Art and Music

Modes of expression that use skill or imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects, environments, or experiences that can be shared with others. Traditional categories within the arts include literature...

• 12 Angry Men

  American courtroom film drama, released in 1957, considered a classic of the genre. It marked the feature-film directorial debut of Sidney Lumet. The film was adapted from a 1954 television play that aired on the series Studio One. It centres on the...

• 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea

  American dramatic film, released in 1954, that was the acclaimed adaptation of Jules Verne ’s classic nautical adventure of the same name. Kirk Douglas, Peter Lorre, and Paul Lukas played the hapless trio of seamen who, while attempting to investigate...

• 2001: A Space Odyssey

  American science-fiction film, released in 1968, that set the benchmark for all subsequent movies in the genre and consistently ranks among the top 10 movies ever made, especially known for its groundbreaking special effects and unconventional narrative....

• 400 Blows, The

  French film drama, released in 1959, that defined the New Wave cinema movement created by young French directors in the late 1950s and ’60s. It was the first film in François Truffaut ’s acclaimed Antoine Doinel series, which followed a character widely...

• 42nd Street

  American musical film, released in 1933, that featured innovative production numbers choreographed by Busby Berkeley. It was named for the Manhattan street that hosts many Broadway theatres. An instant and enduring classic, 42nd Street transformed the...

• Abhinavagupta

  philosopher, ascetic, and aesthetician, as well as an outstanding representative of the “recognition” (pratyabhijna) school of Kashmiri Shaivite monism. This school conceived of the god Shiva (the manifestation of ultimate reality), the individual soul,...

• Abominable Snowman, The

  British horror film, released in 1957, that was one of the first in a long series of movies produced by Hammer Films and starring Peter Cushing. English botanist John Rollason (played by Cushing) is conducting research in the Himalayas when he encounters...

• Abū al-Faraj al-Iṣbahānī

  literary scholar who composed an encyclopaedic and fundamental work on Arabic song, composers, poets, and musicians. Abū al-Faraj was a descendant of Marwān II, the last Umayyad caliph of Syria. Despite the enmity between this family and the ʿAlids,...

• Adam’s Rib

  American romantic comedy film, directed by George Cukor and released in 1949, that was a vehicle for the powerhouse pairing of Spencer Tracy and Katharine Hepburn in a classic battle of the sexes. The plot involves a husband and wife (played by Tracy...

• Adler, Guido

  Austrian musicologist and teacher who was one of the founders of modern musicology. Adler’s family moved to Vienna in 1864, and four years later he began to study music theory and composition with Anton Bruckner at the Vienna Conservatory. Intending...

• Adler, Renata

  Italian-born American journalist, experimental novelist, and film critic best known for her analytic essays and reviews for The New Yorker magazine and for her 1986 book that investigates the news media. Adler was educated at Bryn Mawr (Pennsylvania)...

• Adorno, Theodor Wiesengrund

  German philosopher who also wrote on sociology, psychology, and musicology. Adorno obtained a degree in philosophy from Johann Wolfgang Goethe University in Frankfurt in 1924. His early writings, which emphasize aesthetic development as important to...

• Adventures of Robin Hood, The

  American romantic adventure film, released in 1938, that is considered one of the great cinematic adventures and starred Errol Flynn in what became the defining role of his career. The film tells the tale of Robin Hood, with Flynn as the legendary bandit...

• Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, The

  American mystery-detective film, released in 1939, that was the second to feature the popular pairing of Basil Rathbone and Nigel Bruce as the classic Arthur Conan Doyle characters Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson, respectively. It was ostensibly based...

• aesthetics

  the philosophical study of beauty and taste. It is closely related to the philosophy of art, which is concerned with the nature of art and the concepts in terms of which individual works of art are interpreted and evaluated. To provide more than a general...

• Affleck, Thomas

  American cabinetmaker considered to be outstanding among the Philadelphia craftsmen working in the Chippendale style during the 18th century. Affleck is especially noted for the elaborately carved forms produced by his shop. Probably trained in England,...

• African architecture

  the architecture of Africa, particularly of sub-Saharan Africa. In North Africa, where Islam and Christianity had a significant influence, architecture predominates among the visual arts. Included here are the magnificent mosques built of mud in Djenné...

• African art

  the visual arts of native Africa, particularly sub-Saharan Africa, including such media as sculpture, painting, pottery, rock art, textiles, masks, personal decoration, and jewelry. For more general explorations of media, see individual media articles...

• African dance

  performing art deeply woven into the social fabric of Africa and generally involving aspects of music and theatre as well as rhythmic bodily movement. See also African music and mask. The cultural position of dance In African societies, dance serves...

• African music

  the musical sounds and practices of all indigenous peoples of Africa, including the Berber in the Sahara and the San (Bushmen) and Khoikhoin (Hottentot) in Southern Africa. The music of European settler communities and that of Arab North Africa are not...