| Art Critic In the artist world, every artist have received critics, some good, some bad, but an artist could always benefit from a good critic to improve his or her painting. I'm not an expert on critics but I will share with you some of my notes on critic and the meaning of it from my earlier years of studying art, so it may help you to understand better and also to improve your painting. This is far from complete but you will find the most important to give you an accurate idea on the subject.
There are several stages to critical analysis:
1. Initial reaction involving initial identification to a work.
2. Description involving further identification, identifying subject matter and / or elements of art in a
work.
3. Analysis open to even further identification, identifying order, organization in a work, how
principles of art have been used to arrange the elements of art in a work.
4. Interpretation, identifying meaning the artist's expression / communication of feelings, moods, and
ideas in a work.
4. Evaluation, judgment assessing the meaning and artistic merit in a work.
What those words mean in relation with Art:
Description: A statement creating a mental image of something experienced, or the act of making such a statement. Not to be confused with interpretation, description is identifying the literal qualities or realistic presentation of subject matter, along with the elements of art found in a work it demands only the facts of what can be seen in a work. When two or more works can be described by comparing them to each other.
Subject: That which is represented in an artwork.
Elements of art: The basic components used by the artist when producing works of art. Those elements are color, value, line, shape, form, texture, and space. The elements of art are among the literal qualities found in any artwork.
Analysis: The separation of the parts of a subject for individual study, in order to find out their nature, function, and meaning. Exercising the ability to break down learned material into its component parts so that its organizational structure may be understood.
Analysis is a stage in art criticism, following the description of an artwork, and preceding its interpretation and judgment, in which one focuses on the relationships between the elements of art and principles of design in hopes of gaining an understanding of the work's design qualities, or how well the work is ordered, or put together. This understanding enables one to determine if a work has an overall sense of unity.
Analysis represents the fourth level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain the level of understanding just beyond comprehension and application because they require an understanding of both the content and the structural form of the material. Analysis may include the identification of the parts, analysis of the relationships between parts, and recognition of the organizational principles involved. Objectives of lessons which will increase a student's ability to analyze knowledge can be stated with such behavioral terms as: analyze, appraise, audit, break down, characterize, check, classify, compare, conclude (draw conclusions) contrast, debate, deduce, determine, diagram, differentiate, discriminate, dissect, distinguish, examine, experiment, generalize, graph, illustrate, inspect, infer, inventory, map, point out, outline (no format given), question, reason, refute, relate to, research, screen, scrutinize, search, section, select, separate, sift, simplify, solve, study, subdivide, survey, test, and uncover. The next higher thinking skill is synthesis.
Order: A condition of logical or coherent arrangement among the separate elements of a group. The opposite of disorder or chaos. Order and chaos can exist in both analog and digital forms. Types of order: abecedarian, chronology, by color, numerical, periodicity, sequence, by shape, by size, superimposed order, taxonomy, and typology.
Principles of art: Certain qualities inherent in the choice and arrangement of elements of art in the production of a work of art. Artists "design" their works to varying degrees by controlling and ordering the elements of art. Considering the principles is especially useful in analyzing ways in which a work is pleasing in formal ways. How any work exhibits applications of these principles can further or modify other characteristics of a work as well.
Some principles overlap or oppose others, and some are viewed as more important, more ideal, more relevant or irrelevant (or even undesirable) than others. So it is understandable that various authorities' lists of principles differ one from another. The primary reason for this variation appears to be disagreement about whether principles are ideals concepts found in the best designs / art or design issues we
benefit from understanding and considering in order to more thoughtfully produce, understand, and judge art and design. The trend is toward the second point of view. After all, there are needs for both the beautiful and the grotesque, the polished and the rough, and exceptions to many rules.
The principles of art:
Balance: the several kinds: symmetry, asymmetry, and radial.
Emphasis: largely synonymous with dominance.
Eurhythmy: a combination of harmony, proportion, and movement.
Harmony
Horror Vacui: in contrast to limitation, and emphasis or dominance, the principle most often cited as undesirable.
Limitation: in contrast to horror vacui, and emphasis or dominance.
Movement
Pattern: often paired with rhythm.
Proportion
Rhythm: often paired with pattern.
Unity: largely synonymous with coherence and homogeneity.
Variety: often contrasted with unity.
Arrangement: An order or composition. Or, a setup or composition of components in a still life painting or drawing. Arrangement is at the heart of the principles of design, and its consideration determines a work's coherence (unity and variety), focal point, rhythm, etc.
Interpretation: Interpretation is a stage in the work of art criticism following the describing and analyzing of an artwork, in which one identifies the work's expressive qualities, or the meaning, or the mood, or idea communicated to the viewer.
Meaning: What is conveyed or signified by something; its sense or significance. An interpretation. However an artist may intend an artwork to impart meaning, and whatever an artist does to pack a work with meaning, in the end, it is the viewer who creates meaning in each and every image.
Evaluation: The ability to judge the value of material work of art, for a given purpose. Evaluation represents the sixth level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain. The ability to think with discernment about what one is thinking. Some propose that meta-cognition represents the seventh and highest level of learning outcomes in the cognitive domain, the level of understanding just beyond
synthesis and evaluation. In Conclusion A work of art can be very complicated and may be interpreted in different ways by different people. In art criticism, one's interpretation of a work is personal, based upon the information one has gathered from the work. In art history, interpretation identifies the influences of time and place on the artist: images of the same subject, created at different times or in different locations may have little in common. Their differences reflect the contrasting personal and cultural traditions and values of each artist. |
