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Barnes Foundation

(Encyclopedia)Barnes Foundation, museum and arborteum in Merion and Philadelphia, Pa. Founded in 1922, it houses the impressive art collection amassed by Albert Coombs Barnes, 1872–1951, a wealthy Philadelphia ph...

performance art

(Encyclopedia)performance art, multimedia art form originating in the 1970s in which performance is the dominant mode of expression. Perfomance art may incorporate such elements as instrumental or electronic music,...

Pisano, Nicola

(Encyclopedia)Pisano, Nicola pēzäˈnō [key], b. c.1220, d. between 1278 and 1287, major Italian sculptor, believed to have come from Apulia. He founded a new school of sculpture in Italy. His first great work w...

Beuys, Joseph

(Encyclopedia)Beuys, Joseph yōˈzĕf bois [key], 1921–86, German artist, b. Krefeld; one of the most influential of postmodern artists. Drafted into the Luftwaffe during World War II, he was wounded several time...

buttress

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Types of buttresses buttress, mass of masonry built against a wall to strengthen it. It is especially necessary when a vault or an arch places a heavy load or thrust on one part of a wall. In t...

Kusama, Yayoi

(Encyclopedia)Kusama, Yayoi, 1929–, Japanese artist. In childhood she began to experience hallucinations, often of repeated dots, visions that have strongly influenced the imagery in her paintings, collages, scul...

Metropolitan Museum of Art

(Encyclopedia)Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, founded in 1870. The Metropolitan Museum is the foremost repository of art in the United States and one of the world's great museums. It opened in 1880 on it...

Johns, Jasper

(Encyclopedia)Johns, Jasper, 1930–, American artist, b. Augusta, Ga. Influenced by Marcel Duchamp in the mid-1950s, Johns attempted to transform common objects into art by placing them in an art context. Along wi...

Elam

(Encyclopedia)Elam ēˈləm [key], ancient country of Asia, N of the Persian Gulf and E of the Tigris, now in W Iran. A civilization seems to have been established there very early, probably in the late 4th millenn...

Doric order

(Encyclopedia)Doric order, earliest of the orders of architecture developed by the Greeks and the one that they employed for most buildings. It is generally believed that the column and its capital derive from an e...