The Thames and Hudson Dictionary of Art Terms

World of Art

by Edward Lucie-Smith

What exactly is neoexpressionism? the difference between applique and appliqué? the part of a city known as the acropolis? or the painting technique called gouache? In this authoritative and concise dictionary, more than 2,000 entries embrace the vast vocabulary of painting and sculpture, architecture and photography, and the decorative, applied, and graphic arts. The hundreds of illustrations and diagrams play a vital role as information: art movements become immediately recognizable by a representative painting, and the defining features of each order of architecture are identifiable at a glance.

This revised edition features a substantial number of new entries, including today's influential artist groups and tendencies from Chicano art to gene art, and new terms connected with the use of computer technology in the art world, from digital image to pixel.

Genres: Art, Nonfiction, Reference

224 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1984

About the author

John Edward McKenzie Lucie-Smith, known as Edward Lucie-Smith, is an English writer, poet, art critic, curator and broadcaster.

Lucie-Smith was born in Kingston, Jamaica, moving to the United Kingdom in 1946. He was educated at The King's School, Canterbury, and, after a little time in Paris, he read History at Merton College, Oxford from 1951 to 1954.

After serving in the Royal Air Force as an Education Officer and working as a copywriter, he became a full-time writer (as well as anthologist and photographer). He succeeded Philip Hobsbaum in organising The Group, a London-centred poets' group.

At the beginning of the 1980s he conducted several series of interviews, Conversations with Artists, for BBC Radio 3. He is also a regular contributor to The London Magazine, in which he writes art reviews. A prolific writer, he has written more than one hundred books in total on a variety of subjects, chiefly art history as well as biographies and poetry.

In addition he has curated a number of art exhibitions, including three Peter Moores projects at the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool; the New British Painting (1988–90) and two retrospectives at the New Orleans Museum of Art. He is a curator of the Bermondsey Project Space.

Reviews

[Jess · Rating 3 out of 5]

Clear and simple guide to many art terms from the style of painting to types of persian pottery. Good reference book.

[Jennifer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A very knowledge dense book. I paged through the black & white pages viewing familiar artifacts. I didn't know that there are 33 types of Greek Vases.

[AC]

reference (not 'read')

[Marwah Alamely]

so good

[Arpan Dey]

GOOD BOOK