Word.ws English Dictionary

art-washing

art-washing is the alternative form of artwashing.

Meaning of artwashing

Noun

artwashing (uncountable)

  1. The use of art and artists in a positive way to distract from or legitimize negative actions by an individual, organization, country, or government, originally in reference to gentrification.
    • When a commercial project is subjected to artwashing, the work and presence of artists and creative workers is used to add a cursory sheen to a place's transformation.2014 June 24, Feargus O'Sullivan, “The Pernicious Realities of 'Artwashing'”, in Bloomberg

Questions about art-washing

What is art-washing the alternative form of?
Art-washing is the alternative form of artwashing.

Words near art-washing in the dictionary

  1. art world
  2. art worlds
  3. art-historical
  4. art-house
  5. art-houses
  6. art-washing
  7. art.
  8. Art.D.
  9. Arta
  10. artab
  11. artaba

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: art-washing (page history and authors); artwashing (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “art-washing.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/art-washing. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.