| Term | Description |
Macbeth Gallery | Opened in 1892, this was the first commercial gallery in New York City to develop an active and successful business dealing exclusively in American art. The owner was William Macbeth, and his success was doubly important to American painters in that it inspired others to follow in his footsteps. The enormous publicity that these sales generated were a major factor in creating demand for contemporary American painting. Of his exhibits and those by other small galleries with the same purpose, Macbeth was quoted as saying in the publication, "Art Notes", January 1897, that they "offer to picture lovers the best opportunity for properly studying the work of individual groups or schools of painters." Source: Jack Becker, essay: 'Championing Tonal Painting', "The Poetic Vision: American Tonalism", Spanierman Galleries LLC, Exhibition Catalogue, 2005. |
Macchiaioli | An Italian school of painting associated with a group of artists who met at the Caffè Michelangelo in Florence around 1860. The Macchiaioli style can very approximately be described as a form of pre- or proto- Impressionism in which "macchie", the Italian word for blotches or dabs, are used boldly, rejecting drawing and form in favour of overall effect. Like ‘Impressionism’, the name ‘Macchiaioli’ became ‘official’ after a critic of the Italian newspaper the "Gazzetta del Popolo" used the term to deride the style’s willfully sketchy, indefinite qualities. Like many nineteenth-century art movements, the Macchiaioli advocated an anti-academic form of painting that aimed to reproduce ‘un impressione del vero’ (Fattori (1) , which is perhaps best left in Italian because it loses so much of its resonance when translated into English. In terms of art techniques, "il vero" can mean life, as in "disegnare dal vero", life drawing or working from life. Here there are links with en plein-air painting, another of the great revolutions in art in the nineteenth century. However, "il vero" also means 'the truth'. The painter Telemaco Signorini was the first to use the ‘macchia’ reference in a positive way, acknowledging a sense of group identity for the Macchiaioli through their technique, which abandoned traditional chiaroscuro to juxtapose color and shadow with color and light in ‘blotches’ that gave a sketchy, overall idea of effects. In this sense, the use of the word ‘macchia’ goes back much farther than the Gazzetta’s critic: the seventeenth century painter Luca Giordano referred to his initial studies of works as ‘macchie’, thus indicating that painters have always seen this way of working as a primary act in the creative process (2). Signorini’s own title ‘studio di macchia’ for one of his works also picks up on this(3). In any event, the innovations introduced by the Macchiaioli were not strictly technical or of form – they also involved subject matter. These painters wanted to get away from the religious or historical themes propagated by the academy in favour of the beauty of "il vero" – ‘the truth/life’, or perhaps we should even introduce ‘the real’ as in verismo or verism. It involved a whole range of new subject matter exalting real life – domestic scenes, familiar settings and everyday life, the local countryside, rural and urban scenes, the war.
Along with the nineteenth century’s rejection of the academy, we can also see a distinct discovery of what one Italian critic has called the ‘poetica del vero’, or ‘the poetics of the truth/life/realism’(4) . At the particular moment in history in which the Macchiaioli painters lived, the fight for Italian independence, this interest in the here and now was intimately bound up in intense social interest and a fiercely democratic political orientation. In fact, various members of the group had participated first hand in the Risorgimento, and A. Cecioni, G. Costa, G. Fattori, S. De Tivoli, T. Signorini and S. Lega had fought in battles in 1848 and 1859. Nearly a century and a half later, American artist Jerry Ross admittedly is still engaged in a search for "il vero". His work is an invitation to look around us, to discover his work as well as Fattori’s or Signorini’s or Lega’s, and cherish the legacy they have left us, continuing a poetica del vero in our own day. Sources: (1). La nuova enciclopedia dell’arte Garzanti, (Milan: Garzanti, 1986), 489; (2) Alessandro Marabottini, Vittorio Quercioli, eds., I Macchiaioli: Origine e affermazione della macchia 1865-70, catalogue to the exhibit at the Museo del Corso, Palazzo Cipolla, Rome, 16 May- 24 September 2000, (Rome: Edizioni De Luca, 2000), 13. (3) Ibid., cat. no. 4; other works in this catalogue that best convey the ‘macchia’ way of working are cat. nos. 10 and 11 (Signorini’s studies of a cemetery at Solferino and the Duomo in Milan, respectively), cat. nos. 26, 27 and 38 (Fattori’s and Lega’s studies on panels with colored grounds). 4. Renato Barilli et al., Il secondo ‘800 italiano: Le poetiche del vero, catalogue to the exhibit at the Palazzo Reale, Milan, 26 May – 11 September 1988, (Milan: Mazzotta, 1988; second ed., 1992). Written by Clarice Zdanski for the AskART Bulletin Board section of the artist Jerry Ross. |
MacDowell Art Colony | Located at Peterborough, New Hampshire at Hillcrest, the home of Marian and Edward MacDowell. Edward MacDowell was a composer, who died from a nervous disorder from stress. Aware that he was dying, his wife commissioned Helne Farnsworth Mears to do a bas-relief portrait of her husband in 1906, and while Mears worked the couple planned the creation of an art colony on their property. Intended to be a retreat for people in all the arts, it became a place where writers, poets, artists and musicians could work quietly for long periods of time surrounded by quiet natural surroundings. It was also a memorial to Edward MacDowell. Underlying Marian MacDowell's special interest in the retreat was her attribution of her husband's health problems to the noise and tensions of the city, New York, where he had spent so much of his career. In 1907, Helen Farnsworth Mears, and her sister, Mary, became the first recipients of a MacDowell Fellowship. Other artists who have been awarded the Fellowship include Charlotte Blass, Paul Burlin, Lawrence Calcagno, Raymond Jonson, Nan Sheets, John Raimondi and Helen Wilson. Sources: AskART database; Charlotte Rubinstein, "American Women Artists", p. 102 |
MacDowell Fellowship | See MacDowell Art Colony |
Magic Marker | See Felt-Tip Pen |
Magic Realism | A rather vague term that describes painting that combines realism with odd, unlikely juxtapositions that created an air of mystery. The phrase originated in 1923 when German critic "Franz Roh used it to describe the "dreamlike symbolic art of de Chirico and his Italian cohorts." (Duncan) In the 1943 exhibition of the Museum of Modern Art titled "American Realists and Magic Realists", the term became more widely known as one that described fantastic, exaggerated imagery of artists such as Paul Cadmus and Ivan Albright from artists that fit the traditional definition such as Edward Hopper. Source: Michael Duncan, 'Heretics of the Heartland', "Art in America", February 2006, p.98; Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques" |
Mail Art | Small-scale art that use the U.S. Mail for distribution. It consists of envelopes that are drawn or painted on or contain collages or the like, on which there may be artistamps (stamps designed by an artist and not valid for postage) or rubber-stamping. Participants in mail-art networks generally accept the unwritten rule that mail art is freely exchanged and if shown in exhibitions, the exhibitions are non-juried and open to everyone. Works are generally not returned to the artist. Mail artists include Eleanor Antin, On Kawara, Yoko Ono, Sarah Jackson, and Tom Marioni, who sent mail-art announcing his fictitious 1973 appointment as Director of the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. Sources: Daniel C. Boyer, Artist; Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" (LPD) |
Manifesto | In art, a public declaration or exposition in print of the theories and directions of a movement. The manifestos issued by various individual artists or groups of artists, in the first half of the twentieth century served to reveal their motivations and stimulated both support and reactions against them. |
Mannerism | A term coming from Italian 'maniera' or 'in style', applied to art of late 16th and early 17th-century Europe that revealed the 'manner' or personal expression of the artist. Characteristic was exaggeration, and expression of emotion---a turning away from the humanism of the High Renaissance. The artwork is characterized by a dramatic use of space and light and a tendency toward elongated figures such as in the painting of El Greco. The movement occurred after the Sack of Rome in 1527. "Mannerism developed among the pupils of two masters of the integrated classical moment, with Raphael's assistant Giulio Romano and among the students of Andrea del Sarto, whose studio produced the quintessentially Mannerist painters Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino, and with whom Vasari apprenticed." Source: ARTinthePICTURE.com (LPD) |
Maquette | In sculpture, a small-scale model in wax or clay, made as a preliminary sketch or prototype of the planned finished work. If the proposed completed work was a commission or competition piece, the maquette was often presented to the client or the competition judges for decisions before further work was done. The Italian equivalent of the term is "bozzetto", meaning small sketch. Maquettes have become collectible, especially if by well known artists, and one of the museums specializing in that collecting is the Museo dei Bozzetti in Pietrasanta, Italy. Sources: Artlex.com with permission of Michael Delahunt; http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maquette. |
Marble | A limestone that ranges from granular to compact in texture and that is capable of taking high polish. Marble is used especially in architecture and sculpture, and Carrara marble, a pure white stone, from the Appenine Mountains in Carrara, Italy is regarded by many sculptors as the finest in the world. Donatello, Michelangelo and Canova used Carrara marble for their masterpieces during the Renaissance in Italy. Nineteenth and twentieth- century American sculptors noted for their marble carving include Isamu Noguchi, Augustus Saint Gaudens, Hiram Powers, Thomas Crawford, Hezekiah Augur and Edmonia Lewis.
Sources:
http://www.italian-memorial-products.com/white_carrara.htm; AskART.com database;
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary. (See Carrara Marble) |
Marblehead Pottery | Begun in 1904 in Marblehead, Massachusetts by Dr. Herbert J. Hall, it was a small pottery studio for teaching ceramics as a convalescing activity for his Devereax sanitarium patients. The company lasted to 1938 and grew into a highly successful pottery business. Arthur Baggs became the Director in 1905, and under his influence the signature style was "hand-incised or surface painted geometric designs on grounds of lightly contrasting colors." In 1915, Baggs became the owner, and in 1920, the focus was directed to making production art pottery with pebbled matte finishes in blue, green, pink, yellow, brown or gray. Quality control was maintained, and employee numbers seldom exceeded more than six to eight people. Sources: http://www.justartpottery.com/collectors_pottery/marblehead_pottery_history.htm; Schiffer Books; (LPD) |
Mark Hopkins Institute | See California School of Design |
Maroger | A medium that Fairfield Porter is said to have made well known but which was 'discovered' by Jacques Maroger and publicized in his book, "The Secret Formulas and Techniques of the Old Masters". The goal of Maroger and then Porter was to create an effect with oil paintings similar to that of the Old Masters. Maroger's 'secret' formula was using white lead as the main ingredient combined with linseed oil, which acts as a drying agent and preservative of the oil paint color layers. White lead is also helpful in conserving paintings in varying environmental conditions. Porter's recipe was cooking a mixture of 1 part lead carbonate, 1 part bees wax, and 10 parts of linseed oil. According to Justin Spring in his biography, "Fairfield Porter: A Life in Art," Porter met Jacques Maroger at Parsons School of Design, and Maroger had developed the medium as a slow-drying, stable medium. Today it is available in art-supply stores. Sources: "American Artist" magazine, 12/2002; Chapellier Galleries label. (LPD) |
Marouflage | A canvas painting first completed and adhered to a panel or wall. |
Marquetry | See Inlay/Intarsia/Marquetry/Parquetry |
Marshall Collection | An American art collection of Nancy and William Marshall of Peoria, Illinois. The focus is paintings by artists who studied abroad and whose style reflects the period between Impressionism and Modernism, late 19th and early 20th centuries. Subjects are quiet, picturesque landscapes and portraits, especially children of artists painted by the artist. In 1999, the collection toured with the opening exhibition at the Washington County Museum of Fine Arts in Hagerstown, Maryland. Other venues were the Huntsville Museum of Art, Albrecht Kemper Museum, and the Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences in Peoria, Illinois. An accompanying catalogue, "The Marshall Collection", was co-authored by Richard Love, Chicago Art Dealer, and William Marshall with an introduction by Jean Woods, Director of the Washington County Museum. Following this exhibition, a portion of the collection was loaned to the Residence of the American Ambassador in Dublin, Ireland. Sources: "The Marshall Collection"; personal interview with William Marshall. (LPD) |
Martha's Vineyard Art Association | Founded in 1954 on Martha's Vineyard at Edgartown, Massachusetts at what is now known as the Old Sculpin Gallery. Painter Ruth Appledoorn Mead (1894-1994) was the moving force behind organizing the MVAA. From 1933, she and several friends began gathering regularly to paint by an Edgartown shack, which was across the street from the boat-building shop of Manuel Swartz Roberts. At first they had no thought of exhibiting their work, but when Manuel Roberts offered to sell them his building for several thousand dollars, Mead spearheaded the purchase and the organizing into an exhibition Association. Material provided by the Old Sculpin Gallery in 2005 states that "Ruth Mead's teaching, lively paintings, and her vision and leadership set a high standard for the arts on the Vineyard that continues with the work of the Martha's Vineyard Art Association today." Source: Scott Wilder, art researcher. |
Mary Smith Prize | An annual prize of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, it had a one-hundred dollar stipend . It was established in 1879 by Russell Smith in honor of his deceased daughter, who had been a student at the Academy. The selection criteria was the best painting by a woman resident of Philadelphia.
Credit:
Stephanie Strass |
Masonite | A brown building board one-eighth inch thick, perfectly smooth on one side and criss-crossed with the marks of a wire screen on the other. It was first made by the Masonite Corporation of Chicago and is sometimes marked Genuine Masonite Presdwood.(Date when first created is not given).
Masonite is made without binder and by exploding wood fiber under a steam pressure of 1000 pounds per square inch. The refined pulp is pressed with heat, and the interlocking fibers form a permanent hard mass.
During the process the fibers are impregnated with a small amount of sizing compound made of parafin, which provides a water-proof quality. Artists like to paint on masonite because of its durability, and moisture resistance.
Credit: "The Artists Handbook" by Ralph Mayer |
Mass | Three-dimensional form, often implying bulk, density and weight |
Mass Drawing | Illuminating a solid with a dark background, so that the focus is on rendering nature in value gradations that reveal the three-dimensionality of a form. Mark G. Mitchell, "Sight-Size and More at SORA", Drawing, Summer 2007 (LPD) |
Mat/Matting | Material used to protect and present works of art on paper. Constructed from sheets of stiff paperboard, mats usually are hinged and joined together with tape so that the bottom part, usually quite thin and smooth, supports the work; and the other, often textured and colored, provides the window or opening for viewing. Poor quality wood-pulp mat board made from bleached, unrefined wood pulp, is the most common matting, but should be avoided because it darkens and becomes brittle. Persons wishing quality Matting should request conservation-quality mat board that has a neutral or alkaline pH of 7 or above when manufactured. There are three kinds: rag board made from cotton rags, buffered rag board that has calcium or magnesium carbonate to neutralize acidity, and conservation board made from chemically purified wood pulp. Source: Arthur W. Schultz, "Caring for Your Collections", Harry N. Abrams, Publishers, p. 42-43. (LPD) |
Matte | Flat, non-glossy; having a dull surface appearance. |
Medallic Art/Medals | Relief prints, usually in bronze, made from a metal engraving plate. Medallic art, the creation of medals, was an outgrowth of the realist figurative sculpture movement in the late 19th century. It was facilitated by the development of the reducing machine combined with sophisticated methods of engraving.
Henri Chapu, who had refined low relief, taught medallic art at the Academy Julian in Paris. His American students John Flanagan, Hermon MacNeil and Bela Lyon Pratt brought medallic art to America, along with Olin Warner and Augustus Saint Gaudens.
In 1893, Saint Gaudens created the award medal for the Chicago Exposition, which set a precedent for medals to be awarded at future national events. Also the reproduction of medals became a model for marketing of small-scale sculpture.
Medals are a flat piece of shaped metal with design and often inscription and are given as special recognition. They reached their height of popularity between 1900 and World War I, when soldiers received medals for bravery. Tiffanys and Gorham were among the companies that mass produced them.
Credit:
Donald Martin Reynolds,"Masters of American Sculpture"
Kimberley Reynolds, "Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms" |
Media Art/Video Art | An American art movement beginning in the 1970s directed towards mass media and using television, commercial posters, videos and billboards. The term Media Art, in this context, does not reference media in the traditional use of the word as it relates to oil, bronze, etc. Media Art is a descendant of Pop Art and the artists tend to be highly critical of mass media, presenting it primarily as a bad influence, a propaganda tool. Media Artists include Chris Burden and Jenny Holzer. See Video Art. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
Medieval Art | The art of the Middle Ages ca. 500 A.D. through the 14th century. The art produced immediately prior to the Renaissance. |
Medium | 1. The material used to create a work of art. 2. The BINDER for paint, such as oil. 3. An expressive art form, such as painting, drawing, or sculpture. |
Memory Painting | Paintings with themes of 'memories of youth' and 'disappearing life-styles'. These expressions are by artists who see life getting increasingly complex, which, in turn causes them to think back sentimentally to days that were more simple. American artists who have done Memory Painting include Clementine Hunter, Annie Wellborn, and Aaron Birnbaum. Source: Chuck and Jan Rosenak, "Contemporary American Folk Art: A Collector's Guide" |
Metal | Any of various opaque, fusible, ductile and usually lustrous substances that are good conductors of electricity and heat. Metal is a material used by many American sculptors and craftspersons working in contemporary styles such as Alexander Calder, Thomas Markusen, John Chamberlain, Alexander Liberman and Alfred Baker.
Sources:
Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary, AskART.com biographies |
Metropolitan Museum of Art | With increased economic prosperity after the Civil War, the American art scene burgeoned in New York City. One of the most important private picture galleries in the Village belonged to John Taylor Johnston. In 1870 he and a group of friends met there to found the Metropolitan Museum of Art, with Johnson as its first president. After opening briefly in temporary quarters, the museum was transferred in 1873 to No. 126 West 14th Street, where it remained until 1879, when it moved to its present home uptown. Source: www.nyu.edu/greyart/information/Greenwich_Village/body_greenwich_village.html |
Mexican Artistic Renaissance | Started in the 1920's by the Mexican School of Art, this renaissance began with the San Carlos Academy movement -- among whose leaders were Ignacio Asúnsolo and Jose Clemente Orozco -- and which emerged out of the students’ and teachers’ discontent with the traditional paintings methods (academicism). Driving the movement was the close contact that the young artists had with the problems of Mexico and its people. Resulting was marked critical realism by the painters of the time, including Raul Anguiano. Source: Rogallery.com
|
Mezzotint | An engraving technique on a copper plate that has been worked with a tool called a rocker, a crescent-shaped instrument with sharp teeth on the curve of the crescent. The marks cover the entire plate, and are made with a rocking motion. Then the copper plate is burnished or smoothed in areas by the artist. When the mezzotint is made, only the scored areas retain the ink and create the design. The smooth areas are the non-colored part of the image. Gatja Rothe, working with Edward Weston, was especially noted for mezzotint. Source: "Joel Oppenheimer" 35th Anniversary Catalogue, 2004, of the Natural Art Gallery; www.westoncollection.com (LPD) |
Middle Ground | That portion of an artwork between the foreground and background. |
Milwaukee Art Institute | Founded in 1916, it was an outgrowth of the Milwaukee Art Society that began in 1910 to foster the arts in the city. Samuel Buckner was the first president of the Art Institute, first located at 456 Jefferson Street and then moved to 772 North Jefferson Street. In 1957, the old building was demolished and replaced by the Milwaukee Art Center.
Source:
Peter C. Merrill, "German-American Artists in Early Milwaukee |
Mimbres Pottery | Named for the Mimbres Valley, this was pottery created by Mogollon peoples, an ancient culture on the southern periphery of the Anasazi in what is now the state of Arizona. Mimbres Pottery is commonly decorated with designs of animals and human figures and has large geometric designs. Often the black and white bowls are associated with death and called mortuary bowls because they have a hole in the bottom. Archaelogists think this hole was made after they were fired as a symbolic killing of the object to be buried with a dead person.
Source:
Native American Art of the Southwest by Linda Eaton |
Mimeogram | Artwork created when a mimeograph sheet is peeled apart. The backing is thrown away and the front is the artwork. Peeling the sheet apart makes very strange and interesting patterns. You can see some reproductions of mimeograms in Penelope Rosemont's book, Surrealist Experiences.
Credit: Daniel C. Boyer, Artist
|
Miniature Artists of America | The first invitational organization to honor outstanding practitioners of contemporary American miniature art.
Signature members are chosen from the ranks of award winners in major U.S. non-profit miniature exhibits. Other top professional candidates may be nominated by three Signature Members and elected after a jury review of their works. No more than ten candidates are selected in a given year.
Since MAA founding in Clearwater, Florida in 1985, sixty-six Signature members from the U.S. and abroad have been elected for life.
MAA does not produce open competitive exhibits but has organised an educational juried traveling exhibit of its Signature Members' works. It has visited over 40 museum and gallery sites in the US since its establishment in 1989. In its first excursion outside the U.S. it was invited to exhibit in Clearwater, Florida's "Pavilion in the Sun" at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan.
It enhances primary goals of MAA - to further the understanding of the public concerning miniature art and to encourage artists and art lovers to join in the miniature art resurgence.
MAA played a major role in recent efforts to bring together miniature art societies world-wide, which resulted in the formation of the World Federation of Miniaturists in London in November 1995
Credit:
http://www.miniature-art.com
Wes Siegrist, Member of MAA
|
Minimalism | A style of painting and sculpture in the mid 20th century in which the art elements are rendered with a minimum of lines, shapes, and sometimes colors. The goal was to reduce geometric abstract painting and sculpture to the barest essentials. For sculptors, it was "to transcend the production of mere art objects by producing three-dimensional works that straddled the boundary between art and the everyday world." Minimalist works, sometimes called ABC art, characteristically look and feel sparse, spare, restricted or empty. Art historian, Barbara Rose is credited with first using the term when she wrote an article titled 'ABC Art' in the October 1965 issue of "Art in America". She described "art pared down to a minimum". By the late 1960s, the term was commonly used for painting and sculpture that had one central image, clarified and severe, with no elements of representation. Minimalism includes the grid paintings of Agnes Martin and Robert Ryman and more aggressively geometric paintings of Robert Mangold and Brice Marden. The style was more associated with sculpture than painting, and often eliminated the artists involvement, substituting industrial made products such as the rolled steel structures of Donald Judd and Richard Serra or the flat, geometrically arranged tiles of Carl Andre. Dan Flavin created pieces from flourescent light tubes; Frank Stella worked with pliable metals and canvas; and Robert Morris did box-like cubes. Although the general public seems never to have warmed to Minimalism, corporate collection managers did because the artworks accented the many International Style office buildings that were built in the mid 20th Century. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
Mixed-Media/Multi Media | In painting, the term has traditionally been applied to combined mediums in two-dimensional work such as acrylic and watercolor or gouache and tempera. However, with the many experimentations by contemporary artists, especially sculptors, the term Mixed-Media or Multi-Media is now applied to the combining into a single work of art a variety of materials, many of them groundbreaking. Examples of combinations that fall into the newer definition are wood, pebbles, bones, glass, plastic, paper, oil paint, found objects and metals. Source: Lonnie Dunbier, AskART. |
Mobile/Stable | Terms coined to describe innovative sculpture created by Alexander Calder. Mobiles are hanging, movable sculpture, and Stabiles rest on the ground and may have some moving parts but are generally immobile. In the 1920s, Calder began experimenting with constructions that involved motion, and by 1932, he had his first wind-driven Mobiles. Usually the Mobiles are hung from ceilings, but some of Calder's are suspended in the air from a base. From the late 1930s, Calder was creating Stabiles, which are characteristically abstract black metal sheets bolted or welded together. By the 1960s, he was doing many of these for outdoor settings, and some were large enough that people could walk through them. Source: "Phaidon Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art" |
Modeling | In sculpture, shaping a form in some plastic material, such as clay, wax, or plaster, and in drawing, painting, or printmaking, the illusion of three-dimensionality on a flat surface created by simulating effects of light and shadow. Source: Artlex.com with permission of Michael Delahunt |
Modern Art | A term with elusive meaning in that it generally refers to art that is groundbreaking stylistically and/or technically from that which has been accepted historically or is currently prevalent. Liberal Spanish writer, Jose Ortega Y Gasset wrote: "Modern art will always have the masses against it. It is essentially unpopular; moreover it is anti-popular." (9) Now acceptable styles that have been referred to as 'modern art' include Impressionism, Pop Art and Abstract Expressionism. Source: Editors, "Arts Yearbook 1", p. 9 (LPD) (See Modernism) |
Moderne | Common to the 1930s to 1950s, art which attempted to be modern in style or appearance, but lacked refinement or conviction. |
Modernism | As an art-history term of art, Modernism is focused on a period in western art from the 1860s through the 1970s. The word is difficult to define because it embraced the state of mind of being non-traditional, which meant that a variety of emerging styles came under the label, especially if the rebellion was against current standards espoused by the National Academy of Design in New York City---regarded as a "coterie of conservative artists." Early 'modernists' artists such as Gustave Courbet, Paul Cezanne and Edouard Manet in France rebelled against tradition by depicting contemporary life instead of historical subjects. When Modernism came to America, it was shaped by much of what was going on in Europe, especially with Impressionism at the turn of the 19th Century. Modernism took hold full force with the introduction of Cubism, Futurism and other isms at the 1913 Armory Show in New York City, and was then followed by the Social Realists. Led by Robert Henri, likely the most potent force behind the push to free art expression, from the Academy, he and his AshCan School painters dealt with 'indelicate' subjects such as street people, prostitutes and other victims of American poverty. A major factor in opening the door to Modernism was the withdrawing of sponsorship and control of the arts by the Catholic Church, governments and aristocrats. Many of the themes of modern art were based on the new industrialism and secularism because technology and challenges to middle-class values increasingly displaced formal religion. Sources: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak"; Martha Severins, 'What Modern Looked Like', "American Art Review", November 2005, p. 126; Arrell Morrill Gibson, "The Santa Fe and Taos Colonies" (LPD) |
Modernista | See Art Nouveau. |
Monochromatic | Having only one color. Descriptive of work in which one hue – perhaps with variations of value and intensity – predominates. |
Monotype/Monoprint | A print made alone rather than in an edition of more than one copy. A Monotype is usually created by painting on a sheet or slab of glass and transferring this still-wet painting to a sheet of paper held firmly on the glass. The print is created by rubbing the back of the paper with a smooth implement, such as a large hardwood spoon. The painting from which the print is made may also be done on a polished plate, in which case it may be either printed by hand or transferred to the paper by running the plate and paper through an etching press. The purpose of doing a Monotype instead of an original painting is to obtain a special surface quality or texture. Some of the first examples of monotypes by American artists came from Frank Duveneck and his circle including Otto Bacher in Venice. They were printed on Bacher's printing press, and visiting the studio to learn the technique was James McNeill Whistler. Pat Martin Bates is a contemporary Canadian artist who specializes in monoprints. Sources: Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques"; Kimberley Reynolds and Richard Seddon, "Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms" (LPD) |
Monster Roster | See Chicago Imagism |
Montage | A picture composed of other existing illustrations, pictures, photographs, newspaper clippings, etc., that are arranged so they combine to create a new or original image. A collage. |
Monument | A defined space to honor a person, event, or concept. The word is derived from the Latin "monere", meaning to remind.
Monuments are reminders of collective values, beliefs and traditions, and often focus on the mysteries of life such as death and war and deities. Monuments that make the most lasting impressions tend to have compelling balance betwen architecture, sculpture, and location such as the Lincoln and Jefferson Memorials in Washington DC.
In Western history, religious expression was the first incentive for building monuments and included ziggurats, pyramids, obelisks, domes, columns and allegorical and representational sculpture. Twentieth-century monument builders sometimes depart from these traditions by using abstract sculpture, gardens, or unadorned space to encourage contemplation such as the Vietnam Memorial in Washington DC.
Credit:
Donald Martin Reynolds, "Masters of American Sculpture" |
Moore College of Art | See The Philadelphia School of Design |
Mormon Art Missionaries, French Art Mission | Sponsored by the LDS Mormon Church in Salt Lake City, male artists in the 1890s traveled to Paris, France to get formal art training at Academie Julian so they could skillfully execute murals and canvas paintings for the Church. Among the group were Herman Haag, Lorus Pratt, John Hafen, Myra Sawyer, Rose Hartwell, Edwin Evans, and John B. Fairbanks. Many of them such as Hafen were influenced away from Realism and purely religious subjects by French styles of Tonalism and Impressionism and by French landscape painters. Source: Anthony's Fine Art, Information to AskART |
Mosaic | A pattern, design or image created with small arranged pieces of tesserae and set in a grout to hold them in place. Tesserae, from the Greek word meaning tokens or small bits, include colored glass, marble, pottery, stone or wood. Mosaic is one of the oldest of the decorative arts and was popular with the ancient Romans and Greeks. Earliest examples date back to the fifth century BC and were composed of pebbles and shells. By 100 B.C. mosaics of the Romans were highly sophisticated. The tesserae that is common today are linked to Byzantium where mosaics were the dominant artistic expression. Churches of Constantinople, Venice and Ravenna have excellent examples of Byzantine mosaics. Although the art is not much in vogue, some American artists do work with Mosaic designs: Millard Sheets, Louis Tiffany, Jeanne Reynal, Helen Bruton, Jean Varda, Max Spivak, Ezra Winter and Emmy Lou Packard. Sources: Ralph Mayer, "A Dictionary of Art Terms and Techniques"; Kimberley Reynolds and Richard Seddon, "Illustrated Dictionary of Art Terms"; AskART database |
Mountain School of Art | A short-lived art school in Salt Lake City, Utah in the early 1930s. Gordon Cope was a teacher there. Source: Anthony Christensen, Anthony's Fine Art, Salt Lake City. |
Mountie Artists | See Potlatch Collection |
Multiculturalism | In the visual arts, the opposite of ethnocentricity and the assertion that the artistic expression of non-familiar cultures should not be demeaned with descriptions of "primitive" or "naive" because of contextual ignorance of the viewer of. Multiculturalists believe that too much emphasis is placed on European subjects and not enough on Asia, Africa and non-white cultures within the United States. The movement was stimulated by the tremendous migration in the late 1980s of non-whites to America and by the racist responses to these people of many US citizens. Since then, many American museum curators have held exhibitions on the basis of the artists' ethnic, racial and gender identities. In New York in 1990, the most comprehensive American Multicultural exhibit was held, with simultaneous presentations at the Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, the New Museum of Contemporary Art and the Studio Museum of Harlem. Conservatives assailed the shows for promoting the lowering of artistic standards of quality. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
Multiples | Three-dimensional artwork produced in quantity by industrial or serigraphic processes. Copies or reproductions have a long tradition for two-dimensional works, but in 1955, artists Yaacov Agam and Jean Tinguely suggested them for three dimensionals to a Parisien art dealer, Denise Rene. Four years later, Editions M.A.T. was formed in Paris, and this company produced multiples of one-hundreds for sculptors including Tinguely, Man Ray, Alexander Calder and Marcel Duchamp. From that time, Multiples have been popular for collectors. As opposed to being valued for their uniqueness, Multiples are valued by their conveyance of the visual image. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak"; "Phaidon Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art" |
Muncie Art School | A school of art instruction that operated for two years in Muncie, Indiana. It opened in 1889 and closed in the spring of 1891. William Forsyth (1854-1935) and J. Ottis Adams (1851-1927) were the primary instructors. "Despite appealing to the more affluent members of Muncie society, especially the women, the school was not a place of idle pasttimes. Its thrity-five pupils worked diligently, and when the Muncie Art School was closed late in spring 1891, the more serious among them sought additional training." (85). Among the students were Winifred Brady who married her teacher, J. Ottis Adams and became a well-known still life painter. Source: Judith Vale Newton and Carole Ann Weiss, "Skirting the Issue" |
Munich School of Painting | Name given to a style innovated by American artists in Munich in the 1870s and 1880s, most of them students of Frank Duveneck. The style was realism combined with "dashing brushwork of quickly applied blocks of color, omitting the careful blending of traditional methods. Young boys or older men from working class neighborhoods were among the artists' favorite subjects." The style is credited with being a major influence in overthrowing the Hudson River School style of painting. Source: Traditional Fine Arts Online, http://www.tfaoi.com/newsm1/n1m235.htm |
Munich Secession | The name for a landmark modernist art movement in Germany begun in 1892 in Munich and focused on replacement of traditional methods and representational styles with styles and methods of Abstraction. Among the artists involved were Lovis Corinth, Paul Klee and Wassily Kandinsky. Special attention was brought to the movement in 1899, when Wassily Kandinsky wrote a widely-circulated essay on the subject and described the group's "bold negation of aged models . . ." Source: http://www.uchicago.edu/research/jnl-crit-inq/issues/v23/v23n4.kandinsky.html; http://www.guggenheim-venice.it/english/06_artists/klee.htm (LPD) |
Mural | Any large-scale wall decoration done in painting, fresco, mosaic, or other medium. |
Mural Town | The modern "mural town" tourism industry began in 1982 in the Canadian town of Chemainus (Pop.3,500) on Vancouver Island. It was faced with impending economic implosion following the planned closure of the sawmill, the following year, its main source of employment. A local man, Karl Schutz, had visited Romania and noted how nuns raised funds by showing visitors the old murals in their convents. He suggested Chemainus do the same by creating its own historic murals. Today the town attracts between 350,000 and 450,000 visitors a year, thanks to its murals painted by invited contemporary artists. Some of the first murals were painted by Harry Heine, Harold Lloyd Lyon, Ernest Marza and Paul Ygartua (see all in AskART). The saw mill reopened in 1985. As of 2009 the town has 42 murals with more in the works. Other mural towns include Stony Plain, Alberta; Ely, Nevada; Ottawa, Illinois; Katikati, New Zealand; and Prestonpans, East Lothian, Scotland. Source: "The Chemainus Murals" (1998), by Cynthia Bunbury and Gregg Perry, published by The Chemainus Festival of the Murals Society, Chemainus, B.C. ( 90 pgs, colour). Submitted by M.D. Silverbrooke, Art Historian and Collector, West Vancouver, BC |
Museum | A building, place or institution devoted to the acquisition, conservation, study, exhibition and educational interpretation of objects having scientific, historical, or artistic value. The word Museum is derived from the Latin muses, meaning “a source of inspiration,” or “to be absorbed in one’s thoughts.” |
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