SCULPTURE & DESIGN
VOCABULARY LISTS &
INFORMATION
WAVERLY-SHELL ROCK SR. HIGH
SCHOOL
MR. ADELMUND
abstract: In art, the
rendering of images and objects in a stylized or simplified way, so their
formal or expressive aspects are emphasized.
academic
scuptors: sculptors who
interpret forms in the classical traditon.
aesthetic: Pertaining to the
appreciation of the beauty, as opposed to the functional or utilitarian
aspects.
armature: a base made of wire, iron, cardboard, or
sticks for supporting modeling clay.
assemblage: a sculpture created of related or unrelated
materials.
asymmetric
balance:
Balance achieved in a composition when neither side reflects or mirrors the
other.
avant-garde: Those whose works
can be characterized as unorthodox and experimental.
base line: An imaginary line
on which a group of objects or one object sits.
bas-relief: literally low-relief; a
three-dimensional sculptureto be seen only from the front.
bat: A disk or slab of plaster, wood or
plastic on which pottery is formed or dried.
bisque: Pottery that has
been fired but not yet glazed.
carving: removing materials from a surface such as
wood, stone, or plaster.
casting: pouring liquid such as molten metal,
plaster, polyester resin, or clay into a mold.
ceramic: Clay products that have been fired for
permanence.
classical line: A kind of line
that is mathematical, precise, and rationally organized, emphasized by the
vertical and horizontal grid, as opposed to expressive line.
clay:
Fine grained earthy
materials formed by the decomposition of feldspar, a granite type rock. When combined with water, is plastic
enough to be shaped and when dried and fired, become a rock-like state.
Pure clay is Al2O3*2S1O2*2H2O.
coiling: A method of creating pots by
building bottom and walls with even, rope like coils.
collage: A work made by
pasting various scraps or pieces of material-cloth, paper, photographs, etc. -
onto the surface of the composition.
comparative
process: The
basic critical tool of art history
and criticism, in which works of
art are compared and contrasted with one another in order to establish both
differences and similarities between various works.
cones:
Tall, slender
pyramids made of clay and glaze constituents which bend or melt at a given
temperature in a kiln.
composition: The organization of
the formal elements in a work of art.
conceptual art: An art form in
which the idea behind the work and the process of its making are more important
than the final product.
construction: a sculpture built by connecting several or
many parts together.
content: The subject matter
of a work of art.
contour: The visible border
of an object in space.
cool colors: Those colors in
which blue is dominant, including greens and violets.
cross-hatching: Two or more sets of
roughly parallel and overlapping lines, set at an angle to one another, in
order to create a sense of shadow and depth.
dry
footing: To clean the bottom
of a glazed piece before firing.
eye level: An imaginary horizontal line parallel to
the studentÕs eyes. Important to establish
in drawing one- and two- point perspectives.
figure-ground
relationship: In a
two-dimensional work, the relationship between a form or figure and its
background.
fixative: A thin liquid film sprayed over pastel,
graphite or charcoal drawings to protect them from smudging.
foreshortening: The use of perspective to represent the apparent visual
contraction of an object or figure that extends backwards from the picture
plane.
form: (1) an element of desing that appears
three-dimensional and encloses volume such as a cube, sphere, pyramid or
cylinder. (2) the characteristics of an artworkÕs
visual element as distinguished from its subject matter.
glaze:
A
liquid suspension of finely ground minerals which is applied on the surface of
bisque fired clay. The glaze
ingredients will melt together when fired to form a glossy glass-like surface.
grog:
Clay that has been
fired then crushed to form a coarse, medium-grained of fine sand-like
material. The addition of grog to
clay reduces shrinkage, reduces drying or firing cracks.
greenware:
Clay in an unfired
state.
hue: A color, usually one of the six basic
colors of the spectrum.
impasto: The thick building up of pigmnet (paint) to
give a visible texture.
implied
line: a line created by
movement or direction, such as a line established by a pointed finger, the
direction of a glance, etc.
kiln: A furnace used for firing clay products;
electric, gas and wood-fired.
kinetic
art: any art
construction that contains moving elements which can be set in motion by the
action of gravity, air currents, motors, springs or magnets.
linear
perspective: A system for depicting three-dimensional
space on a two-dimensional surface that depends upon two related principles;
that things perceived as far away are smaller than things nearer the viewer,
and that parallel lines receding into the distance converge at a vanishing
point on the horizon line.
maquette: a small preliminary model for a sculpture.
medium: (1) Any material used to create a work of art. (2) In painting, a liquid added to the
paint that makes it easier to manipulate.
moulage: a rubberized material to place on face
or hands for making a reusable
mold for plaster.
negative
space: Empty space,
surrounding a positive shape and also the space between two positive shapes. The interior space or space that
surrounds a piece of sculpture.
organic shapes: A free-form, irregular shape.
outline: A line that can define only the outside
edge of an object, not its contour, but
a resulting silhouette of the form.
oxidation: The act of combining with oxygen, usually
at high temperatures.
plasticity:
The quality of clay which permits it to be readily shaped into
different forms without cracking or crumbling.
polyester
casting resin: liquid material
that is mixed and, when cast into a mold, hardens clear.
primary
colors: The hues that in
theory cannot be created from mixture of other hues and from which all other hues are created. (R,Y,B)
print: Any one of multiple impressions made from a
master image.
proportion: The relationship between the parts and
of the parts to the whole.
quarry: a place where sculpture materials are
mined.
relief: A type of sculpture in which forms project
from a background.
roughing out: removing the extraneous material from a
carving surface prior to refining.
scale: The comparative size of a thing in relation
to another like thing, or its ÒnormalÓ or ÒexpectedÓ size.
scoring: Making marks on the edges of
two pieces of clay before joining with slip.
scumbling: Adding a thin layer of color (paint) over a
dry underlayer, allowing the underlayer to show through.
secondary
colors: a hue created by
combining two primary colors. (O,G,V)
shade: A color or hue modified by the addition of
another color, black.
simulated
texture: The imitation of
the tactile quality of a surface,
a suggested imitation of the subjectÕs texture.
slab: Clay evenly rolled and formed
and formed by draping or joining.
slip: Liquid clay, clay in liquid
suspension, used for joining.
still life: A work of art that consists of an
arrangement of inanimate objects.
stipple: To make individual small dots with a stiff
brush in a slightly darker color(s)
subjective: As opposed to objective, full of personal
emotions and feelings.
symbol: An image, sign, or element, such as color,
that is understood, by content, to suggest some meaning.
symmetry: When two halves of a composition correspond
to one another in terms of size, shape, and placement of forms.
tensegrity: refers to the integrity of
structures
as being based in a synergy between balanced tension and compression components.
texture: The actual tactile characteristics of a
thing, or the visual simulation of such characteristics.
three-dimensional
space: Any space that
possesses height, width, and depth.
tint: A color or hue modified by the addition of
another color, white.
value: The range from light to dark or from white,
through gray to black.
wedging: A process by which
clay is kneaded to force out air bubbles, to align coarse particles, and to
develop a homogeneous consistency.
wheel: Machine for making symmetrical pots; driven
by hand, foot, or electric power.
wire bending
jig: small metal or
wooden form that holds wire while it is being bent..
Rev. 01-19-2007
Periods
in Art History
Abstract
Expressionism:
A painting style of the late 1940s and early 1950s, predominantly American,
characterized by its rendering of expressive content by abstract or
nonobjective means.
Art Deco: A popular art and
design style of the 1920s and 1930s associated with the 1925 Exposition International
des Arts in Paris and characterized by its integration of organic and geometric
forms.
Art Nouveau: The art and design
style characterized by curvilinear and organic forms that dominated popular
culture at the turn of the century, and that achieved particular success at the
1900 International Exposition in Paris.
Baroque: A dominant style
of art in Europe in the seventeenth century characterized by its theatrical, or
dramatic, use of light and color, by its ornate forms, and by its disregard for
classical principles of composition.
Bauhaus: A German school of design, founded by
Walter Gropius in 1919 and closed by Hitler in 1933.
Cubism: A style of art
pioneered by Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque in the first decade of the
twentieth century, noted for the geometry of its forms, its fragmentation of
the object, and its increasing abstraction.
Dada: An art movement
that originated during World War I in a number of world capitals, including
Paris, Berlin, Zurich and New York,
and that was so different from traditional styles and materials of art
that it was considered by many to be Òanti-art.Ó
Expressionism : An art that
stresses the psychological and emotional content of the work, associated
particularly with German art in the early twentieth century.
Futurism: An early twentieth century art
movement, characterized by its desire to celebrate the movement and speed of
modern, industrial life.
Impressionism: A late nineteenth century art movement,
created in France, and characterized by its use of discontinuous strokes of
color meant to reproduce the effects of light.
Minimalism: A style of art, predominantly American,
that dates from the mid-twentieth century, characterized by its rejection of
expressive content and its use of ÒminimalÓ formal means.
Neoclassicism: A style of the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries that was
influenced by the Greek Classical style.
Optical Painting
(Op Art): An art style
particularly popular in the 1960Õs in which line and color are manipulated in
ways that stimulate the eye into believing it perceives movement.
Pop Art: A style arising in the early 1960s characterized
by its emphasis on the forms and imagery of mass culture.
Post-Impressionism: A name that describes the painting of a
number of artists, working in widely different styles, in the last decades of
the nineteenth century in France.
Rococo: A style popular in the first three-quarters of the eighteenth
century, particularly in France, characterized by curvilinear forms, pastel colors,
and its light, often frivolous subject matter.
Romanesque
Art: The dominant style
of art and architecture in Europe from the eighth
to the twelfth centuries, characterized, in architecture by the round arch and
the barrel vault.
Romanticism: A dramatic, emotional, and subjective art
rising in the early nineteenth century in opposition to discipline of
Neoclassicism.
Surrealism: A style of art of the early twentieth century
that emphasized dream imagery, chance operations, and rapid, thoughtless form; the unconscious mind.