A Short Guide to Writing About Art

Writing about Art.

1.     Why Write about Art?

a.     Helps us talk about and clarify our responses.

b.     When we write we become the teacher.

c.      We learn our responses, likes, dislikes, and uncertainties.

d.     We hope to interest our readers.

2.     To write effectively we need to have:

a.     Some understanding of the thing, and

b.     Some skill at converting responses into words.

3.     We need to keep our imagined audience in mind:

a.     Determines the level of detail.

b.     How much background we need to provide.

c.      Which terms we need to define.

d.     What kinds of evidence we need to provide.

4.     Tell the imagined audience:

a.     What they need to know.

b.     In an orderly way.

c.      In a language they will understand.

5.     What is criticism:

a.     To find fault or

b.     Identify excellence.

6.     The function of a critic:

a.     Introduce viewers to new works.

b.     Form a defendable position as to why the works are of value.

c.      Show relationships between ages for the person not versed in the arts.

d.     Increase the understanding of a work of art.

e.     Throw light on the process of making.

f.      Throw light on relation to art, music ethics, religion.

g.     Showing, observing, and illuminating.

7.     Critical Thinking implies careful analysis.

8.     Thesis Statement:  Names the topic and makes arguable assertions about it that is supported in writing.

9.     Interpretations:  Finding the meaning(s).  The meaning it had for:

a.     The artist.

b.     First audience.

c.      Later audiences.

d.     Today’s Audience.

e.     “The picture lives only through the man viewing it.

10.  Meaning versus aesthetics: 

a.     Images were once meant for social change, political or religious expression are transformed into aesthetic images for enjoyment.

b.     Point to the evidence when describing a work.

                                               i.     Emotional statements have little meaning with the evidence to support them.

                                              ii.     Readers are generally not interested in the writers opinion.

11. Writing:

a.     Writing is an exploration. You start from nothing and learn as you go.

b.     What can be said at a all can be said clearly.

c.      Kinds of writing:

                                               i.     To inform

                                              ii.     To persuade.

d.     Most of academic writing about art is:

                                               i.     Analytic:  It is concerned with examining relationships.

e.     Analysis consists of a wide range of activities:

                                               i.     Description

                                              ii.     Interpretation.

                                            iii.     Analysis or explanation

                                            iv.     Personal report or response.

                                              v.     Evaluation.

f.      Prolonged descriptions become boring and hold little interest.

g.     The process should:

                                               i.     Teach you, and then

                                              ii.     Engage the reader and teach them.

12. Formal Analysis assumes a work of art is:

a.     A constructed object.

b.     With a stable meaning,

c.      That can be determined by studying the relationships of the elements.

                                               i.     Art can be referenced to its purpose.

                                              ii.     A description is an inventory of the object.

d.     To show intended meanings are communicated in an aesthetic object.

13. Art objects use to be:

a.     Things of value in and of itself.  An object of beauty that projects a profound or universal insight.

b.     But are now,

c.      An object that reflects the power structure of a society.

                                               i.     Criticism looks for fissures and slippages that reveal social and political realities.

14. Cautions with digital images:

a.     Reproductions do not give good sense of the original.  Textures and colors are off.

b.     Size is completely different and difficult to imagine.

c.      Original presentations (frames) are lost.

15. Art does not reproduce what we see, it makes us see.

a.     Content is meaning made visible.

16. Portrait:

a.     Reveals inner character.

b.     A construction created by artist and sitter.

c.      What’s it’s level of realism and why.

d.     What does props and background mean.

e.     What sort of identity is presented, social or psychological.

f.      Is it about the sitter or about the artist.

g.     Full or ¾ - dynamic personalities.

h.     Profile – Disconnected.

i.       Does it show relationships.

17. Landscape

a.     What is the relationship between human and nature.

b.     Are the elements earthbound or skybound.

c.      What do the constructions say about the landscape.

d.     Do natural objects reflect human emotions.

e.     What does the landscape say about the society for which it was created.

f.      If no signs of people are present does it reflect something about god.

g.     A social construction of nature a landscape changed by man.

18. Color – Highly personal and culturally influenced.

a.     Hue is color

b.     Value is brightness

c.      Saturation is intensity.

19. Architecture can be evaluated.

a.     On its structural integrity.

b.     On its space

c.      Its beauty or design.

20. If you really want to see something, look at something else.

a.     Everything is what it is and not another thing.