Definitions for terms beginning with the letter G

Henry Moore OM, CH, 'Falling Warrior' 1956-7
Geometry of Fear was coined by critic Herbert Read to describe the often tortured-looking sculptures produced in Britain in the wake of the Second World War



Henry Moore OM, CH
Falling Warrior 1956-7
Bronze
© The Henry Moore Foundation. This image must not be reproduced or altered without prior consent from the Henry Moore Foundation.

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Harold Cohen, 'Untitled Computer Drawing' 1982
Generative art
Tate glossary definition for generative art: Art made by a predetermined system that often includes an element of chance – is usually applied to computer based art
Sir David Wilkie, 'The Blind Fiddler' 1806
Genre painting
Tate glossary definition for genre painting: Paintings of subjects from everyday life, usually small in scale
Joseph Mallord William Turner, 'The Decline of the Carthaginian Empire ...' exhibited 1817
Genres
Tate glossary definition for Genres: Genres are types of painting. These were codified in the seventeenth century as (in descending order of importance) history, portrait, genre, landscape and still life
Henry Moore OM, CH, 'Falling Warrior' 1956-7
Geometry of Fear
Tate glossary definition for geometry of fear: Term coined by the critic Herbert Read in 1952 to describe the work of a group of young British sculptors characterised by tortured, battered or blasted looking human, or sometimes animal figures
Joseph Highmore, 'I: Mr B. Finds Pamela Writing' 1743-4
Georgian
Tate glossary definition for Georgian: Term applied to the styles prevalent through the reigns of the four King Georges in Britain from 1714 to 1830
Karl Schmidt-Rottluff, 'Dr Rosa Schapire' 1919
German expressionism
Tate glossary definition for German expressionism: German early twentieth century stylistic movement in which images of reality were distorted in order to make them expressive of the artist’s inner feelings or ideas
Hans Hofmann, 'Nulli Secundus' 1964
Gestural
Tate glossary definition for gestural: Term used to describe the application of paint in free sweeping gestures with a brush
Edward Arthur Walton, 'Berwickshire Field-workers' 1884
Glasgow School
Tate glossary definition for Glasgow School: Glasgow School usually refers to the circle of artists and designers working around Charles Rennie Mackintosh in Glasgow from the mid 1890s to about 1910
Andreas Gursky, 'Chicago, Board of Trade II' 1999
Globalisation
Tate glossary definition for globalisation: Globalisation in relation to art refers to both the unifying process that occurs when artists are exposed to the same influences, and the art made in response to this
David Jones, 'Sanctus Christus de Capel-y-ffin' 1925
Gouache
Tate glossary definition for gouache: Water-soluble paint that, unlike watercolour, is opaque so the white of the paper surface does not show through
Jean Dubuffet, 'Hopes and Options' 1971
Graffiti art
Tate glossary definition for graffiti art: Images or text painted usually onto buildings, using spray paint
Sir Joshua Reynolds, 'Colonel Acland and Lord Sydney: The Archers' 1769
Grand manner
Tate glossary definition for grand manner: English term for the highest style of art in academic theory based on an idealised, classical approach
Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt, 'Desiderium' 1873
Graphite
Tate glossary definition for Graphite: A metallic grey writing and drawing material most commonly used in pencil form – though graphite powder is also used by artists as a drawing material
Max Ernst, 'Forest and Dove' 1927
Grattage
Tate glossary definition for grattage: Surrealist painting technique that involves laying a canvas prepared with a layer of oil paint over a textured object and then scraping the paint off to create an interesting and unexpected surface
Group 1890
Tate glossary definition for Group 1890: A short-lived movement founded in Bhavnagar India in 1962 of eleven artists who sought to create a modern Indian art aesthetic in the wake of Indian Independence.
Group f.64
Tate glossary definition for Group f.64: group founded in the 1930s of eleven photographers, including Ansel Adams and Edward Weston, who were united by their desire to photograph life as it really is
Wyndham Lewis, 'Bagdad' 1927-8
Group X
Tate glossary definition for Group X: Short lived British group formed by Wyndham Lewis in 1920 to provide a continuing focus for avant-garde art in Britain following the First World War
Lygia Clark Bicho de Bolso 1966
Grupo Frente
Tate glossary definition for Grupo Frente: A 1950s Brazilian art movement formed by artists who rejected the figuration and nationalism of the predominant modernist Brazilian painting style
Geraldo de Barros Abstraction (São Paulo) 1949
Grupo Ruptura
Tate glossary definition for Grupo Ruptura: Group of Brazilian abstract artists formed in the early 1950s with the aim of breaking with the prevalent naturalist approach to painting in the country
Alberto Burri, 'Sacking and Red' 1954
Gruppo Origine
Tate glossary definition for Gruppo Origine: Short-lived Italian group (translates as origin group) formed in 1951 to promote a return to simple form and colour in abstract art
Guerrilla Girls [no title] 1985–90 Screenprint poster 430 x 560 mm
Guerrilla Girls
Tate glossary definition for Guerrilla Girls: A group of anonymous American female artists who seek to expose sexual and racial discrimination in the art world and the wider cultural arena
Gugulective
Tate glossary definition for Gugulective: A contemporary art collective founded in 2006 in Gugulethu, a township near Cape Town, South Africa, who believe in art as an instrument for social change
Shozo Shimamoto, 'Holes' 1954
Gutai
Tate glossary definition for Gutai: Japanese avant-garde group formed in 1954 whose radical ideas and approaches to making art anticipated later performance and conceptual art of the 1960s and 1970s
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