| Term | Description |
Nabis | A group of young Parisian artists who exhibited together from 1891 to 1899 and took their name from the Hebrew word for "prophets". Leaders were Paul Serusier, Edouard Vuillard, Pierre Bonnard, Paul Ranson and Maurice Denis, and their leading influence was Paul Gauguin. The underlying doctrine was distortions of colour, composition and subjects so that these elements reflected the artist's own perceptions and not necessarily reality. Applied to both easel painting and the decorative arts, Nabis artwork was a precursor to "art nouveau". The last exhibition in 1899 was held at Durand-Ruel Gallery. "Phaidon Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art" |
Naive Art/Style | A simplified approach to painting whereby the artist, lacking formal training, often renders literal images. Naive artists are usually zealous in their commitment to making art because it comes from their inner beings. The artwork of many of them may appear childlike but often is consistent in quality and has elements borrowed from art history. In contrast to Naive Art, Folk Art, reflects a specific culture and not the artist's mental processes. A common mistake is to group Naive and Folk Art together. The Naive Style tends to have bright colors, much detailing and little perspective or depth. In sculpture, quite often found objects are utilized. Some modernist artists with much interest in primitivism affect the naive style. However true Naive Art is nearly synonymous with Outsider Art and "is the product of an individual psyche rather than communal history". But Outsider Art has a slightly more narrow connotation because it is the artwork of people outside the mainstream of society such as people in mental institutions and prisons. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak". (LPD) |
Narrative Art | Art which tells a story. Narrative Art is usually self-explanatory, being from either recognizable daily-life scenes or from familiar folk stories. It was prevalent during the Renaissance with stories from the Bible or the Classics. In the 19th Century, genre scenes became popular in America and often told a story such as a soldier leaving for war, etc. Modernist artists up to the 1960s avoided Narrative Art because they were more interested in abstraction or works with themes less easy to read. However, movements of the second half of the 20th Century such as Pop Art, Figurative, Calligraphic and Performance Art have reintroduced Narrative Art. Modern Narrative artists include Jerome Witkin, Roy Kerswill, and Faith Ringgold who inscribes messages on her painted quilts. Among 19th-Century narrative artists are John Quidor, James Hamilton, Edward Moran, John Chapman and Otis Bass. Sources: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak"; AskART Database |
National Academy of Design | Founded in New York City in 1825 as an art school, a museum, and association of professional artists to maintain high,academic standards, it was the most important art institution in America in the 19th Century. Setting the standard nationally for art excellence, its existence was key to making New York an early center of the American art world. Only male artists were allowed membership until 1831 when women were admitted. Samuel F.B. Morse was the first president, and the three original members were Morse, Asher Durand and William Dunlap. In turn, they invited other artist members. Listings in NAD annual spring exhibitions for many years brought prestige and important, career-building credentials to member artists, and provided viewers with leading edge artwork. However, rebellions against academic strictures of NAD, began in the 1870s with the introduction of European modernism, and continued into the 20th century with Robert Henri’s Social Realism and the ‘shocking’ abstract art of the 1912 Armory Show. Today, the National Academy of Design offers education and exhibitions, but its value is described as being more historic than contemporary. Sources: Matthew Baigell, “Dictionary of American Art”, Theodore E. Stebbins, Jr., “The Britannica Encyclopedia of American Art”. (LPD)
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National Academy of Western Artists | A group affiliated with the The National Cowboy Hall of Fame in Oklahoma City to promote the exhibition of Western Art. The exhibitions of the Academy are known as the Prix de West, and the museum name has changed to The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. Source: The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum. |
National Arts Club | Located in two brownstones at 14 and 15 Gramercy Park South in New York City, the National Arts Club was founded in 1898 by the art and literary critic Charles de Kay, 1848-1935. His goal was to educate the public on the merits of American Art and to bring together some of America's foremost artists and collectors to encourage widespread support.
The original membership campaign brought in 1200 charter members. The membership peaked in 1920 with 1800 persons and began to decline after World War II. However, in 1985, the Club experienced a revival, and the numbers in the late 1990s have been about 2000 names.
Immediately upon its founding exhibitions were organized, and in 1906 the move was made to the current headquarters. The NAC has its own art collection, begun in 1909, and housed in the headquarters, formerly the home of former New York Governor Samuel Tilden.
Credit: California Art Club Newsletter, 2/2002, Elaine Adams. |
National Association of Women Artists | Founded in 1889 as a non-profit, member-supported organization of women in the fine arts with the name of New York Women's Club, it remains the oldest active professional women's art group. The names changed beginning 1913, when it became the Association of Women Painters and Sculptors. From 1916 to 1941, it was the National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors, and from 1941 forward, the entity has had the name of National Association of Women Artists. However, the primary purposes remained the same, which are to encourage and promote the creativity of women in the visual arts and to promote public awareness of these artists. NAWA sponsors year-round juried exhibitions for members and exhibitions that travel worldwide. Founding members of what was then called the New York Women's Club included Adele Bedell, Anita Ashley, one of the early presidents, and Olive Brown, Matilda De Cordoba, Ethel Prellwitz, Elizabeth Watrous, Fanny Tewksbury, Elizabeth Cheever and Emma Eilers. Among later members after the first name change are Louise Nevelson, Anna Hyatt Huntington, Malvina Hoffman, Anne Goldthwaite, Elizabeth Nourse, Theresa Bernstein, Claude Hirst, Charlotte Coman, Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Alice Schille. Sources: http://www.anny.org/2/orgs/0231/nawa.htm; Peter Falk, Art Historian and Writer; Database of AskART.com (LPD) |
National Association of Women Painters and Sculptors | See National Association of Women Artists |
National Institute of Arts and Letters | See American Academy of Arts and Letters |
National Sculpture Society | The oldest organization of professional sculptors in the United States, the NSS is composed of master sculptors and architects dedicated to excellence in idealized figurative sculpture in classical realist or Beaux-Arts style.
Daniel Chester French, Augustus Saint-Gaudens, Richard Morris Hunt, and Stanford White founded the NSS in 1893, the same year as the Chicago Exposition. The first president of the National Sculpture Society was John Quincy Adams Ward.
The Chicago Exposition was a turning point in collaboration between architects and sculptors and launched the success of many NSS members.
The purpose of the organization was and remains to open public and private markets. Members were quite successful in dominating public commissions as long as they had architectural work and a nation that wanted to honor heroic individuals with their style of work. However members were not very successful with the private market because most homes did not have space for large sculptural works.
Credit:
Donald Martin Reynolds, "Masters of American Sculpture"
www.nationalsculpture.org |
National Watercolor Society | Founded in 1920 as the California Water Color Society, its members are dedicated to a new appreciation of a medium long associated with merely sketching. The name of the society has changed twice since that time: first in 1967, to California National Watercolor Society; then in 1975, when the members voted to become simply the National Watercolor Society. Its headquarters are now in San Pedro, California and the goals of its members are quality exhibitions and accompanying educational programs and materials.
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Naturalistic | Descriptive of an artwork that closely resembles forms in the natural world. Synonymous with REPRESENTATIONAL. |
Naturalists | See Pre-Raphaelites |
Negative Space | The space in a painting around the objects depicted. |
Neo Plasticism | See De Stijl |
Neo-Classical/Neo-Classicism | A term meaning “New” classicism, which was a style in 19th-century European and American painting and sculpture that referred back to the classical styles of Greece and Rome. Neo-Classicism became popular in an era of idealism and suggested the "ideal life reborn" (Couper) and the celebration of the perfect human form as a work of god's creation. Neo-classical artworks have sharp and realistic delineation of the human figure, reserved emotional tone, deliberate and often mathematical composition, and cool colors such as white marble. Neoclassicism was taught in art academies in the 19th century, but was suppressed in popularity in the early 20th century by more emotion-based styles such as Impressionism and Social Realism. In sculpture, Auguste Rodin of France, became a leading impressionist as did painter, Claude Monet. American artists who worked in the Neo-Classical style include Charles Willson Peale, John Vanderlyn, Hiram Powers, Harriet Hosmer, Edwin Weeks, Henry Benbridge, Bessie Vonnoh, Thomas Crawford, Albert Herter, William Couper, Edmonia Lewis and Erastus Palmer: Sources: Artlex.com, courtesy Michael Delahunt; Greta Elena Couper, “An American Sculptor on the Grand Tour” (LPD) |
Neo-Concrete Art | See Concrete |
Neo-Dada | A mid 1950s to mid 1960s style in the United States that bridged Abstract Expressionism and Pop Art. The term was first used in a January 1958 issue of "ARTnews" magazine to describe work of Jasper Johns, Allan Kaprow, Robert Rauschenberg and Cy Twombly. However, Neo-Dada became more associated with Johns and Rauschenberg, who used gestural methods of the Abstract Expressionists but painted recognizable, everyday objects into their artwork. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
Neo-Expressionism/Neo-Ex | An international movement in the late 1970s and early 1980s, which was a reaction against the experimentation of Conceptual art and the severity of Minimalism. Neo-Expressionists often express intense, violent feelings emphasized by gestural motions in applying paint. The term is widely used to describe works done primarily by German and Italian artists who came to maturity in the post-WWII era. In the 1980s the meaning expanded to include certain American artists such as Nancy Graves, Robert Longo, Ed Paschke, David Salle, Julian Schnabel, Robert Morris, Sue Coe and Donald Sultan. Its exponents utilize traditional approaches such as easel painting and cast and carved sculpture. However generalizations about subject matter are difficult because it is so wide ranging from surrealist dreams to allegory to mythology. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" (LPD) |
Neo-Geo | A shortening of the words neo-geometric conceptualism. The term is confusing because it originally was applied to artists whose work seems to have little in common: Ashley Bickerton, Peter Halley, Jeff Koons and Meyer Vaisman. Others linked to the tradition but not the origin are Steven Parrino, Haim Steinbach and John Armleder. What is shared among these artists "is an interest in the cool ironies of POP ART and the use of Conceptual art to address issues related to the nature of the art market during New York's economic boom of the 1980s. Many regard the description "Neo-Geo" as nothing more than a marketing device . . . and of the art market's insatiable appetite for the new, rather than as an aesthetic sign post." By 1989, the term was rarely mentioned as joint exhibitions of the original four artists drew little attention.
Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
Neo-Impressionism | A late 19th-century French art movement emanating from Paris with Georges Seurat (1859-1891) and carried on by Paul Signac (1863-1935). Although sometimes the overall affect was similar to Impressionism, Neo-Impressionism was a marked departure in several ways: The application of paint was done scientifically and precisely by a method of tiny detached strokes of pure color, many of them rounded dots which became known as Pointillism. It was the opposite approach of the Impressionists who, in one handling of the canvas, grabbed the 'fleeting moment' of the day with 'slap/dash' strokes. Also the colors on a Neo-Impressionist painting were positioned so that each was featured like a shining light, which again differed markedly from the often murky or 'run together' look of Impressionist painting. Seurat's ideas were much influenced by the writings about color theory of the chemist, Michel Eugéne Chevreul, early 19th century Director of the Gobelin Tapestry Works. Sources: barewalls.com-Seurat; en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michel_Eugène_Chevreul; WebMuseum, Paris,Signac. (LPD)
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Neon Sculpture | Art shaped by neon and fluorescent light that focuses on principles of illumination and color. Neon Sculpture suggests commercialization because its thin tubal lights are often used for advertising signs. Vardea Chryssa, stimulated by the lights of Times Square in New York City, is one of the pioneers of Neon lights in sculpture. Beginning 1962, she used illumination with and without color and subtle sequential lighting effects, usually in Plexiglas boxes. Joseph Rees, creating pop art objects such as tables, chairs and eye glasses, was also a pioneer in the use of neon. Other neon artists are Dan Flavin who works with commercial tubes, Billy Apple and Stephen Antonakos. "Phaidon Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art"; AskART database. (LPD) |
Neue Wilde | See Junge Wilde |
Neutral | Having no hue – black, white, or gray; sometimes a tannish color achieved by mixing two complementary colors. |
New Bauhaus | See Illinois Institute of Design |
New Group | See New Hope Modernists. |
New Harmony Arts Community | Named for New Harmony, a southwest Indiana frontier town founded by utopian seekers who called themselves Harmonists, the town has become an arts mecca. Two-hundred years after its founding in 1814, New Harmony is now led by retired physician and philanthropist Dr. George Rapp, descendant of the original founder, Reverend George Rapp.
In 1997, Dr. George Rapp's focus on art collection and promotion motivated him to have annual "First Blush of Spring Paint-Outs" in New Harmony, which now has a population of about 1000 people. The project has become a joint project of The Hoosier Salon, the Indiana Plein-Air Painters Association, and the New Harmony Artists Guild. Artists compete for prizes and sales and hold workshops and also sessions to critique each other's work.
The April 2004 Paint Out featured a workshop by plein-air landscape painter David Slonim.
Credit:
Written and submitted July 2004 by Steve Zimmerman, Art Collector and Historian of Indianapolis, Indiana. |
New Haven Paint and Clay Club | Founded in 1900 in New Haven, Connecticut by a group of artists who decided to hold a contemporary art show. The exhibition site was a printer's shop in Pitkin Alley. The second year they outgrew that space and within several years, it was a prestigious art association in New Haven. The Club has continued into the 21st century and sponsors two shows annually: an active members exhibit in the fall and a spring juried exhibit of New York and New England artists. The Club, located in the John Slade Ely House at 51 Trumbull Street, also has a permanent collection, selected from its exhibitions. Artists included in the membership list are Frederick Sexton, Augustus Tack, Emile Gruppe, Marguerite Stuber Pearson, Anthony Thieme, Marion Boyd Allen and Eleanor Parke Custis. Sources: http://mattatuckmuseum.org/artists/gall.htm; Helen Fuscuss, "Frederick Sexton" (Connecticut Gallery, Inc.) |
New Hope Group/Painters | See New Hope Modernists or New Hope Impressionists |
New Hope Impressionists/Pennsylvania School | Leading American landscape painters in the early 20th Century, these impressionists, beginning 1898, began to settle in Bucks County, Pennsylvania in the area of New Hope. They were also in the neighboring towns of Solebury and Center Bridge. The movement was referred to as the Pennsylvania School by New York artist and teacher Guy Pene Du Bois, who described their Impressionist paintings as "our first truly national expression". Leading members of the early group were Edward Redfield, William Lathrop, Charles Rosen, Daniel Garber, Robert Spencer, Rae Sloan Bredin and Morgan Colt. Walter Schofield was associated with the group but never lived in Bucks County. Their exhibition group was called the New Hope Group. Source: Thomas Folk, "The Pennsylvania Impressionists", p. 15
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New Hope Modernists:The New Group and Independents | The New Hope Modernists were active in the first half of the twentieth century along side their New Hope Impressionist peers. In 1930, modernist Lloyd Ney submitted a painting of the New Hope canal for entry to a juried exhibition at the Phillips Mill. One of the bridges depicted in the work was painted in a bright red. An influential member of the jury board, William Lathrop, elected to reject Ney’s painting, citing the bright colors too disturbing. When word of this omission reached fellow modernist, Charles Ramsey, he decided to take action. Miffed by this disregard for their modernist ideas and techniques, Ramsey formed the ”New Group,” an organization intended to rebel against the more traditional impressionists. New Group members had their inaugural show in the New Hope Town Hall on May 15, 1930, a day before the Phillips Mill Impressionist exhibition. The New Group operated with no formal organization or committees, and allowed each artist to select his or her work. Artists included Charles Ramsey, Stanley Reckless, Ethel Wallace, Lloyd Ney and Charles Garner. Although Charles Ramsey was creating Cubist and modernist works in New Hope in the late teens (such as ”The New Hope-Lambertville Bridge” c. 1919), the New Group was the first designated modernist organization to form there but was soon followed by another association called the Independents. This group consisted of most New Group artists as well as R.A.D. Miller, Peter Keenan, Charles Evans, Henry Baker, Richard Wedderspoon, Carl Lindborg, Frederick Harer, Faye Swengel Badura, Louis Stone and Charles Ward, among others. Other important modernist painters to later settle in the area were Josef Zenk, Scandinavian-born B.J.O. Nordfeldt, Swiss-born Joseph Meierhans who studied in New York with John Sloan, Clarence Carter, and precisionist, Richard Peter Hoffman of Allentown. Source: James Alterman, "New Hope for American Art", p. 13
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New Image | A term derived from the 1978 Whitney Exhibition, "New Image Painting", curated by Richard Marshall. The exhibition was a seemingly unrelated variety of artworks. However, it had in common the return of recognizable figurative images in the face of prevalent Minimalism and paintings on canvas, which was a marked contrast to the free-for-all media experimentations of Conceptualism. Philip Guston, former Abstract Expressionist, is the early proponent of New Image painting, which became the forerunnier of the Post-Modern return to figurative imagery. Although Guston's cartoon-like figure and style were not copied, many artists were influenced by his rebelliousness and "gutzy eccentricity." Nicholas Africano did small figures; Susan Rothenberg sketched horses, Neil Jenney did images with explanatory titles, Jennifer Bartlett did paintings on steel plates, Pat Steir did historical scenes, and Jonathan Borofsky sculpted abstract figures. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
New Leipzig School | A post World War II art movement in parts of Europe cut off from outside cultural influences by the Iron Curtain. Involved were young artists dedicated to traditional studies, especially figurative education, that in the West had been overrun by abstraction. New Leipzig artists "flocked to the Leipzig Art Academy in East Germany" in order to get art education that allowed them to express themselves in a disciplined but personal way. Much of their painting and sculpture was hauntingly and surrealistically narrative, reflective of their war experiences. Source: Editors, 'Best of the West-Pacific Northwest', "Southwest Art", February 2007, p. 66. |
New Media | Artwork done using a computer, whether displayed on a computer screen or "outputted" in some
manner (on paper, canvas, etc.).
Credit: Daniel C. Boyer, Artist
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New Mexico Painters | Organized June 6, 1923 by New Mexico painters who felt isolated from active art markets and exhibition venues. Original members were Frank Applegate, Josef Bakos, Gustave Baumann, Ernest Blumenschein, William Penhallow Henderson, Victor Higgins, B.J. Nordfeldt and Walter Ufer. The next year five more artists joined---John Sloan, Randall Davey, Andrew Dasburg, Theodore Van Soelen and Walter Mruk. The purpose was to exhibit together for marketing purposes in eastern and mid-western museums and galleries as well as in the West and regularly at the Santa Fe Museum of Fine Arts. In 1924, exhibition venues included the San Diego Museum, Los Angeles County Museum and the Art Institute of Chicago. The last show together of the New Mexico Painters was in 1927. Source: Daria Labinsky and Stan Hieronymus, "Frank Applegate of Santa Fe, Artist and Preservationist" (LPD) |
New New Painters | A group of late 20th and early 21st century American painters who use abstract style simply to paint and enjoy the process and not to convey social messages or obvious themes. The goal is to focus only on the painting itself and the limitless possibilities of creation within the medium which usually is acrylic. This water-based paint is favored because it can be applied in many layers and can be added to a variety of binders. The New New Painters are especially interested in details of process such as a blob of paint, a squirt from a paint tube, the gesture of the artist and brushstrokes. However, they seldom use brushstrokes as most prefer pouring paints from buckets, spreading around with sticks, combining with bits of glass, etc. Unlike many abstract artists who wish to be perceived as intellectuals, New New Painters are not embarrassed if their work appears decorative. They deliberately use color in abundance, an expression of the richness of their American enviroment. Member artists include Lucy Baker, Steven Brent, Irene Neal, Marjorie Minkin, Roy Lerner, Joseph Drapell and Graham Peacock.
In 2002, The New New Painters were featured in an exhibition of the National Gallery of Prague, Czechoslavakia as contrasts to the more self-limiting art promoted in that country.
Source: Natalie Sykorova, Curator, "New New Painters", catalogue of the National Gallery in Prage, 2002. |
New Realism | Initially a name in the early 1960s for Pop Art, but that meaning did not catch on in the United States where New Realism evolved into describing Figurative work and painting with a style that was completely divorced from Abstract Expressionism. New Realists tend to be primarily motivated in depicting the way things actually look, but they generally defy traditional depiction of forms. Representative artists are Fairfield Porter, Philip Pearlstein, William Beckman and Alfred Leslie. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
New Tendencies | An art movement between 1961 and 1973 of five international exhibitions held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia, which expressed "the phenomenon of the avant-garde post World War II art scene when positive feelings were emerging about science, the wonders of modern architecture and general feelings that technology and industrialization could create good living for many persons in western civilization. New Tendencies is described as the "last international art movement whose representatives still had hopes for the possibility of social and political change in the contemporary world.” Descriptive terms of style and methods include neo-constructivism, neo-concretist optical, programmed, kinetic, lumino-kinetic, and computer art. Around 1968, the movement began to die out because of disillusion with societal realities. Ivan Picelja of Zagreb was one of the artists. Source: “Impossible Histories”, by Dubravka Djuirc and Misko Suvakovic. (LPD) |
New Wave | Initially a word used to described French filmmakers of the late 1950s, New Wave in the 1980s became associated with the combining of music and Performance Art. The definition has come to mean a mix of graffiti artists, Neo-Expressionists and East Village Art (the explorsion of painting, performance and and music activity in Greenwich Village). Alternative Spaces showcase New Wave events. Two major New York exhibitions of New Wave artists in the 1980s brought the name to the attention of the media. One of them was in an Alternative Space, which was a dilapidated former massage parlor that offered an alternative to the familiar white-walled art galleries. The second exhibition, held in 1981, was in a space called P.S. 1. New Wave artists include Tom Otterness and John Ahearn. Source: Robert Atkins, "Art Speak" |
New York Academy of the Fine Arts | See American Academy of the Fine Arts |
New York School | A broad and diverse group of American artists active in the 1940s and 1950s who fall under descriptions of Abstract Expressionism, Abstract Impressionism and Action Painting. A major reason the group is difficult to describe is that innovation and individual expression are unifying characteristics that necessarily defy description. However, the New York School Abstract Expressionists made a lasting contribution in that the style is credited as the first truly unique style in American Art. New York School artists shared the urban environment of New York City with most of them living within the downtown area bordered by 8th and 12th Streets between First and Sixth Avenues. They also shared a sense of solidarity about defying many traditional art styles, especially the prevalent Social Realism, and dominance of Paris avant-garde styles. New York School painters created from personal instincts and impulses, which was revolutionary in that the focus was on the artist instead of the subject depicted. The New York School movement, primarily composed of men, began in the early 1940s. It was stirred by the opening of the Hans Hoffman School in New York City, the introduction of Surrealism and Cubism into American Art with the arrival of artists from France escaping World War II, and the exhibitions of avant-garde European art by Peggy Guggenheim. Their first organization meeting was in 1948 at Studio 35, and until April, 1950, this location was a meeting place for lectures and discussion. Lecturers were leading New York School artists such as Mark Rothco, Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt, Willem De Kooning and Barnet Newman. Meanwhile in 1949, a group of twenty artists formed The Club. The Cedar Bar was the primary meeting spot, and it was described as 'any night of the week housing the art world but since they all fit into the bar, the art world was not as large as we thought it was.' (Herskovic, Intro.) Their first exhibition together was May to June 1951 in space at at 60 East 9th Street in a building about to be torn down. Franz Kline designed the poster, and sixty-one artists participated. The public response was minimal, but twenty-four of the artists continued to exhibit together from 1953 to 1957 at the Stable Gallery. Later in the 1950s, a second generation of New York School painters emerged, but the energy of the movement declined with Pop Art painters staging a rebellion against Abstraction. Sources: Marika Herskovic, "New York School", "Phaidon Dictionary of Twentieth-Century Art" (LPD)
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New York School of Applied Design for Women | Established in 1892 by Ellen Dunlop Hopkins, a promoter of the Arts and Crafts movement, the school had the purpose of making available practical learning so that women could make a living in arts and crafts related occupations such as book cover designs, stained glass, textile design and illustration. The original location was 200 West 23rd Street, and through several transitions and supported by John D. Rockefeller, merged in the mid 1970s with the Pratt Institute. Among the teachers were Alphonse Mucha. Sources: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_York_School_of_Applied_Design |
New York School of Art | See Chase School of Art |
New York Society of Women Artists | Founded in 1920 by 23 female painters and sculptors with a commitment to promoting avant-garde women artists, it was the first women's art association in America. Among the original group were Henrietta Shore, Bena Frank Meyer and Minna Harkavy. An "ARTnews" critic, praising an early exhibition, described the Society as a "battalion of Amazons that is surely unbeatable." The group is still active with some exhibitions being at Lever House on West 57th Street. Source: http://www.anny.org/2/orgs/0188/002p0188.htm; http://www.anny.org/2/orgs/0188/nywa.htm (LPD) |
New York WaterColor Club | Founded in 1890 to promote the mediums of watercolors and pastels through Fall exhibitions and to raise the standards of entries in response to the American Watercolor Society whose exhibition criteria including jury selection were regarded as lax. It was an era before the opening of many commercial art galleries, so annual exhibitions were important to promoting artwork. The first meeting was held March 26, 1890. Founders of NYWCC included Childe Hassam, the first President; Charles Warren Eaton, Treasurer; Rhoda Holmes Nicholls, Vice President; and Henry Bayley Snell. Others who joined shortly after the initial group were John Twachtman, Walter Launt Palmer, Winslow Homer, Maurice Prendergast, and Irving Ramsey Wiles. The first exhibition, which received positive reviews, was held at the American Galleries and had about 400 entries. Many of the top artists of the day were represented including Arthur Davies, Bruce Crane and Alexander Wyant. In the first decade of the 20th Century, the NYWCC represented many artists who were leaders in the Tonalist movement such as Eaton and Wyant. “The New York Times” exhibition review of November 11, 1895 encouraged the Tonalist approach by expressing relief that many of the paintings were not Impressionist with “crazy, impossible landscapes, with wiggly trees, houses all askew, and violent crude color” but instead had “quiet, refined, intelligent striving after nature, and a general pleasant harmony of color.” The NYWCC also did much to promote women artists through club leadership positions and exhibition space. Of the original membership, half were women, which was a contrast with the American Watercolor Society in 1906 when “The New York Times” had a note that only two of its ninety-nine members were women. Another accomplishment of the NYWCC was successful promotion of pastel painting during the early 20th Century. In 1941, with many differences resolved, The New York Watercolor Club merged with the American Watercolor Society. Source: David A. Cleveland, ‘The New York Water Color Club’, “The Magazine Antiques”, November 2005, pp. 116-121. (LPD) |
New York Women's Art Club | See National Association of Women Artists |
Newcomb Pottery | Inspired by the Arts and Crafts movement, Newcomb Pottery, created in New Orleans, was one of the most famous lines of pottery in the early 20th century and remains highly collectible. The Arts and Crafts Movement began in Britain in the nineteenth century and sought to revive the production of hand-made decorative objects. The movement quickly spread to the United States, where it thrived well into the twentieth century. Many American pottery centers were established at the time. Newcomb was unusual, however, because it was connected to the educational program of a college (Newcomb College at Tulane University). Over a forty-five-year period the Newcomb studio produced approximately seventy-thousand pieces designed by ninety women artists. Deeply carved designs were particularly characteristic of Newcomb wares produced between 1903 and 1907. Newcomb Pottery production ceased in 1940 due to changing tastes of the American public. It has been reported that shortly after the end of production, during renovation of the Art Department, pottery was thrown from the upper story windows to make room for workers. The Pottery building on Camp Street, where Newcomb Pottery was made, remains standing (2004) and is a registered historic landmark.
Large collections of the pottery are in the Newcomb Art Department, the Louisiana State Museum, the Fine Arts Museum at Louisiana State University, and the Historic New Orleans Collection. Newcomb pottery has been featured on traveling exhibits including "The Arts and Crafts Movement in the South", held in 1996 at the High Museum in Atlanta and the Mint Museum in Charlotte, North Carolina. Source: The Columbus Museum, Columbus Georgia; http://www.tulane.edu/~wc/pottery/today.html (LPD) |
Newman Galleries | Founded in 1865 at 16th and Walnut Streets in the city center of Philadelphia by Adolph and George Newman, the gallery continues into the 21st century with fourth and fifth generation family members. It is one of the countries' oldest, ongoing art galleries. The estates of artists such as Daniel Garber, Edward Redfield, Kenneth Nunamker and John Folinsbee have been handled by the gallery, whose specialty is Pennsylvania artists, especially ones who attended the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts. Source: 'A Historic Firm Always on the Move', "Fine Arts Connoisseur", January 2007. |
NO!Art | An art movement founded in 1963 by Boris Lurie at Gallery Gertrude Stein after Lurie had left the March Gallery. The movement expressed the artist's disdain of current art trends such as Abstract Expressionism (shallow and decorative) and Pop Art (promoted consumerism). Art for NO!Art artists was intended to address serious social issues such as racism, sexism, imperialism, etc. Lurie, a Holocaust survivor, was committed to these topics from his imprisonment during World War II at Buchenwald, and the name came about when the Gallery Gertrude Stein opened on 81st Street, and Lurie and other painters such as Sam Goodman and Stanley Fisher were thinking "never again" of the post-Holocaust period. Sources: ARTnews, March 2008, p. 70; Wikipedia/Boris Lurie (LPD) |
Non Figurative Artists' Association of Montreal | Also known as "Association des Artists Non Figuratifs de Montreal", it was an alliance of Montreal abstract artists organized in 1956. In the words of Fernand Leduc, the first president, it was: ". . . a way of bringing together artists who would compel recognition from society for a type of art which it rejected; who would force museums to open their doors; who would force the powers that be to recognize the group.” Its membership of about 50 included Plasticiens*, Automatistes* and even a member of Painters Eleven* (Ray Mead). The only thing all the members had in common was interests in abstraction, however, most had exhibited in “Espace 55” (1955) at the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts and, most were exhibitors at Guido Molinari’s Galerie l’ Actuelle. The first exhibition was at Helene de Champlaine restaurant in 1956. Subsequent exhibitions included the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts (1957), the Ecole des Beaus-arts (1959) and "Espace Dynamique" at Denyse Delrue Gallery (1960). As the members individually gained prominence, due in part to the success of the group, they drifted away and the organization disbanded in 1961. Sources: “A Concise History of Canadian Painting” (1973), by Dennis Reid and "Contemporary Canadian Art" (1983), by David Burnett & Marilyn Schiff (see both in AskART Book references). Prepared and contributed by M.D. Silverbrooke. * For more in-depth information about these terms and others, see AskART.com Glossary http://www.askart.com/AskART/lists/Art_Definition.aspx
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Non Objective | An umbrella term that refers to visual art that is completely devoid of recognizable objects. However, it includes abstract expressionism, classical abstraction, suprematism and constructivism, and sometimes crosses over enough into abstraction or semi-realism that its true meaning gets clouded with confusion. In 1936, Hilla Rebay, Director of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, which became a repository of Non-Objective Painting, "began using the term "non-objective" to refer to painting by Wassily Kandinsky, Russian painter. He is credited as one of the first western abstract artists. Kandinsky used the wording “Non-objective” in his treatise, "On the Spiritual in Art." Other artists associated with Non-Objective painting are Kasimir Malevich and Piet Mondrian. Source: Ruth Pasquine, "The Politics of Redemption: Dynamic Symmetry and Theosophy in the Art of Emil Bisstram", p. 78 (LPD) |
Nona Jean Hulsey Rumsey Buyers Choice Award | Recognition of the Prix De West, annual exhibition of the National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum in Oklahoma City. It carries a cash award of three-thousand dollars for the artist whose entry is voted "the most popular work of art as chosen by the patrons attending the opening night". Recipients include Paul Calle, Curt Walters, Dan Gerhartz and Ron Riddick. Sources: The National Cowboy and Western Heritage Museum; AskART database (LPD) |
North Shore Arts Association of Gloucester | An organization in Gloucester, Massachusetts that dates to December, 2, 1922, and includes the artistic life of Cape Ann, Gloucester, Annisquam, Magnolia, and Rockport. Founding members were devoted to bringing together artists working in the region.
Founding artist members included William Atwood, Paul Cornoyer, Cecelia Beaux, Hugh Breckenridge, and Frederick Mulhaupt. Today's artist membership numbers over 300 persons, and has many non-artist members as well.
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Northern California Painters Group | The Northern California Painters Group was founded in 2001. It consists of nine members who are associates who teach at the Academy of Art College in San Francisco. They hold group exhibitions from time to time, most recently (2003) at William Lester Gallery in Pt. Reyes, California.
They are recognized plein-air painters in California. There are no plans to increase the membership size of the group as they want to keep the group very exclusive.
The members are Brian Blood, Laurie Kersey, Hui Han Liu (pronounced wee han loo), William (Bill) Maughan, Carolyn Meyer, Douglas Morgan, Craig Nelson, John Poon, and Randal Sexton.
Credit:
Gary Stanley, ArtSanDiego Gallery, San Diego, CA |
Northern Renaissance | See Renaissance |
Northwest Watercolor Society | An organization founded in Seattle, Washington in 1939 to encourage artists interested in the watercolor medium and to sponsor exhibitions of watercolor painting. The place for the monthly meetings, held every second Tuesday, was the Studio Gallery at 533 Medical Arts Building. The organization, now based in Bellevue, Washington, continues into the 21st Century. Meeting are monthly with lectures and watercolor demonstrations, and workshops are held during each year. Also there is a growing library of instructional video tapes about watercolor painting. In 1992, the NWS expanded its membership beyond the region to include interested, qualified persons in the United States and Canada. Early members included Louise Ladd and Blanche Morgan Losey.
Sources: Robert Ladd, son of Louise Ladd; website of the NWS: http://www.nwws.org/officers_committees.php (LPD) |
Nose Art/Tail Art | Images on the noses and tails of aircraft that served as moral boosters and express perceptions of the aircraft by crew members. The quality of the ‘artwork’ varied according to the art skills of available Nose and Tail artists. Ideas for subjects "came from a variety of sources such as girlfriends, newspaper and magazine images, special events or wishes. Most remembered are the pin-up girls, such as those painted by Illinois artist Samuel Rodman (1906-1979. Today nose and Tail Art Designs, converted into badges, are very collectible. The tradition dates back to ancient times when warriors decorated their shields, on whom they had the same kind of self-protective reliance as servicemen on bomb patrols did to their airplanes. These pilots grew to think of their aircraft as someone to whom they talked and totally relied upon and not "as just a B17, or just a serial number." It was a "being" with personality and gender, expressed by the decoration on its Nose or Tail. Sources: http://www.stewart-aviation.co.uk/noseart.html; Vanderpoel Art Association.
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