Tag Archives: art/architecture/design

Lancet Window

Posted on June 17, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Lancet Window: A tall and narrow window which comes to an acute point at its head. Commonly used in the 13th century.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Biblia Pauperum

Posted on June 11, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Literally, Bible of the poor. Book, either manuscript or printed, of the late Middle Ages containing juxtaposed scenes from the Old and New Testaments.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Les Fauves

Posted on June 7, 2019 | Leave a comment

“(Fr., the wild beasts) Originally a contemptuous appellation for a group of French post-impressionist painters who exhibited their work at the Salon d’Automne in 1905. They were so called because of their use of strident color, violent distortions, and broad, bold brushwork. Their leader was Henri Matisse; others were Georges Rouault, Maurice Vlaminck, Andre Derain, and Raoul Dufy.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Guernica by Pablo Picasso

Posted on June 4, 2019 | Leave a comment

“A painting (1937), perhaps the most famous of the 20th century, painted by Pablo Picasso (1881-1973) in 1937 in horrified protest at a notorious atrocity in the Spanish Civil War. On 27 April 1937, bombers of the German Kondor Legion, in support of Franco’s nationalists, destroyed the ancient Basque capital of Guernica, causing many civilian casualties. Picasso’s stark monochromatic painting has become a symbol of the barbarity of modern warfare. There is a (probably apocryphal) story that while Picasso was living in Paris in the Second World War, a Gestapo officer visited his studio. Looking at the canvas of Guernica, the Nazi asked, ‘Did you do that?’ ‘No,’ Picasso replied, ‘you did.'”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

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Lacquer

Posted on June 2, 2019 | Leave a comment

“A resinous varnish that, when applied in several layers, attains a high polish. True lacquer comes from the Japanese lac tree. Characteristically oriental, lacquer work spread to Europe in the early 18th century. Usually decorated.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Term of Art: Magnum Opus

Posted on June 1, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Magnum Opus: A great work of art or literature, especially a writer’s culminating and greatest achievement; masterpiece. Plural: magna opera, magnum opuses,

‘It was the magnum opus of a fat spoiled rich boy who could write like an angel about landscape and like an adolescent about people.’ Norman Mailer, Cannibals and Christians”

Excerpted from: Grambs, David. The Random House Dictionary for Writers and Readers. New York: Random House, 1990.

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Advancing Color

Posted on May 31, 2019 | Leave a comment

“A strong, usually unadulterated warm or hot color (red, orange, or yellow) which appears to come to the fore of a picture plane.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Arata Isozaki

Posted on May 22, 2019 | Leave a comment

“Isozaki, Arata: (b. 1931) Japanese avant-garde architect, he studied at the University of Tokyo and open in own studio in 1963. His first notable building is the Oita Prefectural Library (1966), which show the influence of the Metabolist school. Later works, which often synthesize Eastern and Western elements, use bold geometric forms and frequently make historical allusions. Among his innovative structures are the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (1986) and Art Tower in Mito, Japan (1990).”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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Dry Brush

Posted on April 26, 2019 | Leave a comment

“A technique of drawing, watercolor, and also oil painting in which little color is put onto a brush and then skimmed over a surface. Color is left only on the raised points of that surface, which gives a soft, sketchy tone and effect.”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Metaphysical Art

Posted on April 12, 2019 | Leave a comment

“The movement pittura metafisica founded by Giorgio de Chirico, Carlo Carra, and F. de Pisis in 1917. Now seen as a bridge between certain forms of Romantic painting and Surrealism. Metaphysical painters created haunting images with dreamlike fusions of reality and unreality. The movement ended by 1920.

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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