Columbia Encyclopedia

Search results

500 results found

Riley, Bridget

(Encyclopedia)Riley, Bridget, 1931–, English painter. Associated with the pop art movement, Riley covers large canvases with interlocking bands, undulating curves, scattered discs, or repeated squares or triangle...

Percier, Charles

(Encyclopedia)Percier, Charles shärl pĕrsyāˈ [key], 1764–1838, French architect. He won (1786) the Grand Prix de Rome, and in 1794 he became associated with Pierre François Léonard Fontaine. Napoleon appoin...

mobile, in art

(Encyclopedia)mobile mōˈbēl [key], a type of moving sculptural artwork developed by Alexander Calder in 1932 and named by Marcel Duchamp. Often constructed of colored metal pieces connected by wires or rods, the...

Directoire style

(Encyclopedia)Directoire style dērĕktwärˈ [key], in French interior decoration and costume, the manner prevailing about the time of the Directory (1795–99), from which the name is derived. A style transitiona...

Wyatt, James

(Encyclopedia)Wyatt, James, 1746–1813, English architect. He worked in many styles but is best known as one of the originators of the Gothic revival. Appointed surveyor at Westminster Abbey in 1776, he did cathed...

alabaster

(Encyclopedia)alabaster, fine-grained, massive, translucent variety of gypsum, a hydrous calcium sulfate. It is pure white or streaked with reddish brown. Alabaster, like all other forms of gypsum, forms by the eva...

fashion

(Encyclopedia)fashion, in dress, the prevailing mode affecting modifications in costume. Styles in Asia have been characterized by freedom from change, and ancient Greek and Roman dress preserved the same flowing l...

Greene and Greene

(Encyclopedia)Greene and Greene, architectural firm working in the American arts and crafts style, formed by the brothers Charles Sumner Greene, 1868–1957, and Henry Mather Greene, 1870–1954, both b. Brighton (...

Louis period styles

(Encyclopedia)Louis period styles, 1610–1793, succession of modes of interior decoration and architecture that established France as a leading influence in the decorative arts. The restraint of the later Louis ...

Adam, Robert

(Encyclopedia)Adam, Robert ădˈəm [key], 1728–92, and James Adam, 1730–94, Scottish architects, brothers. They designed important public and private buildings in England and Scotland and numerous interiors, p...