How to Use pointillism in a Sentence

pointillism

noun
  • Her own unique take on neo pointillism is a way to wedge herself into art history.
    — Nadja Sayej, Forbes.com, 2 Apr. 2025
  • But the sky and sun toward which the bird flies are created using pointillism.
    — Denise Coffey, courant.com, 29 July 2019
  • Visitors can view works of art in pointillism and brocades woven in oil.
    — San Diego Union-Tribune, 9 Dec. 2022
  • Like pointillism and democracy, writing is a charming art that belongs to the past.
    — John Hodgman, New York Times, 23 Jan. 2026
  • Just like the Seurat painting, minus the class status and pointillism.
    — Elisa Albert, Longreads, 7 May 2018
  • However trite the plots, Hitchcock was an artist working in pointillism.
    — Matt Patches, Esquire, 13 Sep. 2015
  • But don’t go too dotty about this instance of prehistoric pointillism, art experts caution.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 27 Feb. 2017
  • The words were also crafted differently — this time they were placed in black crystals for a pointillism effect.
    — Hedy Phillips, Peoplemag, 15 July 2024
  • His three-dimensional approach to pointillism dazzles the eye.
    — Chadd Scott, Forbes, 18 Dec. 2022
  • The paintings, done in a pointillism style, shimmered with the high-contrast pop of a flash photo or an instant Polaroid.
    — Brian Murphy, Washington Post, 23 Dec. 2022
  • The design is influenced by pointillism, and there is a subtle gradient of colors throughout the pattern.
    — Carisha Swanson, House Beautiful, 18 Oct. 2022
  • Is there a sort of pointillism equivalent for film in digital stuff next to the more watercolor-y way actual film stock behaves?
    — Todd Vanderwerff, Vox, 25 Aug. 2018
  • The results, shown on giant screens or projected onto walls or entire buildings, use data points in a kind of AI pointillism.
    — Tom Simonite, Wired, 16 Jan. 2020
  • One man’s pointillism is another man’s poison, of course, and your Seattle Art Fair highlights may not overlap with mine at all.
    — Michael Upchurch, The Seattle Times, 4 Aug. 2017
  • My kids always find Georges Seurat's pointillism fascinating.
    — Anna Lane, USA TODAY, 12 Mar. 2020
  • His art evolved around that time, not toward despair or sadness but experiments in pointillism and swirls of color inspired by chemical reactions.
    — Kristen Leigh Painter, Star Tribune, 13 May 2021
  • At Chauvet Cave, large dots created using the palm of the hand are used to represent animals like bison in a very early use of pointillism.
    — Jason Daley, Smithsonian, 31 Jan. 2017
  • Seurat’s solution was to invent pointillism, the technique of constructing pictures from small dots of complementary colors.
    — Sebastian Smee, Washington Post, 1 June 2023
  • Peterson will design the commemorative foursome of pins in his signature pointillism style, the foundation reports.
    — Molly Guthrey, Twin Cities, 6 Sep. 2025
  • Seldom is this a problem when landing at an airport, since the trees, telephone poles, and air traffic control towers create a concrete referential pointillism easily processed by the eye.
    — Eric Lindner, Popular Mechanics, 22 July 2021
  • The Singer Laren's collection has a focus on modernism such as neo-impressionism, pointillism, expressionism and cubism.
    — Bloomberg.com, 8 May 2020
  • Polka Dot Remember pointillism from your Art History 101 class?
    — Devon Abelman, Allure, 14 Sep. 2018
  • What’s behind pointillism is divisionism, the new scientific theories of light and color and ocular perception.
    — Lorraine Boissoneault, Smithsonian, 27 Feb. 2017
  • But in Ravel’s solo works, which across decades of composition contain both the evocative broad strokes of impressionism and the luminous specificity of pointillism, his approach can have mixed results.
    — Joshua Barone, New York Times, 21 Feb. 2025
  • Not for him the delicate feathering, diligent crosshatching or obsessive pointillism of the neurotically controlling craftsman.
    — Etelka Lehoczky, NPR, 21 Jan. 2025
  • Cox’s style might be described as dynamic pointillism, with breathy instrumental noises giving way to mournfully wailing glissandi, and then to a climactic stampede of frantic figuration.
    — Alex Ross, The New Yorker, 12 Apr. 2021
  • In the four corners of the ceiling, sunlight streams through windows of Russian blue glass painted by the local Aboriginal artist Sharron Ohlsen, who also employs pointillism in her work.
    — New York Times, 5 Jan. 2022
  • Her signature sound, in which ethereal vocal pointillism details the upper limits of sensual songs driven by bouncing beats, expresses Twigs’s embrace of embodiment as well as her penchant for the abstract.
    — Emily J. Lordi Photographs By Liz Johnson Artur, New York Times, 19 Oct. 2020
  • Instead of heavy breathing and heaving bodices, this adaptation owes more to the pointillism of Wes Anderson, with its dioramic compositions, brightly colored symmetries, and fishbowl sets.
    — Ross Douthat, National Review, 2 Apr. 2020
  • Staring at a drawing inside a Chicago museum on a class field trip, Jackson describes his introduction to pointillism — a technique of using small dots to form an image — as an immediate and overwhelming passion.
    — Krista Johnson, Louisville Courier Journal, 15 May 2025

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'pointillism.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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