A vocabulary for looking
Art Genome
The Art Genome is a living vocabulary of the subjects, materials, movements, places, and visual qualities that connect works of art.
Choose a term to open its visual explainer, learn what to look for, and explore every work carrying that exact Genome term.
- Terms
- 1,035
- Categories
- 16
01
Artistic Disciplines
7 terms
02
Subject Matter
211 terms
- Abstract Landscape
- Adolescence
- Advertising and Brands
- African Diaspora
- Allegory
- Alter Egos and Avatars
- Americana
- Anatomy
- Animal Portrait
- Animals
- Anthropomorphism
- Antiquity as Subject
- Architecture's Effects
- Arrivals/Departures
- Artist as Ethnographer
- Atmospheric Landscapes
- Attenuated Figure
- Bars and Restaurants
- Bathers
- Bedrooms and Bathrooms
- Bible Story
- Body Parts
- Caricatures and Parody
- Celebrity
- Censorship
- Childhood
- Circus/Carnival
- City Scenes
- Cityscapes
- Cityscapes and City Scenes
- Classical Figure
- Classical Mythology
- Collective History
- Conflict
- Consumerism
- Contrapposto
- Crime
- Cross-Cultural Dialogue
- Crowds
- Cultural Commentary
- Decay
- Deep Time
- Deities and Holy Figures
- Delegated Art
- Diaristic
- Digital Culture
- Disaster
- Dreams / Altered States of Consciousness
- Engaged with Byzantine and Medieval Art
- Engaged with Communist Visual Culture
- Engaged with European Old Masters
- Engaged with Pre-Columbian Art
- Engaged with Traditional African Art
- Engaged with Traditional Chinese Art
- Engaged with Traditional Islamic Art
- Engaged with Traditional Japanese Art
- Engaged with Traditional Korean Art
- Engagement with Mass Media
- Equestrian
- Erotic
- Eye Contact
- Face
- Failure
- Family
- Femininity
- Fertility/Pregnancy/Birth
- Figure Studies
- Figure from the Back (Rückenfigur)
- Figures in Nature
- Figures of the Art World
- Flora
- Focus on the Social Margins
- Food
- Gender
- Glamour
- Globalization
- Grotesque
- Group Portrait
- Group of Objects
- Group of Portraits
- Haze
- Hugs and Kisses
- Human Figure
- Humor
- Hybrids and Imaginary Creatures
- Implied Narrative
- Improbable Physics
- Individual Portrait
- Industry
- Infographics and Diagrams
- Institutional Critique
- Interiors
- Interlaced Bodies
- Intersectionality
- Isolation/Alienation
- Kawaii
- Kitsch
- Landscape and Nature Photography
- Landscapes
- Landscapes and Waterscapes
- Language
- Leisure
- Light as Subject
- Line, Form, and Color
- Love
- Machines
- Madonna and Child
- Manga
- Maps/Networks
- Masculinity
- Math
- Medical/Health
- Migration
- Modes of Transportation
- Mortality
- Mourning and Commemoration
- Movement
- Mutated Bodies
- Mysticism, Shamanism, and the Occult
- Mythology and Religion
- Narrative
- Natural History
- Nature
- Nautical
- Nostalgia
- Nude
- Obsolescence
- Outer Space
- Parties and Celebrations
- People at Home
- Performing Arts
- Personal Histories
- Personal Writing Systems
- Personification
- Political
- Political Events
- Political Figures
- Portrait
- Portraits without a Face
- Provocative
- Psychoanalysis
- Racial and Ethnic Identity
- References to Art History
- Reflections
- Related to Fashion
- Related to Film
- Related to Games
- Related to Hip-Hop
- Related to Literature
- Related to Music
- Related to Punk
- Related to Religion
- Related to Toys
- Shadows
- Representations of Everyday Objects
- Royal/Court Commission
- Royalty and Aristocracy
- Rural Life
- Saints
- Scenes of Everyday Life
- Science
- Science Fiction
- Seduction and Courtship
- Self as Subject
- Self-Portrait
- Sex
- Sexual Identity
- Silhouettes
- Southern Gothic
- Spaces of the Art World
- Sports/Athletics
- Still Life
- Stolen Moments
- Suburbia
- Surveillance
- Symbolic Composition
- Talismanic
- Technology
- Text
- The Abject
- The Afterlife
- The American West
- The Art Market
- The Artist's Studio
- The Body
- The City
- The Domestic and Domesticity
- The Elements
- The Environment
- The Fantastic
- The Mundane
- The Seasons
- The Senses
- The Sublime
- Time
- Times of Day
- Traces, Indexes, and Implied Presence
- Trauma and Struggle
- Travel/Tourism
- Unsettling
- Urbanization
- Utopia
- Vacant and Vacated Spaces
- Violence
- Virtue and Vice
- Visual Perception
- War and Military
- Water
- Waterscapes
- Work and Workers
- Zoomorphism
03
Styles and Movements
245 terms
- "Bad Painting"
- '85 New Wave
- 19th Century American Art
- 19th Century American Paintings and Works on Paper
- 19th Century French Academy
- 19th Century German Realism
- 20th Century Art
- Abstract Art
- Abstract Expressionism
- Abstract Painting
- Abstract Photography
- Abstract Sculpture
- Abstract versus Figurative Art
- Abstraction-Création
- Action Painting
- Afrofuturism
- American Impressionism
- American Modernism
- American Prints 1880–1950
- American Realism
- American Regionalism
- American Sculpture 1830–1950
- American Tonalism
- American Works on Paper 1880–1950
- Art Brut
- Art Deco
- Art Informel
- Art Nouveau
- Arte Povera
- Ashcan School
- Barbizon School
- Baroque
- Bauhaus
- Bay Area Figurative Art
- Beijing East Village
- Bengal School of Art
- Black Arts Movement
- Black Mountain College
- Body Art
- CalArts
- Capitalist Realism
- Chicago Imagists
- Chicano Art
- Cluj School
- CoBrA
- Colab
- Collaborations and Collectives
- Color Field Painting
- Conceptual Art
- Conceptual Art and Contemporary Conceptualism
- Concrete Art
- Constructivism
- Contemporary Academic Realism
- Contemporary Archaeological
- Contemporary Art
- Contemporary Asian Art
- Contemporary British Art
- Contemporary Canadian Art
- Contemporary Color Fields
- Contemporary Conceptualism
- Contemporary DIY
- Contemporary Fact versus Fiction
- Contemporary Fauvist
- Contemporary Faux Naïf
- Contemporary Feminist
- Contemporary Figurative Drawing
- Contemporary Figurative Painting
- Contemporary Gestural Abstraction
- Contemporary Glass
- Contemporary Gothic
- Contemporary Graphic Realism
- Contemporary Grotesque
- Contemporary Impressionist
- Contemporary Indian Art
- Contemporary Latin American Art
- Contemporary Middle Eastern and North African Art
- Contemporary Minimalist
- Contemporary Modernist-Type Photography
- Contemporary Op Art
- Contemporary Participation
- Contemporary Portrait Painting
- Contemporary Re-creations
- Contemporary Realist Portrait Photography
- Contemporary Scandinavian Art
- Contemporary Surrealistic
- Contemporary Traces of Memory
- Contemporary Turkish Art
- Contemporary Use of Textiles
- Contemporary Vintage Photography
- Cubism
- Cynical Realism
- Dada
- Dansaekhwa
- Danube School
- Dau Al Set
- De Stijl
- Deconstructivism
- Deutscher Werkbund
- Die Brücke
- Documentary Film
- Documentary Travel Photography
- Dusseldorf School of Photography
- Dutch and Flemish
- Early Computer Art
- Early Renaissance
- East Village Art
- Expressionism
- Fashion Photography
- Fauvism
- Faux Naïf
- Feminist Art
- Feminist Art and Contemporary Feminist
- Figurative Art
- Figurative Painting
- Figurative Sculpture
- Fluxus
- Folk Art
- Funk Art
- Futurism
- Geometric Abstraction
- German Expressionism
- Gestural Abstraction
- Gothic Art
- Graffiti and Street Art
- Grand Manner
- Group Material
- Group Zero
- Group f/64
- Gutai
- Happenings
- Harlem Renaissance
- Helsinki School of Photography
- High Renaissance
- Hudson River School
- Hyperrealism and Photorealism
- Iconic Works of Art History
- Identity Politics
- Impressionism
- Impressionism and Contemporary Impressionist
- Japanese Erotic Prints
- Japanese Photography
- Japonisme
- Kanō School
- Land Art
- Landscape Photography
- Light and Space Movement
- Luminism
- Mannerism
- Medieval Art
- Mexican Muralism
- Minimalism
- Minimalism and Contemporary Minimalist
- Modern Jewelry
- Modern Photography
- Modern and Impressionist Art
- Modern and Impressionist Prints
- Mono-ha
- Nabis
- Neo-Conceptualism
- Neo-Concrete Art
- Neo-Dada
- Neo-Expressionism
- Neo-Geo
- Neo-Impressionism
- Neo-Plasticism
- Neoclassicism
- Net Art
- Neue Sachlichkeit
- New American Color Photography
- New American Documentary Photography
- New British Sculpture
- New Leipzig School
- New Topographics
- New York School
- Nineteenth Century French Realism
- Northern Renaissance
- Nouveau Réalisme
- Nul Group
- Old Master Drawings and Prints
- Old Master Influenced Fantasy
- Old Masters
- Op Art
- Orientalism
- Orphism
- Pattern and Decoration Movement
- Pictorialism
- Pittura Metafisica
- Pointillism
- Political Minimalism
- Political Pop
- Pop Art
- Pop and Contemporary Pop
- Post-'70s Ego Generation
- Post-Impressionism
- Post-Internet Art
- Post-Painterly Abstraction
- Post-War American Art
- Post-War European Art
- Post-World War I European Classicism
- Post-World War II School of Paris
- Postminimalism
- Pre-Raphaelites
- Pre-World War II School of Paris
- Precisionism
- Process Art
- Progressive Artists' Movement
- Purism
- Relational Aesthetics
- Renaissance Art
- Rinpa School
- Rococo Art and Design
- Romanticism
- School of London
- Self-Taught, Folk, and Outsider Art
- Shin Hanga
- Social Action
- Social Realism
- Socialist Realism
- Soviet Nonconformist Art
- Spatialism
- Spiral Group
- Street Photography
- Studio Museum in Harlem Artist-in-Residence (AIR) Program
- Suprematism
- Surrealism
- Surrealistic
- Symbolism
- Synchromism
- The Aesthetic Movement
- The Anthropocene
- The Blue Rider
- The New Fauves
- The Pictures Generation
- The Stars Art Group (Xing Xing)
- Traditional Arts of Africa, Oceania, and the Americas
- Transavanguardia
- Ukiyo-e
- Venetian School
- Vienna Secession
- Viennese Actionism
- Washington Color School
- Works Progress Administration (WPA)
- Yale University School of Art
- Young British Artists (YBAs)
- Zaire School of Popular Painting
04
Design Movements
26 terms
- 20th Century Furniture and Design
- American Furniture and Design
- American Mid-Century Design
- American Studio Craft Movement
- Art Deco Furniture and Design
- Art Nouveau Furniture and Design
- Arts and Crafts Movement
- Brazilian Furniture and Design
- British Furniture and Design
- Brutalism
- Contemporary Furniture and Design
- Danish Furniture and Design
- Dutch Furniture and Design
- French Furniture and Design
- International Style
- Italian Furniture and Design
- Memphis Design
- Mid-Century Modern Design
- Modern Design
- Modern and Contemporary Design
- Modern and Contemporary Fashion Design
- Post-War French Design
- Postmodern Architecture and Design
- Scandinavian Furniture and Design
- Union des Artistes Modernes
- Wiener Werkstätte
05
Visual Qualities
75 terms
- Abstract Illusionism
- Allover Composition
- Angular
- Arabesque/Scroll
- Asymmetrical
- Balance
- Biomorphic
- Black and White
- Blown-Off-Roof Perspective
- Blurred
- Bright and Vivid Colors
- Bulbous
- Calligraphic
- Color Gradient
- Columns and Totems
- Contour Line
- Cracked
- Creased Crinkled Wrinkled
- Crystalline and Geological Forms
- Curvilinear Forms
- Dark Colors
- Dense Composition
- Divisionist
- Dotted
- Dynamism
- Earth Tones
- Emphasis on Linear Perspective
- Extreme Angle
- Flatness
- Fractal-like / Kaleidoscopic
- Fragmented Geometry
- Geometric
- Glittery
- Grid
- Hard-Edged
- Highly Detailed
- Highly Ornamented
- Iridescence/Opalescence
- Irregular Curvilinear Forms
- Irregular Linear Forms
- Layered Images
- Linear Forms
- Marbleized
- Metallic
- Mimicking Ruined Materials
- Mirrored
- Molecular
- Mr Doodle: Pop Heart Collection
- Pastel Colors
- Patinated and Oxidized
- Patterns
- Piles/Stacks
- Pixelated
- Primary Abstraction
- Primary Colors
- Psychedelic
- Radiating Lines
- Raw versus Finished
- Rough
- Scattered Composition
- Sharp/Prickly
- Shiny/Glossy
- Single Object
- Slender
- Slumped/Draped
- Smooth Surface
- Sparse
- Stained Glass Effect
- Striped
- Symmetrical
- Tangled Forms
- Transparent/Translucent Medium
- Viscous Forms
- Woven/Perforated
- Wrapped
06
Medium and Techniques
176 terms
- Camera Obscura
- Album, Folio and Fan Formats
- Altarpiece
- Altered and Substituted Canvases
- Analogue Filmmaking
- Animation
- Appropriation
- Arabic/Farsi Calligraphy
- Archaeological Object
- Art That Plays With Scale
- Artist's Frame
- Artists’ Books
- Automatism
- Bentwood
- Black-and-White Photography
- Body Casts/Body Prints
- Books and Portfolios
- Burned/Charred
- Caravaggesque
- Carving
- Chance
- Chiaroscuro
- Cinematic
- Close-Up
- Collage
- Collecting and Modes of Display
- Color Photography
- Color Theory
- Comic/Cartoon
- Computer-Aided Manufacturing
- Copies and Emulations
- Cut/Ripped
- Dance
- Delicate Materials
- Densely Textured or Haptic Surface
- Design/Architecture Study
- Digital Art
- Digital Painting and Drawing
- Digital Print
- Digital as Manual
- Digitally Manipulated
- Divinatory Objects, Talismans, and Amulets
- Documentary Photography
- Drawing
- East Asian Calligraphy
- East Asian Ink-and-Wash Painting
- Embossed Paper
- En plein air
- Encaustic
- Endurance Art
- Ephemera
- Erased and Obscured
- Etching/Engraving
- Extruded Design
- Film/Video
- Focus on Materials
- Folded Planes
- Found Footage and Found Video
- Fresco
- Frontal Perspective
- Generative Art
- Gestural
- Glass and Ceramics
- Glitch Aesthetic
- Gold Leaf and Gilding
- Handscroll
- Hanging Scroll
- Hatching
- History Painting
- Hyperrealism
- Illustration
- Imitated Material
- Immersive
- Impasto
- Installation Art
- Intaglio
- Intentionally Exposed Canvas
- Interactive
- Intricately Sculpted
- Kinetic Sculpture
- Large Brushstrokes/Loose Brushwork
- Large-Scale Painting
- Large-Scale Photography
- Large-Scale Sculpture
- Light Art
- Lightbox
- Lithograph
- Long Distance and Deep Distance
- Long Exposure
- Mail Art
- Manipulated Photography
- Manuscript
- Maquette
- Mediated View
- Miniature and Small-Scale Paintings
- Mixed-Media
- Monochrome Painting
- Monotype/Monoprint
- Multiple Exposure
- Multiple Screens
- Multiple Styles
- Murals and Wall Drawings
- NFT
- Negative Image
- Oil Painting
- Oil on Copper
- Oil on Panel
- Open Form
- Organic Material
- Outdoor Art
- Painting
- Painting and Writing Tools
- Panorama
- Paper Cut-Outs
- Passage
- Pastel
- Performance Art
- Photogram
- Photograph as Material
- Photographic Source
- Photographs of Surfaces
- Photography
- Photojournalism
- Photomontage
- Photorealistic
- Picassoesque
- Polychrome Sculpture
- Poster
- Poured
- Printed Matter
- Prints
- Process-Oriented
- Projection
- Pulled, Scraped, and Scratched
- Recycled
- Reduced-Scale Architecture
- Relief
- Rembrandtesque
- Repetition
- Research as Art
- Restored and Repurposed
- Screen Format
- Sculptural Use of Paint
- Sculpture
- Sculpture-Based Photography
- Sfumato
- Shallow Depth of Field
- Silkscreen
- Site-Specific Art
- Snapshot Aesthetic
- Soft Sculpture
- Sound Art
- Splattered/Dripped
- Spray Paint
- Staged Photography
- Stains/Washes
- Study
- Suspended/Hanging
- Tempera
- Time-Lapse Photography and Film
- Tondo
- Topographic Photography
- Traditional Photographic Techniques
- Traditional Scroll Painting
- Transfer
- Trompe l’oeil
- Typography
- Typologies
- Use of Traditional Techniques
- Vintage Photo Prints
- Virtual and Augmented Reality
- Wall Sculpture and Installation
- Watercolor
- Website
- Woodcut and Linocut
- Work on Paper
07
Time Periods
23 terms
- 1000 - 1400 CE Art
- 15th Century Art
- 16th Century Art
- 17th Century Art
- 18th Century Art
- 1900 - 1917 Art
- 1918 - 1939 (Interwar) Art
- 1940s-1950s Art
- 19th Century Art
- 21st Century Art
- 500 - 1000 CE Art
- Ancient Art
- Art of the 1960s
- Art of the 1970s
- Art of the 1980s
- Art of the 1990s
- Contemporary
- Impressionist and Modern Hub
- Late 19th Century Art
- Modern
- Post-War Hub
- Pre-20th Century Art
- Prehistoric Art
08
Geographic Regions
69 terms
- African Art
- American Art
- Andes Region Art
- Angolan Art
- Art of Latin America and the Caribbean
- Asian Art
- Australian and New Zealand Art
- Austrian Art
- Beijing Artists
- Belgian Art
- Berlin Artists
- Brazilian Art
- British and Irish Art
- Brooklyn Artists
- California Art
- Canadian Art
- Caribbean Art
- Caucasus Art
- Central American Art
- Central Asian Art
- Chinese Art
- Cuban Art
- Dutch Art
- East African Art
- East European Art
- East German Art
- Eastern Mediterranean
- Egyptian Art
- Flanders and Luxembourg
- French Art
- French Guiana, Guyana and Suriname
- German Art
- Greek Art
- Hong Kong Artists
- Indian Art
- Iranian Art
- Iraqi Art
- Israeli Art
- Italian Art
- Japanese Art
- Korean Art
- Latin American Art
- Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Palestine
- London Artists
- Los Angeles Artists
- Melanesian, Micronesian and Polynesian Art
- Mexican Art
- Middle African Art
- Middle Eastern and North African Art
- New York Artists
- North African Art
- Pakistani Art
- Paris Artists
- Portugese Art
- Russian Art
- San Francisco Artists
- Scandinavian Art
- South African Art
- South Asian Art
- Southeast Asian Art
- Southeast European Art
- Southern Cone Art
- Spanish Art
- Swiss Art
- Taiwanese Art
- Tibetan Art
- Tokyo Artists
- Turkish Art
- West African Art
09
Materials
39 terms
- Aluminum
- Assemblage
- Bone
- Brass
- Bronze
- Cardboard
- Ceramic
- Chalk
- Chrome-Plated
- Concrete
- Enamel
- Found Objects
- Gemstone
- Glass as Material
- Gold
- Inlay
- Ivory
- Leather/Hide
- Marble
- Metal
- Mosaics
- Natural Fibers
- Neon and Fluorescent Light
- Plaster
- Plastic
- Porcelain
- Resin
- Silver
- Stained Glass
- Steel
- Stone
- Taxidermy
- Terracotta
- Use of Common Materials
- Use of Ephemeral Materials
- Use of Paper
- Use of Precious Materials
- Use of Vintage Imagery
- Wood
10
Design Concepts and Techniques
21 terms
- CAD (Computer Aided Design)
- Children's Furniture and Design
- Design by Architects
- Design by Artists
- Engineering/Construction and Design
- Focus on Joints/Connections
- Handcrafted Furniture and Design
- Iconic Works of Design
- Industrial and Product Design
- Jewelry by Painters and Sculptors
- Masonry Construction
- Modular Design
- Non-Functional Design
- Reinforced Concrete Construction
- Religious Building
- Restrained Forms
- Steel/Iron Frame Construction
- Sustainable Design
- Timber Frame Construction
- Whimsical Design
- Women Designers
11
Cultural and Religious Styles
69 terms
- Aboriginal Art
- Ancient Egypt
- Art of Burma
- Art of Tonga
- Art of the Congo
- Art of the Ivory Coast
- Art of the Upper Paleolithic
- Asante Art
- Aztec Art
- Bamileke Art
- Benin Art
- Buddhist Art and Architecture
- Byzantine Art
- Cambodian Art
- Celtic Art
- Cheyenne Art
- Christian Art and Architecture
- Early Medieval Art
- Eastern Zhou Dynasty
- Edo Art
- Etruscan Art
- Greek Art and Architecture
- Greek and Roman Art and Architecture
- Guatemalan Art
- Han Dynasty
- Heian Period
- Hellenistic Art
- Himalayan Art
- Hindu Art and Architecture
- Hopi Art
- Iban Art
- Igbo (Ibo) Art
- Indonesian Art
- Islamic Art and Architecture
- Kushan Empire
- Maranao Art
- Mayan Art and Architecture
- Mbole Art
- Meiji Art
- Mende Art
- Mesopotamian Art
- Ming Dynasty
- Minoan Art
- Moche Art
- Mughal Art
- Mycenaean Art
- Native American, First Nations, and Alaska Native Art
- Northern and Southern Dynasties
- Oku Art
- Ottoman Art
- Papua New Guinea Art
- Phoenician Art
- Pre-Columbian Art
- Qing Dynasty
- Roman Art and Architecture
- Romanesque Art
- Shang Dynasty
- Song Dynasty
- Sui Dynasty
- Tang Dynasty
- Thai Art
- Traditional African Art
- Traditional Oceanic Art
- Western Zhou Dynasty
- Yaka Art
- Yombe Art
- Yoruba Art
- Yuan Dynasty
- Yup'ik Art
12
Furniture and Lighting
27 terms
13
Textiles
6 terms
14
Jewelry and Fashion Object Types
7 terms
15
Tableware, Vessels, and Objects
27 terms
16
Antiquities, Artifacts, and Religious Objects
7 terms