Art Analysis Essay

Art Analysis Essay

The purpose of a visual analysis is to recognize and understand the visual choices the artist made in creating the artwork. By observing and writing about separate parts of the art object, you will come to a better understanding of the art object as a whole.

A visual analysis addresses an artwork’s formal elements—visual attributes such as color, line, texture, and size. A visual analysis may also include historical context or interpretations of meaning.

For this composition, you will analyze your chosen painting by focusing on how specific details in the painting work together to create effect and meaning.

This assignment will be three paragraphs long:

 Paragraph 1: Introduce the title and artist. Describe the composition in detail. Do not include any analytical statements, interpretations, or guesses about what the painting means. Instead, recreate in words on what is visible in the painting.  In your paragraph, you should employ a variety of adjectives, adverbs, and vivid word choices.  Focus on color, location, direction, size, and objects. Describe the painting’s details in a logical sequence, such as

                - Foreground to background (or vice versa)

                - Horizontally (left to right, or vice versa)

                - Vertically (top to bottom, or vice versa)

                - Big to small (or vice versa)

                -Human forms to nonhuman forms (or vice versa)

Paragraph 2: Analyze how three or more formal elements of the painting work to create an effect. Each element and effect should require around 2 sentences (so, a total of 6). Use art vocab sheet.

For  example: “In the left upper corner of the painting, the barely visible outline of a woman can be seen against a green, leafy background. The angelic lightness of her body, created by faint, peach-colored lines, contrasts with the dark shadows of the surrounding jungle plants.

Formal elements you may wish to focus on include

-Composition

- Line

-Tone

-Form

-Color

           -Medium (if known)

Effects you may wish to focus on include

- drawing the eye towards something (be specific)

- emphasizing something (be specific)

- creating contrast

- indicating movement or stillness

- creating  an emotional atmosphere or mood

-creating barriers in the composition

-linking, joining, or uniting things in the composition (be specific)

-creating a sense of realism

-creating a sense of drama (ie., tell a story)

-creating a sense of fantasy, dreaminess, surrealism, etc.

- blocking or obscuring

Paragraph 3: Analyze how the formal elements in the painting create meaning.  

For example: The whispy brushstrokes outlining the angelic figure symbolize her purity and delicacy, in stark contrast to the heavy, dark outlines of the forest plants. This contrast illustrates the conflict of humanity’s inner purity with the world’s corruption.

This is the paragraph in which you will interpret the significance, themes, or symbolism of the work. You may wish to consider

           -symbols within the composition

           - what the formal elements or effects represent on a figurative level

- themes or messages of the work as a whole

-what the work depicts about society, human nature, love, nature, imagination, evil, history,  etc.

Final Product:

Your essay will be submitted to Mr. Bennett electronically will be published on the class blog (anonymously). You will be responsible for “curating” your painting to the class: this means presenting the image and analyzing it orally using your notes and essay.

·         The final essay is worth 50 ETP points.

·         The curating presentation is worth 20 ETP points.