Unit 4: Later Europe and Americas, 1750–1980 CE

Enlightenment

18th-century intellectual movement (c. 1715–1789) emphasizing skepticism, scientific study, and reason; expanded secular institutions (academies, salons, exhibitions) and broadened art’s subjects and audiences.

Rococo

Art movement (c. 1700–1750) linked to aristocratic leisure; ornate decoration, pastel colors, asymmetry, delicate brushwork, and pleasure-focused court culture.

Neoclassicism

Movement (c. 1750–1830) reviving Greek/Roman ideals of clarity, order, and civic virtue; often tied to revolutionary politics, patriotism, and moral seriousness.

Romanticism

Approach (c. 1780–1850) prioritizing emotion, imagination, individualism, and the sublime; often used for critique, nationalism, and freedom narratives amid upheaval.

Realism

Movement (c. 1848–1900) depicting unidealized contemporary life (workers, rural/urban scenes) to expose social and political issues and argue for “social truth.”

Impressionism

Movement (c. 1860–1890) using loose brushwork and shifting color to capture fleeting light and modern experience; challenged academic tradition for a growing middle-class audience.

Post-Impressionism

Late 19th-century experiments (1880s–1890s) that move beyond Impressionism toward structure, personal expression, symbolism, and emotionally charged color/form.

Symbolism

Movement (1890s) using metaphor, dreamlike atmosphere, and distortion/exaggeration to explore the psyche and mysteries beyond visible reality.

Art Nouveau

Style (1890s–1914) marked by organic, curvilinear lines and nature-inspired motifs; aimed to unify modern life through decorative design and architecture.

Prairie Style

Architectural approach (c. 1900–1930s) emphasizing horizontality, open plans, natural materials, and landscape integration to create distinctly American, site-related design.

Fauvism

Brief movement (c. 1905–1908) using bold, bright color and simplified forms; made color a primary expressive structure rather than a descriptive tool.

Expressionism

Movement (c. 1905–1925) using distortion and harsh color for subjective emotional truth; often conveys anxiety and fear in modern life, especially around WWI.

Cubism

Modernist movement (c. 1907–1930s) fragmenting form into geometric planes and multiple viewpoints; rethinks representation and pictorial space, sometimes using collage/text.

Analytic Cubism

Cubist phase (e.g., Braque) with near-monochrome palettes and fractured, overlapping planes close to the picture plane; emphasizes structure over naturalistic depth.

Constructivism

Movement (from 1914) favoring industrial materials and function over form; closely tied to design and propaganda meant to serve social purpose and inspire change.

Dada

Anti-art movement (c. 1915–1922) using absurdity, performance, and readymades to challenge institutions, logic, and artistic norms after WWI.

De Stijl (Neoplasticism)

Movement (c. 1917–1930s) seeking a universal visual language through grids, right angles, primary colors, and abstraction.

International Style

Architectural modernism (1920s–1930s) using minimal ornament, functional planning, and glass/steel; promoted efficient, mass-producible modern buildings.

Mexican Muralism

1920s–1930s public mural movement reviving fresco to narrate social history; aimed to educate, unify, and convey political messages to broad audiences.

Surrealism

Movement (c. 1920–1960) visualizing dreams and the unconscious; uses uncanny juxtapositions and destabilizing logic, sometimes rendered with sharp realism.

Abstract Expressionism (New York School)

Postwar movement (1940s–1950s) using large canvases, gesture, and process as meaning; emphasized inner states and postwar presence/anxiety.

Pop Art

Movement (c. 1950–1980) using mass-media and commercial imagery, repetition, and irony; blurs high/low art and critiques (or mirrors) consumer culture.

Color Field Painting

1960s approach using large, flat areas of color (often layered) to create immersive viewing; reacts against the gestural look of Abstract Expressionism.

Happenings

1960s spontaneous, multimedia performances with audience participation; aimed to break boundaries between art and life and create shared experience.

Site Art

Often 1970s–1990s site-specific works (sculpture/installation/earthworks) that depend on location and environment; challenges portable, market-centered art objects.

Sublime

Romantic-era concept describing overwhelming power (often in nature or crisis) that produces awe, fear, and intense emotional response.

Orientalism

Western tradition of depicting Middle Eastern/North African/Asian cultures as exotic, sensual “other,” often aligned with colonial power and control (e.g., the odalisque).

Japonisme

Western fascination with Japanese visual culture intensified after Japan’s forced opening; associated with print-like design, cropping, and compositional innovations in Western art.

Communist Manifesto

1848 text by Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels critiquing capitalism as class struggle and predicting proletarian revolution; sharpened attention to labor/inequality relevant to Realism and social art.

Revolutions of 1848

Widespread European uprisings driven by economic hardship and demands for democracy/national unity; largely suppressed but led to reforms (e.g., abolition of serfdom in Austria-Hungary).

Perry Expedition

U.S. naval mission (1853–1854) led by Commodore Matthew Perry that pressured Japan to open diplomatic relations and trade after long isolation.

Treaty of Kanagawa

1854 agreement forcing Japan to allow American ships to refuel/resupply in two ports; accelerated global trade routes and Western exposure to Japanese art.

Harlem Renaissance (New Negro Movement)

1920s–1930s cultural flowering centered in Harlem celebrating African American art, literature, music, and identity; fueled by the Great Migration.

Great Migration

Large-scale movement of African Americans from the U.S. South to Northern cities (especially after WWI), reshaping cultural production and providing context for Harlem Renaissance art.

Orrery

Mechanical model of the solar system used in Enlightenment-era demonstrations; in Wright of Derby’s painting, it becomes a metaphor for reason illuminating the world.

Daguerreotype

Early photographic process with a glossy metallic surface and long exposure times; produces no negative, limiting reproducibility compared to later photography.

Impasto

Thick application of paint creating texture and visible brushwork; used by van Gogh to make paint function as emotion and intensity.

Primitivism

Modernist tendency to appropriate non-European cultures as symbols of purity/origins; often reflects European fantasy and unequal colonial power relations.

Horror vacui

“Fear of empty space”; a crowded, didactic surface packed with figures/details, used to convey narrative and information (e.g., Rivera’s mural).

Readymade

An ordinary found object presented as art to test definitions of art and authorship (e.g., Duchamp’s Fountain).

Photomontage

Graphic technique combining photographic images into a designed composition; often used in propaganda and political messaging (e.g., Soviet Five-Year Plan imagery).

Soak-stain technique

Painting method applying diluted acrylic directly onto unprimed canvas so pigment is absorbed; emphasizes flatness while creating luminous color fields (Frankenthaler).

Cantilever

Structural element projecting outward while supported at one end; central to Fallingwater’s terraces extending over the waterfall.

Curtain wall

Non-load-bearing exterior wall (often glass) hung on a structural frame; enables large windows and modern transparency in buildings like the Bauhaus and Seagram Building.

Pilotis

Support columns lifting a building off the ground (Le Corbusier’s “five points”); used in Villa Savoye to allow air circulation and open ground space.

Silkscreen (screenprinting)

Commercial printing method used by Warhol to mechanically reproduce images; emphasizes flat planes, repetition, and the instability of “unique” imagery.

Earthwork

Large-scale environmental artwork made from natural materials and landscape alteration (e.g., Spiral Jetty); viewing often requires travel and bodily movement through site.

Entropy (in art)

Concept of inevitable change/decay over time; used to interpret works like Spiral Jetty where nature alters the artwork’s appearance and meaning.

Postmodernism (architecture)

Late-20th-century critique of modernist purity; embraces complexity, irony, and historical quotation (e.g., Venturi’s “Less is a bore”).

Cultural appropriation

Taking motifs/objects/styles from another culture—often under unequal power relations—without full context or consent; central to analyzing cross-cultural exchange in modern art.