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• Introduction
• Frank Auerbach
• Sir Peter Blake
• John Bratby
• Gerald Leslie Brockhurst
• Patrick Caulfield
• Prunella Clough
• Peter Coker
• Ronald Brooks Kitaj
• Richard Long
• Paul Nash
• Christopher Nevinson
• Sir Stanley Spencer
• Keith Vaughan
• Glossary A - D
• Glossary E - L
• Glossary M - P
• Glossary R - Z

• Smaller Text
• Larger Text
• Print

Twentieth Century Artists in the Graves Gallery

Glossary E - L

Etching - A printing process which involves an etching needle being drawn into a wax ground applied over a metal plate. The plate is then submerged in a sequence of acid baths, each biting into the metal surface only where unprotected by the ground. The ground is then removed, ink is forced into the etched depressions, and an impression is printed and formed.

Expressionism - An art movement dominant in Germany from 1905-1925, especially with groups such as Die Brücke (The Bridge) and Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider), which are usually referred to as German Expressionism, anticipated by Francisco de Goya y Lucientes (Spanish, 1746-1828), Vincent van Gogh (Dutch, 1853-1890), Paul Gauguin (French, 1848-1903) and others. Expressionism, as it was generally known, developed almost simultaneously in different countries from about 1905. Characterized by heightened, symbolic colors and exaggerated imagery.

Figurative -1. Relating to or representing form in art by means of human or animal figures 2. Using an allegorical or emblematic human or animal figure to represent an Abstract idea or quality. Describes artwork representing the form of a human, an animal or a thing; any expression of one thing in terms of another thing. Abstract artwork is the opposite of figurative art in certain ways. Roy Lichtenstein made a series of images of a bull, demonstrating this kind of range in ways to approach figuration and abstraction, beginning with the most highly figurative version, and proceeding through stages to the most Abstract version.

Futurism – A Modern Art movement which originated In Italy in 1909, when Filippo Marinetti's (Italian, 1876 – 1974) initial manifesto of futurism appeared. Futurism was a celebration of the machine age, glorifying war and favoring the growth of fascism. Futurist painting and sculpture were concerned with expressing movement (especially speed, trains were often chosen as an example of the machine age) and the dynamics of natural and man-made forms.

Impasto – A thick or lumpy application of paint, or deep intense brush marks (brushstrokes), as opposed to a flat, smooth paint surface. It may also refer to a thick application of pastel. (pr. im-pahs'toh)

Impressionism -An art movement and style of painting that started in France in the 1860s. Impressionist artists endeavored to paint candid glimpses of their subjects showing the effects of sunlight on objects at different times of day. The leaders of this movement were: Camille Pissarro (French, 1830-1903), Edgar Degas (French, 1834-1917), Claude Monet (French, 1840-1926), and Pierre Renoir (French, 1841-1919). Some of the early work of Paul Cézanne (French, 1839-1906) fits into this style, though his later work so transcends it that it belongs to another movement known as Post-Impressionism.

Kitchen Sink Painters – Term originally used as the title of an article by the critic David Sylvester in the December 1954 issue of the journal Encounter. The article discussed the work of the realist artists known as the Beaux Arts Quartet, John Bratby (British, 1928-1992) , Derrick Greaves (British, 1927), Edward Middleditch ( British, 1923-1987) and Jack Smith (British 1928-). Sylvester wrote that their work 'takes us back from the studio to the kitchen' and described their subjects as 'an inventory which includes every kind of food and drink, every utensil and implement, the usual plain furniture and even the babies nappies on the line. Everything but the kitchen sink? The kitchen sink too'. Sylvester also emphasised that these kitchens were ones 'in which ordinary people cooked ordinary food and doubtless lived their ordinary lives'. The Kitchen Sink Painters celebration of the everyday life of ordinary people carries implications of a social if not political comment and Kitchen Sink art can be seen to belong in the category of social realism. They depicted drab, everyday scenes with an aggressive technique and often brilliant, ‘crude’ colour . Kitchen Sink reached its apogee in 1956 when the Beaux Arts Quartet was selected to represent Britain at the Venice Biennale.

Lithographs - L ithography - In the graphic arts, a method of printing from a prepared flat stone or metal or plastic plate, invented in the late eighteenth century. A drawing is made on the stone or plate with a greasy crayon or tusche, and then washed with water. When ink is applied it sticks to the greasy drawing but runs off (or is resisted by) the wet surface allowing a print — a lithograph — to be made of the drawing. The artist, or other print maker under the artist's supervision, then covers the plate with a sheet of paper and runs both through a press under light pressure. For colour lithography separate drawings are made for each colour. (pr. le-thah'gruh-fee)