Art Jargon Glossary

Here at the Affordable Art Fair, we’re big fans of deconstructing a lot of the art speak which comes part and parcel with the art world. Art should be accessible and enjoyable, rather than making you feel baffled and confused with strange words and foreign phrases. Our handy guide below aims to clear a few things up and explain a few technical terms which you may be unfamiliar with. Let us know if there’s anything you think we need to add!

The Affordable Art Fair Glossary of Art Terms

A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z

A

Abstraction and abstract art
Abstract art was largely a result of artists’ increasing interest in the formal aspects of art (such as colour theory) and the creative process, placing emphasis on personal expression. Representational forms, such as figures or landscapes, are often exaggerated, distorted or simplified until they become virtually unrecognisable. The intention of abstraction is to strengthen the power of the image.

Abstract Expressionism
This movement originated in America in the 1940s, becoming popular in the 1950s. The key interests of the Abstract Expressionists were freedom of expression and exploring the subconscious. Many artists associated with this movement worked quickly and applied paint in unconventional ways such as pouring or splattering paint directly onto the surface, allowing chance and accident to play a significant role in the creation.

Acrylic
Developed in the middle of the twentieth century, acrylic is the main rival to oil paints. It is a synthetic resin, meaning that the paint can be thinned with water, but when dry creates a rough, rubbery film that is impervious to water.

Art Glass
These are smaller and mostly multiple edition glass creations also sometimes known as ‘Studio Glass’ and can cover a range of decorative glass techniques.

Assemblage
The term refers to work such as welded metal constructions in which pre-formed elements are joined. Assemblage was evident in the revolutionary art movements during the first quarter of the twentieth century in France, Russia and Germany.

Aquatint
Aquatint is an etching technique, allowing large areas of varying tones to be printed using a textured plate. The area to be etched is dusted with a powdered resin and then heated to melt it onto the surface. The plate is then placed in an acid bath to etch away the tiny areas not protected by the granulated resin.

B

Blocking in
This is a painting process where the artist roughly establishes the composition and structure of the subject with colours and shapes. It’s a popular technique used mostly with oil painting, and portrait artists. 

Body Art  
A practice that emerged in the 1960’s, of an artist using their own body as a canvas for their work. This movement became a means to explore issues particularly around gender, sexuality and identity through performance, video and photography.

Bauhaus
Translated as “construction house”, Bauhaus was an influential art and design movement that began in Germany around 1919. Originating as an arts school, the school eventually became its own modern art movement with teachers such as Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky becoming notable artists in their own right. Inspired by architecture, the unique aesthetic of Bauhaus art combines fine arts with arts and crafts.

C

Canvas
Canvas is a heavy fabric stretched over a wooden frame and a traditional substrate (base) for paint.

Carving
Carving is a reductive technique where the artist removes the material through cutting a block of material, usually with a sharp object. Materials which tend to be carved include wood, marble, alabaster, limestone or granite or sandstone.

Casting
A fluid substance such as plastic, clay or molten metal is poured into a cast (a mould) which is made from a clay or wax model. Bronze (an alloy of copper and tin) is often used in casting, but concrete and resin can also be cast.

Cityscape
Cityscapes focus on urban environments and scenery. Other ‘scapes’ could be a seascape, or more commonly, a landscape.

Collage
Collage became recognised as a serious art form in the early twentieth century. The term is derived from a nineteenth century craft called ‘papiers collés’ in which a variety of found objects including fabric, newspapers and cardboard are adhered to a flat surface to create a work of art.

Collagraphs
Collagraphs are created by building up an image on a surface (cardboard, metal, or plastic) with glue and other materials thereby creating recessed areas where the ink is retained.

Collector
A collector is someone who buys, or collects, art. It’s our ethos that you don’t have to be a squillionaire to be a collector: anyone can start their collection with an unframed photograph or print, and go from there.

Composition
This relates to the way that the different parts of a work of art are arranged to form a cohesive whole. It’s not just reserved for fine art: you can also talk about a musical composition, or the composition of a novel.

Conceptual art
Conceptual art, as its names implies, is primarily concerned with conveying an idea or concept behind a work, rather than the creation of a traditional art object (such as painting, print, or sculpture). The term first came into use in the 1960s, but is usually associated with artists of the 1970s. In many examples of conceptual art, the art object can be replaced by a description of it or by a set of instructions for its construction, and the actual physical involvement of the artist can often be quite minimal.

Contemporary
Art which is being produced now or at least very recently produced, in the late twentieth or twenty-first century. Not to be confused with Modern or Post-Modern Art. The Affordable Art Fair’s definition of ‘Contemporary Art’ is work produced by artists who are still living.

Crypto Art
Crypto art is digital art that is treated as physical art, due to the ability to facilitate verified ownership over individual artworks. Crypto art can take many forms, the key theme being the limit in quantity: like traditional art, crypto art exists in limited numbers. When you buy an artwork, a token known as an NFT (see listing below) verifies you as the owner of the piece. In some cases, buyers also buy the rights to reproduce the artwork (along with rights to any resulting royalties).

Curator
We have lots of these at our fairs; a curator is someone whose job is to create and run exhibitions or look after a collection. Curating a show means putting a show together: liaising with artists and deciding where the works go on the walls.

C-Type
This is the generic name for modern colour photographic print. Colour sensitive layers of emulsion on the paper respond to the colour information in the negative when light is shone through it. After the initial development, chemical compounds called dye couplers are added to form a layer of hues that produce the full colour image.

Cyanotype
Ever heard of a ‘blueprint’? Cyanotype is a photographic printing process that produces prints with a distinctive blue colour. Originally used by engineers as a low-cost option for reproducing drawings (hence the term blueprint), it was later adopted as a photographic art form.

D

Décollage
Décollage is the opposite technique to collage, being the process of removing materials, creating an artwork that comes to life as the layers or materials beneath are exposed. Tying in very nicely with the English translation of the term which is ‘lift-off’.

Digital Art
This term can encompass 1) a digitally produced reproduction of an artwork already existing in another form, for example a painting (work such as this is not accepted at Affordable Art Fair, as it is not considered to be an original work of art), 2) work produced to be viewed via digital means such as web-art or crypto art, and 3) work produced digitally, which results in a work existing outside of the computer – often in the form of giclée print, so that this digitally produced print can be considered to be an ‘original’. Work in this category may also exist in the form of a video, or more recently, a DVD. Such videos and DVDs will often be sold in limited editions, as with prints. (Works such as this are sold at The Affordable Art Fair, subject to it being produced under the same strictly limited editions as conventional prints. In other words, when a print’s edition has been fully run, the artist must not produce any further prints in the series).

Diptych
Quite simply, two pieces of art in a row.

Drypoint
Artists working in drypoint draw the image directly onto the plate using a steel tipped ‘pencil’ that produces an added richness due to the burr (or shaving of metal that is turned up at the furrow). As the burrs are delicate and crush easily under the weight of the press, usually less than 50 impressions can be made.

E

Editions
An edition is a predetermined number of prints at a specific size from a single image. An edition print should be of exhibition quality and will be individually numbered (e.g 5/10), signed and dated, either on the print itself or on an accompanying certificate. Often an ‘Artist Proof’ will exist separate to the edition and is usually the first or last to be printed. Editioning is more common among contemporary photographers and gives the collector an assurance of authenticity.

Emerging
An emerging artist is someone at the start of their career, who is just starting to get some attention.

Engraving
An engraving is a technique in printmaking, where incisions are made into a metal plate or wood block. Ink is then rolled onto the plate or block, to form a printed image when rolled on paper or a two-dimensional surface.

Established
The opposite of an emerging artist, an established artist is one who is relatively well known in their field, having worked for a substantial period of time and produced a significant body of work.

Etching
A printmaking process whereby a metal plate is coated with an acid-resisting wax or ‘ground’ that the artist draws into with a variety of tools, removing the ground from the areas that are to be printed black. The plate is immersed in an acid bath, which ‘bites out’ or etches the exposed area. The etched plate is inked and the surface is wiped clean, leaving ink only in the etched depressions. Finally, the plate is run through a press with dampened paper – the pressure forces the paper into the etched area of the plate, transferring the ink onto paper. Rembrandt van Rijn first popularised this technique.

F

Focal Point
This is the part of a piece of art work, usually a two-dimensional piece like a painting or photograph, which is the central focus of a piece, and where the eye is drawn to first.

Foreground
As opposed to the background, this is the part of a two-dimensional piece of art which appears closest to the viewer.

Figurative
Figurative works are works that represent real things, like human beings or objects. The opposite to figurative would be abstract.

Fin de siècle
An example of the tendency for the art world to use foreign languages, ‘fin de siècle’ means ‘end of the century’ in French. It refers to a time when one period is ending and another beginning, and is typically used to describe the period between the 19th and 20th centuries.

G

Gallerist
One of our favourites – a gallerist is the owner or person responsible for a gallery.

Gelatin Silver Print
Known as the most common form of black and white photographic printing. Photosensitive particles called silver halides are suspended in a thin layer of gelatin on paper. When the paper is exposed and processed, the particles react and change according to the concentration and brilliance of light.

Geometric
We talk about geometric art a lot on the blog as we have a fantastic roster of artists who rely on creating this type of work. It means using geometric shapes, with curved or straight lines, in artworks.

Giclée
A giclée print, rather than a limited edition, is a method of printmaking using an ink-jet printer to produce photographic images of artworks.

Glass Art
One-off modern art creations, which are entirely or substantially made in glass, these often tend to be specifically commissioned pieces or works for public viewing.

Gouache
Gouache is an opaque watercolour, but is different from transparent watercolour in that it creates an actual, often thick, layer of paint.

Grafitti
Grafitti is a type of art that exists usually on outdoor walls or surfaces and is created often without permission, typically using spray paint. Grafitti is not usually seen indoors or in a traditional arts context, but its influence can be seen incorporated frequently into artists’ work. See also: street art.

H

Hard-edge painting
Hard edge painting came about as a response to the gestural Abstract Expressionism. In a move towards more precision and definition, this technique is characterised by abrupt transitions between colours in a painting – the opposite of blending.

Hyper realism 
Hyperrealism is a genre of painting and sculpture resembling a high-resolution photograph. Hyperrealism is considered an advancement of Photorealism by the methods used to create the resulting paintings or sculptures.

I

Ink
Ink has been used for many centuries in Eastern Art and used to be sold in sticks that were rubbed with water in shallow mortars. Modern ink is sold in liquid form, either soluble or waterproof.

Impasto
The process of thickly applying paint using a brush or a palette knife. Impastoed paint is thick and textured; usually oil paint is used but sometimes artists use acrylic. Impasto artworks are characterised by the thickly layered paint, and visible marks of the palette knife.

Installation art
Installation art is often made for a particular event or space. It is usually referred to as being site-specific and is designed to transform the perception of a space. Although some installations can be re-installed elsewhere or re-made at different venues, they are rarely permanent and may only exist as a documentation of its finished state.

Intaglio Process Prints
Intaglio prints can be created through a number of processes, the common element is that the printed area is recessed. These recessed areas are filled with a greasy printer’s ink and then the surface is carefully wiped clean so that the ink remains only in the incised design. Types of intaglio processes include; Etching, Drypoint, Aquatint, Mezzotint, and Collagraphs.

J

Juxtaposition
The act of placing two things close together in order to compare and contrast the elements. Artists often use juxtaposition to bring out certain qualities or to create a particular feeling. As well as through contrasting elements, juxtaposition can also be created through positioning contrasting painterly or artistic techniques side-by-side in one artwork.

K

Kinetic Art
Kinetic art is defined by the presence of motion within an artwork, whether it be a mechanical sculpture, a mobile or an op art painting that rotates.

Kitsch
Kitsch was a term initially applied to art and culture considered to be in poor taste. More recently the term has more generally been associated with lowbrow taste or something that is purely decorative, specifically relating to the rise in mass consumer culture. Nowadays, artists employ the kitsch aesthetic in order to draw attention to the high/low brow divide, celebrating bad taste and nostalgia.

L

Lacquer
Lacquer is made from a natural substance obtained from the sap of a Lacquer tree. The sap is used as a clear or coloured varnish in pottery and painting which produces a hard durable finish when dry; this type of finish is referred too as ‘Lacquer’.

Lambda / Lightjet
A photographic term. The Lambda, or Lightjet, is a C-type printed from a digital image file (captured digitally or scanned from a print or film). The image is projected onto light sensitive paper using sophisticated laser technology.

Limited Edition
We have lots of these on our online shop: a limited edition is a piece of art – such as a photograph, etching or screenprint -that is produced in small, or limited numbers, which adds to their value.

Linocut
This printmaking technique involves a design being carved in relief on a block of linoleum. Similar to woodcut, but uses linoleum as the surface.

Lithography
Lithography consists of drawing or painting with greasy crayons and inks on limestone that has been ground down to a flat, smooth block. After several manipulations, the stone is moistened with water wetting the sections not covered by the crayon and leaving the areas of the greasy drawing dry as grease repels water. Oil-based ink is then applied with a roller and is repelled by the wet parts of the stone. The print made by pressing paper against the inked drawing is an autographic replica, in reverse, of the original drawing on stone.

M

Mezzotint
This is perhaps the most labour intensive intaglio process and involves a plate being ‘rocked’ with a curved, notched blade until the surface is entirely and evenly pitted, creating a rough surface that prints black. Scraping the burr off or polishing the plate smooth creates half-tones and light. Colour mezzotints require a separate plate for each colour which will be printed separately on top of the previous colour in different print runs.

Modern print
A photographic term for a print produced a significant amount of time after the photograph was taken. For example, a 1950s print reprinted in 2000.

Modeling – Modeling is the process in which a three-dimensional form is shaped from clay or wax. Clay works are then fired in a kiln to make the clay permanent and durable.

Modernism and Modern Art
Modernism and the period referred to as the ‘modernist’ age relates to art and literature from the late 19th century to the mid-20th century. It also includes artists who forged artistic movements such as Fauvism, Cubism and Surrealism. Art at this point made a radical break with the past, deliberately departing from traditional materials and techniques. Whilst modernist ideas are still used widely in contemporary art and design, the movement fell out of fashion in the post war period. It should not therefore be confused with contemporary art.

Monoprints and Monotypes
These two terms are often incorrectly assumed to be the same, but there are important differences. A Monoprint has a single underlying image (such as an etched plate or screen) that is made unique through a process of hand colouring or surface alteration to the printed image. A series of monoprints may be similar but are not identical. Monotypes are unique images and do not have a repeatable matrix (etched plate or screen). Instead, a thin even film of ink is rolled on to a plate, which the artist then manipulates by drawing into it, or by rubbing sections off. The print image is taken directly from the plate.

Montage
A montage is a collage of images which are used in conjunction with each other to create a new, fictional scene or work of art. These pieces are generally themed.

N

Naive Art
Naive art describes a technique that is simple, unsophisticated and even childlike. Often, Naive artists have had no formal art school training. Traditional rules, such as that of perspective, are often overlooked in paintings of a naive style.

NFT
Shorthand for ‘non-fungible token’, an NFT is a digital token that states that you are the owner of a digital work – a piece of art, a piece of music or even a tweet! The NFT is like a digital certificate of authenticity.

O

Oeuvre
If you hear someone talking about the oeuvre of an artist, it means the artist’s body of work to date.

Oil
Oil paint is a slow drying paint that is created by mixing pigments with oil, linseed oil being the most traditional. Oil paints are usually opaque and never dry fully, but rather develop a hard film. Since the sixteenth century oil painting on canvas has been a standard medium for artists as it can be easily manipulated and has great flexibility, making it possible for an artist to achieve a layered or smooth canvas.

P

Painting
The practice of painting is the application of a paint, pigment or another medium to a surface, most commonly applied with a paintbrush.

Pallidium print
See Platinum print.

Palette
We often talk about the palette of an artist; this could mean the range of colours an artist uses, or the physical wooden or plastic board used to mix paint. Artists often use palette knives, a flexible blade, to apply paint onto a canvas.

Papier Collé
This French term translates to ‘pasted paper’ or ‘paper cut outs’. A subcategory of collage, it is applied to artworks which only use paper as opposed to the myriad of materials and found objects which the primary term covers.

Pastel
Pastels are normally sold in three grades: soft, medium and hard. The soft is universally used, the other two mainly for special effects. The soft texture of pastels allows them to be easily blended.

Photomontage
A photomontage is a type of collage which only uses photographic images which are cut, glued and arranged together to create a new image. A skilled artists can easily create a photomontage that tricks the viewer into believing they are a surreal and unlikely, but original photograph.

Photography
To create a photograph, a photosensitive film is exposed to light using a camera. The film is then developed and set using chemicals to create a negative. The negative is used to partially expose photosensitive paper to light, transferring the image – the photographer or processor can adjust the paper, volume of light and the length of exposure to stylistically affect how the photographic paper is exposed. Further chemicals are used to set the photographic paper, delivering a durable permanent image.

Polaroid
Polaroid is film that develops moments after exposure giving an instant positive or negative print that is completely unique. Polaroid has many creative possibilities such as experimenting with emulsion lifts and image transfers.

Pop Art
Pop Art largely explores popular mass culture and the products of consumerism and capitalism. Its message is not always certain, and could be critiquing or celebrating its subject. Largely associated with American culture, it actually began in England in the late 1950s, helped substantially by the focus brought on Britain by the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. By appropriating the materials, styles and imagery of mass media – advertising, billboards, screen-printing, commercial packaging and design – pop-artists encouraged their audience to question the imagery used to advertise everyday products, and at the same time challenged the elitism of previous art movements.

Post-Modernism
Post-modernism is the recognition that we have gone as far as we can from traditional values in the name of innovation. Therefore nothing can be considered wholly original because everything refers to what has gone before it. This is now part of our everyday ‘Cultural Liberalism’ in which no creative output can categorically be said to be better or worse than any other. Value is given to something according to what it refers to, hence the current fashion for retro culture and revivals of former styles.

Platinum print
A form of black and white photographic printing that uses platinum instead of silver salts. Platinum is reduced from light sensitive iron salts to form an image as platinum particles become embedded in the paper. Known for their wide range of subtle tonal variations and fine grain, platinum prints have a significantly longer life expectancy than silver prints. Pallidium is often used as an alternative to platinum, giving similar results.

Printmaking
A piece of printed artwork, features unique hand-crafted imagery or creative graphics, which is transferred (printed) onto a high-quality and carefully selected substrate (such as richly textured paper), using singular or multiple colours, all of these elements working together to communicate an artist’s aesthetic or emotional message. The production process for a printed artwork is generally manual (rather than mechanical), which means the printmaker is free to make countless creative adjustments to the various printmaking processes described below. And while the very nature of printmaking means that multiple prints can be made from the original source (known technically as a matrix or plate); printed artworks are generally produced in limited editions to make each series unique to a small volume of pieces.

Q

Quilling
An art form in which strips of paper are rolled and shaped together to make decorative designs. Quilling as an art forms has been around for centuries, from Renaissance monks to affluent ‘ladies of leisure’ in the 18th Century – it’s had a rich and varied history!

R

R-type
A photographic term for a colour print made by the reversal process from a positive film (transparency or slide), you can also print from a positive film using Ilfochrome, which incorporated a dye-bleach process, resulting in purer and more permanent colour.

Relief Printing
This is the oldest printing technique and refers to the cutting away of part of the surface of a block of material so that the image area to be printed stands out in relief. Woodcuts or woodblock prints are made by cutting into the surface of a smooth piece of hardwood with a knife. When printed, the area that has been cut away remains white and the raised surface is visible. A separate block is required for each colour. Printmakers rarely use more than three or four colours for aesthetic purposes.

S

Salon Hang
One of our favourite hanging techniques, a salon hang is when a number of artworks are hung on a wall together, often quite close together. The term comes from the Paris Salon, the first official art exhibition in the world.

Screenprinting / Serigraphy / Silkscreen printing
A twentieth century multicolour printmaking technique developed in America, this technique uses a stencil process where designs are placed on a silk or nylon mesh screen that is attached to a wooden or metal frame. Various film-forming materials, as well as hand-cut film stencils, are used, and colour is poured into the frame. The colour is scraped over the stencil with a squeegee and deposited on the paper through the meshes of the uncoated areas of fabric.

Sugar Lift
Sugar Lift is a printmaking process which allows the artist to make a brush drawing directly on to the etching plate. After painting with a mix of sugar and ink, the whole plate is then covered with an acid resist. When dry, it is immersed in hot water, dissolving the sugar and exposing the brush drawing, which can now be etched. This is often used with aquatint to produce tone.

T

Tondo
From the Italian word ‘rotondo‘, meaning round, a tondo is a circular artwork – first made popular in 15th Century Rennaissance Italy!

Triptych
Three artworks in a row, not to be confused with Diptych!

U

Umber
A natural, reddish-brown earth pigment used in painting. The name comes from the Italia term terra d’ombra, meaning ‘Earth of Umbria’, named after a region of Italy where the pigment was first extracted and used.

V

Vernissage
Another example of using french, a vernissage is another name for a preview or private view, the opening night of an exhibition.

Video Art
The practice of video art emerged in the 1960’s, as newly accessible filming equipment came into the market. Where previously film has been an expensive (and therefore elitist) medium, experimental artists were now able to record and represent their artworks in a new way. It is considered to be a genre of art, rather than a movement – and shouldn’t be confused with cinema or arthouse films.

Vintage print
A photographic term for a print produced within 5 years of the making of the negative. Valuable to collectors as it is thought to demonstrate the photographer’s initial intention, the print will perhaps reflect process based trends from the time when the photograph was taken. A vintage print may not be the best quality of print available of the desired image, but it is sought after due to its telling properties.

Vitrine
Museums often discuss vitrines, which put simply are the large glass cabinets often seen in gallery spaces to display art objects.

W

Watercolour
Watercolours are translucent water-based paints. The technique is based on the transparent or glaze system of pigmentation that utilises the colour of the paper for its highlights.

X

Xerox Art
Xerox art, or photocopy are, is an artform that began in the 1960’s. Similarly to video art (see above), emergent technology around this time created a new, accessible method for artists to produce work: the photocopying machine was invented in 1959 and artists soon adopted it as a quick and inexpensive way to produce artworks. In the early 1980’s, the International Society of Copier Artists was founded – a collective founded to promote the works of artists who’s primary creative tool was the photocopier.

Y

Yellowing
The name given to the discolouration that can happen to an oil painting over time, due to an excess of linseed oil paint. Varnishes used on oil paintings can also add to the yellowing effect. Oil paintings can also be subject to a phenomenon known as dark yellowing – a reversible process that takes place when the painting is stored in a dark environment.

Z

Zeitgeist
The Zeitgeist is the force that dominates cultural thought of a particular era or period. This can involve trends, tastes, outlooks or ideas that exist in the dominant thought patterns and opinions of the time. Works of art and culture are often reflections of the zeitgeist in any given moment.

Want to learn more? There’s a host of informative blog posts over on our sister site, AffordableArt.com. Follow the links below to read up on artistic techniques and movements:

An introduction to painting

An introduction to collage

An introduction to printmaking

An introduction to fine art photography  

An introduction to drawing 

Art movements

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