Western Michigan University Zack’s Chair Art Essay

I have placed instructions and videos, a grading rubric, and the visual items you may pick from in the content area of your elearn too.

Your job is to discuss a work of art from the Formal Analysis section I have placed in elearn under the section “items to pick from” for you.

NO OTHER WORKS MAY BE DISCUSSED. The e-learn items will be placed under the content and the assessment “instructions” category called “the formal analysis”. YOU MUST WRITE IN ESSAY FORM—do not give me chunks of info.

2 1/2 page paper—Called a Formal Analysis (This is not a research paper). You will not look up anything—you will only use the items discussed in the power point called Formal Analysis. I will give a zero if any other items, but, those I have placed for you to pick from are used.

General rules:

• Double space your paper
• Use New Times Roman or Calibri font (Ariel is good too)
• Do not start your paper 1/3 of the way down the page—begin it at the top.
• Do not use contractions—for every contraction I will mark you down by ½ grade do not use ” a lot” or “really” they are too simple.

A contraction would be something like: aren’t, wouldn’t, I’m, shouldn’t, didn’t and so forth. Do not use them in University level papers.

• Do not use numbers–write them out. For example: 5 years…should be written as… five years. You do not have to write out dates though and anything over 100 can be written as a number (although I tend to prefer anything over 1000 before you stop writing it out).
• Do not use I or you when writing this type of paper (take a third person approach as though the painting or sculpture is an it). Talk about the work using “it” as the pronoun because you are sort of lecturing to me about the work.
• You are graded on grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure and ability to use correct terms and organization. I have a grading rubric—it is a separate in elearn (right under these instructions).
• THIS WORK MUST BE WRITTEN IN ESSAY FORM I WILL GIVE A XERO IF IT IS NOT.

How to begin: start with an introduction:

Introduction: Your first paragraph of the paper will introduce me to the work itself and the materials used to create the work. How large is the work (in general) and how is the material used to create the work (for example if the work is buon fresco you would explain what that is, if it is oil then explain it and the advantages with it or pastel what have you). Is the work representational or non-representational, or abstract and tell me why this is (we will discuss this in class too). You may have to go back and listen to previous lectures whereby I discussed this material. If the work is representational—does it fall into a category like History, portrait, genre, landscape, or still-life (or a combination of any of these) and why does it fall into that category (please see my lecture on Hierarchy of painting and sculpture). You may also guess as to which artistic style the work belongs to…and explain why too. Then your last sentence of the intro should tell me the reader, what you plan to discuss throughout the paper. For example: “Line, color, value, texture, compositional layout, and ways the artist created or used space (if they did)–these are separate lectures that come from assignments at the beginning of the course, but, I have placed some under the Formal Analysis area color, line, value, texture and so forth.

Body of the paper: You may start out with a brief 2-3 sentences that describe the work of art you are investigating, the first paragraph might describe from foreground to background what you are looking at. Perhaps discuss what or where the Focal point is or is it afocal. It is also good to express if the work is representational, abstracted, or nonrepresentational and explain what these mean.

Next paragraph:

Then you should have a paragraph that addresses color used in the work (color temp, color scheme used, open or closed palette, saturated, or dull). You muse explain these items about the the work–how the artist used these ideas. Then you will have a paragraph that discusses the value (somber or high palette of the work you might even combine this with the color area if you like because they all may create a certain mood and you may discuss this overall too.

Color: what type of color temperature has been used (warm or cool or both and explain), is it an open palette or a closed palette and explain this too. Are you using an Analogous color scheme, a complementary color scheme, or monochromatic and explain it.

Are the colors saturated bright and intense, subtle and muted, art they pastel, or both and be sure to explain this too. This also works with sculpture—so please discuss color if working on a sculpture

Value: Is the work a high palette or low/somber palette and why or how is it like that (explain it). Did the artist use a tint or a shade approach and explain this too. What kind of a mood does this create for the work you are discussing?

Then the next paragraph might be about the types of line and mood created–and even the focal point and how was it established in this work. Be very detailed with all of these paragraphs and explaining these concepts within the work. Do the colors help create a focal point all things will move together.

Line- what do those lines do for the work—is it calm (calm works often have mostly horizontal lines or a horizontal composition). Vertical lines will give you an alert feeling. Does the work seem busy based upon the line type (is the work chaotic—why).

Are the lines gestural or very controlled and tight (which mean analytical)? You should also explain where the focal point is (assuming you have one) and how did the artist establish this?

This works with sculpture too—focal point to what type of lines and gestures.

The next paragraph could be about Space: If the artist created the illusion of space—how did the artist do this? Linear or atmospheric perspective and explain this in the paper. Did the artist overlap objects and what are the rules associated with that, where the objects stacked to create depth. Perhaps the distant objects are a bit lighter and those closer to the viewer are darker and more detailed and so forth. If working with sculpture—what type of negative and positive space has been created and how (this also works with and 2-D work too). What about shapes too? …circle, square, diagonal, vertical or horizontal composition overall–explain this too.

How is space established in the work—what types of techniques have been used to give you space (maybe there is no emphasis on space—but that is rare even with nonrepresentational works—colors will sink so you just have to think about it).

Then you should have a paragraph discussing what type of balance, compositional layout, proportion if applicable, hierarchy of size or place of the most important object if used. You may discuss any other element you find important too.

You could discuss how the work is balanced—what type of balance informal, symmetrical, asymmetrical, radial balance. Areas of emphasis—color or focal point or the type of pattern used as well as value and any other point you can connect to our discussions in class. There are many more items you may discuss I am just helping you get started here.

Another paragraph could be about texture too (types from smooth, glossy, matte, or rough and so forth). Actual texture or visual texture and explain these how. This works very well with sculpture, and certainly is a part of painting (sometimes paintings it is a bit more difficult to see actual texture via a picture but do your best and I will try to give you good photos too).

Conclusion: This section of the paper should be a paragraph long—about six sentences. In this section you sort of reiterate how the work is put together, how it might be unified by color or texture, whatever you think.

Here are some sites that might help you get started or help you understand the formal analysis.

https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/ap-art-history/introduction-ap-arthistory/v/visual-analysis (Links to an external site.)

https://hardleyart.wordpress.com/the-formal-elements-in-art/