This document provides definitions and examples of key art vocabulary terms related to 2D shapes and concepts. It defines shapes like geometric, rectilinear, curvilinear, organic, positive, negative, and composite shapes. It also defines concepts like form, volume, mass, figure and ground relationships, cubism, abstraction, and ambiguity. The document includes example questions to test understanding of different shape types and how specific artists like M.C. Escher, Donald Sultan, and Stacy Seiler explored related concepts in their works.

1. 2D Review
By Meghan Gallagher

2. VOCABULARY

3. An area within a composition
that has boundaries that
separate it from what
surrounds it, making it
distinct.

4. SHAPE

5. The shape or structure of an
object.

6. FORM

7. The mass or bulk of a three-
dimensional work.

8. VOLUME

9. The bulk of a three-
dimensional work of art.

10. MASS

11. The true mass of an object,
as defined in terms of volume
and weight.

12. ACTUAL MASS

13. The apparent or suggested
mass of objects represented
in a work of art; a realistic
rendering of a heavy object
in a painting would have
implied, rather than actual,
mass.

14. IMPLIED MASS

15. Shapes found in geometry,
such as triangles and circles.

16. GEOMETRIC
SHAPES

17. Geometric shapes formed by
the intersection of straight
lines.

18. RECTILINEAR
SHAPES

19. A twentieth-century style,
developed by Picasso and
Braque, which emphasizes the
two-dimensionality of the
canvas and is characterized by
multiple views of an object and
the reduction of an image to its
essential lines and shapes.

20. CUBISM

21. Geometric shapes formed by
the intersection of curving
lines, or by lines circling back
to join themselves and
compose closed geometric
figures.

22. CURVILINEAR
SHAPES

23. Shapes derived from those of
living things found in nature.

24. ORGANIC SHAPES

25. Referring to works of art that
have no reference to reality.

26. ABSTRACT

27. Art that has no reference to
visible reality.

28. NONOBJECTIVE

29. Another term for
nonobjective.

30. NONREPRESENTATIONAL

31. The shapes in a composition.

32. POSITIVE SHAPES

33. That which remains in the
composition around or
beyond the positive shapes.

34. NEGATIVE SHAPES

35. The relationship between the
shapes or figures and the
other parts of the
composition.

36. FIGURE AND
GROUND
RELATIONSHIP

37. The shifting of viewer
perceptions such that what,
at one moment, appears to
be the figure in a
composition becomes the
ground, and vice versa.

38. FIGURE-GROUND
REVERSAL

39. If a figure is made from two
or more geometric figures

40. COMPOSITE
SHAPE

41. Several possible meanings or
interpretations.

42. AMBIGUITY

43. very cold and impersonal;
totally neat and orderly;
unexciting and
unimaginative

44. ANTISEPTIC

45. Done or achieved with little
effort or difficulty; easy.

46. FACILE

47. Able to perceive or feel
things

48. SENTIENT

49. A preference or special liking
for something

50. PREDILECTION

51. Names of the Precisionist
Painters

52. C-an
D-ucks
M-ake
S-alad
-Charles Sheeler
-Donald Sultan
-M.C. Escher
-Stacy Seiler

53. Be able to
cite
examples of
different
types of
shapes.

54. Be able to
draw
examples of
different
types of
shapes.

55. What type of
shape?

56. Negative Shape

57. What type of
shape?

58. Geometric Shape

59. What type of
shape?

60. Rectilinear Shape

61. What type of
shape?

62. Curvilinear Shape

63. What type of
shape?

64. Organic Shape

65. What type of
shape?

66. Positive Shape

67. What type of
shape?

68. Composite Shape

69. Figure and Ground
Relationships
The relationship between the
shapes or figures and the other
parts of the composition.

70. What artist from our
discussion really
explored the
manipulation of
Figure and Ground
Relationships?

71. M.C. Escher

72. What types of
shapes are most
prominently in the
works of Donald
Sultan and Stacy
Seiler?

73. Negative Shapes

74. Compose these
types of questions
about each Artist
and Vocabulary?