art collection Works of art accumulated by an individual or institution. Such collections were made in the earliest civilizations; precious objects were stored in temples, tombs, sanctuaries, and palaces. A taste for col¬ lecting per se developed in Greece (4th— 1 st century bc). The great art col¬ lections of the world grew out of private collections formed by royalty, aristocracy, and the wealthy. By the 18th century, collectors were donat¬ ing their holdings to the public and constructing buildings to house them (e.g., the Louvre Museum, Uffizi Gallery). Wealthy industrialists in the U.S. played a prominent role in the 19th-20th century, and an unprecedented flow of masterpieces from Europe soon filled U.S. museums.
art conservation and restoration Maintenance and preservation of works of art, their protection from future damage, deterioration, or neglect, and the repair or renovation of works that have deteriorated or been damaged. Research in art history has relied heavily on 20th- and 21st-century technical and scientific advances in art restoration. Modern conservation practice adheres to the principle of reversibility, which dic¬ tates that treatments should not cause permanent alteration to the object.
art criticism Description, interpretation, and evaluation of works of art, manifested in journal reviews, books, and patronage. Art criticism encom¬ passes a wide variety of approaches, from critical commentary to more subjective emotional reactions inspired by viewing works of art. Art criti¬ cism as a distinct discipline developed parallel to Western aesthetic theory, beginning with antecedents in ancient Greece and fully taking form in the 18th and 19th centuries. In the 20th century perceptive critics became champions of new artistic movements. Beginning in the 20th and con¬ tinuing into the 21st century, many critics used social and linguistic, rather than aesthetic, theoretical models. Prominent art critics include Roger Fry, Clive Bell, Clement Greenberg, Harold Rosenblum, Lawrence Alloway, Rosalind Krauss, and Donald Kuspit. See also aesthetics.
Art Deco \,M-'de-ko, ,ar-da-'ko\ or Style Moderne Vstel-mo-'dernN Movement in design, interior decoration, and architecture in the 1920s and ’30s in Europe and the U.S. The name derives from the Exposition Internationale des Arts Decoratifs et Industriels Modernes in Paris in 1925. Its products included both individually crafted luxury items and mass-produced wares, but, in either case, the intention was to create a sleek and antitraditional elegance that symbolized wealth and sophistica¬ tion. Influenced by Art Nouveau, Bauhaus, Cubist, Native American, and Egyptian sources, the distinguishing features of the style are simple, clean shapes, often with a “streamlined” look; ornament that is geometric or stylized from representational forms; and unusually varied, often expen¬ sive materials, which frequently include man-made substances (plastics, especially bakelite; vita-glass; and ferroconcrete) in addition to natural ones (jade, silver, ivory, obsidian, chrome, and rock crystal). Typical motifs included stylized animals, foliage, nude female figures, and sun rays. New York City’s Rockefeller Center (especially its interiors super¬ vised by Donald Deskey), the Chrysler Building by William Van Alen, and the Empire State Building by Shreve, Lamb & Harmon are the most monu¬ mental embodiments of Art Deco.
Art Ensemble of Chicago U.S. jazz ensemble. The group evolved from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), an experimental collective. Saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, trumpeter Lester Bowie, bassist Malachi Favors, and drummer Don Moye formed the group in 1969, combining freely chang¬ ing tempos, dynamics, and textures with an often comic theatricality of presentation. Their diversity of inspiration is expressed by their motto, “Great Black Music: Ancient to the Future.”
arsenic Nonmetallic to semimetallic chemical element, chemical symbol
As, atomic number 33. It exists uncombined in two stable (and sev¬ eral unstable) allotropes, one gray and one yellow, but is more often found in nature as the sulfide or oxide. The elemental form is used to form alloys of metals (especially lead), and certain semiconductors are made from crystals of gallium arsenide (GaAs). Arsenious oxide (arsenic trioxide or white arsenic, As 2 0 3 ) is used in pes¬ ticides, as a pigment, and as a preser¬ vative of hides and wood; this is the poisonous “arsenic” (see arsenic poi¬ soning) in detective stories. Arsenic pentoxide (As 2 0 5 ) is also used in insecticides, herbicides, metal adhe¬ sives, and pigments.
Arsenic (gray) with realgar (red) and orpiment (yellow)
BY COURTESY OF THE JOSEPH AND HELEN GUETTERMAN COLLECTION; PHOTOGRAPH, JOHN H. GERARD
Arsinoe \ar-'sin-o-e\ II (b. c. 316—d. July 270 bc) Queen of Thrace (300-281) and Egypt (277-270).
Daughter of Ptolemy I Soter, she mar¬ ried the king of Thrace (300) and tried to have her son made heir instead of Agathocles, the king’s son by an earlier marriage. Agathocles sought help from Seleucids, causing a war in which Arsinoe’s husband was killed in battle. Her half brother, who took power in Thrace and Mace¬ donia, cajoled her into marrying him and then promptly killed her two younger sons. She fled to Alexan¬ dria, ousted the wife of her brother Ptolemy II, and married him (c. 277); like the pharaohs, the two were called “Philadelphoi” (“Sibling- BY courtesy OF THE trustees OF THE BRITISH museum
Loving”). She wielded great power
and shared many honours with Ptolemy, including deification while alive.
Arsinoe II, coin, 270-250 bc; in the British Museum
© 2006 Encyclopaedia Britannica, Inc.
110 I art history ► artery
art history Historical study of the visual arts for the purpose of iden¬ tifying, describing, evaluating, interpreting, and understanding art objects and artistic traditions. Art-historical research involves discovering and collecting biographical data on artists to establish attribution; determin¬ ing at what stage in a culture’s or artist’s development an object was made; weighing the influence the object or artist had on the historical past; and documenting an object’s previous whereabouts or ownership (prov¬ enance). The analysis of symbols, themes, and subject matter is often of primary concern. In the 20th and 21st centuries art historians became increasingly concerned with the social and cultural context of artists and their work.
Art Institute of Chicago Museum in Chicago that houses European, American, Asian, African, and pre-Columbian art. It was established in 1866 as the Chicago Academy of Design and took its current name in 1882. In 1893 it moved to its present building, designed by the architec¬ tural firm of Shepley, Rutan, and Coolidge for the World’s Columbian Exposition, on Michigan Avenue. The Art Institute, which comprises both a museum and a school, is noted for its extensive collections of 19th- century French painting (Impressionist works and the work of Claude Monet in particular) and 20th-century European and American painting. Among its best-known works are Georges Seurat’s A Sunday Afternoon on La Grand Jatte—1884 (1884-86), Grant Wood’s American Gothic (1930), and Edward Hopper’s Nighthawks (1942).
Art Nouveau V.art-nii-'vo, .ar-nii-'voX Decorative style that flourished in western Europe and the U.S. c.
1890-1910. The term was derived in 1895 from a gallery in Paris called L’Art Nouveau. Characterized by sinuous, asymmetrical lines based on plant forms, the style was used in architecture, interior design, graphic art and design, jewelry, and glass. It was international in scope, with cel¬ ebrated exponents in England (Aubrey Beardsley), Paris (Alphonse Mucha), the U.S. (Louis Comfort Tif¬ fany), Scotland (Charles Rennie Mackintosh), Spain (Antonio Gaudi), and Belgium (Victor Horta). The style did not significantly survive the outbreak of World War I. See also Arts and Crafts Movement; Jugendstil.