ARTWORK ANALYSIS WORKSHEET
CH. 4 & 5, LIVING WITH ART
Find one piece of art on this campus. It can
be either 2D or 3D and any medium (sculpture, print, photography, painting,
drawing, etc.) Take a photo of it with your phone or with a digital camera and
email to me. Type your responses to ALL the following sections: Description,
Analysis, Interpretation and Judgment. Address ALL the prompts in each section.
Your typed, hard copy analysis is due at
the beginning of class on TUESDAY, OCTOBER 1st. No email.
DESCRIPTION=pure description of the object without value
judgments, analysis, or interpretation.
It answers the question, “What do you see?”
How is color used (color palette,
temperatures, primaries, secondaries, tertiaries, tints, shades, saturation)?
How is line used? (how line describes shape
and space, what kinds of lines—thick, think, implied, actual, contour, curved,
straight, etc.)
How is shape/mass used? (large, small,
relationships between them—overlapping, near or far apart, etc.)
How is space used?
How is texture/pattern/surface quality used?
How is value used, value contrast, number of
values, high key, low key, full range?
How is movement or time/motion used?
How is scale used? (relationship of elements
within the art and relationship of the piece to the viewer)
Using your best guess, what medium/media and
what methods are used?
ANALYSIS
How is the artwork composed or organized?
Address each of the following—UNITY and VARIETY, BALANCE, EMPHASIS AND
SUBORDINATION, SCALE AND PROPORTION, RHYTHM, ORGANIZED, CHAOTIC, HARMONIOUS,
GEOMETRIC, CURVILINEAR
Which visual element has the most effect on the viewer’s experience of the art?
(line, shape, space, color, texture, value)
INTERPRETATION=establishing the broader context for this type of
art
It answers the question, “Why did the artist
create it and what does it mean?”
Can you express what you think the artwork is
about in one sentence?
What evidence inside or outside the artwork
supports your interpretation?
Does this piece remind you of any other art
pieces we have looked at or that you have seen before? Which ones?
Using your best guess, and considering all
the formal elements you’ve observed, what is this artwork about? What’s the
story? Is there any symbolism, reference to historical events, reference to pop
culture, reference to a specific time, place, person, etc.? Does it elicit a
specific emotion (colors??) or feeling from you?
JUDGMENT: Judging a piece of work means giving it rank in relation
to other works and of course considering a very important aspect of the visual
arts; its originality.
Is it a good artwork? Do you like it or not?
Why?
