Art terms
This glossary explains some of the techniques, mediums, art movements, and other terms you’ll encounter on our website, along with links to examples in the collection.
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Showing 10 of 190 art terms
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Illustrated book
A term referring to any book to which an artist has contributed imagery, but often designating deluxe limited-edition volumes created in collaboration
2 examples
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Impasto
An Italian word for “mixture,” used to describe a painting technique wherein paint is thickly laid on a surface, so that brushstrokes or palette knife
6 examples
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Impressionism
A label applied to a loose group of mostly French artists who positioned themselves outside of the official Salon exhibitions organized by the Académie In 1874, they held their first group exhibition in Paris. Most critics derided their work, especially Claude Monet’s Impression, Sunrise (1872), which was called a sketch or impression, rather than a finished painting. From this criticism, they were mockingly labeled Impressionists. They continued exhibiting together until 1886, at which point many of the core artists were taking their work in new directions.
3 examples
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Industrial design
A process of design that emerged after the Industrial Revolution, applied to products that are mass-produced and machine-made.
9 examples
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Ink
Traditional black drawing ink, which originated in Asia and is therefore often referred to as India ink or Chinese ink, consists of very fine particles
10 examples
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Inkjet print
A print created by a contact-free printer that distributes droplets of ink over a surface to create an image. Most often a print head with nozzles moves
6 examples
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Installation
An art form that comprises visual elements in any medium and the space they inhabit.
5 examples
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Institutional critique
A form of conceptual art, which emerged in the late 1960s, centered on the critique of museums, galleries, private collections, and other art institutions.
7 examples
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Intaglio
A general term for metal-plate printmaking techniques, including etching, drypoint, engraving, aquatint, and mezzotint. The word comes from the Italian
6 examples
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International Style
A style of modern architecture that emerged in Europe (principally Germany and France) in the 1920s and 1930s. Historian Henry-Russell Hitchcock and architect
7 examples
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