ArtSpoke: A Guide to Modern Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1848-1944 / Edition 1

by Robert Atkins

Overview

Chronicling international art from Realism through Surrealism, ArtSpoke explains such popular but often misunderstood movements and organizations as Impressionism, Post-Impressionism, the Salon, the Fauves, the Harlem Renaissance, and so on—as well as events ranging from the 1913 Armory Show to Brazil's little-known Semana de Arte Moderna.

Concise explanations of potentially perplexing techniques, media, and philosophies of art making-including automatism, calotype, found object, Pictorialism, and Readymade-provide information essential to understanding how artists of this era worked and why the results look the way they do. Entries on concepts that were crucial to the development of modern art—such as androgyny, dandyism, femme fatale, spiritualism, and many others—distinguish this lively guide from any other art dictionary on the market.
Also unique to this volume is the ArtChart, a handy one-page chronological diagram of the groups discussed in the book. In addition, there is a scene-setting timeline of world history and art history from 1848 to 1944, overflowing with invaluable information and illustrated with twenty-four color reproductions.

Students, specialists, and casual art lovers will all find ArtSpoke an essential addition to their reference shelves and a welcome companion on visits to museums and galleries.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781558593886
Publisher:	Abbeville Publishing Group
Publication date:	04/01/1993
Pages:	224
Product dimensions:	5.88(w) x 8.96(h) x 0.64(d)

About the Author

Robert Atkins, an art historian and writer, is a frequent contributor to Art in America and a former staff columnist for the Village Voice. Atkins is an authority on digital art, queer art and culture, and Chinese contemporary art. He is a pioneering online media producer and a founding member of Visual AIDS, creators of Day With(out) Art and the Red Ribbon. His other books include ArtSpoke and Censoring Culture.

Read an Excerpt

Artspoke

A Guide to Modern Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords, 1848-1944

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By Robert Atkins

Abbeville Press

Copyright © 1993 Robert Atkins
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-1-55859-388-6

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Introduction: A Users Manual

When I visited museums as a child, I tuned out the art historical conversations that buzzed around me. Terms like Secession and Japonisme, Merz and Scuola Metafisica delighted me for their music and poetry but otherwise meant very little. Not until later did I realize the difficulty of communicating my thoughts and feelings about art without command of its language.

Modern art--like every professional discipline--requires a specialized vocabulary for all but the most rudimentary communication. Even the term modern needs deciphering: in the context of this book it refers to the modern or modernist period, encompassing the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth century. It is this century-long span that ArtSpoke surveys, identifying and defining the terminology essential for understanding modern art.

Although the terms modern and contemporary can both be used to describe a newly made artwork, contemporary is most accurately used to describe art produced since World War II. That art is the subject of ArtSpokes companion volume, ArtSpeak: A Guide to Contemporary Ideas, Movements, and Buzzwords. ArtSpoke begins with 1848, the year when revolution swept Europe and catalyzed profound social changes that contributed to the development of modern art. A few of the earlier movements, such as Romanticism, that proved crucial to the emergence of modern art are also included here.

The terms discussed in this volume comprise art movements (such as Constructivism and Fauvism); art forms (found object, kinetic sculpture); critical terminology (formalism, psychoanalysis); and a smattering of key events and institutions (Armory Show, Bauhaus). It also includes influential social phenomena, such as spiritualism and anarchy, that were central to the formulation of modern art. Each term is explained in a concise essay, and the essays are arranged in alphabetical order. The entries that deal with groups and movements are divided into the journalistic categories of Who, When, Where, and What.

Who is a list of the principal artists involved. Those whose names are capitalized are the pioneers or virtuosos of that approach. The nationality of the artist appears in parentheses after the name. In cases of artists who have lived and worked in more than one country, the nation with which they are most associated is the one cited. Thus, the Spanish-born Pablo Picasso is identified as French. Certain artists appear in several entries. The Russian artist Wassily Kandinsky, for instance, is listed under abstraction, Abstraction-Création, Bauhaus, Der Blaue Reiter, Die Brücke, and spiritualism.

When signifies the moment of greatest vitality for a particular attitude toward, or method of, art making. The entry for Impressionism, for example, gives the dates 1870-1890, but some Impressionist artists carried on with the style well into the twentieth century.

Where identifies the cities, countries, or continents in which a movement was centered. It does not mean that artists involved in that movement did not live or work in other places.

What defines the origins, nature, and implications of the group or movement. Cross-references to other entries are capitalized.

What is the best way to use this volume? That depends on who you are. ArtSpoke has been designed for different kinds of readers. The expert can use it to find specific facts--say the name of the critic who coined the term Neo-Impressionism or the location of the first international exposition. The student, collector, or casual art buff will find it useful to read the book from beginning to end, then return to it as needed, guidebook fashion. A timeline and an artchart put the material in chronological perspective; cross references and an extensive index ensure easy access to the information. The purpose of all these elements is to offer a new understanding of modern art--and a new pleasure in it.

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Artspoke by Robert Atkins. Copyright © 1993 Robert Atkins. Excerpted by permission of Abbeville Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

Table of Contents from: Artspoke
Artchart


Timeline and Color Plates


Introduction: A Users Guide


Abstract/Abstraction


Abstraction-Création


Academic Art


Aestheticism (see--Art For Arts Sake)


Allegory


American Abstract Artists (see--Abstraction-Création)


American Renaissance


American Scene Painting


Americanisme


Analytic Cubism (see--Cubism)


Anarchism


Androgyny


Armory Show


Art Deco


Art For Arts Sake


Art Nouveau


Arts and Crafts Movement


Artists Books (see--Book Art)


Ash Can School (see--The Eight)


Asociacion de Arte Constructivo (see--Abstraction-Création)


Assemblage


Automatic Art (see--Surrealism)


Automatism (see--Surrealism)


Avant-Garde (see--Modern/Modernism)


Barbizon School


Bauhaus


Biennial Exhibitions (see--Salon)


Biomorphism (see--Abstract/Abstraction)


Blaue Reiter (see--Der Blaue Reiter)


Blauen Vier (see--Der Blaue Reiter)


Bloomsbury Group


Blue Four (see--Der Blaue Reiter)


Blue Rider (see--Der Blaue Reiter)


Book Art


Bridge (see--Die Brücke)


Brücke (see--Die Brücke)


Calotype


Camden Town Group (see--Vorticism)


Cercle et Carre (see--Abstraction-Création)


Cloisonism (see--Symbolism)


Collage


Concrete Art


Constructivism


Content


Cubism


Cubo-Futurism


Dada


Daguerreotype


Dandyism


Decadents (see--Art For Arts Sake)


Decalcomania (see--Surrealism)


Degenerate Art (see--Nazi Art)


De Stijl


Der Blaue Reiter


Deutscher Werkbund (see--Bauhaus, Film und Foto)


Die Brücke


Divisionism (see--Neo-Impressionism)


Documentary Photography


Dynamism (see--Futurism)


Ecole de Paris (see--School of Paris)


The Eight


Elementarism (see--De Stijl)


Empathy (see--Abstract/Abstraction)


Euston Road Group (see--Realism)


Exhibition 1 (see--Abstraction-Création)


Exquisite Corpse (see--Surrealism)


Expressionism


Fascist Art


Fauvism


Federal Art Project


Femme Fatale


Figurative


Film und Foto


Fin de Siecle (see--Symbolism)


Folk Art (see--Naive Art)


Formal/Formalism


Found Object


Fourth Dimension (see--Spiritualism)


Frottage (see--Surrealism)


F/64 (see--Group F/64)


Futurism


Genre Painting (see--Academic Art)


German Expressionism (see--Der Blaue Reiter, Die Brücke)


Gesamtkunstwerk


Glasgow School


Group F/64


Group of Seven


Harlem Renaissance


Heidelberg School (see--9 x 5)


History Painting (see--Academic Art)


Hudson River School (see--Luminism)


Iconography


Idealism (see--Naturalism


Illustration (see--Book Art)


Impressionism


International Expositions


Intimisme


Ism


Itinerants (see--The Wanderers)


Japonisme


Jugendstil (see--Art Nouveau)


Kinetic Sculpture


LArt Pour LArt (see--Art For Arts Sake)


Linked Ring (see--Pictorialism)


Lithography


Livres dArtistes (see--Book Art)


Luminism


Macchiaioli


Magic Realism (see--Surrealism)


Manifesto


Marxism


Merz


Metaphysical School (see--Scuola Metafisica)


Mexican Murals


Mir Iskusstva (see--World of Art)


Mobile (see--Kinetic Sculpture)


Modern/Modernism


Nabis


Naive Art


Naturalism


Naturlyrismus


Nazarenes (see--Pre-Raphaelitism)


Nazi Art


Negritude (see--Harlem Renaissance)


Neoclassicism


Neo-Impressionism


Neo-Plasticism (see--De Stijl)


Neo-Primitivism


Neo-Romanticism


Neue Sachlichkeit


New Objectivity (see--Neue Sachlichkeit)


The New Sculpture


9 x 5


Nonobjective Art (see--Abstract/Abstraction)


Novecento Italiano (see--Fascist Art)


Novembergruppe (see--Bauhaus)


Official War Art


Omega Workshops (see--Bloomsbury Group)


Optical Realism (see--Impressionism)


Orientalism


Orphism


Osma


Papiers Colles (see--Collage)


Peintres Maudits (see--School of Paris)


Photogram


Photojournalism


Photomontage (see--Collage)


Photo-Secession (see--Pictorialism)


Pictorialism


Pittura Metafisica (see--Scuola Metafisica)


Pointillism (see--Neo-Impressionism)


Pont-Aven School (see--Nabis)


Popular Culture


Post-Impressionism


Precisionism


Pre-Raphaelitism


Primitivism


Productivism (see--Constructivism)


Proun


Psychoanalysis


Purism


Puteaux Group


Quietism (see--Tonalism)


Rayograph (see--Photogram)


Rayonism


Readymade (see--Found Object)


Realism


Regionalism (see--American Scene Painting)


Revivalism (see--Academic Art)


Romanticism


Rosicrucianism (see--Spiritualism)


Russian Avant-Garde (see--Constructivism, Cubo-Futurism, Neo-Primitivism, Rayonism, Suprematism)


Salon


Salon des Independants


Salon des Refuses


Schadograph (see--Photogram)


School of Paris


Scuola Metafisica


Secession


Section dOr (see--Puteaux Group)


Semana de Arte Moderna


Significant Form (see--Formalism)


Simultaneity (see--Space-Time Continuum)


Skupina Vytvarych Umelcu (see--Osma)


Social Realism


Societe Anonyme


Sonderbund Exhibition (see--Armory Show)


Space-Time Continuum


Spiritualism


Straight Photography


Style


Suprematism


Surrealism


Swedenborgianism (see--Spiritualism)


Symbolism


Synchromism


Synesthesia (see--Abstract/Abstraction)


Synthetic Cubism (see--Cubism)


Synthetism (see--Symbolism)


Theater Design (see--Gesamtkunstwerk)


Theosophy (see--Spiritualism)


Tonalism


Transcendental Painting Group (see--Spiritualism)


Travelers (see--The Wanderers)


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Viennese School (see--Iconography)


Les Vingt


Vkhutemas (see--Bauhaus)


Vorticism


The Wanderers


Wiener Werkstätte (see--Arts and Crafts Movement)


World of Art


Worlds Fairs (see--International Expositions)


WPA (see--Federal Art Project)


Zaum (see--Spiritualism)


Acknowledgments


Index

Editorial Reviews

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