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Formal Analysis

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When looking at a piece of art what is the first thing you see or do? I often tend to make observations and questions like,  this object appears to be bigger than the rest, why is that? why is it important? or notice that certain color choices make the painting feel warm and welcoming. Well by doing this we are essentially using Formal Analysis.

What is it? Formal Analysis is a method used to interpret art. In other words Formal Analysis is basically trying to figure out what the artist is trying to communicate by closely examining and questioning the physical piece of art. How do we do this? We do this by taking into account the various components of Formal Analysis and seeing how the artist uses them collectively. These components are color, line, scale, space, and mass.  “The term composition is used is to describe how an artist puts together all these elements in the work of art. In formal analysis, you will ask how these elements – line, color, space and mass, scale, – contribute to the work’s overall composition and visual effect” Once we have analyzed the composition we might be able to determine the subject matter. (however most of the time we may also need to do some outside research this is called contextual analysis which comes hand in hand with formal analysis.)

 

Blog Post #4: Formal Analysis

When we say a formal analysis we mean a break down of what is really going on in the image being shown and maybe why the piece was made. What is the artist trying to convey? What story is trying to tell? Why did the artist make the decisions he or she made? The components that help us answer these questions are inside and outside of the artwork. Composition and lines are big components to helping us understand the message behind a piece of art. Where things are placed and the lines help draw our eye to what’s most important. It can also help with story telling because it helps us move from one part of the piece to another hopefully in a smooth manner. Color and light also play a big role. Colors can make us feel. If an artist uses a cooler palette we may feel cold or feel there might be some sort of hostility while using a warmer palette might bring out warmer and cozier feelings. Light can show us what the artist wants us to see and shows us what is important. The lack of light, shadows can also show us what the author might want us to think about. Why is this part in the light but why is this other part hidden in the shadows? Also the time and place the art piece was made can tell you a lot about the authors reasoning for why they decided to make their art. Maybe there was a war in their country or some sort of political dispute that spurred them on to make the artwork with a message behind it.

Blog Post 4: Formal Analysis

Formal analysis is the act of examining closely the aspects of a work of art for its message. When we say formal analysis, we mean look at the aspects of the artwork, analyze where the emphasis is, and deduce what we are supposed to learn based on historical context, subject matter, and the properties of the artwork. The components of formal analysis are the physical elements of the artwork, the subject matter, and the historical context. Examples of physical elements we analyze are line, color, composition, illusion of space, and scale. By analyzing these, we can determine what the artist wants us to focus on. If we can determine the focus, we can determine the subject matter more easily. The historical context helps with subject matter too for it gives us a background for what the artist could be thinking about when (s)he decided to make this piece of art. Once we have determined the subject matter, we can get to the message or stance point behind the artwork, which is the goal of formal analysis.

Formal Analysis

Formal analysis is visually analyzing a piece of work and trying to identify the subject matter that the artist is trying to convey. While looking at an art work or any picture in general, many people get in the habit of simply scanning the picture and moving on. D’Alleva describes this as the habit of “lazy looking”. We hardly ever have the time and patience to analyze a picture to fully understand what the artist is trying to address. When we say formal analysis, not only are we visually analyzing the art, but we are also using various key components in order to further understand the artists’ key purpose of the painting. One of the key components include color and scale. What primary or secondary colors does the artist use? Is one part of the painting larger than another? Many artists use these tools to further emphasize their meaning such as figures of gods would be larger than other figures or a person in a line of fire would be wearing a bright white shirt. Artists want you to focus on the key components of the painting and in order to do so, they intentionally use color and scale to draw the audience’s attention. Another key component of formal analysis is line. Are the lines strong and continuous or are they broken up into small pieces? Artists intentionally use lines to direct the audience’s eyes and the visual movement of how a person looks at art. One last key component of formal analysis is the use of space and mass. Many artists use space and mass to create illusory characteristics that seem almost realistic to the viewers. This is also called mimesis. Artists use skills like foreshortening to create an illusion as if certain objects are receding towards us. Many artists intentionally use certain techniques in their drawings to emphasize their subject matter of their work. Formal analysis consists of many of these key components that make up the compositions of many artists.

Formal analysis

Formal analysis is how we can examine and understand art to the smallest details by seeing how the artist used their techniques to create their works. Using formal analysis involves things such as the composition, lines, color, and texture. Using these characteristics many artist use them to help us paint our own picture of what the artist is conveying. We see in todays world how advertisements use formal and contextual analysis to the fullest with how they want us to decipher their message. We see to this day how the color, scale, and composition makes us perceive works of art and define it in our own way.  We as well use formal analysis when it comes to performance art from the movement, gestures, and sounds that the artist uses. Formal analysis helps us break down works and brings us to our own understandings of things from the theater to sculptures and to advertisements we see everyday.

Formal Analysis

Formal Analysis is a way to understand an artwork by examining its use of artistic techniques and characteristics to define its meaning. When we say formal analysis, we mean to examine an artwork and give visual descriptions of it by questioning what we see, what does it means, and how it was made. While examining an art we also look at the elements such as the line, value (light and dark in a design), shapes, composition, scale, forms, space and mass, color, and texture. It is more than just describing what we see in an artwork, it is more about understanding what’s the artist trying to convey, looking for the hidden message, and adding perceptive and our personal insight. The way we interpret an artwork is based on our personal perspective, experience, emotions, and own vision, therefore art has different meanings to different people.

Formal Analysis

Works of art are always crafted, never natural or choice free. Formal analysis is an attempt to describe physical entity such as a piece of art. For formal analysis, our vision is our primary source thus making formal analysis subjective. We look at a piece of art’s formal properties, subject matter, and historical context for a formal analysis. Formal properties refers to looking at the line, color, composition, size, scale, modeling, and etc. Subject matter would be what the artist has chosen to paint, draw or sculpt. If something is analyzed “in historical context,” it means the historical circumstances in which it was produced affected the work and it’s meaning or message. Without an understanding of the era, a full understanding of the piece will be impossible.Historical context can play into artists’ influences, intentions and state of mind.

Pablo F. & The Banking Model

Freire calls traditional pedagogy the “banking model of education” because it treats the student as an empty vessel to be filled with knowledge. However, he argues the learner should be treated as a co-creator of knowledge. Freire rejects the banking approach, claiming it results in the dehumanization of both the students and the teachers. He also argues that the banking approach stimulates oppressive attitudes and practices in society. Instead, Freire advocates for a more world-mediated, mutual approach to education that encourages the co-creation of knowledge. According to Freire, this “authentic” approach to education must allow people to be aware of their incompleteness and strive to be more fully human. I agree with Freire, I think that the only way to be successful in current academic settings is simply memorization and not actually learning. That’s we we forget everything when classes end.

A Student’s View On Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy Of The Oppressed

Have you ever sat in a classroom lecture and were so confused by the material being presented to you, that you questioned why you had to be learning it in the first place?  

Personally, I can say that I’ve been there. There’s nothing worse than feeling like the slowest person in the room and feeling like it’s your fault for not comprehending what’s being taught. It’s become an expectation that as students we need to memorize and simply accept everything being taught to us from the moment we step into a classroom. Our current methods of education don’t include a negotiation between an educator and a student as to what they will be learning or how they will be learning it. It’s naturally just assumed that the educator has created a well thought out lesson plan that will accommodate every student. As a result, our education system has slowly morphed into what is known as the “Banking model of education.” 

This concept was established by Paulo Freire an educator and philosopher who believed teachers act as narrators and deposit information into students, while the students act as depositories, memorizing the information that is being given to them. He accuses this model to be creatively constricting to students by increasing their lack of critical thinking and therefore, never allowing the effect of the material to reach its full potential. As a student, I can say that I’ve been on the receiving end of the banking model. Throughout my life, I’ve had teachers teach not for the sake of having us learn, but for our performance on standardized tests. The curriculum was heavily shaped to make students appear as if they understood the material by teaching in a way that satisfied the exams. Ultimately, I performed well on most of my exams but unfortunately much of the material I “learned” was quickly forgotten.

Formal Analysis: Blog #4

When looking at a true piece of art, the human eye tends to only look at the abstract version of it. In art museums, when asked to describe the artwork, people just simply describe what’s apparent. But, what happens when we look deeper into the artist’s work? This is called formal analysis. With formal analysis, you look at the work of art and try to understand what the artist is trying to convey visually. Along with this attempt at understanding, an individual also provides their own context into the piece of art. You add your life experiences, your emotions, your education, and with this there’s a brand new interpretation. Sure there is no absolute definition of formal analysis, due to the fact that everybody’s interpretation is different. However, there are certain key components that makeup the foundation of formal analysis.

These key components are color, lines, space and mass, scale, composition, and historical context. With color, the basic step to understanding it is to identify what colors were used and how they were used. Are they vibrant or are they dull?

Lines in formal analysis can distinguish the art piece by determining if the strokes are broken up or strong and continous. This can tell you a little bit about what the artist was feeling at that point in time. Was the artist put together and mentally strong (having strong and continous lines) or was his life chaotic and messy (broken up lines)? This may also depend on how you are feeling at that point in time while looking at the work of art.

Space and mass can determine whether or not the image shows a sense of three dimensional space and portrays it as if it had weight or volume. This concept makes the image come to life as if you are looking at it in real time, during that period. With scale, the artist depicts images in smaller or larger forms. For example, an artist would depict gods as larger images while regular humans as tiny specks in comparison. This is a very important key concept when analyzing a piece of art.

The composition and historical context of art tells us what the artist was drawing and what the world was like during the life of the artist. This can really tell a story because by understnding the time period of the artist, we can understand why he/she drew the image the way he/she did. If you drew that same image that the artist drew today, it would definitely represent something different because times are different. Just look at the art placed in the Museum of Modern Art. The art pieces you see there, would have never been drawn or painted a century ago. That is because times were surely different in the 1800’s. Time is a huge concept in formal analysis and truly helps in understanding the art.

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