Glossary of Art Terms - F



Fauvism

Les Fauves (French for The Wild Beasts) were a short-lived and loose grouping of early Modern artists whose works emphasized painterly qualities, and the use of deep color over the representational values retained by Impressionism. Fauvists simplified lines, made the subject of the painting easy to read, exaggerated perspectives and used brilliant but arbitrary colors. They also emphasized freshness and spontaneity over finish. One of the fundamentals of the Fauves was expressed in 1888 by Paul Gauguin to Paul Sérusier, "How do you see these trees? They are yellow. So, put in yellow; this shadow, rather blue, paint it with pure ultramarine; these red leaves? Put in vermilion." The name was given, humourously and not as a compliment, to the group by art critic Louis Vauxcelles. In French, "Fauves" means "wild beasts." The painter Gustave Moreau was the movement's inspirational teacher; a professor at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris, he pushed his students to think outside of the lines of formality and to follow their visions. The leaders of the movement, Moreau's top students, were Henri Matisse and André Derain — friendly rivals of a sort, each with his own followers. The paintings, for example Matisse's 1908 The Dessert or Derain's The Two Barges,[1] use powerful reds or other forceful colors to draw the eye. Matisse became the yang to Picasso's yin in the 20th century while time has trapped Derain at the century's beginning, a "wild beast" forever. Their disciples included Albert Marquet, Charles Camoin, the Belgian painter Henri Evenepoel, Jean Puy, Maurice de Vlaminck, Raoul Dufy, Othon Friesz, Georges Rouault, the Dutch painter Kees van Dongen, the Swiss painter Alice Bailly and Picasso's partner in Cubism, Georges Braque. Fauvism, as a movement, had no concrete theories, and was short lived, beginning in 1905 and ending in 1907, they only had three exhibitions. Matisse was seen as the leader of the movement, due to his seniority in age and prior self-establishment in the academic art world. He said he wanted to create art to delight; art as a decoration was his purpose and it can be said that his use of bright colors tries to maintain serenity of composition. Among the influences of the movement were Paul Gauguin and Vincent van Gogh, both of whom had begun using colors in a brighter, more imaginative manner. The work of Cezanne was also central.



Fellow

A fellow in the broadest sense is someone who is an equal or a comrade. The term is most often used in an academic context: a fellow is (at least in theory) part of an elite group of learned people who work together as peers in the pursuit of knowledge. However, there are no precise rules for how the title is used, and each academic institution grants the title as it sees fit.


 

Figurative

Figurative art describes artwork - particularly paintings - which are clearly derived from real object sources, and are therefore by definition representational. The term "figurative art" is often taken to mean art which represents the human figure, or even an animal figure, and, though this is often the case, it is not necessarily so, it can includes Landscapes and in a broader scope all art before the arrival of Abstract art.


 

Filigree

Filigree (Also known as “Telkari” (the name given in Anatolia it means, “Wire work”) or “Cift-isi” (Meaning Tweezers work - is a jewel work of a delicate kind made with twisted threads usually of gold and silver. It is nowadays exceedingly common for ajoure work to be mislabelled as filigree. While both have many open areas, filigree involves threads being soldered together to form an object and ajoure involves holes being punched, drilled, or cut through an existing piece of metal.


 

Finger Painting

Fingerpainting is a method of painting applied with the fingers.


 

Finial

The finial is an architectural device, typically carved in stone and employed to decoratively emphasise the apex of a gable, or any of various distinctive ornaments at the top, end, or corner of a building or structure. Smaller sized finials can be used as a decorative ornament on the ends of curtain rods or applied to chairs and furniture. These are frequently seen on top of bed posts or clocks.


 

Firing

Heating pottery or sculpture in a kiln or open fire to harden the clay permanently and fuse the enamel to the piece. The temperature needed to mature the clay varies with the type of body used.


 

Foreshortening

Foreshortening is when an object appears compressed when seen from a particular viewpoint, and the effect of perspective causes distortion. Particularly effective when well rendered on the picture plane to create the illusion of a figure in space.


 

French Impressionism

Impressionism, the leading development in French painting in the later 19th century and a reaction against both the academic tradition and romanticism, refers principally to the work of Claude Monet, Pierre Auguste Renoir, and other artists associated with them, such as Camille Pissarro and Alfred Sisley, who shared a common approach to the rendering of outdoor subjects. Impressionism also refers to the work of artists who participated in a series of group exhibitions in Paris, the first and most famous of which was held from April 15 to May 15, 1874, at the studio of the photographer Nadar. The artists represented at the exhibition, or in the succeeding ones held by the group between 1876 and 1886, included Paul Cézanne, Edgar Degas, Jean Baptiste Armand Guillaumin, Berthe Morisot, and, after 1879, Paul Gauguin and the American artist Mary Cassatt. The term impressionism was derived from a painting by Claude Monet -- Impression: Sunrise (1872; Musée Marmottan, Paris), a view of the port of Le Havre in the mist -- and was coined for the group by the unfriendly critic Louis Leroy. Monet probably intended the title to refer to the sketchy, unfinished look of the work, similar to receiving an impression of something on the basis of an exposure that is partially obscured and incomplete in its detail. The term, however, was quickly taken up by sympathetic critics, who used it in an alternative sense to mean the impression stamped on the senses by a visual experience that is rapid and transitory, associated with a particular moment in time. Monet, Renoir, Pissarro, and Sisley were impressionists in the latter sense; beginning in the later 1860s and culminating in 1872-75, they chose to paint outdoors (en plein air ), recording the rapidly changing conditions of light and atmosphere as well as their individual sensations before nature. They used high-key colors and a variety of brushstrokes, which allowed them to be responsive both to the material character and texture of the object in nature and to the impact of light on its surfaces.


 

Fresco

Traditionally the most common technique used for indoor mural painting. Fresco is wall paint in which limeproof pigments are mixed with water and applied to lime plaster that is still wet. The plaster serves both as ground and binder. In addition, it provides the lights and highlights for the finished work, being the only source of white. Fresco painting was used in many of the early civilizations including the Minoan in Crete and throughout Europe. The highest stage of developement was during the Renaissance in Catholic churches. After the 17th Century.


 

Futurism

Futurism or futurism - A modern art movement originating among Italian artists in 1909, when Filippo Marinetti's first manifesto of futurism appeared, until the end of World War I. Futurism was a celebration of the machine age, glorifying war and favoring the growth of fascism. Futurist painting and sculpture were especially concerned with expressing movement and the dynamics of natural and man-made forms. Some of these ideas, including the use of modern materials and technique, were taken up later by Marcel Duchamp (French, 1887-1968), the cubists, and the constructivists. Artists include: Filippo Tommaso Marinetti Giacomo Balla Umberto Boccioni Carlo Carrà Gino Severini.



Back To Top