British Council

Abstraction

To abstract means to remove, and in the art sense it means that artist has removed or withheld references to an object, landscape or figure to produce a simplified or schematic work. This method of creating art has led to many critical theories; some theorists considered this the purest form of art: art for art's sake. Unconcerned as it is with materiality, abstraction is often considered as representing the spiritual.

Acetate

Clear plastic film / sheet available in different weights and thickness, that can be printed upon or have tape laid upon it; water resistant.

Acrylic

Modern synthetic paint that combines some of the properties of oils and watercolour. Most are water-based, although some are oil compatible, using turpentine as a thinner. When it became available to artists in America around 1936 it was the first new painting medium in centuries and has become a serious rival to oil paint because of its versatility. Acrylic paints can be used on nearly any surface. The water-based nature of acrylic paint allows for easy application and rapid drying time: acrylic paint dries in a matter of minutes, as opposed to the many months required for oil-based paints. Once the paint has been applied to a surface, the water evaporates, leaving behind the synthetic resin (and pigment), which is no longer water-soluble. Visually, acrylic-based paints can appear to be very similar to oil-based paints, but they cannot rival the rich, translucent nature of oils.

Allied Artists Association

The founding force behind this was Frank Rutter (1876 - 1937), art critic of The Sunday Times. The association aimed to present jury-free subscription exhibitions, along the line of the Salón des Indépendents. The association was open to both British and foreign artists and was formally registered in February 1908, with 40 founder members including Walter Sickert. The first exhibition of over 3000 works was shown at the Albert Hall in London.

Artists in the British Council Collection associated with the AAA include Walter Baynes, Spencer Gore, Sylvia Gosse, Augustus John, Walter Sickert and Walter Baynes.

Applied Arts

Originally a term used to describe decoration applied to practical, mechanically produced objects to make them more attractive. Through the work of William Morris and the Arts and Crafts Movement in the late 1890s it came to mean the application of artistic skill and tastes in the design and decoration of utilitarian objects, ranging from pottery, textiles and furniture to industrial products. The aesthetic values of the object and its functional capacity have equal importance in the design.

Aquatint

An intaglio printmaking process and a method of achieving tone by etching a plate covered with resin dust. The acid corrodes the unprotected metal leaving only the surface protected by a speck of dust. When inked the plate will print a tone of black through to very pale grey depending on the length of time it was immersed in the acid. Its name derives from the finished print resembling a watercolour, and is a tonal rather than a linear work.

Artist's Book

An artwork conceived and/or produced by an artist that makes use of the book format. An artist's book may have images without words or narratives without images. It may assume sculptural form as a pop-up book or investigate the nature of the book format itself. It may take the documentation of ephemeral performances or installations as its point of departure. The term is credited to Dianne Vanderlip, who organised the exhibition 'Artists Books' at Moore College of Art, Philadelphia in 1973. The same year Clive Phillpot, the librarian at the Museum of Modern Art (and later librarian at the British Council), put the synonymous term book art into print in the "Feedback" column of the July-August issue of Studio International. The first major show of artists' books had been mounted in 1972 at the Nigel Greenwood Gallery in London.

Artist's Multiple

This term was first used in the 1960s to describe an artwork that was neither a print not an editioned cast sculpture but was still intended to be produced in large numbers. During the industrial age, art movements including Cubism, Futurism and Constructivism had begun to question the role of the artist in the making of art. The artist could take on the role of the fabricator and take on the materials and methods of industrial production, or become the supplier of a 'blueprint' for someone else to manufacture the 'work of art'. In the 1960s a number of galleries and print publishers produced multiples, including the Lisson Gallery, Editions Alecto, Petersburg Press and Waddington Graphics. The following two decades saw a slowdown in artists' multiple production in Britain, though in the USA and mainland Europe artists such as Claus Oldenberg, Yoko Ono, Dieter Roth and Joseph Beuys continued to make multiples. The 1990s saw British artists re-engage with the concept, and the economic up turn in the UK created a new market for such works. Many artists made and published their own works; this was the generation that turned their back on the gallery system and organised and curated their own exhibitions. The Multiple Store, founded by Sally Townsend and Nicholas Sharp (www.multiplestore.org) added a different dimension, and their high production values enabled artists to use the latest hi-tech manufacturing methods.

The question of the size of an edition has been debated: the constructivists of the 1960s had favoured unlimited editions, but practical issues tended to limit these to between 50 and 100 copies. For artists in the 1990s who were self-publishing, and not employing fabrication by others as a mode of production, editions tended to be limited to three so the work was neither unique nor one of a pair, and did not commit the artist to time consuming repetitive manufacture.