This document provides guidelines for formal analysis of artworks. It discusses key visual elements like line, color, shape, texture, size, orientation, and composition. Line can be fine or bold, fluid or sketchy. Color can be significant or less so. Shape can be geometric or organic. Texture results from materials or handling techniques. Composition examines spatial relationships and object ordering. Formal analysis focuses on understanding works through their formal qualities rather than subjective interpretations.
2. agenda 9.24.15
what is formal analysis and why do we need it?
to assist us in understanding complex phenomena like works
of art
3. LINE and COLOR
Long history of talking about these two properties
Disegno versus colore (in Italy)
Dessin vs. couleur (in France)
Are considered the two most
basic elements of two-
dimensional art
4. LINE • Line/design can mean
several things:
• (It’s clearer if we use a
more direct translation:
design)
• Design could mean:
• A drawing
• A plan to make
something
8. So color was thought to be
secondary.
Except that some artists defied this rule.
They said, actually paint is what paintings are made of, and
paint is pigment (a color) suspended in a medium (some
sort of binder).
12. Peter Paul RUBENS, The Triumph of Henry IV, sketch, 1627–31
Oil on wood; 19 1/2 x 32 7/8 inches
13. LINE
The literal lines that the artist uses to create shape, suggest
depth, etc. These lines can have a variety of characteristics,
for example; line can be fine and delicate, or bold and
chunky, it can be fluid or halting, precise or sketchy.
18. COLOR
1. Ask yourself, how important is color in this work?
2. In some works, color is quite significant; in others, far less
so.
19. Otto Dix
Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia
van Harden
1926
Color is one strong element that
contributes to the sense of disharmony,
confusion and conflict in this picture.
It is not the only element Dix uses to
create that sensation, but it is a
significant one.
20. Otto Dix
Small Self-Portrait
1913
By contrast, color has a less
significant role in this earlier
painting by the same artist.
It is not that color is absent—of
course it isn’t—and it’s not that
color isn’t skillfully handled—
actually, the color here is quite
subtle and fascinating. And
perhaps
it is symbolically significant as
well:
those burning cheeks in tandem
with all those frosty blues and
silvers
seem to indicate a passionate
personality in a cool, even cold
environment.
21. SHAPE
• Can be geometric (e.g., cube,
cylinder, cone, pyramid, circle,
square, triangle)
• Or biomorphic (sometimes also
called organic); wiggly, blob-like
shapes with irregular outlines.
38. light
how does light appear in the picture?
where are the highlights (brightest spots) in the picture)
from what direction is the light cast?
does the light create a point of emphasis?
39. Georges de la Tour
The Penitent Magdalen
c. 1645
oil on canvas
61.4 x 48 inches
41. Mary Cassatt
Young Thomas and His
Mother
1893
Pastel on cardboard
24 x 20 inches
Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts
42. texture/materials
• in contemporary art especially, artists often use materials
for expressive purposes; almost anything and everything
can be used as an art material
• texture can be a result of the specific qualities of the
chosen material
• texture can also be the result of specific handling of the
material; for example, scribbling or scratching
45. Cady Noland, Frame Device, 1989, Pipes, stantions, and twelve walkers
132 × 132 × 54 in
installed at the Hammer Museum
46. Liu Wei, Density 1, 2013, books, mild steel and wood, dimensions variable
47. Jean DUBUFFET
Grand Master of the Outsider
1947
Here Dubuffet lays on oil
paint in thick, uneven strokes
to create pockmarked face
of his
Grand Master.
57. composition
composition: how the various elements of the work are
arranged in relationship to each other
things to look for:
spatial relationships:
foreground
middle ground
background
where is the viewer positioned?
how are the objects or elements ordered?
60. guidelines
• medium/materials (what is it made of?)
• subject matter/genre (keep very brief for now)
• composition
• line
• color
• shape
• texture
• size
• orientation
REMEMBER, not all of these categories will be applicable to every work of art.
Choose the categories that are most relevant to the work you are considering.
61. in matters of style…
…nuance is key. You are training your eyes to detect subtle
differences, rather than blatant ones.
The more fine-grained the differences you can observe, the
better you will have understood the artist’s style.
“God is in the details.”
Notas del editor
Jean August Dominique Ingres
Bridget Riley, Hesitate, 1964
Oil paint on canvas
Dimensions Support: 1067 x 1124 mm