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I am looking for a word for "artful pictures". It includes:

  • Paintings, sketches, drawings, etc.
  • Artistic photography (e.g. this)
  • Calligraphy

It does not include:

  • Technical models, blueprints, graphs
  • As-is photography meant to capture something objectively
  • Anything in more than two dimensions, such as statues or video
  • Literature, poetry

I could go either way on whether to include infographics or engravings. I would use the term for categorising a gallery of files that contains both art and non-art, and mostly in picture format. Some non-pictures are put in their own folders, but on the same level. So it would go:

  • Gallery
    • [word] (artful pictures)
    • non-[word] (pictures that are not art)
    • literature
    • video

A short phrase is acceptable, as long as it sounds idiomatic.

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Graphic art seems close to this. Wikipedia calls it "A category of fine art, graphic art covers a broad range of visual artistic expression, typically two-dimensional, i.e. produced on a flat surface."

However, it may not match your exact definition. Wikipedia notes that there are debates about what exactly is included: it is sometimes restricted to printmaking, or to engraving, drawing, and other art forms focused on the line rather than colour, although it can also include "calligraphy, photography, painting, typography, computer graphics, and bindery". The extent to which it includes things like architectural drawings and designs for embroidery is also debated. It certainly excludes sculpture and other 3D art, and non-art images, and it generally seems to exclude moving image, motion pictures, film, etc.

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  • Thanks for the answer. Now I know the real definition of "graphic" - I didn't know it was specifically two-dimensional.
    – KeizerHarm
    Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 13:44
  • 'Graphic art' quite emphatically encompasses artworks that have a linear character, and is usually referring to those works created using printmaking.
    – Joachim
    Commented Feb 17, 2020 at 14:37

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