ESSAY PRACTICE II – USING AN ESSAY QUESTION TO REVIEW WORK
THROUGH THE STRUCTURAL FRAME
Q: Evaluate how practitioners use texts, symbols and compositional strategies
to construct meaning in artworks. (2008 paper, Q. 8)
What heading is this question likely to be under? FRAMES. Composition, text,
symbols are all part of the structural frame. However our cultural frame will
determine how we interpret things, so we would include this too.
A question like this is a good springboard for us to review material using the
structural frame. We can start though by looking at it like an essay question.
STEP 1. Make sure we understand the question.
What is meant by ‘Compositional strategies’???
Composition: Is what goes into making a work.
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Formal aspects –
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tonal variation; e.g. Turner
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media (oil paint? Perspex? Concrete?)
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& expressive form (Painting? Installation? Video?)
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colour,
line,- it’s quality; direction.
texture,
expressive mark-making / lack of it e.g. Pollock & Ruscha.
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Use of space; (Gormley, Inside Australia; Kollwitz, mother and dead
child;
Scale (Christo & Jeanne-Claude; LeWitt; Tillers; Gormley;
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Choices about other things –
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posture and position of figures (Manet)
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use of readymades (Duchamp’s Fountain; Dali’s Lobster telephone; )
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Use of text within a work (Cubist collage newspaper; Imants Tillers
quotations LeWitt’s instructions; or Joseph Kosuth’s definition of water; Janet
Laurence’s names of first white settlers; botanical names of plants in the
Governor’s garden in BOTH languages);
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Symbols of any type…. (such as numerals; swastika; apple logo; marijuana
leaf; skull; a cat;) e.g. Ricky Swallow with his skull / imacs
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Other actions which have some sort of cultural meaning (e.g. the
‘wrapping and packaging’ of Wrapped Coast or Pont Neuf….what that might
see this as a comment on the ephemeral; the presented; the nomadic.)
Drawing directly onto a wall instead of in a framed work (Sol LeWitt) makes
us consider the work in different ways.
Location of a work is relevant too…in a gallery?
Note artists often use art historical references in their work, or appropriate
other artworks. (Remember last week we were talking about how artists often
look back in order to look forward.) Our knowledge of art history will effect our
reading of the symbols and compositional strategies in various artworks. If we didn’t
know that Von Guerard was a European who settled in the new Colony of Victoria in
the 19th century and whose painting of Mt Kosciusko was an icon of Australian art,
we would have a different opinion of Tillers’ 1980s appropriation in Mt Analogue.
There is a connection there with foreigners coming to settle in Australia; and the
effect of Von Guerard’s European heritage and art education that affected how he
painted. We know that Tillers is concerned with Australia’s place in the world and the
connections between European art and art from ‘the peripheries’ such as Australia
and New Zealand.
So a compositional
aspects of an artwork.
strategy is just the decisions an artist makes about
So the question is asking you to look at various compositional strategies that
various artists have used.
There is a keyword there also: EVALUATE. This means what? To make a
judgement about just how effective the compositional strategies are in conveying
meaning. To say what you think is good and not-so-good.
So you are expected to describe some examples of various compositional
strategies… AND they also want you to make some judgements on them somewhere
along the line. Even if you wonder how you could possibly do that, you MUST BEAR
IT IN MIND.
Examples of an evaluative statement.
The use of tonal variation in an artwork can be highly effective. JMW Turner uses this
strategy often in his work e.g. “ Snowstorm: Hannibal and his army crossing the
Alps”, 1812.) The extremes of dark and light create drama and makes me keep
looking at the work. The more I look, the more I can reflect upon the emotion of the
scene he described. It develops more meaning for me over time.
What has happened here? I’ve used a specific example, gone into detail about what
I mean, and said what I thought of it. End of.
If you say you like, or dislike something, try to say WHY you have that position. It’s
not sufficient to merely express a preference about something in an exam.
Answering the question.
Our first topic sentence would be something that directly responds to the
question, and uses some of the language from the question.
Example
‘Compositional strategies’ are decisions that are made about how to create a work.
These decisions will determine what message the artwork will convey.
Or
In order to create meaning in a work, various formal, textual and symbolic aspects
need to be considered. These considerations are called ‘compositional strategies’.
Topic sentences moving on from that could include various compositional strategies.
We could make another topic sentence such as :over time, different strategies were
employed and meanings changed.
Over the Modernist and Postmodernist periods, the type of meaning that
artists want to convey has changed.
You could then go on to mention how as technologies have changed (eg
camera, film) the requirement to represent things realistically changed.
Also you could mention something about the Romantic thread that runs through art,
throughout the Modernist and Postmodernist periods. What do we mean by this? The
subjective; the personal; the inner. This became more important as the 19th century
ended. Symbolism; Expressionism; Surrealism; Abstract Expressionism; So different
strategies were employed as different meanings were conveyed.
Question 8 MARKER’S NOTES
Responses to this question presented explanations of how practitioners construct
meaning through symbolism, text and composition. A broad range of artists and their
works were discussed including Kahlo, Kruger, Holzer, Dali, Picasso and Bennett.
Some responses also considered the work of performance and conceptual artists
and architects. Most responses investigated interpretations of symbolism and many
explored the ways in which written text determined the meaning of works.
Analysis of compositional techniques was less well developed. Many responses used
case study themes such as war or feminism as a way of creating a cohesive
argument.
Better responses provided well-synthesised and complex discussions of key
components of the structural frame, evaluating the success of particular strategies
as a way to create meanings for audiences. These responses demonstrated a
thorough understanding of the complexities and subtleties of symbolism, text and
composition beyond the literal and the descriptive. Responses suggested that a
number of interpretations of symbols were possible and these were often linked to
the cultural conventions of a particular time and place. A range of interpretations of
text, including visual texts, were often included. Well-chosen examples that were
thoroughly explained and evaluated supported a well-developed argument.