Art in which there is no attempt to depict things existing in the world. The word is particularly used from the twentieth century onwards.

A term first used in the 1960s, for a strand of theatre and literature, which emphasised the nonsensical, illogical or irrational. It is sometimes associated with dark humour or satire. Absurdist ideas were a recurring feature of radical culture of the twentieth century but the term is particularly associated with post-war theatre and with the play [..]

Taking its name from the major exhibition of decorative arts held in Paris in 1925, art deco was a design style of the 1920s and 1930s, using geometric or stylised shapes and bright colours.

Decorative art style popular in Europe and North America in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It is characterised by flowing lines based on plant forms.

A term for culture that challenges tradition through experimentation and innovation. Originally a military term, in the arts it is particularly associated with radical movements in visual art, literature and music of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.

A general term for European art, music and architecture from the seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth centuries. In art it particularly refers to works with a sense of movement and theatricality.

An influential German school of art and design founded in the German city of Weimar in 1919 under the architect Walter Gropius. It was based on workshop training rather than academic studios and is a celebrated attempt to bring diverse arts and craft into unity for functional design. The school moved to Dessau in 1925, housed in a famous building d [..]

The production of a sculpture by use of a mould to make a copy, usually in a more durable material, of the original work. The term is used to describe both the process and the resulting object.

A broad term used to describe the history and culture of Ancient Rome, Ancient Greece and associated civilisations in the area of the Mediterranean during the period from the eighth century BC to the fifth century AD.

A term to describe artists who work in groups or pairs to produce a single body of work, for example the Canadian artists General Idea who began working together in the 1960s or the British artists Gilbert and George. Collaborative working might be temporary between artists with individual careers, or a long-standing group of artists often working [..]