academicism

American  

[ak-uh-dem-uh-siz-uhm] / ˌæk əˈdɛm əˌsɪz əm /

noun

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

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

3. pedantic or formal quality.

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academicism British  

/ əˈkædəˌmɪzəm, ˌækəˈdɛmɪˌsɪzəm /

noun

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

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Etymology

Origin of academicism

First recorded in 1600–10; academic + -ism

Example Sentences

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.

From New York Times • Sep. 9, 2021

I find their performance redolent of a desiccated academicism, but even an enthusiast would be hard-pressed to name this group as the one worthiest of the most concentrated visual attention.

From The New Yorker • Oct. 25, 2016

But at the same time, the art world has a tendency to academicism and aridity.

From New York Times • Apr. 22, 2011

Artists like Seurat and Gauguin searched for an art that owed nothing to the stale models of academicism but possessed the substance and authority that Impressionism had let fall away.

From Time • Feb. 18, 2010

I am aware that some will regard this as a questionable statement; for the academicism of Tegnér is not the stately, bloodless, Gallic classicism of the Gustavian age, of which Leopold was the last representative.

From Essays on Scandinavian Literature by Boyesen, Hjalmar Hjorth