Art brut. Term coined by *Dubuffct for art made by untrained people. *Outsider art.

Art brut

[Fr.: ‘raw art’]. Term used from the mid-1940s to designate a type of art outside the fine art tradition. The commonest English-language equivalent for art brut is ‘Outsider art’. In North America, the same phenomenon tends to attract the label ‘Grass-roots art’. The French term was coined by Jean Dubuffet, who posited an inventive, non-conformist art that should be perfectly brut, unprocessed and spontaneous, and emphatically distinct from what he saw as the derivative stereotypes of official culture. In July 1945 Dubuffet initiated his searches for art brut, attracted particularly by the drawings of mental patients that he saw in Switzerland. In 1948 the non-profit-making Compagnie de l’Art Brut was founded, among whose partners were André Breton and the art critic Michel Tapié. The Collection de l’Art Brut was supported for a while by the company but was essentially a personal hobby horse of Dubuffet and remained for three decades an almost entirely private concern, inviting public attention only at exhibitions in 1949 (Paris, Gal. René Drouin) and 1967 (Paris, Mus. A. Déc.). In 1971 Dubuffet bequeathed the whole collection to the City of Lausanne, where it was put on permanent display to the public at the Château de Beaulieu. At the time of opening (1976), the collection comprised 5000 works by c. 200 artists, but it grew thereafter.

Art Contemporain [Flem. Kunst van Heden].

Belgian exhibiting society of artists founded on 1 March 1905 in Antwerp and active from 1905 to 1955. Its founder, the dealer François Franck (1872–1932), was motivated by the many short-lived attempts by Antwerp artists to set up an artistic forum alongside or in opposition to the Société pour l’Encouragement des Beaux-Arts (founded in 1788) and the Cercle Artistique (founded in 1852). The society organized annual exhibitions in which the work of one or several late 19th century or contemporary artists was featured on a spectacular scale (e.g. Alfred Stevens in 1907), with artist-members often showing alongside representative groups of foreigners. Between 1918 and 1939 Art Contemporain gained a dominant position in the artistic life of Antwerp through its membership structure. The enterprise was financially supported by enthusiasts: dealers such as Henri Fester (1849–1939) and politically committed intellectuals such as G. Serigiers (1858–1930), Louis Franck (1869–1937), Pol De Mont (1857–1931) and Emmanuel De Bom (1868–1953). This group regarded the promotion of ‘sincere and remarkable works of art, to whichever movement they might belong’ as a prestigious mission to society. The multifarious, sometimes precarious composition of the society made it wary of particularly innovative art, and after exhibiting work by the Ecole de Paris there was open internal conflict, which brought further criticism from Antwerp’s avant-garde artists. Nevertheless the work of members such as Jakob Smits, Albert Servaes, Georg Minne, Léon Spilliaert, Rik Wouters, Auguste Oleffe, Gustave Van de Woestyne, Edgard Tytgat, Gustave De Smet, Constant Permeke, Jean Brusselmans and others received ample attention. James Ensor was particularly fortunate to be promoted by Art Contemporain both at home and abroad. The close collaboration between the society and the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten in Antwerp has a continuing significance as a result of the museum’s purchases at the time, the gifts given by Friends of Modern Art (after 1925) and those of individuals, of which Charles Franck (1870–1935) and François Franck were the most prominent.

Art Deco.

Descriptive term applied to a style of decorative arts that was widely disseminated in Europe and the USA during the 1920s and 1930s. Derived from the style made popular by the Exposition Internationale des Arts Décoratifs et Industriels Modernes held in Paris in 1925, the term has been used only since the late 1960s, when there was a revival of interest in the decorative arts of the early 20th century. Since then the term ‘Art Deco’ has been applied to a wide variety of works produced during the inter-war years, and even to those of the German Bauhaus. But Art Deco was essentially of French origin, and the term should, therefore, be applied only to French works and those from countries directly influenced by France.

Arte generativo.

Style of Argentine painting named in 1959 by EDUARDO MACENTYRE and MIGUEL ANGEL VIDAL to describe their work, with its power to generate optical sequences by circular, vertical and horizontal displacement, and based on their studies of Georges Vantongerloo. Developing the tradition of geometric abstraction that had emerged in Argentina in the 1940s with groups such as Arte Concreto Invención, Movimiento Madí and Perceptismo, the aim of these artists was to extol the beauty and perfection of geometry through line and colour. They and the collector Ignacio Pirovano (1919–80), who acted as their theorist, were soon joined by the engineer and painter Baudes Gorlero (1912–59), who as well as creating his own work also analysed its development mathematically. All three artists were awarded prizes in 1959 in the Argentine competition Plástica con plásticos by a jury that consisted of the French critic Michel Ragon, the American museum director Thomas Messer (b 1920), the French painter Germaine Derbecq (1899–1973) and the Argentine critic Aldo Pellegrini (1903–75), shortly after which Gorlero died. MacEntyre and Vidal produced the Arte generativo manifesto in 1960, not as a theoretical statement but as a ‘clarification of ideas’. They distinguished the adjective ‘generative’ (‘able to produce or engender’) from the verb ‘to engender’ (‘to procreate, to propagate the same species, to cause, occasion, form’) and from the noun ‘generatrix’ (‘a point, line or surface whose motion generates a line, surface or solid’). After exploring these ideas more fully they suggested that shapes ‘produce power through the sensation of breaking free from and wishing to penetrate the basic plane and energy from the displacements and vibrations that they produce’. Both MacEntyre and Vidal relied on an analytical process, organizing basic units (curved lines for MacEntyre, straight lines in Vidal’s case) in accordance with constant laws and subjecting them to inventive variations characterized by an impeccable technique, splendid colour and surprising power.

Arte Madi.

Argentine movement of the 1940s based in Buenos Aires and led by GYULA KOSICE and the Uruguayan artists Carmelo Arden Quin (b 1913) and Rhod Rothfuss (b 1920). Together with Joaquín Torres García and the Argentine poet Edgar Bayley (b 1919), they were responsible for the publication in early 1944 of a single issue of a magazine, Arturo, which heralded the development of the Constructivist movement in Argentina, stressing the importance of pure invention and of interdisciplinary links. Tomás Maldonado, who designed the cover, and Lidy Prati (b 1921), who was responsible for most of the vignettes, soon dissociated themselves from their colleagues to help set up the ASOCIACIÓN ARTE CONCRETO INVENCIÓN; the editorial content of the magazine, however, suggested a coherent aesthetic that was also promoted in booklets published by Kosice and Bayley in 1945 and in two exhibitions, Art Concret Invention (which opened on 8 Oct 1945 in the house of the doctor and patron Enrique Pichon Rivière) and Movimiento de Arte Concreto Invención (from 2 Dec 1945 in the house of the photographer Grete Stern). Articles by Arden Quin and Kosice stressed the pure quality of plastic images free of naturalistic or symbolic connotations, whose radical character was distinguished by Bayley from what he termed the falsity of such movements as Expressionism, Realism and Romanticism. Rothfuss’s exposition of his ideas about shaped canvases, prefiguring by more than a decade devices taken up by American abstract painters, proved particularly influential.

Arte nucleare [It.: ‘nuclear art’].

Term applied to a style of Italian painting prevalent in the 1950s. The Movimento Nucleare was founded in 1951 by ENRICO BAJ and Sergio Dangelo (b 1931), with Gianni Bertini (b 1922), to promote a gestural, fantastical style of avant-garde art. In their first manifesto (1952) the artists introduced the idea of ‘nuclear painting’ and made it clear that they were striving for a relevant representation of post-War man and his precarious environment. Arte nucleare stood in opposition to the powers unleashed in the atomic age and expressed the general fear of imminent and uncontrollable damage from nuclear physics. The artists also reacted against the pictorial disciplines of De Stijl and all forms of geometric abstraction, pursuing instead the unpredictable effects of Surrealist automatism. This included gestural experiments similar to action painting and Tachism. Various Arte nucleare artists, including Gianni Dova, helped produce the magazine Phases in the mid-1950s. In 1955 Baj and other Arte nucleare artists joined the Mouvement International pour une Bauhaus Imaginiste (MIBI), founded by Asger Jorn. A further manifesto was released by the Arte nucleare artists in January 1959. This warned against the negative application of new technology and also found possibilities of a positive, aesthetic development from some aspects of atomic fission. Although a few Arte nucleare exhibitions were held, the movement did not gain the currency enjoyed by its rival, Art informel, and by the early 1960s had faded from the international arena.

Arte Povera (It. impoverished art). Term coined by the Italian critic Germano Celant in 1968 to describe post-*Minimalist art produced in the late 1960s with 'humble' and commonly available materials, such as sand, wood, stones and newspaper. Some of the artists associated with A. P. were *Anselmo, *Fabro, G. Paolini and *Pistoletto.

Arte Povera [It.: ‘impoverished art’].

Term coined by the Genoese critic Germano Celant in 1967 for a group of Italian artists who, from the late 1960s, attempted to break down the ‘dichotomy between art and life’ (Celant: Flash Art, 1967), mainly through the creation of happenings and sculptures made from everyday materials. Such an attitude was opposed to the conventional role of art merely to reflect reality. The first Arte Povera exhibition was held at the Galleria La Bertesca, Genoa, in 1967. Subsequent shows included those at the Galleria De’Foscherari in Bologna and the Arsenale in Amalfi (both 1968), the latter containing examples of performance art by such figures as MICHELANGELO PISTOLETTO. In general the work is characterized by startling juxtapositions of apparently unconnected objects: for example, in Venus of the Rags (1967; Naples, Di Bennardo col.), Pistoletto created a vivid contrast between the cast of an antique sculpture (used as if it were a ready-made) and a brightly coloured pile of rags. Such combination of Classical and contemporary imagery had been characteristic of Giorgio de Chirico’s work from c. 1912 onwards. Furthermore, Arte Povera’s choice of unglamorous materials had been anticipated by more recent work, such as that of Emilio Vedova and Alberto Burri in the 1950s and 1960s, while Piero Manzoni had subverted traditional notions of the artist’s functions (e.g. Artist’s Shit, 1961). Like Manzoni’s innovations, Arte Povera was also linked to contemporary political radicalism, which culminated in the student protests of 1968. This is evident in such works as the ironic Golden Italy (1971) by LUCIANO FABRO, a gilded bronze relief of the map of Italy, hung upside down in a gesture that was literally revolutionary.

Arte programmata [It.: ‘programmed art’].

Term given to the work of various Italian artists active during the early 1960s who were primarily interested in KINETIC ART and OP ART. The phrase was used by Umberto Eco in 1962 for an exhibition that he presented at the Olivetti Showroom in Milan. This show included works by BRUNO MUNARI, Enzo Mari and members of GRUPPO N and GRUPPO T (both founded 1959). The artists produced objects by a procedure analogous to the methods of technological research, creating a prototype that was then developed through a series of closely related artefacts. This practice was exemplified by Munari, whose mass-produced ‘multiples’ took the form either of hand-operated objects or simple machines (e.g. X Hour, 1963). The ‘multiples’ required the participation of members of the public in order to function and were intended to explore optical and physical phenomena, concerns that also dominated the work of other Arte programmata artists. Giovanni Anceschi (b 1939) created remarkable dynamic images with coloured liquids, while Gianni Colombo (b 1937) made reliefs constructed out of blocks that moved mechanically. Arte programmata gained an international reputation and in 1964 was the subject of exhibitions at the Royal College of Art, London, and at various venues in the USA. In the late 1960s, however, the artists became less closely associated, even though most continued to pursue their interests in kinetic and optical effects.

Artes.

Group of Polish avant-garde artists active in Lwów (now Lviv, Ukraine) between 1929 and 1935, from 1933 known as ‘Neoartes’. Among its members were painters who studied in Lwów, Kraków and Paris: Otto Hahn (1904–42), Jerzy Janisch (1901–62), Henryk Streng (who after 1939 used the pseudonym Marek Wlodarski), Margit Sielski (b 1903), Roman Sielski (b 1903), Mieczyslaw Wysocki (1899–1930), the self-taught painter Ludwik Lille (1897–1957) and the architect Aleksander Krzywoblocki (1901–79). Between 1930 and 1932 they held 11 exhibitions in Lwów, Warsaw and other cities. They searched for new, modern art, but they never defined it or formed any programme. Their art was heterogenous and covered various disciplines: painting, drawing, graphic art, collage and photomontage. Some of them were students of Léger and followed his style, but most of them moved towards Surrealism, for example Wysocki in his Fantasy of a Fight (1930) and Hahn in his lithograph Composition with Leaves (1930; both Wroclaw, N. Mus.). They explored subjects popular among Surrealists, such as the journey, sea and dreams, as in Roman Sielski’s Seascape (1931; Warsaw, N. Mus.). But they also made use of everyday subjects and depicted simple objects. Finally they broke with the timelessness and unreality of Surrealist visions and called for involvement in socio-political art. In 1933 Streng organized an opinion poll on new realism in art, and in 1936 he published in the monthly magazine Sygnaly an article entitled ‘Fighting for Live Art’. The move to realism was characteristic of the majority of Artes members. After the break-up of the group only Jerzy Janisch remained faithful to Surrealism; the others, for example Roman Sielski and Tadeusz Wojciechowski (1902–82), turned to Polish Colourism or, in the case of Streng, to abstraction.

 

Art informel [Informalism; Lyrical Abstraction].

Term coined in 1950 by the French critic Michel Tapié, primarily in relation to the work of Wols, and subsequently applied more generally to a movement in European painting that began in the mid-1940s and flourished in the 1950s as a parallel development to Abstract Expressionism (especially action painting) in the USA. Sometimes referred to as TACHISM, ART AUTRE or Lyrical Abstraction, it was a type of abstraction in which form became subservient to the expressive impulses of the artist, and it was thus diametrically opposed to the cool rationalism of geometric abstraction. Antecedents can be found in the work of Vasily Kandinsky, Paul Klee and Jean Dubuffet and particularly in the Surrealist current of AUTOMATISM, such as that practised by André Masson. In its more precise historical sense its pioneers were artists based in Paris, such as Jean Fautrier, Wols (e.g. Composition, 1947; Hamburg, Ksthalle, or Yellow Composition, 1946–7) and Hans Hartung (e.g. T. 1949-9, 1949; Düsseldorf, Kstsamml. Nordrhein–Westfalen); Hartung in particular was producing paintings with many of the features of Art informel by the mid-1930s, as in T. 1935-1 (1935; Paris, Pompidou; for illustration see HARTUNG, HANS). The movement came to include Jean-Michel Atlan, Jean Bazaine, Roger Bissière, Camille Bryen, Alberto Burri, Charles Lapicque, Alfred Manessier, Georges Mathieu, Henri Michaux, Serge Poliakoff, Pierre Soulages, Nicolas de Staël, Antoni Tàpies and others. Following the lead of Surrealist automatism, current in Surrealism, Art informel pictures were executed spontaneously and often at speed so as to give vent to the subconscious of the artist. Though embodying a wide range of approaches to abstraction, the brushwork in such works is generally gestural or calligraphic, as in Michaux’s Untitled (1960; New York, Guggenheim) or Mathieu’s Capetians Everywhere (1954). Sometimes there is an emphasis on the texture or tactile quality of the paint, leading to a variant of Art informel referred to as MATTER PAINTING. Certain artists, such as Bazaine, Manessier and Poliakoff, produced paintings that appeared less spontaneous and more controlled, with a more consciously mediated composition and use of colour, as in Manessier’s Barrabas (1952; Eindhoven, Stedel. Van Abbemus.).

Artistas Modernos de la Argentina.

Argentine group of artists formed in 1952 and active until 1954. It was founded on the initiative of the art critic Aldo Pellegrini (1903–75) as a union of Constructivist painters belonging to the ASOCIACIÓN ARTE CONCRETO INVENCIÓN—Tomás Maldonado, Alfredo Hlito, Lidy Prati (b 1921), Ennio Iommi and Claudio Girola (b 1923)—and four independent semi-abstract artists: José Antonio Fernández Muro, Sarah Grilo, Miguel Ocampo and Hans Aebi (b 1923). Pellegrini’s main concern was with the quality of the artists’ work rather than with a shared programme. They were the first abstract artists in Argentina to exhibit together as a group abroad: in 1953 they showed both at the Museu de Arte Moderna in Rio de Janeiro and at the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam.
 

Artists International Association [AIA].

English group founded in London in 1933 as the Artists International to promote united action among artists and designers on social and political issues, and active from 1953 to 1971. In its original formulation it pursued an identifiably Marxist programme, with its members producing satirical illustrations for Left Review  and propaganda material for various left-wing organizations. Reconstituted as the AIA in 1935, it avoided identification with any particular style, attracting broad support from artists working in both a traditional and modernist vein in a series of large group exhibitions on political and social themes, beginning with 1935 Exhibition (Artists Against Fascism & War) in 1935 (London, 28 Soho Square). Support was given to the Republican cause in the Spanish Civil War (1936–9) and to the Artists’ Refugee Committee through exhibitions and other fund-raising activities, and efforts were made to increase popular access to art through travelling exhibitions, public murals and a series of mass-produced offset lithographs entitled Everyman Prints, published by the AIA in 1940.

Art Nouveau. A style of decoration and architecture current in the 1890s and early 1900s. The name derives from a gallery for interior decoration opened in Paris in 1896, called the 'Maison de I'Art Nouveau'; the same style in Germany is called 'Jugendstit after a magazine called Die Jugend (Youth) and in Italy 'Floreale' or 'Liberty' after the London store. Characteristic decorative motifs are writhing plant forms, as in the wrought-iron entrances to Paris Metro stations (by Hector Guimard). Similar forms were used both in book ills and also in the applied arts, e.g. furniture or glassware of the French artist Emile Galle and of Louis Tiffany in the U.S.A. The best-known graphic artist is A. Beardsley, whose sinister line drawings were exceptionally well adapted to book ill. The architectural movement was widespread, leading figures being C. R. Mackintosh, and Antoni Gaudi in Barcelona, whose work has a bold fantastic style. Interior decorators include Samuel Bing (Germany), Victor Horta and Henry Van de Velde (Belgium).

Artschwager Richard (1923- ). U.S. painter and sculptor. While at Cornell University, Ithaca, N.Y., where he read chemistry and biology, he took painting and drawing classes. He then studied with *Ozenfant 1949-50 before temporarily turning away from painting. In N.Y. he ran a woodwork studio where he started making furniture. In the 1960s he became involved with art full time and continued to explore the theme of furniture through 3-dimensional constructions of painted or polychrome wood. A. also paints large, usually monochrome depictions of interiors, buildings and objects on celofex.

Asam Cosmas and Egid, sons of the Bavarian painter Hans Georg (1649—1711), were church decorators and designers in whose work S. German Baroque achieved its zenith. Cosmas Damian (1686—1739) was a painter and architect of the monastic church of Weltenburg (1717—21). In his painting illusionism is carried to its furthest extremes, e.g. his frescoes in the church of Maria Viktoria, Ingolstadt (1736), and the Alteglofsheim Palace in Brevnov (1730). His use of light colours tends to the style of Rococo. Like his brother he held high positions in S. German courts. Egid Qturin (1692—1750) was stucco-worker, sculptor and architect; his churches include the collegiate church at Rohr (1718—25) and St Johann Nepomuk (called the Asam) church, Munich (1733-c 1750), although Cosmas may have helped in the latter. All his sculpture of any importance is designed for churches and his best works are his altarpieces, e.g. the Assumption of the Virgin at Rohr and the St George at Weltenburg. The brothers worked in such harmony that it is usually difficult to distinguish their work. They were employed to redecorate Romanesque or Gothic churches (as at Freising cathedral, 1723/4, or St Emmeram's church, Regensburg) but their masterpiece is the S. Johann Nepomuk church, Munich, where painting, sculpture, stucco and architecture serve the illusive confusion of the real and imaginary worlds (*Baroque).

Ashanti. A people of Ghana. The gold encrusted stool, former symbol of A. royalty, was the most renowned example of A. metal work. Bronze was used for ritual urns, kuduo, and gold weights — human or animal figurines of proverbial subjects. The disc-headed fertility dolls, akua'ba, are the best-known examples of A. wood carving.

Ashcan school. Name given in the 1930s to early 20th-c. U.S. realist painters including some members of The *Eight — Bellows and Jerome Myers — because of their preference for painting the unattractive aspects of city life.

Asmus Dieter  (b 1939). Zebra.

Asnova [Assotsiatsiya Novykh Arkhitektorov; Rus.: Association of New Architects].

Russian architectural group active in Moscow from 1923 to 1932. It was founded by NIKOLAY LADOVSKY, VLADIMIR KRINSKY and NIKOLAY DOKUCHAYEV and was the USSR’s first avant-garde architectural association. Asnova intended to serve the new Soviet regime by establishing an architectural language based on economic and psychological efficiency. This Rationalist approach also attempted to secure an irrefutable, scientific foundation for the aesthetics of modern architecture.

Asociacion Arte Concreto Invención.

Argentine group formed in November 1945 by Tomás Maldonado and other Constructivist artists and active until c. 1964. Its other original members were Lidy Prati (b 1921), Alfredo Hlito, Manuel Espinosa, Raúl Lozza (b 1911), Alberto Molenberg (b 1921), Ennio Iommi, Claudio Girola (b 1923), Jorge Souza (b 1919), Primaldo Mónaco (b 1921), Oscar Núñez (b 1919), Antonio Caraduje (b 1920) and the poet Edgar Bayley (b 1919). Maldonado and Prati were prominent among the artists involved in the publication of the single issue of the magazine Arturo in early 1944, in which the image–invention was proposed as an alternative to representational, naturalistic or symbolic imagery, but they did not take part in two exhibitions of associated artists in 1945 that led to the establishment of ARTE MADÍ. In fact, their central role in setting up the Asociación Arte Concreto Invención was a way of declaring their independence from the other group.

Asselyn Jan (1610—52). Dutch painter. After visiting Rome he began to paint Italianate landscapes in the manner of Claude Lorrain, being one of the 1 st in Holland to do so. His best-known, though not his most characteristic, work is The Angry Swan, an allegory of Dutch independence.

Assemblage. A process comparable to *collage in which the art object is built up from 3-dimensional found materials. *combines and *readymades.
 

Assemblage.

Art form in which natural and manufactured, traditionally non-artistic, materials and objets trouvés are assembled into three-dimensional structures. As such it is closely related to COLLAGE, and like collage it is associated with Cubism, although its origins can be traced back beyond this. As much as by the materials used, it can be characterized by the way in which they are treated. In an assemblage the banal, often tawdry materials retain their individual physical and functional identity, despite artistic manipulation. The term was coined by Jean Dubuffet in 1953 to refer to his series of butterfly-wing collages and series of lithographs based on paper collages, which date from that year. Although these were in fact collages, he felt that that term ought to be reserved for the collage works of Braque, Picasso and the Dadaists of the period between 1910 and 1920. By 1954 Dubuffet had extended the term to cover a series of three-dimensional works made from primarily natural materials and objects. The concept of assemblage was given wide public currency by the exhibition The Art of Assemblage at MOMA, New York, in 1961. This included works by nearly 140 international artists, including Braque, Joseph Cornell, Dubuffet, Marcel Duchamp, Picasso, Robert Rauschenberg, Man Ray and Kurt Schwitters. Several of the works shown were in fact collages, but the breadth of styles and artists included reflects the wide application of the term and the sometimes fine distinction between assemblage and collage. The ‘combine paintings’ of Rauschenberg, for example, fall awkwardly between the two, being essentially planar but with often extensive protrusions of objects. The inclusion of real objects and materials both expanded the range of artistic possibilities and attempted to bridge the gap between art and life.

Assisi. Town in Perugia, Italy; the birthplace of Sextus Propertius and St Francis of A. On Monte Subasio are the Franciscan monastery and the lower and upper churches of St Francis, built 1228—53 m Gothic style. The lower contains frescoes over the high altar by Giotto, illustrating the vows of the Franciscan order, and others attributed to Cimabue; the upper, frescoes by Giotto and pupils showing scenes from the life of St Francis. The oratory (or Porziumold) of St Francis and the cell in which he died are in the church of Santa Maria degli Angeli which was built round them (1569—79; rebuilt after 1832). The basilica at A. was begun с. 1132.

Association of American Painters and Sculptors.

Group of artists founded in New York in 1911 with the aim of finding suitable exhibition space for young American artists. After preliminary meetings between the painters Jerome Myers (1867–1940), Elmer MacRae (1875–1955), Walt Kuhn (1877–1949) and others, a meeting was held at the Madison Gallery on 16 December 1911 for the purpose of founding a new artists’ organization. At a subsequent meeting on 2 January 1912 they elected officers and began to discuss exhibition plans. The president, Julian Alden Weir, who had been elected in absentia, resigned, however, and the leadership passed to Arthur B. Davies

Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia [AKhRR; Rus. Assotsiatsiya Khudozhnikov Revolyutsionnoy Rossii].

Soviet group of artists active in Moscow and Leningrad (now St Petersburg) in 1922–32. It was established in January 1922 by a group of artists, including Aleksandr Grigor’yev (1891–1961), Yevgeny Katsman (1890–1976), Sergey Malyutin and Pavel Radimov (1887–1967), who were inspired by the 47th exhibition of the Peredvizhniki (the Wanderers). It was first called the Association of Artists Studying Revolutionary Life (Assotsiatsiya Khudozhnikov Izuchayushchikh Revolyutsionnyy Byt), then the Society of Artists of Revolutionary Russia (Obshchestvo Khudozhnikov Revolyutsionnoy Rossii) and finally, after the first group exhibition in Moscow in May 1922, the Association of Artists of Revolutionary Russia.

Association of Ottoman Painters [Association of Turkish Painters; Turkish Fine Arts Society; Turk. Osmanli ressamlar cemiyeti; Türk ressamlar cemiyeti; Türk sanayi-i nefise birligi; Güzel sanatlar birligi].

Turkish group of painters founded in 1908 by students from the Fine Arts Academy in Istanbul. They had their first exhibition in Istanbul in 1910 and also published the monthly journal Nasir-i efkâr (‘Promoter of ideas’), which was supported financially by Crown Prince Abdülmecid (1868–1944), himself a painter and calligrapher and honorary president of the Association. The members included Ibrahim Çalli, who was recognized as the most prominent in the group, Ruhi Arel (1880–1931), Feyhaman Duran (1886–1970), Nazmi Ziya Güran, Namik Ismail (1890–1935), Avni Lifij (1889–1927), Hikmet Onat (1886–1977) and Sami Yetik (1876–1945). It was not very active from 1910, when some of its painters left Istanbul to study art in Europe, but their return at the outbreak of World War I brought renewed activity. Some members were responsible for bringing Impressionism and other European movements to Turkey, and they acquainted the Turkish public with figurative and narrative compositions, as well as portraiture. The Association organized annual exhibitions at the Galatasaray High School in Istanbul, and some of the artists were given workshops and taken to the Front during World War I. Many of the painters also became influential teachers at the Fine Arts Academy: Çalli from 1914, Onat from 1915, Güran from 1918, Duran from 1919, Ismail from 1927.

Association of Revolutionary Art of Ukraine [ARMU; Ukrain. Asotsiiatsiya Revolyutsiynoho Mystetstva Ukraïny].

Ukrainian group of artists active from 1925 to 1930. The association was founded by statute on 25 August 1925 in Kiev, with branches formed subsequently in other Ukrainian cities such as Kharokov (Kharkiv), Odessa, Dnepropetrovs’k (Dnipropetrivs’k) and Uman’. Members also lived in Moscow, Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and Paris. Artists of various artistic backgrounds and different training belonged to the association, but it was best represented by the avant-garde artists OLEKSANDR BOHOMAZOV, Nina Genke-Meller (1893–1954), Vasyl’ Yermilov (1894–1967), Oleksandr Khvostov (1895–1968), Vadym Meller (1884–1962), Viktor Pal’mov (1888–1929) and VLADIMIR TATLIN. Its theoretical platform, formulated by Ivan Vrona (1887–1970), rector of the progressive Kiev State Art Institute, was based on Marxist principles, recognizing the era as a transitional stage towards a more cohesive national proletarian reality. The association’s objective was to develop the strengths of Ukrainian artists and to be flexible enough to be able to consolidate a variety of formalist leanings without sacrificing high technical quality. Together with the Association of Artists of Red Ukraine (AKhChU: Asotsiiatsiya Khudozhnykiv Chervonoï Ukraïny), it succeeded in organizing one of the first exhibitions devoted to Ukrainian art of the 1920s. By 1927 ARMU was the single most influential body of artists in the country. It came to be dominated by painters who were attracted to the monumental art of MYKHAYLO BOYCHUK, which was inspired by the Byzantine period. Among those who followed Boychuk’s style were Sofiya A. Nalepins’ka-Boychuk (1884–1939), Ivan I. Padalka (1897–1938), Oksana Pavlenko (1895–1991), Mykola Rokyts’ky (1901–44), and Vasyl’ F. Sedlyar (1889–1937). In debating the means whereby ARMU’s aim to revitalize the artistic culture of Ukraine could be realized, Sedlyar (1926) laid equal emphasis on the importance of concepts such as artistic industry and material culture, as well as on the visual arts. He defended the association against its rival, the ASSOCIATION OF ARTISTS OF REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA (AKhRR), a group that turned to 19th-century Realism and by doing so stood in opposition to the left wing and to Productivist art as a whole. By June 1930, internal differences with ARMU had caused its leaders to dissolve it and to organize the group October (Ukrain. Zhovten’) in its place.

Assyrian art. A. a. is predominantly represented by sculpture from the palaces of imperial rulers (883—612 вс). Conspicuous are colossal portal-figures of winged bulls or lions and a wealth of mural relief carvings in stone. Documentary or narrative scenes show foreign exploits of the king's armies or victory celebrations, followed by relaxation in hunting: all depicted with unparalleled stylistic vitality. Fine craftsmanship is also evident in the carved ivory enrichment of furniture, where Phoenician designs are reflected but later surpassed in grace and refinement.

Atelier (Fr. studio). Used of a painter's or sculptor's studio or collectively of the pupils gathered round a master. Atelier libre (or sometimes academic) is a studio in which a model is provided but no tuition given. Famous paintings of a.s are Courbet's Atelier du peintre (1855), painted as an allegorical manifesto of Realism, and Fantin-Latour's L'Atelier des Batignollcs or Hommage a Manet (1869) showing Manet with Renoir, Monet, Bazille, Zola, etc.

Atelier 17. Founded in Paris in 1927 by the British engraver S. W. Hayter for research into new graphic techniques. It became one of the most influential schools for graphic art.

Audubon John James (1785-1851). U.S. naturalist and artist who painted from life 435 watercolours of birds, often in action, which were reproduced in coloured aquatint by Robert Havell Jr. and publ. in London as The Birds of America (4 vols, 1827—38); only these prints survive. The text, written with the help of William MacGillivray, was publ. separately as Ornithological Biography (5 vols, 1831-9). A.'s paintings have considerable artistic merit although their scientific accuracy varies.

Auerbach Frank (1931- ). Born in Berlin, he moved permanently to Britain in 1939. A. studied at St Martin's School of Art, London, and at the Royal College of Art. He was taught and influenced by *Bomberg who encouraged him to look back, beyond Cubism, to Cezanne. His work is modern, but in the tradition of Gericault, Delacroix, Ingres, Courbet and Daumier; he is one of the most accomplished figurative artists of his generation. His subjects are portraits of friends, and landscapes.

Augustin Jacques-Jean-Baptiste (1759-1832). French miniaturist who revived the art in France; his paintings have strong, pure colours, certainty of execution and high finish.

Australian Aboriginal art. This consists largely of paintings and carvings on rock, carvings on body ornaments and cult objects such as churingas and bull roarers, and bark paintings. Abstract styles, e.g. spiral designs, and naturalistic styles are found. Human figures and animals, such as fish, turtles and kangaroos, connected with the hunt or with totemic beliefs, are depicted. Melanesian influences through New Guinea may account for the squatting figure motifs, rich colouring and other aspects of paintings in N. Arnhem Land and N.W. Australia. The huge wondjina ancestor-skull pictures depict dark-haloed heads without mouths. Animals are shown realistically and also in 'X-ray' style, where the skeleton and organs of interest to the hunter are depicted schematically within the body outline. There is a rich oral tradition of myth, relating the ancestral time, 'The Dreaming', to the present in an unbroken continuum.

Automatism. In writing or painting, the suspension of the control of reason allowing the release of subconscious imagery. It is chiefly associated with Surrealism and defined in *Breton's Manifeste de Surrealisme (1924) as pure psychic automatism'. It was subsequently developed by the * Abstract Expressionists.

Les Automatistes

Canadian group of artists active during the 1940s and the early 1950s, led by PAUL-EMILE BORDUAS. They were named by Tancrède Marcil jr in a review of their second Montreal exhibition, published in February 1947 in Le Quartier latin, the student journal for the University of Montreal, Quebec. The earliest characteristic example of the group’s work was Borduas’s Green Abstraction (1941; Montreal, Mus. F.A.), a small oil painting intended as an equivalent to the automatic writing of the Surrealist poet André Breton; it was succeeded by a series of 45 gouaches exhibited by Borduas in the foyer of the Théâtre Ermitage in Montreal from 25 April to 2 May 1942 and by other works painted before he moved to New York in 1953.

Automne, Salons d'. Opened in 1903 with an exhibition of Gauguin's works which was influential on younger artists. The Salons d'Automne was established by the *Fauve artists, as an annual exhibition by, among others, Matisse, Bonnard and Marquet.

Avant-garde (Fr. vanguard). Term applied to the group of artists, writers, etc. thought at any given time to be most 'advanced' in their techniques or subject matter.

Aved Jacques (1702-66). French portrait painter who studied in Amsterdam and unlike his French contemporaries usually painted his subjects in their normal dress and surroundings. He urged his friend *Ghardin to take up portraiture and their work has sometimes been confused.

Avercamp Hendrick (1585-1634). Dutch landscape painter who specialized in winter landscapes with numerous tiny figures.

Avery Milton Clark (1893-1965). U.S. figurative artist who continued and developed Matisse's abstracting tendencies and flat colour masses. Starkness of presentation and force and clarity of images in works like Mother and Child (1944), Swimmers and Snnbalhers (1945), organized in areas of pure colour, anticipate the Abstract Expressionists: he was greatly admired by *Cottlieb, *Hofmann and *Rothko.

Avignon school. 15th-c. French school of painting of which the leading known master was *Quarton and the outstanding work the beautiful and austere anon. *pieta. The school represents the final flowering of Avignon's 14th-c. cultural ascendency during the papal exile.

Aycock Alice (1946- ). U.S. sculptor. She studied under R. *Morris and developed an interest in architecture and ancient sites (e.g. Maze, 1972) transposed to contemporary situations, e.g. Vie True and False Project Unfitted 'The World is So Full of a Number of Filings' and Project Entitled 'The Beginnings of a Complex' (both 1977). A. later studied machine forms and mechanical forces and created large-scale installations, e.g. The Savage Sparkler (1981) and Tower of Babel (1986).

Ayrton Michael (ne Gould) (1921-75). British figurative sculptor, painter, graphic artist, writer and critic. A.'s chief preoccupations were with the Greek myths of Daedalus, the Minotaur and the Delphic oracle, and the composer Berlioz. A.'s numerous books include: Testament of Daedalus (1962), The Rudiments of Paradise (1971) and The Minos Consequence (1974).

Aztec art. *Pre-Columbian art