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

Also on view are five smaller paintings from the 1880s and ’90s that touch on Klimt’s development from the romanticized academicism evident in the public murals to his late landscapes.

From New York Times • Mar. 10, 2024

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

He nimbly avoided the pitfalls of yahooism, academicism, social realism and surrealist kitsch and, in so doing, forged a style that was exemplary for its technical and expressive economy, if not for daring imagination.

From New York Times • Aug. 4, 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

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