Analyze artworks in terms of formal elements and compositional principles and how to use art 

This 1.5-page essay satisfies the University Writing Requirement for Lower Division G.E. Courses in the Humanities. It provides students the opportunity to cultivate their writing skills and develop their formal analysis skills.

More instructions will be given in class. You will learn how to analyze artworks in terms of formal elements and compositional principles, and how to use art vocabulary. Students will select one artwork to work on from Dan Nadaner’s exhibition at Conley Art Gallery on campus between August 26-September 13. Please see its website: http://fresnostate.edu/artshum/artanddesign/gallery/ (Links to an external site.).

You will choose only one work, and that work must NOT have photographic elements. There are actually artworks with photographic elements on one wall at the exhibition that you MUST NOT Choose. Beside them, you may choose any painting or print at the exhibition. There is no entrance fee and you can take picture of the work as well.

Paper Structure

Introduction – introducing the work and thesis statement, which could be how you feel about the work and what you think its messages are.

Supporting body paragraphs – using the formal analytic skills cultivated in the class and learned from the textbook; mentioning the media; analyzing both formal elements and compositional principles; using the technical/formal/visual terms to describe the artwork; always referring back to the thesis statement of how each of the formal elements make you feel or understand it that way. The formal analysis components should include formal elements (line, light and value, color, texture and pattern, shape and volume, space, time and motion, and chance, improvisation, and spontaneity) and compositional principles (balance, rhythm, proportion and scale, emphasis, unity, and variety)

Conclusion – succinctly reaffirming your thesis statement as it is related to formal elements and compositional principles

Please attach a COLOR PHOTO of the artwork you choose to your hard-copy paper as well.

Details

Your paper should: Be typed; Have a title; Include your name and Student ID; Be double-spaced; Have 12-point, academic font; 1” margin; Have 1.5 pages of text; Not necessarily have references; Include the picture of the artwork; Be stapled. Make sure that you edit your paper for clarity, spelling, and grammatical errors. Please visit the Writing Center at the Library if you need any assistance. (http://www.fresnostate.edu/artshum/writingcenter/ (Links to an external site.))

Submission

Turn in 2 copies of your paper: one in class, and one online on Canvas through this Assignment Page.

Papers that are not both submitted digitally through the Turnitin and physically in class at the proper due date will not be graded. No make-ups or extensions unless in the case of a documented emergency.

NOTES/TERMS

-Art is the queen of all sciences — Da Vinci

-Every child is an artist — Picasso

-Could say things in colors and shapes — Georgia O’ Keeffe

-Art should reveal the unknown — Juane Quick – to – See Smith

-Art is everywhere, except it has to pass through a creative mind — Louise Nevelson

-Art is a primarily visual medium that is used to express ideas about our human experience and the world around us.

-Ancient Greeks – Expresses intelligence, clearness, balance, and harmony (5th-6thcenturies)

-Not universal, cultures are constantly changing and alive

-Has extraordinary forms

-Function, visual form, content, aesthetics

Functions

-Fertility and human reproduction

-Pictures of dieties and places of worship

-Commemorates the dead, serves the afterlife

-Glorifies the power

-Reveals social justices

-Records individuals, bodies, and emotions

-Promotes cohesion within a social group

-Educates us about the world / Entertains us

8/27/2019

-Contemporary art is a mirror held up to show us our current condition. Some are temporary

-Artwork has power to tell, has function

-Visual form, very important

-Materials are part of meaning (value of material)

-Forms of sculptures are important to convey message

-3d — flat – Makes a difference in perception of the art piece

Aesthetics

-Involve the look and feel of an artwork and the attributes that elevate it above other objects

-Change from age to age and from place to place

-Not universal

Art and Style Vocabulary

-Representational – contain entities from the world

-Naturalistic – Very much as seen in nature

-Idealized – Strives for perfection

-Expressionist – Heightened emotions, urgency and spontaneity

-Surreal – Bizarre, fantasy, unconscious mind

-Abstract – Derives from reality but distorted

-Nonobjective – nonrepresentational, not recognizable

-Individual style

-i.e., Van Gogh’s starry night

-Fine Art

-Refined objects considered to be among the highest cultural achievements of the human race

-Around the colonial period

-Popular culture

-Consists of magazines, comics…

-More accessible, inexpensive, entertaining, commercial, political

-Usually related to consumerism

-Andy Warhol

-Craft

-Involves making objects rather than images, although craft may involve surface decoration

-Utilitarian purpose or utilitarian origin

-Art has functions?

-Art making

-Depends on specific contexts

-Stepped Pyramid of Djoser, Imhotep, 2650-2631 BCE

-Apprentices – help the master and copy

Roles of Artists

-Socio-political and spiritual leaders, for example

-Candi Sukuh, Eastern Java, Indonesia

-c. 15thcentury

The Language of Art and Architecture

Structural systems

Traditional

-Load bearing walls

-Post and lintel architecture

-wood frame construction

-Arches

-Vaulting

-Domes

Modern

-Steel frame buildings

-reinforced concrete structures

-truss and geodesic construction

Formal Elements — Line

-Mathematically, a line is a moving point, having length and no width

-Actual lines – Made with drawing or writing materials, physically exist

-Implied lines – Not physically exist, yet seem real, like dotted lines

-Directions – Horizontal, vertical, diagonal, curve, meandering

-Line quality – Thick strokes, wispy lines, crisp line…
-Lines that depict 3-D objects

-Horizontal – Sleep, quiet

-Vertical – Aspiration, yearning

-Not universal