The Starry Night, 1889
Vincent Van Gogh, 1853-1890 |
These are the questions you must answer in your essay. If you know which questions to ask yourself, you can easily write the essay. Just state the facts!
Description
- The name of the artwork is ________.
- The artist who created this work is _________.
- Give a literal description of the painting. (In this painting I see a farmhouse with a mountain in the background.)
- What kind of lines do you see. Describe them. (Short, choppy, flowing, fine, thick etc.)
- What kind of texture do you see. Don't confuse the smooth texture of the paper with the visual texture of the painting. (Rough, smooth, pebbly, fuzzy etc.)
- What kind of shapes do you see. (organic, geometric?)
- What kind of colors does the artist use? Be specific. Is there a color scheme apparent in the artwork?
- What kinds of forms do you see? Form talks about an object having height, width and depth. On a painting the artist creates the illusion of form by shading objects so they have solidity and mass.
Analysis
- How is the painting balanced?
- Where are the light areas?
- Where are the dark areas? (Contrast)
- What is the first thing I see when I look at the painting. (Emphasis)
- What king of space is used? (Deep or shallow? Is perspective used? Is the painting flat or two dimentional?
- What do you see repeated in the art work. Which element of design is used over and over again? Texture? A particular color? (Rhythm and Repetition)
- What particular element of design helps keep the art work unified? (ie. The texture in a pointillism painting.)
Interpretation
- Does the artist seem primarily concerned with imitating nature? This means he/she is trying to paint realistically.
- Does the artist seem mostly interested in expressing a feeling or emotion? (The Scream)
- Does the prime concern of the artist seem to be the elements of design. (Broadway Boogie Woogie)
- Does the name of the artwork tell you about it's meaning or purpose?
- Create a sentence that describes what you think is the meaning of the painting.
Judgement
The artwork is an excellent/good/ bad example of :
- Imitationalism (Highly realistic)
- Emotionalism (Makes the viewer feel a certain way.)
- Formalism (The subject is the elements and principles of design, usually a non-objective work of art.)
Does the artist exaggerate, distort or abstract the image?
I like or dislike the painting with a rational. ( A rationale is a reason. Stating your like or dislike of the painting.)
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