Is the artist creating an illusion of three dimensions on a flat surface?

Writing Assignment: Critical Analysis
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:
A. 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.
B. 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.
C. 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.
D.
Present the papers of your textbook work of art, and the art you own, by
submitting each at the appropriate time.

I. Technical Information:
Both papers are to:
A. Be typed,
double-spaced,
B.
Be five to ten pages,
C.
Have one-inch margins top and sides and a one and one-half
inch margin on the bottom of each page,
D.
Have page numbers at the top right corner or center bottom
of the page.
E.
Have a cover sheet giving: Student name and I.D. Number;
Name and Section Number of the class; Title and Artist of the Work of Art;
Location of the Work of Art; Medium, Size, and Page Number.

(Cover Sheet Example for Writing Assignment: Critical Analysis)

The Tree
by George Brown
Mississippi Museum of Art, Jackson, MS
Oil on Canvas
25 x 30 feet
(p. 242)

Ilene Jones J00123456
Art Appreciation 206-41
Dr. Mayers, Art Department
II. Sections
of the paper:
A.
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:”
1.
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?
2.
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?
3.
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?
4.
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?
5.
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?
6.
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?

B. 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:
1. 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.
2. 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?
3. 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.
4. 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?

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