Strict adherence to academic rules and traditions, especially in art; a tendency to follow classical or traditional methods rather than innovating.
From academic plus the suffix -ism (denoting a system, practice, or tendency), creating a noun that describes a specific approach to learning and creation. This word often carries criticism about being overly rigid or old-fashioned.
Academicism was the enemy of Impressionists and Modernists, who saw it as dusty, rule-bound, and stifling—calling something 'academic' became an insult in art history because academics valued rules over vision, making the whole word shift in meaning.
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