| Term | Description |
La Belle Epoque | A French term meaning "beautiful era", which referred to a time in that country's history from late 19th century to the beginning of World War I. It was described as 'beautiful' because France and its neighbors seemed to be on peaceful terms, and because of innovations and a general sense of contentment, life seemed to be easy and happy. Art Nouveau and Impressionism developed during this period as did the cabaret, cinema and cancan. The spirit of "La Belle Epoque" spread to other countries as well. Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belle_Époque (LPD) |
Lacuna | A term used by art historians to indicate a gap, a void, or missing part. |
Land Art | See Earth Art/Earthworks |
Landscapade | A type of surrealist collage (invented by Penelope Rosemont) in which pieces of a landscape image or images are cut apart and reassembled to form a new landscape.
Later the landscapade was developed into the landscapade mask, in which a face is made out
of pieces of landscape.
Credit: Daniel C. Boyer, Artist
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Landscape | A general term used in art description for any depiction of natural scenery that is land and not water based. In this context, figures, buildings, animals, etc. are of secondary importance. In America, landscape painting did not gain in popularity until the 19th-century, and the Hudson River School of painters was the earliest formalization. |
Landscape Club of Washington DC | See Washington Society of Landscape Painters |
Landseer Scholarship | Recognition from the Royal Academy of London, it is an award, a traveling scholarship, named for Sir Edwin Henry Landseer (1802-1873), who was a long time exhibiting member of the Academy. Source: Internet---Gleeson White, "The Master Painters of Britain" |
Layton School of Art | Founded in Milwaukee in 1920 at 158 Mason Street, the School was the center of art education in that city and surrounding area. It was especially important during the Depression era. The first director was Charlotte Russell Partridge, and she served until her retirement in 1954. Edward Lewandowski was her successor. In 1974, the school reportedly closed but later it reopened at 4650 North Port Washington Road.
Source:
Peter Merrill, "German-American Artists in Milwaukee" |
Les Automatistes | A 1940s movement in Quebec led by painter Paul-Emile Borduas. The name is linked to Automatism, which along with Surrealism, was the major stylistic influence. Members included Marcelle Ferron, Jean-Paul Riopelle, Rita Letendre, and Roger Fauteux. The group exhibited in New York and Paris, and influence spread to other forms of artistic expression such as drama and dance. In 1948, Les Automatistes published a manifesto, "Refus Global", which asserted their commitment to an avant-garde approach to art expression. The group disbanded shortly after that publication. Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automatistes |
Light and Space Art | Art expression focused on sensory perceptions rather than traditional fine-art mediums and ideas. Robert Irwin with his installations of constantly changing projected light on walls is a Light and Space Artist. To achieve the impressions of change, he often filters his light through transparent scrims. Other artists associated with the movement are James Turrell and Eric Orr. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
Limner | Derived from a Latin word that means to draw or paint on a surface, the term in American art is applied to self-taught, often itinerant artists of the 18th and early 19th centuries in the Northeastern United States. Regarded as unsophisticated, the work of these artists is frequently described as naive. They worked from a set of templates for poses and backgrounds and filled in faces, which often were generic due to the lack of skill of the Limner. It was a time when most persons with art talent did not have schools available to them unless they had enough money to study in Europe. Children were most often the subjects of work by Limners. Source: "Antiques and The Arts Weekly", November 25, 2005, p. 17 |
Limners-Victoria, Canada | A group of 18 Victoria-area artists active in the late 1960s and formally organized in 1971 to socialize and discuss their mutual interest in art. Unlike most art associations, their "reason to be" was primarily social. Most had their own studios, which meant that being a part of the Limners countered studio isolation. As members aged, gatherings became increasingly casual. In November 2005, the Moore Gallery of Victoria held an exhibition of work by the members whose names included Maxwell Bates, Richard Ciccimarra, Walter Dexter, Herbert Siebner, Jack Wilkinson and Eliza Mayhew. Source: Brian Grison, Canadian Exhibition Review: "British Columbia: The Limners, Nov. 10-Nov 17, 2005", www.gallerieswest.ca/Departments/ExhibitionReviews |
Line | A mark made by an instrument as it is drawn across a surface. |
Line Drawing | Revealing a three dimensional form by using a pencil or pen that provides the outline that coincides with the internal linear features. It allows the artist to emphasize anatomical features and landmarks. The lines are lighter if light is hitting the subject and dark with shadows. Mark G. Mitchell, "Sight-Size and More at SORA", Drawing, Summer 2007 (LPD) |
Linear Perspective | A method of depicting three-dimensional depth on a flat or two-dimensional surface. Linear perspective has two main precepts: 1. Forms that are meant to be perceived as faraway from the viewer are made smaller than those meant to be seen as close. 2. Parallel lines receding into the distance converge at a point on the horizon line known as the vanishing point. |
Lining | Often referred to as ‘RELINING’, a second canvas is applied to the back of a painting for stabilization purposes. |
Linocut | A relief print made from a linoleum block. American printmakers using the Linocut method include Wharton Esherick, Juliette Fraser, Emmy Lou Packard, and Ruth Ann Christmann-Wickens.
Source: Kimberley Reynolds & Richard Seddon, "Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms"; AskART database. |
Linoleum Cut Block | A printing device constructed of battleship linoleum glued to a block of wood and made type-high so it can be cut into with special tools. Linoleum is desirable because it is soft and easily carved in relief and durable for many copies. To make a print, the block is inked with a brayer and printed like a woodcut method either by hand or with a press. Source: Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques" |
Listed Artist | A term commonly used by appraisers to describe an artist who is 'listed' in standard art reference books. In American art, those books include "Who Was Who in American Art" by Peter Falk; "Davenport's Art Reference and Price Guide" by Ray Davenport; "Mallett's Index of Artists" by Daniel Trowbridge Mallett; and "Mantle Fielding's Dictionary of American Painters, Sculptors & Engravers" by Glenn Opitz, Editor. Source: Lonnie Dunbier, AskART. |
Lithography/Lithograph | A printing process in which a surface, such as a stone or sheet aluminum, is treated chemically so that the ink adheres only to selected portions. The resulting image, printed on a litho-press is a lithograph or lithographic print. Usually the design is made with a grease pencil on a special lithograph stone. The stone is then wetted, leaving an even layer of water over the surface, and the area marked by the grease pencil will accept a layer of ink. Lithography dates to 1798 in Solnhofen, Germany to a man named Alois Senefelder who discovered that greasy crayon applied to smooth-grained limestone would create a print when the stone was wet with water and the crayon design was inked. The method is actually more complicated but was simple enough to become very popular for commercial use and for artists who enjoy varying effects they can create with it. It also became an effective way of recording historical events. One of the first American artists to experiment with Lithography was Rembrandt Peale as he recognized it as a way of making inexpensive copies of his work. Other American artists noted for Lithography are Glenn Coleman, Peter Moran, Mabel Dwight, Elizabeth Olds and Alfred Howland. A pioneering American was Nathaniel Currier who formed a business with James Ives that grew into the earliest and very famous lithography firm of Currier & Ives. Their printing presses required many illustrators to create the lithographs and in this way shaped the future of many American artists. Sources: Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"; Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques"; 'Museum Accessions', "The Magazine Antiques", August 2006; AskART database. (LPD) |
Lithophanes | Realistic pictures created by a process of light passing through translucent panes of porcelain. The method was invented and patented in 1827 by Baron Paul Charles de Bourgoing (1791-1864). "A modeler duplicated the image to be copied on a flat wax plate using both relief and intaglio cuts. After holding the wax plate to the light to verify that a satisfactory image had been created, a gypsum cast was made of the wax. This in turn was coated with shellac and used as a die to impress soft bisque paste contained in a form. After the forms had dried sufficiently, they were marked and fired at 900C. They were then removed from the kiln and allowed to cool. After being give a slip glaze the forms were refired at 1200 C, completing their transformation into porcelain. The quality of the finished lithophane's image depended on the skill of the wax modeler, the fineness of the bisque paste, and the expertise of the kiln master." (109) Although developed in France, the process was perfected in Prussia. The attraction is that the light passing through creates a three-dimensional effect. Subject matter of these porcelain transparencies was diverse from figures to landscapes to Biblical scenes to decorations, and being porcelain, they could be used as windows because they were unaffected by weather. The Wadsworth Atheneum Museum in Hartford, Connecticut houses some of the lithophane collection of Samuel Colt, arms manufacturer (1814-1862) who used over 100 of them, purchased in Berlin, as window decorations in his Hartford mansion. Source: Herbert G. Houze, 'Samuel Colt's Porcelain Transparencies', "The Magazine Antiques", April 2006, pp. 106-115. (LPD) |
Little Gallery, San Diego | Opened in 1923 in San Diego by Beatrice de Lack Krombach, a local arts personality, it was a venue for national and regional artists, many whose names remain famous: Lockwood de Forest, Maynard Dixon, Stanton MacDonald-Wright, Maurice Braun, Charles Reiffel, and Alfred Mitchell. In addition to exhibitions, Krombach held literary Salons. Source: San Diego Historical Societh; https://www.sandiegohistory.org/journal/94summer/baldaugh.htm |
Long Beach International Sculpture Symposium | In 1965, professor Kenneth Glenn of California State University at Long Beach and Kosso Eloul organized this Symposium. Patterned after several such symposia held in Europe, the Long Beach symposium was the first event of its kind held in the United States. More importantly, it was a significant experiment in the formal collaboration of art and technology. Each of the invited artists (selected from a worldwide roster of distinguished sculptors) was paired with an industrial sponsor who provided technological assistance in the form of expertise, access to facilities, equipment, and materials. The on-campus site also provided students with the opportunity to observe and assist established artists in an environment that was very different from the usual classroom activities. The final result included works by Kengiro Azuma, Andre Bloc, Kosso Eloul, Clare Falkenstein, Gabriel Kohn, Piotr Kowalski, Rita Letendre, Robert Gray Murray and Joop J. Beljon. The sculpture was spread throughout the 322 acre campus. Since then more works have been added. The collection currently includes additional works by Woods Davy, Guy Dill, Bryan Hunt, Robert Irwin and Terry Schoonhoven as well as works by Eugenia Butler, Michael A. Davis, Frederick Fisher, Maren Hassinger, Tom Van Sant and Richard Turner. Source: California State University at Long Beach University Art Museum. Submitted by M.D. Silverbrooke, Art Historian and Collector, West Vancouver, British Columbia.
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Los Angeles Academy of Figurative Art | Located in Van Nuys, California, it is a school for teaching traditional and modern representational drawing, painting and sculpture. Included is an Atelier Program for full-time students and a Studio Sessions Program for persons who pursue art part time or professional artists who want to supplement their education. Instructors include David Leffel, Aaron WEsterburg and Sherrie McGraw. Source: http://www.laafa.org/sessions/faculty.php |
Los Cinco Pintores | Representing a new generation of painters in Santa Fe, New Mexico, this group was regarded as the "wild bunch" in the post World War I era. Members were Fremont Ellis, Willard Nash, Walter Mruk, Josef Bakos and Will Shuster. They were bound together by their awe for the New Mexico environment, their fear of encroaching civilization, and their desperate need to record this era before it passed. They asserted that art should speak to everyone, ranging from peasants to sophisticates, and they wanted to awaken laborers to keener art sophistication, thus developing latent art instincts. They consigned their paintings for traveling exhibitions to factories, mines, and farming towns--wherever laborers could be reached. They held their first of several annual exhibitions in the Art Museum of Santa Fe in December 1921. At that time, the artists were all under the age of thirty, non-European trained, and they painted in modernist, somewhat abstract styles. John Sloan was very encouraging of their efforts. The group, all close friends, only stayed together several years as their art philosophies developed in a variety of directions. Source: Arrell Morgan Gibson,"The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies: Age of the Muses, 1900-1942", pp. 72-72. (LPD) |
Los Four | A collaboration of Chicano artists in Los Angeles who, in 1973, formed an art collective to bring Chicano street at to the attention of the mainstream art community of Los Angeles. The next year, the University of California at Irvine held an exhibition for the group, and the show then traveled to the Oakland Museum and the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. The artists involved were Frank Romero, Roberto de la Rocha, Gilbert Lujan and Carlos Almaraz. Source: Website of the Target Corporation, http://pressroom.target.com/pr/news/community/arts/chicano/chicano-bios.aspx |
Los Ochos Pintores (The Eight Painters) | Transplanted artists from the eastern United States to Taos, New Mexico where they became founders of the early 20th century Taos Art Colony. Members were Joseph Sharp, Ernest Blumenschein, Bert Geer Phillips, Victor Higgins, Eanger Couse, Walter Ufer, Buck Dunton and Ernest Berninghaus. They had sophisticated art training and most were successful illustrators. Of the eight, Couse was the last to move permanently to Taos, doing so in 1927. They banded together to have marketing strength to sell their paintings, and in 1912, formed an expanded group, Taos Society of Artists. Source: Arrell Morgan Gibson, "The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies". (LPD) |
Lost Colony: Artists of St. Augustine | A gathering of artists in St. Augustine, Florida on the north coast of Florida, just off the Atlantic Ocean. The city, settled by a Spanish explorer in 1565, is picturesque and provided a place of escape for American artists from urban chaos. Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), a famous American painter, led the way in 1883. Then several years later in 1887, the luxurious Hotel Ponce de Leon and other smaller, quaint hotels attracted so many people that St. Augustine was called the "Newport of the South". Henry Flagler, builder of the Ponce de Leon, erected a long building with artist studios on the grounds as an added attraction, and throughout most of the 1890s, artists lived and worked for periods of time in the city. However, in the late 1890s, the city experienced economic decline and tourists as well as Flagler moved farther south. Other artists associated with the Colony are Reynolds Beal (1867-1951), Arthur Diehl (1870-1929), Charles Hawthorne (1872-1930), Harry L. Hoffman (1874-1966) and Henrich Pfeiffer (1874-1957). Pfeiffer was a latecomer who first arrived in 1920, and by then, according to him the art scene "had just about disappeared".
Source: Robert Wilson Torchia, "Lost Colony: The Artists of St. Augustine, 1930-1950", from Resource Library Magazine, Traditional Fine Arts on Line. |
Lost Wax | A method of creating a wax mold of a sculpture and then heating the mold to melt out the wax and replacing it with a molten metal or resin. |
Lot | An object or group of objects sold together at auction and assigned a number. Source: www.sothebys.com |
Lotos Club | A men's social club established in New York City in 1870, which had many prominent artist and business professional members. By the end of the 19th century, The Lotos Club was associated with exhibitions of Tonalist painting that strongly countered the spread of Impressionism from France to the United States. The Club meeting rooms and exhibition site from 1892 to 1909 were at 556-558 Fifth Avenue. In 1910, the Club moved to 110 West Fifty-seventh Street. In 1894, members adopted a policy whereby a series of monthly exhibitions would be held, each to be under the direction of a member of the committee, which was composed mostly of collectors rather than artists. As a result, a variety of tastes in art directed the exhibitions. In February 1896, because of the dedication to Tonalist painting of committee member William T. Evans, whose fortune came from the dry-goods business, the Lotos Club hosted the first major exhibition of Tonalist painting in the United States. This show, some which came from his own collection, included paintings done earlier than Barbizon. The title was “Some Tonal Paintings of the Old Dutch, Old English, Barbizon, Modern Dutch and American School.” Eight American Tonalist painters were represented: Albert Blakelock, George Bogert, George Inness, Homer Dodge Martin, Robert Minor, Albert Pinkham Ryder, Henry Ward Ranger, and Alexander Wyant. However, with the death of Evans in 1918 and artist Henry Ward Ranger in 1916, the advocates for Tonalist exhibitions were no longer major influences in the exhibitons. Also World War I followed by the opening of many galleries and exhibition venues lessened the overall impact of The Lotos Club on the public in their tastes for American art. Doors opened to Impressionism and Social Realism, and Tonalism no longer had much following. Sources: Peter Falk, "Who Was Who in American Art"; Ralph Sessions, 'Introduction', and Jack Becker, essay, 'Championing Tonal Painting' in "The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism", (Spanierman Galleries exhibition catalogue, 2005) |
Louisiana Purchase Exposition of 1904 | Commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Louisiana Purchase, the Exposition was held in St. Louis with the theme of manifest destiny. The emphasis was more on history than progress and artists expressed this through allegory and narrative. Karl Bitter was the supervisor of sculpture.
Credit:
Donald Martin Reynolds, "Masters of American Sculpture" |
Loveland Sculpture Invitational | An annual sculpture exhibition in Loveland, Colorado founded several years after Sculpture in the Park, and held simultanously in August to accommodate a second group of sculptors. Held on the grounds of Loveland High School, it has featured sculpture by Cammie Lundeen, Chris Navarro and George Lundeen. Source: Editor, 'Rocky Mountains Best of the West', "Southwest Art", July 2006, p. 96 |
Lowbrow Art | Artist Robert Williams (1943- ) wrote in the February 2006 issue of his "Juxtapoz Art and Culture Magazine", that he had invented the term 'lowbrow art'. (He also claims copyright to the term.) For him, lowbrow, as opposed to 'highbrow', is a kind of populist art that has roots in 1950s popular 'street' culture, especially southern California hot rods, babes, and surfing, and always is presented through realist or representational art. It is basically aligned with illustration, and most of the practioners come from that background with emphasis on the commerical side, including tattoo art and comic books. Lowbrow art generally has a sense of humor and pokes fun at convention. The first artists, Williams and Gary Panter (1950-), were also underground cartoonists, and early lowbrow art shows were held in alternative galleries in Los Angleles. Robert Williams founded highly popular magazine "Juxtapoz" in 1994 with a group of artists and collectors, and it brought the movement broad attention around the world. Williams was also one of the originators of Zap Comix, a main source and breeding ground for both the style and content, which is often very violent, sexual and sexist. Other artists currently working in this style are Camille Rose Garcia, Todd Shorr, Mark Ryden, Tim Biskup, Gary Baseman, and Anthony Ausgang. Source: Paul Karlstrom PhD; the website wikipedia; arthistory.com; lowbrowartworld.com. Submitted by Teta Collins |
Lowell Art Association | Founded in Lowell, Massachusetts to preserve and collect work by New England Regional artists. The Association exhibition space is the Whistler House Museum, the childhood home of James McNeill Whistler at 245 Worthen Street, which the Association purchased in 1908. Included in the Association collection is work by Whistler, Benjamin Mather, Thomas Lawson and Aldro Hibbard. Source: Information submitted from the website of the Whistler Museum by Peter Kostoulakos. (LPD) |
Luci' d'Artista | An exhibition of large-scale light installations and one of Italy's leading cultural events, it was launched in 1998 in Turin, Italy. The event is administered by the city's cultural services department, and is funded by corporate sponsors and an entity of regional government. Selection of artists is by government officials and curatorial staff of Castello di Rivoli, a Turin contemporary art museum. Participating installation artists include Mario Merz, Daniel Buren, Rebecca Horn, Michelangelo Pistoletto, Gilberto Zorio and Joseph Kusuth. Source: David Ebony, 'Italy's Northern Lights', "Art in America", February 2008. (LPD) |
Lumiere Technology | "A multi-spectral digitization technology that centers on a camera developed by the French photographer Pascal Cotte" The LT camera projects a ray of light across the painting being studied and shows many aspects of the painting not seen by the naked eye. LT scans have 240 million digital pixels, a huge pixel increase over previous scanners that insures that nothing goes unnoticed in the painting. One of the many benefits is virtual restoration, meaning an image created that shows what the painting will look like after restoration. Development of the LT camera was funded by the European Union through a grant to Pascal Cotte whose company, Lumiere Technology, does the scanning. Source: Kelly Compton, 'A World of Art, No Longer Invisible', "Fine Art Connoisseur", April 2008, p. 55 (LPD)
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Luminism | A style of landscape painting inherently American that first developed in the 19th Century among Hudson River School painters. It "dealt with phenomena seen through a saturating light that united compositional elements into a spatial whole."(Goodyear, 133) Major characteristic are glowing light and atmospherics, the playing with the effects of light on natural forms to convey allegorical themes, especially the suggestion that God is revealed in nature. However, the descriptive name, Luminism, did not appear until the 1950s when art historian John I.H. Baur used it in an article titled 'American Luminism' in "Perspectives U.S.A." Luminist painters have never been united under a 'school' of painting, but in 1980, a large exhibition at the National Gallery of Art in Washington D.C. titled 'American Light: The Luminist Movement 1850-1875" brought together works in one venue of many artists employing the style. Hudson River School artists associated with Luminism include Albert Bierstadt, Sanford Gifford, George Inness, and Martin Johnson Heade, and one of the most prominent Luminists was Fitz Hugh Lane of Massachusetts. By the end of the 19th Century, the Barbizon style of painting, focused on misty, poetic qualities away from natural landscape, replaced the popularity of Luminism. Source: Frank H. Goodyear, Jr., 'American Landscape Painting, 1795-1875', "In this Academy"; Andrew Wilton and John Wilmerding, "American Sublime: Landscape Painting in the United States 1820-1880". (LPD) |
Luminos | A process of developing photographs on canvas. The artist/photographer, Michael Jay Knigin, used this method for his series, "Japanese Suite", which was city skyline scenes 'luminosed' on canvas and enhanced with hand-painted images. Source: Leonard Davenport Fine Arts in AskART biography of Knigin. |
Luminosity | A quality, or sense of illusion, of a glowing of light coming from within a painting. |
Lunette | A semicircular panel with a painting, often over a doorway or window. Often the lines of the painting correspond with the flowing line of the Lunette, such as a Renaissance scene with a Pieta. Source: Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques"; Kimberley Reynolds and Richard Seddon, "Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms". (LPD) |
Lyme Art Association | See Old Lyme Colony/Art Association |
Lyrical Abstraction | Tied earlier to the beginnings of Abstract Expressionism and breaking away from Realism, it was also a strong abstract art movement against Minimalism in the 1960s and 1970s. Adjectives associated with the style are intuitive, loose, spontaneous, and illusionist. towards more freedom of expression. Larry Aldrich, founder of the Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, Connecticut, is credited as the originator of the name, Lyrical Abstraction. Source:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lyrical_Abstraction (LPD) |
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