Describing Artwork

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DESCRIBING ARTWORK What Do I See?

description

 

Transcript of Describing Artwork

Page 1: Describing Artwork

DESCRIBING ARTWORKWhat Do I See?

Page 2: Describing Artwork

DESCRIPTION DEFINED

Description A data gathering process One notices things about it and tell another

person what you observe verbally or in writing Questions you ask

What is here? What am I looking at? What do I know with certainty about this

artwork? What to notice

Notice everything Some things that are obvious to you are not

obvious to others

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DESCRIPTION DEFINED Descriptive information includes:

Subject matter-what the artwork is about or the object being portrayed

Medium-what is it made of? Form-how is the subject matter presented? Background Info

About the artist Time period it was made in Social Milieu it came from

Description is factual information Closely describes what can be seen within the

artwork Also, can be from external sources like: the

artist, books, press releases

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DESCRIBING SUBJECT MATTER

Identifies persons, objects, places, or events in an artwork Identify what you see and characterize it

Characterize-describe character or peculiarities of

Subject matter can be the same-as or different than the subject Subject may be 4500 nude people Subject matter is a call for freedom

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Subject is 4500 nude people

Subject matter is a call for freedom

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Subject Matter was described by an art critic as, “ranchers, housekeepers, rodeo riders, oil drillers, pig men, meatpackers, and an army of unemployed drifters.” One drifter is tall and enigmatic and the snake is wrapped coyly around the boy’s arms.

Another critic calls the subject matter “a human cyclorama” and describes the apparent dysfunctions of the people.

Another critic started by telling about his older work first and then talk about it as a catalog of theodd.

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Simple but hard to define subject matter

Subject matter could be cultural construction of femininity, characters in dramas, women represented in media, women as pictured by male producers

To simply say they are self portraits is to misidentify them

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Photos by: Larry Sultan

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DESCRIBING FORM

Form is how the subject matter is presented The shape of content How it is composed, arranged, and constructed

visually How does it use formal elements?

Principles of Design Dot, line, shape, light, value, color, texture, mass,

space, volume, tonal range, contrast, camera or file format, point of view, angle and lens, frame and edge, depth of field, sharpness

How does that form affect the subject matter?

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A critic talks about the form of this photograph•Scale of the objects•Understanding of everyday objects is redefined•Arrangement of the objects•Controlled lighting•Reflections•Natural color•Organic objects placed with manmade; juxtaposition

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Photos By: Andreas Magdanz

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DESCRIBING MEDIUM

Medium refers to what an object is made of The medium itself can inflect meaning Usually medium describes

Photograph or painting or… Kind of paint, photo, print… Black and white or color Size, shape… Any process info

To fully describe medium include facts about the process as well as description of how these things effect the overall expression of the image

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Subject matter is unclear

Medium• Photogram• Van Dyke• chicken bones• watermelon seeds• red beans and rice

The materials used have their own connotations

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Medium is Cibachrome or color photograph, but the installation has whole eggshells, cast paper bathroom fixtures, casts of snakes

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Custom made macro lenses

Specialized printing method

softened the emulsion so that flakes of it washed away

Printed on soft paper

*The medium enhances the subject matter

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DESCRIBING STYLE

Style-a resemblance among diverse art objects from an artist, movement, time period, or geographical location and is recognized by a characteristic handling of the subject matter or formal elements Photographic styles include directorial

photography and snapshot aesthetic Painting styles include: traditional, impasto,

different types of strokes, pointillism.. When describing style you should look at the

artwork’s subjects, the use of the medium and the formal elements

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Directorial Photography

Jeff Wall

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Snapshot Aesthetic

Nan Goldin

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Straight Photography

Ansel Adams

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Compare and Contrast

Compare and contrast the artwork to other works by the same artist, to other artists’ works

This lets you see what the photo has in common with or differs from another work

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Internal and External Sources

Getting information from the artist or some other source

You cannot observe from the photos that 12 of 4200 frames were chosen to be shown and who commissioned the work, and that is descriptive information

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Description and Interpretation

You decide, as you describe an artwork, what is relevant in the artwork or what is worthy to describe and discuss

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Description and Evaluation

Your judgments about an artwork are going to color how you describe it

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Description and Evaluation One critic described the

work as representations of some of the most repressed and oppressed images of human behavior

Another critic described them as bizarre and sometimes extraordinary

Joel-Peter Witkin