Art Terminologies

Hi Jeff..great topic...

Left...and...Right. (oh good... I got it right that time! :)

"What are some terminologies you struggle with? "

None. When selling art I find that the quickest way to chase of a prospective buyer is to click into "art speak". So I have trained myself to say a way and remain ignorant. I learned I only had to know just a little bit more then my buyer and that made them feel more comfortable.

But it is a great question for here. Most in here are artist first, second and third and maybe salesman fourth. I am sales first through 10 and not sure about the artist thing at all? (That is mostly a joke, no offense is intended)

Ha!

Outside of photography I have never studied all the other terminologies and what they mean. I know some new photographers struggle with camera related things...ISO, f-stop, and the like.

Giclée

Fancy name for ink jet print.

I just had to Google "Gesso".. I was going to speculate but decided against it!

Floyd,

Yes, speaking the lingo does have an advantage. When speaking with naval aviators, for example, as an ordnanceman when I began speaking their language about how the weapons systems worked, we soon began talking on the same playing field.

I did the same thing, Barry. I'm like "Gesso?" What's that?

Giclée? Yep, had to look that one up, too! It sounds French to me.

I have always been fond of chiaroscuro and sfumato.

Chiaroscuro is a sudden bright illumination where the bulk to the work falls into darkness. Caravaggio was a master.

Sfumato is a bit more tough to understand but the best way to describe it is the background of the Mona Lisa where she is in sharp focus and the background is sfumato or hazy and indistinct.

Could of terms in photography:

Higher the "ISO" the more sensitive the sensor/film becomes/is.

Larger "apertures" lets in more light but its a lower f/stop number.

Large aperture openings result in less "depth of field" are area that is in focus.

"Faster lens" are ones with larger apertures.

"Prime lens" are fixed at a single focal point. Zoom lens move through a range of focal points.

"Hyperfocal distance" is a distance beyond which all objects can be brought into an "acceptable" focus.

A bright sunny scene has a longer "dynamic range" than a low light scene.

"HDR" mean high dynamic range.

Faster "shutterspeeds" are smaller fractions of a second. 1/30 of a second is slower then say 1/300 of a second.

As it transpires, I did have knowledge of Gesso... But I had forgotten..never thought about again after high school! We as a society often focus on knowledge to be gained... but what about all the knowledge which is lost..? I guess we only keep what we think we'll need!..

...and left and right aren't all that important to me at the moment! ;-)

Kevin,

Okay, I'm stumped on those terminologies. I think Sfumato, in photographic terms might be considered bokeh?

Useful art gallery terms*

Acid free - The art-world marketing adjective equivalent to "free range." Over time, acids in paper or mat board can discolor art or make it brittle.

Archival - Used to describe any process or material meant to forestall or prevent an artwork's deterioration.

Art gallery - Like a shooting gallery, only with paintings instead of tin ducks, and critics instead of rifles.

Atelier - Originally, a master artist's studio, with his apprentices or assistants. Now, a fancy way of saying the art was made by the assistants and signed by the superstar artist.

Auction - A version of the secondary market where willing buyers bid a painting up in price until its sale makes the front page of the New York Times.

Bronze - 1. An alloy of copper, usually with tin, silicon or nickel, used since antiquity as a medium for sculpture. 2. A statue of a horse or an Indian.

Chardonnay - The ritual beverage of an art-gallery opening-night reception. Traditionally served in plastic stemware with a side of cheese.

Co-op - A type of art gallery where a group of artists unrepresented by galleries join together to pay rent on a space where they may represent themselves.

Conservation - The difficult and continuing process of preserving a piece of art from decay and vandalism.

Contemporary - 1. Art made by living artists. 2. Any art that doesn't fall into any other category.

Double mat - The habit of adding a larger second mat to a smaller first, giving the appearance of a window opening onto a window. Some framers add cutout portions, multiple colors and even triple or quadruple layers of mat board. Sometimes the craftsmanship of the mat exceeds the art it augments.

Frame - A container of wood or metal circumscribing a work of art to set it off from the wall. In some cases may cost more than the art it encases.

French mat - A kind of mat with a drawn line or painted band drawn around the image, thought by some to be more elegant than the plain mat.

Gallery - Originally a colonnaded walkway; later any hallway or long room, often where gentry would hang pictures of their illustrious ancestors or prizewinning livestock. Now, specifically, any room for the display of art.

Giclée - A $4 word for a computer inkjet print, used because "inkjet print," not having a long history of usage and the cachet of tradition behind it, doesn't sound sufficiently exclusive. For the same reason, the perfectly good phrase "silk screen" has been superseded by the less-commercial-sounding "serigraph."

Group show - An art exhibition catering not to the individual ego of an artist, but to the common jealousies of several.

Hanging - What a gallery does to art, involving mystical considerations of spacing, grouping, height, eyeline and lighting. Doing it well takes genuine talent.

Installation - 1. The design of an exhibition of art, as in, "This is a nice installation." 2. The physical process of hanging paintings on a wall, as in "You can't come in yet. We're in the middle of installation." 3. A contemporary type of art where multiple items - not necessarily art in themselves - are arranged meaningfully in a space, also called "installation art."

Limited edition - Generally, art produced in sufficient quantities that its practical availability will be unlimited.

Lithograph - 1. A fine-art printmaking technique involving a crayon-resist drawing on a smoothed slab of limestone, transferred to paper. 2. A poster.

Mat - The extra border added to some artworks when framed, meant to provide some visually neutral space around an image and to add a shim between the artwork and the glass of its frame, preventing it from sticking to the glass.

Non-glare glass - An abomination.

Opening - The public reception given usually on the first evening of an exhibition's display and attended by the artist, his family and friends and a small coterie of people looking for Chardonnay in plastic glasses. In some places, openings may be coordinated among galleries, as in Phoenix's First Fridays, in which case, beer may substitute for wine.

Plinth - The pedestal on which sculpture is displayed.

Print - An image, repeated serially, to make art available at lower cost to a wider public. Often a lithograph, a silk screen, an etching or a photograph.

Remarking - The use of a small original drawing by the artist on a photomechanical reproduction, or poster, of his painting, meant to increase its price.

Retrospective - A show looking at the work of a single artist over his lifetime and demonstrating the development of a body of work. Often reserved for the very young.

Salon hanging - A style of hanging multiple artworks on a wall, where every available space is covered by a painting, floor to ceiling, typical of the display at the various European Royal Academies in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Secondary market - The art world equivalent of a used-car lot, where work is sold with no benefit to the artist, except the rise or fall of his reputation.

Signed and numbered - A marketing technique wherein the name of the artist, or the scarcity of the specimen, substitute for the quality of the art.

Site specific - Art created for a certain place that presumably wouldn't make sense if moved to another place.

Stable - The group of artists represented by a commercial gallery. The suggestion of cattle is not unnoticed by the artists.

Studio gallery - A gallery where the artist also maintains a work area where he may create art as well as display it; also a studio opened to the public periodically for an art walk or First Fridays.

Western art - 1. The aesthetic and cultural tradition of Western civilization, primarily Europe and the United States. 2. Paintings of horses.

Vanity gallery - A form of art gallery where the artist rents space to show his work. Also, a gallery devoted to the work of a single artist, usually owned by the artist himself.

- Richard Nilsen

Read more: http://archive.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/2007/10/16/20071016galleriesglossary.html#ixzz38VP6EX8


*"lifted" from http://archive.azcentral.com/ent/arts/articles/2007/10/16/20071016galleriesglossary.html

Sfumato (fu-ma-toe) Definition:
(noun) - A word, from the Latin (via Italian) fumare ("to smoke"), used to denote a painting technique. Sfumato means that there are no harsh outlines present (as in a coloring book). Areas blend into one another through miniscule brushstrokes, which makes for a rather hazy, albeit more realistic, depiction of light and color. An early, wonderful example of sfumato can be seen in Leonardo's Mona Lisa.


Chiaroscuro Definition:

An Italian word literally meaning "light dark", used to describe the skillful balance of light and dark in a painting, with strong contrasts to create dramatic effect. The paintings of Caravaggio and Rembrandt are good examples.

See Also:

Painting in the Style of Old Masters: Sfumato and Chiaroscuro
Pronunciation: ky-aro-skew-ro

folly.. [fol-ee]

Architecture . a whimsical or extravagant structure built to serve as a conversation piece or lend interest to a view. a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments..

Jeffrey, Intaglio is how they print our paper money. Under pressure, the paper is actually forced into the etched lines to apply the ink. That's why you can feel the lines on a fresh bill.

Source - art school and high school print shop.

Thanks, Kevin. That makes sense!

Murray, sounds as though you had some experience with printing moolah back in the day. :-)

Kevin, those two are my favorite obscure terms from art school, too!

"Source - art school and high school print shop."

So now we know where Murray "made" all of his money! He made it himself. Is that what they mean by a self made man? lol

Yeah, Jeffrey and Floyd. I've got boxes of the stuff. Another example of the benefits of a formal art education. ;-)

"Acid free - The art-world marketing adjective equivalent to "free range." Over time, acids in paper or mat board can discolor art or make it brittle" or how to use a negative to describe a positive - somewhat. "Acid-free paper is paper that if infused in water yields a neutral or basic pH (7 or slightly greater). It can be made from any cellulose fiber as long as the active acid pulp is eliminated during processing. It is also lignin- and sulfur-free. Acid-free paper addresses the problem of preserving documents and artwork for long periods." It is MORE than a 'marketing adjective' - it is almost essential if you want to keep books, prints, watercolors or any art created with paper from deteriorating quickly in just a few years. Paper that is not acid free will crumble and yellow; if the mat used over a print is not acid free, in time the acid will leach from the non-acid free mat to the print/watercolor and discolor and degrade the paper under it and out into the surface itself. There are at least two grades of acid free paper: "Conservation-grade — acid-free, buffered paper made from wood-based pulp. & Archival-grade (also Museum-grade) — cotton rag paper made from cotton pulp." Cotton rag is the "preferred" paper for watercolor and water-media on paper - while most mats that are acid free are the buffered paper. Cotton rag paper cost more to produce.

"Remarking - The use of a small original drawing by the artist on a photomechanical reproduction, or poster, of his painting, meant to increase its price." Remarking is also sometimes a small original drawing "related" to the subject of the art work by the artist on the mat around the art. I've seen it done on original works as well as reproduction/prints. And yes - the reason for doing it is to increase the price.

Wait, so the artist is simply making copies, Roy?

"Signed and numbered - A marketing technique wherein the name of the artist, or the scarcity of the specimen, substitute for the quality of the art. " I disagree that it is a "substitute for the quality of the art". Almost always it is done on limited edition prints - generally of good quality - on conservation or archival paper and archival inks - that is supposed to add monetary value to those prints. the signature and numbering are hand done by the artist, usually in the margin around the print or in the edge of the print - such prints are often matted and framed with that number and signature in view.

edit: the signature and numbering should be in graphite pencil

No Jeffrey - a remark done on a mat is an original, usually graphite, drawing and is not a printed on copy. While, if you bought a print, that's all you get, if you get it with a remark - the artist has added original work to the print. And to some degree - that small original drawing does add value to the print.

Is "signed and numbered" really important when it comes to relatively unknown artists with no publicly recognized demand? It it simply a marketing gimmick targeted at the ignorance of potential buyers?

Roy, it sounds like something like Robert Kinkade's factory produced paintings where he adds a bit of highlighting to his premium products.

http://www.ryankirbyart.com/ryan_kirby_artist_remark.html

Murray - it can be and to some degree is a marketing gimmick- but remember - on some occasions - unknown artists (like a lot of folks here on FAA) may become known in the future - and if they were to produce limited editions that they signed and numbered - those prints "MIGHT" be of more value than any printed open edition. What the artist is supposedly telling the buyer - "I approved this print copy and it has quality, printed on good paper using good ink." Just the same as those folks that really know there stuff - can determine if an etching done by Durer is a first pressing or whether it is a later/newer release - and that earlier pressing has more 'value' than a newer release.

Yep - if Kinkade himself - not a subordinate or third party - added anything to a copy of his work - it would add cachet and thus some 'envisioned intrinsic' value to the work.

It's sort of like Presidential (or other famous persons) signatures on documents - did George Washington actually sign it - or was it done by his secretary - or later was it done by mechanical means. and yes - if it is an actual signature - it certainly adds value to the document. His "fingerprint' is on it. You own something George actually touched.

Once upon a time - many long years ago - I dealt with this signed and numbered limited edition prints and remarks. Perhaps first done in the '70's and certainly by many 'wildlife' artists and southwest types - back in the heyday of 'fine art prints' by the likes of Bev Dolittle and others. there were, and still may be, slick color magazines devoted to the genre. I still have a few of those magazines around somewhere. I think 'remarks' are/were mostly done by the wildlife artists.

RoyD - I think that list was all tongue in cheek.

Roy, good one. Remark is another term that originates in the print part of fine art. By printing I do not mean high speed lithography but intaglio, woodcuts, stone lithos, etc. this is where a "plate" has a print life and if an artist (like Matisse) makes a series of say 1,000 then in theory the plate is destroyed. In the case of some like Rembrandt his plates in some case were not. Many years later remarks were issued. This makes the work an original Rembrandt but the value falls from a first printing value of $50-100,000 to $5-12,000. Back in my college days I had the opportunity to purchase a Rembrandt at $45 but as a poor college student I did not have the money. Todaybthatbprint might be valued at several thousand dollars. Sigh.

Thanks, Roy, that makes sense.

errrr learning the piano was a whole other language, but some of it seems fitting for my way of describing things in my head anyway e.g. I think of a forte picture as large and dark, and ff as large dark and very heavy. pastel and soft colours as pp etc, don't know am awful lot of that terminology either when I am relating a description of a picture to someone I tend to just talk in normal every day language. Guess I have a whole new other world and language to learn about.

Impasto, from Wikipedia
Impasto is a technique used in painting, where paint is laid on an area of the surface (or the entire canvas) very thickly, usually thickly enough that the brush or painting-knife strokes are visible. Paint can also be mixed right on the canvas. When dry, impasto provides texture, the paint appears to be coming out of the canvas.

Mary understand. I am not personally musically gifted but in my blues series I often incorporate things from music scores. In one painting everything was done in fives like the bars of music and in another the sun was the hold symbol for holding a note. Kinda fun anyway.

Back when you could get Polaroid film I used to do "Polaroid Image Transfers"

This process involved exposing 4x5 Polaroid instant film and then before it fully developed, pressing into watercolor paper. When successful the image would be incorporated into the watercolor paper.

Another technique involve SX-70 Polaroid film manipulation (the smaller squares) and as the print developed the artist would press an pointy stick around to make changes to the image. I have an example on my wall from an artist in Montana.

http://youtu.be/JSuuNkDUn9o

Digital Paint!
It's market-speak, there is no such thing as digital paint.Paint is three dimensional, pixels are not.
Digital impasto , is not possible, yet all the paint programs feature it.
Another term I find hilarious is non-intellectual abstract. One could easily assume this is a technique for people without an intellect.

Digital paint - that's a great terminology!

ohmygosh, Edward...I had forgotten all about those Polaroid transfers. I used to LOVE doing that in college. AND the manipulations! Cool fun.