Aesthetic: The science of the "beautiful" in a work of art. The aesthetic appeal of a work of art is defined by the visual, social, ethical, moral, and contemporary standards of society.

Medium: the material that is used to create an artwork, i.e. oil, acrylic, lithography, serig-raphy, marble, bronze, etc.

Abstract Art: Not realistic, though the intention is often based on an actual subject, place, or feeling. Pure abstracion can be interpreted as any art in which the depiction of real objects has been entirely discarded and whose aesthetic content is expressed in a formal pattern or structure of shapes, lines and colors. When the representation of real objects is completely absent, such art may be called non-objective.

Abstract Expressionism: a 1940's New York painting movement based on Abstract Art. This type of painting is often referred to as action painting. American Genre Painting: Usually paintings of the rural Midwest and west during the 1920s and 30s.

Art Deco: During the 1920s and 30s, artists used decorative motifs derived from French, African, Aztec, Chinese, and Egyptian cultures.

Art Nouveau: A style which evolved during the 1890s which used asymmetrical decorative elements derived from objects found in nature.

Ashcan School: A group of American painters and illustrators of the early 20th century, often known as The Eight. They were Robert Henri, John Sloan, George Luks, William Glackens, Everett Shinn, Maurice Prendergast, Arthur Davies, and Ernest Lawson. Their work depicted such subjects as the streets and inhabitants of big cities with a vigorous sense of realism

Barbizon School: French landscape artists who worked near Barbizon, France between 1835 and 1870.

Bauhaus: A design school founded by Walter Gropius in 1919 in Germany. The Bauhaus attempted to achieve a reconciliation between the aesthetics of design and the more commercial demands of industrial mass production. Artists include Klee, Kandinsky, and Feininger.