- Industry: Art history
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Watercolour is a medium or work of art made with paint consisting of fine pigment particles suspended in an aqueous binder which usually consists of gum, glucose, glycerine and wetting agents, applied to paper. As watercolour is semi-transparent, the white of the paper give a natural luminosity to the washes of colour. White areas of the image often are merely left unpainted to expose the paper. Watercolours are sold as cakes of dry paint or as liquid in tubes, to which water is added. The paint can be applied in various techniques such as wet-on-wet and wet-on-dry to obtain different effects.
Industry:Art history
An image or mark in a sheet of paper visible when viewed by transmitted light. It is created using a pattern of wire sewn into the mould on which the sheet of pulp is dried; the paper which settles above the wires is thinner, and so more translucent. The image usually represents the papermaker's trademark design or logo, sometimes with a name, initials or date. Although more common in historical papers (handmade) modern specialist printmaking papers often contain a watermark.
Industry:Art history
The process of joining two pieces of metal by softening or melting both surfaces to be joined by the application of heat.
Industry:Art history
Refers to a certain gallery aesthetic that was introduced in the early twentieth century in response to the increasing abstraction of modern art. With an emphasis on colour and light, artists from groups like De Stijl and the Bauhaus preferred to exhibit their works against white walls in order to minimise distraction. The white walls were also thought to act as a frame, rather like the borders of a photograph. A parallel evolution in architecture and design provided the right environment for the art. The white cube was characterised by its square or oblong shape, white walls and a light source usually from the ceiling. In 1976 Brian O'Doherty wrote a series of essays for Art Forum magazine, later turned into a book called Inside the White Cube, in which he confronted the modernist obsession with the white cube arguing that every object became almost sacred inside it, making the reading of art problematic.
Industry:Art history
A printmaking method distinct from woodcut in that the line is incised into the woodblock, rather than the background being cut away to leave a line in relief. So it is an intaglio method. Wood engraving is usually done on the end grain of a block of boxwood, which is very hard, and so extremely fine detail is possible. Wood engraving became widely used in the nineteenth century as a method of reproducing pictures in books, newspapers and journals before the invention of photo-mechanical methods of reproduction, but was also occasionally used by artists, such as Edward Calvert, as an original printmaking medium.
Industry:Art history
A method of relief printing from a block of wood cut along the grain. The block is carved so that an image stands out in relief. The relief image is then inked and paper placed against its surface and run through a press. It is possible to make a woodcut without a press (Japanese Ukiyo-e prints for example) by placing the inked block against a sheet of paper and applying pressure by hand. Woodblock printing was used in Europe from the twelfth century, at first for printing textiles, though images were printed on paper by the late fourteenth century.
Industry:Art history
A Russian avant-garde artistic group promoted through the journal of the same name that ran from 1898 to 1905. Serge Diaghilev was instrumental in founding the group and organising its first exhibition in St Petersburg in January 1899. The group offered a focus for Post-Impressionist, Symbolist and Aesthetic developments in Russian art, with particular emphasis on the history and folklore of Russia. Artists included Leon Bakst and Ivan Bilibin; newcomers in the final exhibition of the original group in 1906 included Alexei Jawlenski and Mikhail Larionov. The group's series of exhibitions was revived in 1910 by Alexandre Benois and ran until 1924; new members included Chagall, Kandinsky, El Lissitzky and Tatlin.
Industry:Art history
Worpswede is a village set in beautiful countryside in Lower Saxony, Germany, near the city of Bremen. In 1889 the painters Fritz Mackensen, Otto Modersohn and Hans am Ende moved there and founded an artists colony. Worpswede painting was initially in the plein air tradition, but later embraced more modern tendencies particularly Expressionism. From the beginning they were closely connected with Carl Vinnen, who lived on his farm at Ostendorf, Bremerhaven. In 1892 they were joined by Fritz Overbeck, and in 1894 by Heinrich Vogeler. The most important early Worpswede artist is considered to be the pioneer Expressionist, Paula Modersohn-Becker, who moved there in 1898 and remained until her death in 1907. The poet Rainer Maria Rilke was a major literary figure who lived there from 1900-2. He wrote a book about the area in which he described it as 'a strange land. If one stands on the small sandy hill in Worpswede, one can see it spread out all around, like the farmer's cloths that show deep vivid flowers against a dark background. It lies flat, almost without a fold, and the paths and waterways lead far into the horizon. There a sky of indescribable variations and magnitude begins'. After the first phase, Worpswede continued to attract artists and today remains a focus for artistic and literary events.
Industry:Art history
In the late 1980s British art entered what was quickly recognised as a new and excitingly distinctive phase, the era of what became known as the YBAs—the Young British Artists. Young British Art can be seen to have a convenient starting point in the exhibition Freeze organised, while he was still a student at Goldsmiths College in London in 1988, by Damien Hirst, who became the most celebrated, or notorious, of the YBAs. Goldsmiths, which was attended by many of the YBAs, and numbered Michael Craig Martin among its most influential teachers, had been for some years fostering new forms of creativity through its courses that, for example, abolished the traditional separation of the media of art. The label YBA turned out to be a powerful brand and marketing tool, but of course it concealed huge diversity. Nevertheless certain broad trends both formal and thematic can be discerned. Formally, the era is marked by a complete openness towards the materials and processes with which art can be made and the form that it can take. Leading artists have preserved dead animals (Damien Hirst), crushed found objects with a steamroller (Cornelia Parker), appropriated objects from medical history (Christine Borland), presented her own bed as art (Tracey Emin) made sculpture from fresh food, cigarettes, or women's tights (Sarah Lucas), made extensive use of film, video and photography, used drawing and printmaking in every conceivable way, increasingly developed the concept of the installation (a multi-part work occupying a single space), and not least, refreshed and revitalised the art of painting.
Industry:Art history
Group Zero or Group O, often referred to simply as Zero. German group formed in Dusseldorf in 1957 by Otto Piene and Heinz Mack, joined in 1960 by Gunther Uecker. A number of other artists were associated or exhibited with Zero, most notably Yves Klein and Jean Tinguely, as well as Pol Bury and Daniel Spoerri. The name refers to the countdown for a rocket launch and according to the group is meant to evoke 'a zone of silence (out of which develops) a new beginning'. Zero was in reaction against the subjective character of the prevailing Tachisme or Art Informel and practised a form of Kinetic art using light and motion that they felt opened up new forms of perception. Three issues of a journal, Zero, were published, in April and October 1958 and July 1961. The group dissolved in 1966.
Industry:Art history
