Art History Terms

Formalism - The doctrine or practice of strict adherence to stylized shapes or other external forms.
Iconography - The analysis of works of art through the study of the meanings of symbols and images in the context of the contemporary culture.
Iconology - The study of the meaning or content of a larger program to which individual works of art belong.
Marxism - The process of making art and its exploitation by the ruling classes.
Feminism - Before 1970s art textbooks did not include female artists. Feminism was to stop discriminating women from being discriminated against.
Biography/Autobiography - Biographical method that emphasizes authorship using the author's life as an underlying text.
Semiology - The study of signs.
Deconstruction - To interpret an artwork by the method of deconstruction.
Psychoanalysis - The imagery examined found in dreams, waking fantasies, jokes, etc and reveals the unconscious mind.

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