Tag: Blog 4

MD: Formal Analysis #4

Michael DeGennaro- Post#4 / Art 1010

What is formal analysis? In your own words explain what we mean when we say formal analysis and what its components are

 

When looking at a piece of artwork, we notice several physical elements of the work.  Take “The Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh for example.  Our eye draws us to noice the texture of swirls in the wind, the contrasts of color including the different shades of blue in the sky, a bright, radiating yellow sun, and a dark green/black mountain range.  We notice the physical definition of fore, middle and backgrounds, and begin to think about why van Gogh emphasized the Alpilles mountains, and much more. Was Van Gough depicting a windy, fall night?  Formal Analysis is defined as questioning and seeking answers to these visual and physical elements of a piece of artwork and determining the message that the artist is trying to convey.  Line including emphasis and contour, color including identifying different hues, space/mass including dimension, form (weight and volume), and scale in terms of relative size of objects are all elements that we as the viewers take into consideration. Together, these elements make up a composition, the piece of artwork itself.  When analyzing these elements, we as the viewers determine the artists intended visual effect.  For example, why things are emphasized using colors and other features, the emotion that the piece portrays, and the perception of the piece.  We as the viewers begin to contextualize and interpret the answers to these questions based on our personal experiences and education.   For example, I could think that van Gogh is painting a fall night, because of what I imagine a fall night being, certain shades of blue, and the weather itself, but my sister could think it is a summer night, based on her perception.  In formal analysis, we determine what the artist is trying to accomplish through his or her visual.

Blog post 4: 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. Composition refers to what we are first drawn to in the painting? Composition usually coexists with size, color and position; the bigger and brighter object placed right in the middle of the canvas usually will draw more attention to it than an oddly, darker placed object in the background. Line textures and darkness can also help deepen the formality of a painting by outlining different objects and creating a sense of depth. Color refers to the type of color palette the artist uses throughout his work. Is it a warm palette filled with reds, oranges and browns or is it colder with white and blues. 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: 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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