Choose ONE work of art from your text. In addition, choose ONE work of art with which you have an emotional connection and that you own (the following instructions are referenced for BOTH works of art from this point forward). Observe the actual painting (drawing, photograph, sculpture, print, artifact, jewelry, digital art, etc.) you are writing about. Then make notes on the Elements of Art used in the work and the Principles of Design. Write down your impressions and how the work makes you feel. Let your instructor know which works you select. You are to begin making notes on the life and times of the artist. For your paper, you will write about three aspects of a painting.
For both Writing Assignments, you are to produce a three-part paper. The first section will discuss the formal Elements of Art, the principles of design, and the medium, based on your observations. This is Internal Evidence. The second section will discuss the life and works of the artist or of the culture and the meaning of the work (External Evidence). The third section will be a discussion of your personal feelings and understanding of this work of art (Personal Opinions). The three sections together form a complete critical analysis of one work of art.
The process then is:
Choose one work of art from your textbook (and one that you own). Begin making notes on the Elements, Principles of Design, and your impressions of the work you select. Look at the work many times. Notice how your impressions of the work change.
Inform your Instructor about which work you have chosen so that you can get help researching the artist’s life and work. You may use the Internet, but only if you document your sources clearly.
Write a three-part paper on your work of art. The three parts include: (1) Analysis of the formal elements and principles of design, (2) Biography of the artist and specific information about this painting and finally, (3) Your impressions, personal opinions, thoughts and feelings about this work of art.
Present the papers of your textbook work of art, and the art you own, by submitting each at the appropriate time.
Sections of the paper:
First Section, Internal Evidence: This is a formal analysis of the internal evidence of the work. You should discuss the elements of art including: line, shape form, color, texture and composition. You should describe and explain how the artist has used each of the plastic elements and how he or she has arranged them into a composition. What kind of balance, rhythms, harmony, proportion and overall order has this artist used: The following questions can be used as a guide. Not every work of art will necessarily have all of the following characteristics. This section is based on WHAT YOU SEE. To begin, you may ask yourself: “How has this artist used:”
Line? Is Actual Line an important element? What kind of character do the actual lines have? Can I see the drawing marks or paint strokes? Are they: nervous, smooth, flowing, scratchy, hesitant, and bold? How important is Implied Line? How is Implied Line used in this composition?
Dimension? Is the work two-dimensional or three-dimensional? Is the artist creating an illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface? What system does he or she use to arrange the space? Am I considering shapes or planes? Am I considering masses and spaces? What is the
overall character of the shapes/planes or masses/spaces? How do these work together? How does the space work with them? Is positive or negative space more important? What kind of edges does the artist use? Is this artist more interested in space, or in form?
Color? What hues are used? How are they used? Are the colors those of real objects, or are they chosen from the artist’s imagination? How are the hues blended? What is the overall color scheme? What is the value scheme of the work? Is it overall light or dark? What is the saturation like? Is it bright or dull?
Texture? Has the artist used actual or illusionary texture? Can you see the texture of the medium, or does it appear flat? Did he/she intend to fool the viewer into thinking that the texture is real (trompe l’oeil)? Does this sculpture use texture to help convey the sculptor’s intentions? What does the texture add to my understanding of the work? Is it important, or incidental?
Composition? What types of compositional devices are used? Did the artist intend this to be an illusion of reality? What type of balance is used? Is the balance: symmetrical, asymmetrical or radial? What type of rhythm is used: fast, slow, staccato, choppy, even? What are the relationships of size and proportion? Do they imitate life? Are they on a human scale? Are images of people given realistic proportions, or are they based on ideas of social position? Are implied lines important in helping you perceive order in this work? How has the artist made me see an overall coherence (harmony) in this work? Are these devices obvious, or are they subtle?
Medium? What kind of paint (medium) is this? Is it thickly or thinly? Are there brush marks clearly visible? Is the painting “linear” or “painterly”? Is this a craved, modeled or cast work of sculpture? Is the sculpture’s surface smooth, gouged, rough, bumpy, or mixed? Does the technique add to my understanding of the artist’s work? Does the handling of the medium add to my feeling about the artist’s work?
Second section, External Evidence: This is a discussion of the external evidence of the work. Information used in this section comes from sources outside the work itself. Here you should look up the life and work of the artist, or of the culture which produced this work of art. This section should cover:
The life of the artist and/or the historical and social context of the artist’s
life. Why would an artist in this time and place create something, which looked like this? What, if anything, has the artist said about his/her own work? What have others said about this artist’s work? For much of the art of the distant past, there are no statements by artists about their work. The artist’s intentions must be deduced from the context. You should look at the historical and social context in which the work was produced.
The subject matter and/or the iconography: You should also discuss the subject matter and the iconography (symbols) that were common in the culture at the time. Why did the artist choose this subject? Was this a popular subject in its time? Is the subject or iconography personal and idiosyncratic to this artist, or does it have meaning throughout its time and culture? For whom was the work done: religious institution, king, art buyer? Are the subject and iconography easily understood today in this culture, or do we have to read about it?
This is the “art historical” part of your analysis. It requires you to do research from other authors. You must DOCUMENT all information and quotations from other authors used in this section. Any work which appears not to be a restatement of the student’s understanding or which is not documented will be returned to the student. Documentation should be either footnotes, or internal notes within the body of the paper. Footnotes appear at the bottom of the page after a reference number in the sentence. Footnotes have special forms and conventions, which must be used. Internal notes put the Author’s last name, date of publication and page number at the end of the sentence in which the information appears (APA Style). The full reference then appears in the bibliography.
Bibliography: Include ALL of the references you consulted. There are set forms for bibliographic entries. If you do not know how to do this, get a handbook. One is Kate Turabian’s Manual for the Writers of Term Papers Theses and Dissertations (Chicago: University of Chicago Press). Another is the Chicago Manual of Style, Fourteenth Edition: Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1993. Another, and the preference for this course, is Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, Latest Edition (Washington, DC: American Psychological Association), also known as APA Style.
C. Third section, Personal Opinion: This is a subjective view of the work of art.
This section is to include your personal reactions and perceptions of this work of art. In this part you should discuss your feelings about the work and your interpretations of the work. Dig carefully into your thoughts and feelings when writing this part. What first caught your attention in this work? What did/does the work remind you of? Why did you choose this work? What does it mean to you? Do you feel differently about the work now that you have analyzed it?
