Art and Aesthetics Terms: Definitions and Key Concepts
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1) Aesthetic
Relating to the appreciation of beauty or good taste, or having a heightened sensitivity to beauty; a philosophy of what is artistically valid or beautiful.
2) Applied Art
A term that sometimes includes architecture and the decorative arts (handcrafts by skilled artisans, aspects of interior design, jewelry, weaponry, tools, costumes, mechanical appliances, and other products of industrial design).
3) Art for Art's Sake
A phrase coined in the early nineteenth century that expresses the belief that art needs no justification — that is, it needs to serve no political, didactic (teaching), or other end.
4) Artifact
A product produced by human craft, particularly one of archaeological, artistic, or historical interest.
5) Baroque
A diverse artistic style taking place from the late sixteenth to the early eighteenth centuries, typically marked by complexity, elaborate form, and an appeal to the emotions.
6) Classical
Adhering to traditional standards. May refer to a style in art and architecture dating to the mid-fifth century BCE in Athens, Greece, or ancient Rome, or to any art that emphasizes simplicity, harmony, restraint, proportion, and reason.
7) Convention
In all the arts, a generally accepted practice, technique, or device.
8) Criticism
The act of analyzing a work of art or literature that may or may not involve evaluation of quality and expression of judgment.
9) Expressionism
An artistic movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries that stresses the subjective and subconscious thoughts of the artist and seeks to evoke subjective emotions in the respondent. The struggle of life’s inner realities is presented by techniques that include abstraction, distortion, exaggeration, primitivism, fantasy, and symbolism.
10) Fine Art
Those disciplines that create works (or the works themselves) produced for beauty rather than utility.
11) Form
In any art, a type or genre; the shape, structure, configuration, or essence of something; or the organization of ideas in time or space.
12) Humanities
The areas of learning (art, music, theatre, literature, film, dance, philosophy, and sometimes history) that investigate the human condition, its situations, and concerns, as opposed to natural processes (the sciences).
13) Juxtapose
Place side by side.
14) Line
In visual art, a long, thin mark, a color edge, or an implication of continuation.
15) Palette
In visual art, the composite use of color by an artist in an artwork; or a flat piece of board or other material that a painter holds and on which pigments can be mixed.
16) Style
The individual characteristics of a work of art that identify it with a particular artist, nationality, historical period, or school of artists.
17) Symbol
A form, image, or subject standing for something else.