HOW TO LOOK AT A WORK OF ART

Adapted from How to Look at Modern Art by Phillip Yenawine

The following ideas do not require that you understand the historical background behind each work of art. They are a suggested framework you can use to look at familiar or unfamiliar pieces of any art form or performance, or video. Try using these tools with an open mind. You might be surprised at how much you already know.

PHYSICAL PROPERTIES:

  • How big is it and how does its height relate to its width? 
  • What did the artist use to make it? 
  • How did the artist apply or assemble the media? 
  • What texture was created? 
  • Is the work 2-D (flat) or 3-D (relief or in-the-round)? 
  • Is it wall-mounted or free-standing? 
  • Is it framed or unframed? 
  • Is it on a pedestal or on the floor? 
  • Does it have any apparent function? (Some art is meant to be used.)
SUBJECT MATTER:
  • Look at the image. Is it real, symbolic, abstract, non-objective, or figurative?
  • Does the title allow you to understand the work or does it give you no clue?
ILLUSIONARY PROPERTIES:
  • What visual devices are used? 
  • Does the artist use overlapping?
  • Does the artist use perspective?
  • Does the artist vary the proportions or scale?
  • Does the artist effectively use shading?
  • How does the artist play with space?
FORMAL PROPERTIES (ELEMENTS OF DESIGN):
  • How does the artist use line? 
  • What shapes or volumes, real or implied, does the artist use?
  • Does the work use color or not?
  • What kind of texture does the artist use?
  • What other compositional devices or tricks does the artist use?
VIEWER PERSPECTIVES:
  • What psychological elements affect you as a viewer?
  • How do the physical dimensions affect you?
  • Does what you see make you think or feel--or both?

 

ART HISTORY

The Big Picture

  Art History is confusing to first time art historians. The subject requires you not only to think in a different way, but it involves "looking at" something in a new way. No work of art can be fully understood or appreciated simply by looking at pictures in the text or watching slides and videos. You must see art in an appropriate setting, make your observations, and trust what you see. Then you educate yourself by reading about art and listening to lectures by experts.

  We will set about developing some tools for understanding and looking at art. HOW TO LOOK AT A WORK OF ART offers some suggestions for looking at the physical properties of art. In THE BIG PICTURE, however, are some questions you might ask yourself as you read each chapter. The art history instructors at Houston Community College designed these questions. They are what we see as THE BIG PICTURE of art.

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