academicism

[ak-uh-dem-uh-siz-uhm]

noun

1. traditionalism or conventionalism in art, literature, etc.

2. thoughts, opinions, and attitudes that are purely speculative.

3. pedantic or formal quality.

academicism

/ əˈkædəˌmɪzəm, ˌækəˈdɛmɪˌsɪzəm /

noun

1. adherence to rules and traditions in art, literature, etc; conventionalism

Word History and Origins

Origin of academicism¹

First recorded in 1600–10; academic + -ism

Example Sentences

Also on view are five smaller paintings from the 1880s and ’90s that touch on Klimt’s development from the romanticized academicism evident in the public murals to his late landscapes.

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Guston had arrived at them after a 15-year detour through Abstract Expressionism, during which he rid his art of its academicism and discovered paint as material and his own way of handling it.

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But three paintings from after 1900 stand out for their size and ambition, if also their increasing academicism.

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Here, the academicism is more dully academic, dense strings of steps with no story in them and little for the imagination to hold on to.

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It cuts against the grain of countless stereotypes involving restraint, uptightness, dusty academicism.

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