Glossary
abstract art
Art that changes, simplifies, or distorts subject matter to express emotions or ideas. Abstract art may include recognizable subjects or may depict only lines, shapes, colors, and textures.
ambiguous
Something having more than one possible meaning or whose meaning is not clear.
art critic
A person who examines artworks or views art exhibitions and then writes about the meanings and quality of the works in books, magazines, and newspapers.
assemblage
An artistic technique combining different materials and objects, often natural or man-made.
autobiography
The story of a person’s life told by her/himself.
canon
A criteria or standard of judgement; a body of principles, rules, standards, or norms.
collage
From the French word coller (to glue). Artwork that is made by affixing papers or objects to a two-dimensional surface.
contemporary art
The art of our time; art made by living artists.
criterion
Criterion comes from the Greek word krinein (to judge); it is a standard, principle, or rule on which judgments are made.
culture
The totality of socially transmitted behavior patterns, arts, beliefs, institutions, and all other products of human work and thought.
curator
Curator comes from the Latin words curare (to care) and cura (care). In an art museum, curators are charged with overseeing the care of the artworks in the collection and planning how those works are shown and interpreted.
installation art
Art that is designed to become a part of a specific space in which it is installed.
juxtapose
The act of placing two or more things together to suggest a link or to emphasize the contrast between them.
modern art
A term usually used to describe art that questioned or abandoned traditional techniques, subjects, or ideas (specifically the movement begun in Europe in the mid-19th century that ended after World War II); can also refer to any art produced recently that is consciously in tune with the attitudes and beliefs of those times.
moving image artwork
A generic description of art that is created with a camera and captured on film or video, or produced digitally with a camera or computer.
postmodern
The term literally means “after modern” and was coined to describe art and culture in the latter part of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century. Postmodernism questions the modern artists’ emphasis on logic, order, and originality, and suggests that ambiguity, uncertainty, diversity, and contradiction may be equally valid.
realistic
Creating the illusion with perspective, light, and shadow that the viewer is looking through a window onto a recognizable scene from real life or nature.
recontextualize
The positioning of familiar images, words, or ideas in relationship to things with which they are not usually associated, thus creating or suggesting a new meaning for them.
site-specific art
Art designed for a particular place, often linked to its history and dependent on the space for its form or content.
