose sexual and racial discrimination in the art world and the wider cultural arena. The group's members protect their identities by wearing gorilla masks in public and by assuming pseudonyms taken from deceased female figures.
Industry:Art history
Happenings were theatrical events created by artists, initially in America, in the late 1950s and early 1960s. They were the forerunners of Performance art and in turn emerged from the theatrical elements of Dada and Surrealism. The name was first used by the American artist Allan Kaprow in the title of his 1959 work 18 Happenings in 6 Parts which took place on six days, 4-10 October 1959 at the Reuben Gallery, New York. Happenings typically took place in an environment or installation created within the gallery and involved light, sound, slide projections and an element of spectator participation. Other notable creators of Happenings were Claes Oldenburg, Jim Dine, Red Grooms and Robert Whitman. Happenings proliferated through the 1960s but gave way to Performance art in which the focus was increasingly on the actions of the artist. A detailed account of early Happenings can be found in Michael Kirby's 1965 book, Happenings. Jim Dine's 1960 suite of prints The Crash relates to the drawings that were props for his 1960 Happening, The Car Crash.
Industry:Art history
Derived from the Greek word (Haptesthai) meaning 'touch' or 'contact', haptic relates to the way in which humans interact by touch with the world around them. Artists use haptic technology to give the sensation of a physical presence to a virtual object. This can be manifested in several ways: via vibrations in sound installations or using computer software that has input devices that offer touch feedback. An example of this is a computer program that enables the user to paint a picture using virtual 3D brushes.
Industry:Art history
Can be seen as a subdivision of Post-Painterly Abstraction, which in turn emerged from Colour Field painting. The term was coined by the Californian critic Jules Langster in 1959 to describe those abstract painters, particularly on the West Coast, who in their reaction to the more painterly or gestural forms of Abstract Expressionism adopted a particularly impersonal paint application and delineated areas of colour with particular sharpness and clarity. This kind of approach to abstract painting became extremely widespread in the 1960s.
Industry:Art history
Term History introduced by French Royal Academy in seventeenth century to describe the most important of the types, or genres, of painting. The others in descending order were portrait; genre (scenes of everyday life), landscape, and still life. Term History in fact covered subject matter drawn from ancient Greek and Roman (classical) history; classical mythology, and the Bible. Towards end eighteenth century modern historical subjects were introduced, for example in Britain by West and Copley. Style of History painting should be Grand Style and the result was known overall as High Art.
Industry:Art history
