How to Sound Smart
Cocktail parties seem like a cinch when you compare them to off-site soirees, such as art openings. Not only do you have to look good, you actually have to know what you’re talking about. And while no one expects you to know the date of every painting in Monet’s haystack series or that one of Edward Hopper’s paintings inspired a movie set (it’s the house on the hill in Psycho, by the way), flexing your knowledge of old-school masters and funky modern styles alike shows your host and your company that you can swing it at the most sophisticated events. If you’re invited for a museum date and don’t want to sound clueless, here are the Cliff Notes:
Impressionism
This nineteenth-century technique spearheaded by Monet, Renoir, and Degas (water lilies/people in hats at picnics/anorexic ballerinas),
uses broad strokes of color that give a natural “impression” of the light, tone, and color of a scene, rather than trying to look true-to-life perfect.
Pointillism
This technique, made famous by Seurat, uses pinpoints of color to represent shapes. Consider it a more anal form of Impressionism. And remember the rhyme: Seurat the Dot.
Cubism
See a painting that reminds you of your high school trig class, with lots of sharp angles, fragmented objects, and people’s bodies in funky geometric shapes and proportions? Spaniard Pablo Picasso became the Cubist king for his work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907. Impress your date by telling him that Picasso’s works have been auctioned off more times than any other artist, totaling $1.23 billion in sales.
Surrealism
Think: Art on an acid trip (weird staircases, melting clocks, floating flowers in a desert). Dali, the mack-daddy of surrealist artists, was known to paint what he saw in his own dreams.
Bauhaus (Bou-hous)
Just using this word ups your cool factor. Bauhaus describes the 1920s industrial-chic German school of art that influences everything from hotel lobbies to IKEA furniture today. Their question was, “Why should art be limited to flat canvases—why can’t art be found in functional objects?” You can see Bauhaus style in sleek steel coffee tables, funky plastic chairs, and geometric light fixtures.
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Impressionism
This nineteenth-century technique spearheaded by Monet, Renoir, and Degas (water lilies/people in hats at picnics/anorexic ballerinas),
uses broad strokes of color that give a natural “impression” of the light, tone, and color of a scene, rather than trying to look true-to-life perfect.
Pointillism
This technique, made famous by Seurat, uses pinpoints of color to represent shapes. Consider it a more anal form of Impressionism. And remember the rhyme: Seurat the Dot.
Cubism
See a painting that reminds you of your high school trig class, with lots of sharp angles, fragmented objects, and people’s bodies in funky geometric shapes and proportions? Spaniard Pablo Picasso became the Cubist king for his work Les Demoiselles d’Avignon in 1907. Impress your date by telling him that Picasso’s works have been auctioned off more times than any other artist, totaling $1.23 billion in sales.
Surrealism
Think: Art on an acid trip (weird staircases, melting clocks, floating flowers in a desert). Dali, the mack-daddy of surrealist artists, was known to paint what he saw in his own dreams.
Bauhaus (Bou-hous)
Just using this word ups your cool factor. Bauhaus describes the 1920s industrial-chic German school of art that influences everything from hotel lobbies to IKEA furniture today. Their question was, “Why should art be limited to flat canvases—why can’t art be found in functional objects?” You can see Bauhaus style in sleek steel coffee tables, funky plastic chairs, and geometric light fixtures.
Be smart and choose only the best one! Choose sexy lingerie and tips for women's life
