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Glite Dictionary
pointillism

pointillism

1 9.6
A painting method using small dots of color to make a picture
  • noun
  • /ˌpɔɪnˈtɪlɪzəm/
  • Specialized
translation icon : puntillismo
  • In art class, we learned how pointillism uses tiny dots of color to form a complete picture.
  • Pointillism of Seurat

And so this is Roy Lichtenstein's pointillism.

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Examples

  • We had looked at some basics of pointillism and its visual color mixing.

    Academic text (2011)

  • Stand back, think Seurat and pointillism.

    Blog text (14)

  • So for those people that don't know, I do pointillism, which is little dots that make something else.

  • I make photo-realism pointillism pieces with a .13 Kohinoor pen that take up to 450 hours each.

    Blog text (1)

  • Miss A worked on this over several days so as not to grow bored with it—pointillism can require a good deal of care and patience.

    Blog text (15)

  • His paintings continued in his exploration of the detail of the photographic image, with pointillism, near Seurat, breaking down the subject's features into not just a separate color, but a controlled swirling design.

    Blog text (22)

  • Georges Seurat is famous for his innovative use of pointillism to create vibrant landscapes.

  • The exhibit showcased various artists' works that exemplified the technique of pointillism.

Synonyms

divisionism
vspointillism
  • Specialized
9.9

A painting method where artists place small dots or patches of color that mix when seen from a distance

focuses on using small distinct dots rather than larger patches

Surface Forms

pointillism singular
pointillisms plural

Morphology

pointillism = pointillist (semi-transparent) = pointill + ism

The word is built from the combining form 'pointill-' (relating to small points/dots) plus the suffix '-ism' (denoting an artistic movement); the link to 'point' is visible but the French-derived combining form and the specialist art sense may be unfamiliar to average learners.

Etymology

Pointillism comes from the French word point meaning 'dot' and the ending -ism meaning 'a style'. So pointillism is a way of painting made from many tiny dots, which is why the word means making an image from small separate points. It began with the artist Georges Seurat in 19th century France.