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

Certainly, it’s clearly a part of black American culture—most of the participants are black—but the movie doesn’t deploy even a footnote of Adam’s earnest academicism to illuminate the sociology and history of the art.

From The New Yorker • Nov. 9, 2018

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

Mr. Meade is describing the essence of contemporary academicism, and while he puts a positive spin on this, it could be read as a devastating critique.

From New York Times • Jan. 15, 2010

Never before or since, I fancy, has the air of the Adirondack wilderness vibrated more repugnantly to a vocable than it did that night to the word "academicism."

From Memories and Studies by James, Henry