pointillism

American  

[pwan-tl-iz-uhm, -tee-iz-, poin-tl-iz-] / ˈpwæn tlˌɪz əm, -tiˌɪz-, ˈpɔɪn tlˌɪz- /

noun

(sometimes initial capital letter)

1. a theory and technique developed by the neo-impressionists, based on the principle that juxtaposed dots of pure color, as blue and yellow, are optically mixed into the resulting hue, as green, by the viewer.

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pointillism British  

/ -tiːˌɪzəm, ˈpwæntɪˌlɪzəm, ˈpɔɪn- /

noun

1. Also called: divisionism.  the technique of painting elaborated from impressionism, in which dots of unmixed colour are juxtaposed on a white ground so that from a distance they fuse in the viewer's eye into appropriate intermediate tones

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Other Word Forms

• pointillist noun

Etymology

Origin of pointillism

1900–05; < French pointillisme, equivalent to pointill ( er ) to mark with points + -isme -ism

Example Sentences

Recent discoveries about similar art-filled caves in France suggest that our ancestors were creating more than murals and pointillism beneath the primordial mists.

From The Wall Street Journal

Pissarro soon gave up on pointillism, noting its conflict with the richness and spontaneity of Impressionism.

From The Wall Street Journal

The fact that it was a parlor game, not pointillism, that inspired the lyric is proof of Sondheim’s credo that “playful doesn’t mean trivial any more than solemn means serious.”

From The Wall Street Journal

Autochromes possess the light-dappled depth of Impressionist paintings, the powdery precision of pointillism, the honest blushes of butterfly cheeks, and the palpable textures of gleaming silks and gilded velvets.

From The Wall Street Journal

In these landscapes, naturalism and abstraction often battle to a pulsating draw by means of a magnified, or coarsened pointillism that recalls Seurat in its mosaic-like array of dots, dashes and commas.

From New York Times