When Writing About a Work of Art Which Question Would Contribute Most to Your Evaluation
Art Evaluation: How to Appreciate Fine art?
How to Estimate a Painting.
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What is Art Evaluation?
The task of evaluating a work of art, such as a painting or a sculpture, requires a combination of objective data and subjective opinion. Yep, it'due south truthful that art appreciation is highly subjective, but the aim of evaluating a picture is not simply to ascertain whether y'all like/dislike a moving picture, but WHY you like/dislike it. And this requires a certain amount of knowledge. After all, your assessment of a cartoon produced by a 14-year old child in a school playground, is probable to be quite different from a similar drawing by a 40-year former Michelangelo. Similarly, ane cannot use the same standards when evaluating the true-to-life qualities of a realist portrait compared with an expressionist portrait. This is because the expressionist painter is not trying to capture the same degree of visual objectivity as his realist counterpart. To put it but, fine art evaluers need to generate facts upon which to base of operations their opinions: namely, facts nigh (1) the context of the artwork; and (2) the artwork itself. One time nosotros have the facts, nosotros tin then brand our assessment. The more data we can glean about the context, and the work of fine art itself, the more than reasoned our assessment will exist.
Definitions & Terminology
Please note that in this article, the terms "fine art evaluation", "art assessment" and "fine art appreciation" are used interchangeably.
Art Evaluation is Not Simply Liking or Disliking
Before going into detail most how to evaluate art, let us once more re-emphasize that the whole point of art appreciation is to explain WHY we like or dislike something, not but WHETHER we like information technology or not. For example, you may end up disliking a picture because it is too dark, just y'all may yet similar its subject matter, or capeesh its overall bulletin. To put it simply, saying "I don't similar this painting" is insufficient. Nosotros need to know the reasons behind your opinion, and also whether y'all think the piece of work has any positive qualities.
How to Appreciate a Work of Art
The easiest way to get to understand and therefore appreciate a work of art is to investigate its context, or background. This is because it helps us to understand what was (or might have been) in the heed of the artist at the time he created the work in question. Think of information technology as basic detective work. Starting time with these questions.
A. How to Evaluate the Context/Background of the Work?
When was the Painting Created?
Knowing the date of the work helps us to guess how it was made, and the degree of difficulty involved. For instance, landscapes produced before the popularity of photography (c.1860), or the appearance of collapsible tin paint tubes (1841), had a greater level of difficulty. Oil painting produced before the Renaissance, or subsequently the Renaissance by artists of modest means, volition not incorporate the fabled but astronomically expensive natural blue paint Ultramarine, made from ground upward mineral Lapis Lazuli.
Is the Painting Abstract or Representational?
A painting can be wholly abstract (meaning, information technology has no resemblance to whatever natural shapes: a form known as non-objective art), or organically abstruse (some resemblance to natural organic forms), or semi-abstract (figures and other objects are discernible to an extent), or representational (its figurative and other content is instantly recognizable). Obviously an abstract work has quite different aims to that of a representational work, and must be judged according to dissimilar criteria. For example, a wholly abstruse picture makes no endeavor to divert the viewer with any naturalism and thus depends entirely for its effect on its formal qualities (line, shape, colour and so on).
What Type of Painting is It?
Paintings come up in different types or categories (known as painting genres). The established genres are: Landscape, Portraiture, Genre-Paintings (everyday scenes), History, and Still Life. During the 17th century, the great European Academies, such as the Academy of Art in Rome, the Academy of Art in Florence, the Parisian Academie des Beaux-Arts, and the Royal Academy in London followed the rule laid down in 1669, by Professor Andre Felibien, Secretary to the French Academy, who ranked the genres every bit follows: (one) History Painting - with religious paintings being peradventure an independent category; (2) Portraiture; (3) Genre Painting; (4) Landscape Painting; (5) Still Life. This bureaucracy reflected the moral impact of each genre. Experts believed that a moral message could exist conveyed much more clearly through a history movie, a portrait or a genre painting, rather than a landscape or still life.
Other types of painting, in addition to the above 5, include: cityscapes, marine paintings, icons, altarpieces, miniatures, murals, illuminations, illustrations, caricatures, cartoons, poster art, graffiti, creature pictures, and so on.
A number of these painting-types take traditional rules apropos composition, subject matter and and so on. This applies peculiarly to religious fine art. Christian themes, for instance, which appear many times in Renaissance and Baroque paintings, are obliged to contain sure Holy figures, and must conform to sure compositional rules. In addition, painters often hark back to earlier pictures inside the same genre (Francis Bacon's Screaming Pope was modelled on one of the greatest portrait paintings - the Portrait of Innocent X by Velazquez). Considering of all this, paintings are best evaluated confronting other works of the same type. For more tips, see: How to Appreciate Paintings.
What School or Motion is the Painting Associated With?
A "Schoolhouse" tin be a national grouping of artists (eg. the Aboriginal Egyptian School, the Spanish School, German Expressionism) or a local group (eg. Delft Schoolhouse of Dutch Realism, New York Ashcan School, Ecole de Paris), or a general aesthetic movement (eg. Baroque, Neoclassicism, Impressionism, Fauvism, Cubism, Dada, Surrealism, Popular Art), a local or an artist group (eg. Der Blaue Reiter, New York School of abstruse expressionism, Cobra Group, Fluxus, St Ives School), or fifty-fifty a full general trend (realism, expressionism). Alternatively, the Schoolhouse may concern itself with a particular genre (eg. Barbizon Schoolhouse and Newlyn Schoolhouse, both mural groups; Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood, historical or literary-themed pictures), or painting method (eg. Neo-Impressionism, based on Pointillism - a variant of the colour theory of Divisionism), or aspect of the natural world (eg. Constructivism, devoted to reflecting the modern industrial world), or politics, or mathematical symbols (eg. the austere Neo-Plasticism).
Knowing which of many art movements the painting belongs to tin requite us a greater agreement of its composition and pregnant. In the school of Egyptian art, for instance, painters had to adhere to specific rules of painting concerning composition and color. Thus figures were sized according to their social condition, rather than by reference to linear perspective. Head and legs were always shown in profile, while optics and upper body were viewed from the front. Egyptian painters used no more than than half dozen colours: carmine, dark-green, bluish, yellow, white and black - each of which symbolized different aspects of life or decease. Other cultures and cultural schools take their own specific guidelines. Dutch Realist artists valued verbal, true-to-life replication of interiors and surroundings - except in portraiture, where the aim was to flatter the subject: cf. The Night Watch, by Rembrandt. Impressionist painters typically valued loose brushwork in order to capture fleeting impressions of low-cal. Cubists spurned the normal rules of linear perspective and, instead, disassembled their discipline into a series of apartment transparent geometric plates that overlapped and intersected at different angles. De Stijl artists similar Piet Mondrian only used geometrical forms in their pictures, while lines were always horizontal or vertical - never diagonal. And so on.
Notation that Occidental art is very dissimilar from Oriental fine art. Chinese Painting, for instance, focuses on the spiritual inner essence of things rather than exterior appearance.
Where Was the Film Painted?
Knowing where and nether what circumstances a painting is created can often improve our appreciation and agreement of the work concerned. Hither are some examples.
Balancing dangerously on acme of rickety scaffolding, Michelangelo painted the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (a gigantic surface area of 12,000 square feet) virtually unaided, during the course of 4 years between 1508 to 1512. Knowing that this masterpiece of Christian art was created in situ, rather than in a nice warm studio, helps us to appreciate the enormity of the chore.
Monet, the leader of French Impressionism, devoted his life to plein-air painting. In his subsequently years, he had a Japanese water garden with lily ponds laid out side by side to his business firm, and it was here that he produced his huge series of water-lily paintings. Pissarro also painted mostly outdoors and therefore always had a large number of unfinished paintings, because the light frequently faded earlier his piece of work was done. This explains why he painted the same scene or motif (to capture the dissimilar calorie-free) and why his brushwork was so rapid and loose. On the other paw, Manet and Degas were both metropolis folk and worked exclusively in their studio, where they could smooth and perfect their work. Other infrequent plein-air painters included the Scandinavians Kroyer and Hammershoi (known equally 'the painters of light'), who produced a number of exceptional landscapes at Skagen in Kingdom of denmark.
Surroundings can have a major impact on an artist's mood, and therefore on his painting. Van Gogh and Gauguin are cases in indicate. In his x years of painting, Van Gogh relied on dark colours while he was painting during the hard days in Holland (eg. The Irish potato Eaters, 1885); switched to lighter, brighter colours in Paris as he came under the influence of Impressionism; turned to vivid yellows when he was painting in Arles, near the Riviera (Cafe Terrasse past Dark, 1888); before reverting to darker pigments in his final menses (The Olive Pickers, 1889, and the ominous Wheat Field with Crows, 1890). In 1891, one yr later Van Gogh's expiry, the French artist Paul Gauguin set canvas for Tahiti and the Pacific Islands, where he spent most of the last 10 years of his life in astute poverty. Yet, his return to nature infused his paintings with enormous life and colour, equally well as a Primitivism which found echoes in Picasso and others.
A particularly interesting artist is the French Intimist Edouard Vuillard, who lived for threescore years with his mother, a dressmaker, in a series of apartments in Paris. His mother ran her corsetiere from home, giving Vuillard plenty of opportunity to detect the patterns, materials, colours and shapes of her dresses. All this was carefully reflected in the patternwork of his paintings.
Once, during his creative youth, the pioneer Pop creative person Robert Rauschenberg was (allegedly) and so poor that he stayed in his apartment and painted the quilt on his ain bed, decorating it with toothpaste and fingernail smoothen. The iconic work was entitled Bed (1955).
At What Point Was the Creative person in His Career? What Was His Background?
Knowing whether a painting was created early or late in a painter's life can frequently assist our appreciation of the work.
Artists typically amend their painting technique with time, attain a high signal erstwhile in mid-career, and then fade in later on years. Some artists, however, accept died at the meridian of their powers. Such artists include: Raphael (1483-1520), Caravaggio (1571-1610), January Vermeer (1632-75), Thomas Girtin (1775-1802), Richard Parkes Bonington (1802-28), Van Gogh (1853-ninety), Aubrey Beardsley (1872-98), Isaac Levitan (1860-1900), Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec (1864-1901), Amedeo Modigliani (1884-1920), Nicolas de Stael (1914-1955) and Jackson Pollock (1912-56), to name but a few. On the other paw, some artists bloom early and, while they might go along painting for decades, neglect to repeat their early success. In this category nosotros might find modern artists like Marcel Duchamp, Georges Braque, Oskar Kokoschka, Andre Derain, Maurice de Vlaminck, Kees Van Dongen - even, arguably, Picasso. But a relatively small proportion maintain their creativity into extreme one-time age, in the manner of Tintoretto, Monet, Renoir, Joan Miro and Lucian Freud.
Understanding the background of the artist can also explicate a huge amount nearly his/her painting.
The Norwegian expressionist Edvard Munch reportedly never recovered from a number of early on deaths in the family. His consequent neurotic, morbid nature can be seen in many of his works. The Mexican painter Frida Kahlo never fully recovered the use of her right leg later on contracting polio at historic period 6, and at eighteen suffered serious injuries after a bus blow. This helps to explain her endless serial of cocky-portraits, capturing her lack of mobility.
Paul Cezanne (Mont St Victoire landscapes, Bathers, and however-lifes) and Edgar Degas (ballet dancers) painted endless painstaking versions of certain subjects. One probable reason for this, is that neither depended on their art for their living. Certainly neither attempted much portraiture, which was the well-nigh financially rewarding of the genres. On the other hand, both men were more than classicist in their outlook than their Impressionist colleagues, which helps to explain their precise and meticulous methods of working.
Where Was the Intended Location of the Painting? (if any)
Manifestly a painting designed to occupy a big space on the wall of a 16th century Spanish monastery dining hall (awe-inspiring, inspirational religious pic) is going to be radically unlike from i intended for the study of a prosperous cloth merchant in 17th century Amsterdam (small-scale, polished portrait, interior or withal life). Likewise, a painting designed for the reception area of a hi-tech software in California (large modern abstract moving picture, mayhap geometric or expressionist) is likely to be different from 1 installed in the boardroom of a individual bank in the Metropolis of London (traditional 19th century landscape). Of course, these suggestions are no more than stereotypical possibilities, but they serve to illustrate the part and characteristics of site-specific works of art.
B. How to Evaluate the Work of Art Itself
Come across: How to Capeesh Paintings.
See also: Famous Paintings Analyzed.
In one case we have investigated or researched the context of the painting, we can brainstorm to capeesh the work itself. Knowing how to appreciate a painting is itself an art rather than a science. And perhaps the most difficult aspect of fine art evaluation is judging the painting method itself: that is, how the bodily painting has been done? It is with bully humility therefore that nosotros offering these suggestions for how to evaluate the bodily painting technique used.
What Materials were Used in the Cosmos of the Painting?
What sort of pigment was used? What type of footing or support did the painter employ? The answers to these questions can replenish interesting information about the intentions of the artist. The standard materials are oil paint on sail. Oil because of its richness of colour, canvas because of its adjustability. Even so, acrylics or watercolours are used instead of oils when thin glazes are required, and acrylics are also improve when large apartment areas of colour are chosen for. The American abstract expressionists Marker Rothko and Barnett Newman, both famous for their awe-inspiring coloured canvases, experimented in the 1950s with a mixture of oil and acrylics. Watercolour and acrylic paints also dry out much faster than oils, and are therefore ideally suited for rapidly worked paintings. Wooden panel paintings are sometimes used equally an alternative to canvas when very precise paintwork is intended (miniatures were/are still painted on wood, copper or fifty-fifty slate panels), or in conjunction with tempera or acrylics when the artist wants to build up the paint in very thin layers.
Sometimes the painting surface, its support and its frame is made a specific characteristic of the work of art. In the early 1960s French contemporary art was dominated by the far-left avant garde Supports-Surfaces grouping, whose members painted large-calibration canvases without stretchers (the physical back up behind the sail), while materials were often cut, woven, or crumpled. The Italian painter Lucio Fontana also made a name for himself in the 60s with his "slashed" canvases, allowing the spectator to come across through the picture airplane to the three-dimensional space across, which itself becomes part of the work. Recently, Angela de la Cruz, one of the gimmicky artists nominated for the 2010 British Turner Prize, has go noted for her canvases which, subsequently being painted, are then taken off their stretcher back up and crumpled, and rehung.
What is the Content & Subject Matter of the Painting?
What is being depicted in the painting? If it'due south a historical picture or mythological painting, inquire yourself these questions: What consequence is being shown? What characters are involved, and what are their roles? What message does the painting comprise? If it'southward a portrait, ask yourself these questions: Who is the sitter? How does the artist portray him/her? What features or aspects of the sitter are given prominence or attention? If it's a genre-scene, ask yourself these questions: What scene is being depicted? What is happening? What message (if any) does the painter take for the states? Why has he called this particular scene? If it's a landscape, ask yourself these questions: What is the geographical location of the view in the film? (eg. Is it a favourite haunt of the painter?) What is the artist trying to convey to us most the landscape? If it'due south a nevertheless-life, ask yourself these questions: What objects - no affair how seemingly insignificant - are included in the pic? Why has the artist chosen these particular items? Why has he laid them out in the fashion he has? All the same lifes are known for their symbolism, so information technology'due south worth analyzing the objects painted, to see what each might symbolize.
How to Appreciate Composition in a Painting?
Composition means the overall design (disegno), the general layout. And how a painting is laid out is vital since it largely determines its visual impact. Why? Because a well composed painting will attract and guide the viewer's heart effectually the picture. Painters who excelled at composition were invariably classically trained in the slap-up academies, where limerick was a highly regarded element in the painting process. Three supreme examples are Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665), J.A.D Ingres (1780–1867) and Edgar Degas (1834-1917).
Lack of space prevents the states from going into item hither, but nosotros recommend a study of the following works: The Holy Family unit in Arab republic of egypt (1655-vii, Hermitage, St Petersburg) by Poussin; The Bather of Valpincon (1808, Louvre, Paris) by Ingres; and Absinthe (1876, Musee d'Orsay) by Degas.
In the first piece of work - which shows Joseph and Mary resting next to a temple in a town - Poussin's demonstrates his amazing ability to position everything in the painting exactly every bit it should be, for maximum optical harmony, and to convey of import messages that are consistent with the overall theme. Put simply, everything in the picture has a very specific purpose, and a specific position. In the 2d work - a simpler interior of a windowless chamber in which we meet the back of an anonymous female person nude who is sitting on the bed - Ingres creates a highly symbolic organization of colours, forms and angles, which infuses the picture with voyeuristic mystery. The 3rd picture - i of the greatest genre paintings always - depicts a prostitute sitting in a Paris cafe, with a glass of absinthe in front of her; another man sits next to her; both are lost in thought and in their own world. In this work, Degas uses a series of angles and lines, also as gloomy dark colours, to capture the jail cell-like isolation and depressing solitude of individuals in the heart of a major metropolis. All three works offering a number of important insights that volition help you to appreciate the composition of paintings.
How to Appreciate Line and Shape in a Painting?
The skill of a painter is often revealed in the force and confidence of his line (outline), creating and delineating the diverse shapes in his picture. In a famous story, an important patron sends a messenger to Giotto, the not bad pre-Renaissance painter. The messenger asks Giotto for proof of identity, whereupon the artist produces a paintbrush and a piece of linen, on which he paints a perfect circle. He then hands it to the messenger, saying: "your Main will know exactly who painted this." Line is a crucial element in the structure of a painting, and explains why drawing was regarded by all Renaissance experts as the greatest attribute of an artist. In fact, when the great European Academies of Fine Arts first opened, students were not taught painting (colorito) at all - merely drawing. Some of the finest draftsmen were portrait painters, whose line could be almost faultless: a modern instance is the classically trained portraitist John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) who was a chief of the "au premier coup" technique - ane verbal stroke of the brush, with no re-working. Among modern artists with no classical grooming, the paintings of Van Gogh and Gauguin stand up out as having exceptionally strong and confident lines.
In figurative painting: (1) examine how the creative person uses chiaroscuro to optimize the 3-D quality of his figures; (ii) see whether he uses tenebrism as part of his programme of illumination in order to put the spotlight on certain parts of the picture; (three) look if the painter is using the technique of sfumato in the blending of colour.
How to Appreciate Colour in a Painting?
Color in painting is a major influence on our emotions, and therefore plays a huge office in how we appreciate fine art. Curiously, although we can identify up to 10 1000000 variants of color, there are only 11 basic colour terms in the English language linguistic communication - black, white, cherry-red, orange, yellowish, light-green, blue, purple, pink, chocolate-brown and grey. So talking precisely about colour is not like shooting fish in a barrel. Incidentally, as regards terms: a "hue" is a synonym for colour; a "tint" is a lighter version (eg. pink) of a item colour (scarlet); a "shade" is a darker version (eg. magenta); "tone" is the lightness, intensity or brilliance of a colour. Incidentally, many works by Erstwhile Masters are start to darken with age, which makes them look less bonny. Information technology can also brand even the all-time fine art museums look actress gloomy!
Colour is used past painters in several ways. Take Marker Rothko's paintings for instance. Rothko was one of the outset painters to create huge abstract canvases saturated with rich colours - yellows, oranges, reds, blues, indigos and violets. His aim was to stimulate an emotional response from the viewer. And why non? After all, color psychology is already exerting a huge influence on interior designs for hospitals, schools and other institutions.
Historically, Impressionism and expressionism (notably Fauvism) were the first international movements to exploit the full potential of color. Academic painters adhered to conventional color schemes - green grass, blue/gray sea and and so on, but modern artists painted what they saw (Impressionists) or how they felt (Expressionists): if that meant painting crimson grass, so be it. Figurative art was given the aforementioned handling as landscapes: thus the "Russian Matisse" Alexei von Jawlensky (1864-1941) set new standards for the utilize of colour in portraiture, while Degas used colour to add gloss to his ballet stars, and despair to his absinthe drinker. Other artists employ a monochrome tonal colour scheme across the whole picture in gild to create a item mood. Supreme exemplars include Corot'south romantic landscapes, Atkinson Grimshaw's nocturnal scenes, Whistler's tonal nocturnes, Peter Ilsted'south interiors, Kroyer's landscapes, Hammershoi's interiors, and the "Blueish" and "Rose" catamenia works by Picasso (1881-1973), to name but a few.
To sum upwardly, painters apply colour to stimulate the emotion, capture the naturalist effects of calorie-free, lend character to a figure or scene, and add depth to an abstract or semi-abstract work. It may also be used to attract the viewer'due south eye. If yous want to learn how to appreciate paintings, pay close attention to how the artist employs color. Inquire yourself: Why has he/she chosen this/that particular hue? How does it contribute to the mood or composition of the picture? How do the differing colours used relate to each other: do they create harmony or friction?
How to Appreciate Texture and Brushwork in a Painting?
When it comes to learning how to evaluate texture and brushwork in painting, at that place is no substitute for visiting a gallery or museum and seeing some canvases for yourself. Even the best art books are incapable of replicating texture to any extent. In one case again, information technology tends to be classically trained painters who excel at differing textures, and apply of impasto. Ingres would fifty-fifty cull certain subjects (eg. The Valpincon Bather 1808, La Grande Odalisque 1914) in order to show off his skill in capturing the texture of materials like nacre, mother-of-pearl and silk. At whatever rate, how well a painter handles texture is a skillful guide to the strength of his/her painting technique.
Brushwork can be tight (slower, precise, controlled) or loose (more rapid, more coincidental, more expressionistic). It is largely adamant past the style and mood of the painting, rather than (say) the temperament of the artist. Caravaggio had a violent hot temperament, yet his paintings were models of controlled brushwork. Cezanne had a irksome temperament: he painted so slowly that all the fruit in his nevertheless lifes rotted away weeks before he finished. Nevertheless the brushwork in many of his works is uncommonly loose. Generalising wildly, nosotros might say that the brushstrokes of realist painters tend to be more deliberate, and more controlled than expressionists. When the Impressionists held their first exhibition in Paris, in 1874, critics and spectators were horrified at what they called the "sloppiness" of the brushstrokes. They had to stand up much further away from the paintings before the exact image took shape. Present we are quite at ease with Impressionism, but in the beginning its super-loose brushwork acquired a scandal.
When information technology comes to evaluating a flick, the question to inquire is: Does the brushwork add or detract from the painting?
How to Appreciate Dazzler in a Painting?
Aesthetics is an intensely personal discipline. We all see things differently, including "art", and especially "beauty". In add-on, painting is first and foremost a visual art - something nosotros see, rather than recollect well-nigh. So if nosotros are asked whether we think a painting is beautiful, we are likely to give a fairly instant response. Still, if we are so asked to evaluate the beauty (or lack thereof) of a painting - meaning, explain and requite reasons - well, its a dissimilar story. So to help y'all clarify the situation, here are some questions to ask yourself well-nigh the painting. Most are concerned with the harmony, regularity and balance that is visible.
What Proportions are Evident in the Picture show?
Greek art and Renaissance art was often based on sure rules of proportion, which accorded with classical views on optical harmony. Then maybe the beauty you see (or not) tin be partly explained past reference to the proportions (of objects and figures) in the work.
Are Certain Shapes or Patterns Repeated in the Painting? Do the Colours Used in the Painting Complement Each Other?
According to psychologists, repetition of pleasing shapes, specially in symmetrical patterns, tin relax the eye and the brain, causing us to feel pleasure.
Colour schemes with complementary hues or tonal variations are known for their appealing upshot on the senses.
Does the Pic Draw You in? Does information technology Maintain Your Attending?
The greatest paintings are the easiest to wait at. They attract our attending, and then "signposts" guide our eye effectually the work.
How Does the Painting Compare With Others?
Everything is relative. So how does the painting in front of you compare with similar types of painting by the same creative person? If it's a mature work, y'all may find it improves on before ones, and vice versa. If yous tin't discover others past the aforementioned artist, try looking at similar works past other artists. Ideally, start with works painted in the same decade, and then gradually move forrad in time. You lot can't look at too many paintings!
Tips on How to Capeesh Abstract Art
Abstract paintings are not like shooting fish in a barrel to evaluate. It's okay when they follow a general theme, like Cubism, or when they include recognizable features, but purely concrete fine art - which uses simply geometric symbols - tends to be too cognitive for comfort! That said, many abstract painters have made a huge contribution to gimmicky culture, and we demand to try to understand them. Then here are a few tips.
Wholly abstract painting frees u.s.a., the viewers, from any optical associations with real life. (This is why many artists work in the abstract idiom). And then we are not distracted by anything outside the painting and nosotros tin can concentrate exclusively on the painterly aspects of the work: that is, the line, shape, colour, texture, brushwork etc.
In particular, ask yourself: (1) How does the artist separate upwards the canvas? (2) How does the artist direct our eye, and where does it linger? (three) How does the artist use color to create depth, attract attending, or endow certain shapes with particular significance or meaning? (4) What specific forms does the work contain, and what do you think they mean? (5) Sometimes abstract artists utilize colour very sparingly, and deliberately create a minimalist look. If you lot discover yourself unable to say much about such works, don't worry: everyone has difficulty with them! The best matter to do is to research one particular work, and find out what a top "fine art expert" thinks virtually information technology. Yous may still not similar information technology, but at least y'all volition know what to look for. (6) In general, abstract paintings are much more cerebral than other works. They need to be deciphered! Then instead of throwing up your hands and saying - "I don't understand this awful painting!", treat it like a puzzle and see if you tin can work out what the creative person is aiming at.
See also: How to Appreciate Paintings.
How to Evaluate Art: A Few Final Questions
After investigating the context of the painting, and the work itself, nosotros come up to a few final questions.
• What is the Painting Trying to Say?
This general question involves everything you lot have discovered or decided about the work.
• How Does the Painting Make you Feel?
This focuses exclusively on your subjective reaction to the work.
• Is the Touch of the Painting Mostly Visual, or Mostly Cognitive?
This obliges you to analyze your reaction.
• Would Yous Like to Meet it Hanging on a Wall in your business firm?
This allows y'all to consider the work from a unlike angle.
• Would you Like to See More Examples of Similar Types of Paintings?
You might not be wild about this piece of work, simply you might like the style.
History of Art Criticism: Famous Critics
You don't accept to know anything virtually art critics or their history in guild to know how to appreciate art. And then nosotros won't bore y'all with details. However, a few snippets might help to reassure y'all that even experts can disagree about whether a painting is a work of genius or consummate rubbish.
Denis Diderot (1713-84) is regarded as the founding father of fine art criticism, due to his editorship of the Encyclopedie (1751-2). Rather sentimental in his artistic gustation, he did lots of important things, virtually of which are as well boring to mention.
Theophile Thore (1807-69) is more interesting: he was the French fine art writer and historian who famously 'rediscovered' Jan Vermeer (1632-75) and established him as ane of the greatest ever painters. Not much help to Vermeer, though. The poor human being could hardly pay his staff of life bills, made no money from his painting and savage into obscurity after an early death.
Another historic art critic was the 19th century poet Charles Baudelaire (1821-67). He famously launched the career of Felicien Rops (ever heard of him?), and as well singled out the artist Constantin Guys for special mention (never heard of him, either). Nice one Charles. He was likewise a regular writer on the annual Paris Salon, whose old fashioned regime banned all the actually skillful artists who eventually staged a number of rival exhibitions including the Salon des Refuses (1863), the Salon des Independants (1884-1914) and the Salon d'Automne (1903-onwards).
In Switzerland and inside the German-speaking world, arguably the greatest art historian after Johann Winckelmann, was Jacob Burckhardt (1818-97), Professor of History at Basel University. His most famous book - "The Civilization of the Renaissance in Italy" (Die Kultur der Renaissance in Italien), published in 1860 - explored the totality of the Italian Rinascimento and had a major impact on 19th century art critics.
Over in England, the greatest 19th century art critic was John Ruskin (1819-1900). A talented artist and cute author, remembered for classics like his 5-volume Modern Painters (1843-60), the Seven Lamps of Compages (1849) and the 3-volume Stones of Venice (1851-3), he eventually went mad, only non earlier he lost a famous libel case to Whistler.
See also: Greatest Modern Paintings (1800-1900).
Roger Fry (1866-1934) was a highly influential English art critic who had a beautifully mellifluous voice. He built up his reputation as an practiced on the Italian Renaissance and became curator of paintings at the Metropolitan Museum of Fine art in New York (1906-10). Notwithstanding, in 1907 Fry 'discovered' Cezanne, and switched his interest to Mail service-Impressionism - condign the move's greatest champion. In London, in 1910 and 1912 he curated two seminal exhibitions of Post-Impressionism. Many visitors idea Fry was insane. His chief apostle was the writer, art critic and formalist Clive Bong (1881-1964).
Herbert Read (1893-1968) was a famous 20th century English art critic and the foremost interpreter of modern art. Published numerous works including The Meaning of Art (1931), Art Now (1933), Education Through Art (1943), A Concise History of Modernistic Painting (1959) and A Concise History of Modern Sculpture (1964). Enough said.
Back in France, the leading art critic of the early 20th century was the poet Guillaume Apollinaire (1880-1918). A brilliant propagandist of Picasso, Cubism, Orphism, Marc Chagall, Giorgio de Chirico, Andre Derain, Henri Matisse, Henri Rousseau and Marcel Duchamp, his art evaluation was impeccable.
Surrealism had its own in-house propagandists like Andre Breton (1896-1966), and by the time Globe War II broke out but about every artist had left Paris and gone to New York, which now became the World centre of art. Its leading art critics were Clement Greenberg (1909-94), Harold Rosenberg (1906-78) and John Canaday (1907-85). Greenberg, a former Trotskyist, favoured abstract works similar Jackson Pollock'due south paintings and wrote Art and Civilisation (1961) along with monographs on Miro (1948) and others. Unfortunately while he certainly knew how to capeesh painting, much of the avant-garde fine art he liked and so much is almost indecipherable - rather like Greenberg himself. Rosenberg, like Greenberg, was a follower of avant garde abstraction. Canaday, the New York Times art reviewer, was i of the few influential critics of abstract expressionism.
Kenneth Clark (1903-83), despite being more than of a traditionalist than most 20th century critics, was arguably the most influential, due to his creation of the award-winning BBC Idiot box documentary serial "Civilisation" which was highly successfull in both Britain and America, and across the English-speaking world.
Information technology's Impossible to Capeesh All Art
French Impressionism is one of the most successful and influential fine art movements of all fourth dimension. However in the beginning information technology was met with derision, not simply past the critics but by all sections of the viewing public. Monet, Renoir and Pissarro nearly starved. Sisley died in poverty.
In the Leap of 1913, the Armory Evidence - the greatest exhibition of mod art ever seen in the Usa - was held in Manhattan, before travelling to Chicago and Boston. Virtually 300,000 Americans saw the 1300 exhibits, which featured the most up-to-date European painting plus a choice of the best contemporary American fine art. Opinions varied enormously, particularly when it came to Cubist and other 20th century works. Riots broke out in response, and the artist Marcel Duchamp was physically attacked by a mob who were determined to burn down down the testify.
The lesson? Not all high quality art is easily appreciated or understood.
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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF Fine art
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