You don’t have to be a snobby art critic to do well with art content on the MAT. To make the right connections on the Miller Analogies Test, you just need to know the major developments, works, and people of art history.

Start by brushing up on your knowledge of art and art techniques by studying these terms and their definitions.

  • Art Deco: Style popular in the 1920s and 1930s, known for its symmetry and bold colors

  • Baroque: Elaborate and decorative style

  • Bauhaus: German school of design and art

  • Caricature: A portrait with exaggerated features

  • Carving: Using tools to shape an object by shaving off parts of it

  • Classicism: Art based on Greek or Roman influences

  • Cubism: Style that uses geometrical forms; Pablo Picasso produced works in the cubist style

  • Dada: Anti-establishment art style

  • Etching: Using acid to create art in metal

  • Expressionism: Style that expressed emotion as opposed to realistic representa-tion; Vincent van Gogh produced works in the expressionist style

  • Fresco: A painting on plaster, usually done as a mural; Leonardo da Vinci’s The Last Supper is a well-known fresco

  • Graffiti: Pictures or writing illegally placed on property

  • Impressionism: Style showing the artist’s impression of the subject rather than a realistic one; Claude Monet produced works in the impressionist style

  • Mosaic: Work of art made of many small pieces joined together

  • Motif: Repeated theme or pattern in a work

  • Mural: A painting that covers a wall or ceiling

  • Paper Mache: A crafting material made of paper and an adhesive

  • Pointillism: Painting style that uses many tiny dots to form an image

  • Portrait: A piece of art focusing on the face of a person

  • Primary colors: Red, blue, and yellow; they can be combined to make all the oth-er colors

  • Realism: Art genre that depicts things as they are in reality

  • Sculpture: Three-dimensional art made by carving or assembling

  • Still Life: A piece of art that focuses on inanimate objects

  • Surrealism: Art style with bizarre or surprising imagery

  • Tempera: Paint made with egg yolks

  • Whittling: Carving wood or bone with a knife

About This Article

This article is from the book:

About the book authors:

Vince Kotchian is a full-time standardized test tutor specializing in the MAT, SSAT, ISEE, ACT, GRE, and GMAT. He teaches a GRE prep course at the University of California, San Diego, and has an extensive understanding of analogies and the MAT.

Edwin Kotchian is a MAT tutor and freelance writer who has contributed to a variety of test-prep material.

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