Understanding Art Criticism
Art criticism is studying, understanding, and judging works of art.
Henri Matisse, The Dessert: Harmony in Red, 1908, Hermitage
Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia
Solving art mysteries is one of the jobs that art critics set out to
accomplish.
•What if you don’t know what an artwork is
communicating?
•How can you figure it out?
Following the steps of art criticism can help you discover lots of
clues to really understand and appreciate a work of art.
The Steps of Art Criticism
In each step of art criticism, you are answering a different
question. The four steps of art criticism are:
1. Description: What do I see?
2. Analysis: How is the work organized?
3. Interpretation: What is the artist trying to communicate?
4. Judgment: Is this a successful work of art?
Description
Look at the work of art here:
What do you see?
Red room
Wall paper
Chairs, wooden, cane seat
Table, table cloth
Woman
Fruit & wine
Cut flowers in vase
Window
Landscape
Trees, bushes, flowers, building
Colors- red, blue,green, yellow,
white, black
Analysis
Look again at the painting by Henri Matisse
How is the work
arranged?
Break down the
painting into its
composition, or the
way the art principles
are used to organize
the art elements.
ELEMENTS OF
ART/DESIGN
•Line=
•Shape=
•Form=
•Space=
•Color=
•Texture=
ELEMENTS OF ART/DESIGN
•Line=straight-outline table,
chairs / curvy- flower
pattern
•Shape=geometric / organic
•Form= flattened
•Space=crowded space,
flattened plane
•Color=red- jarring color blue,
yellow, green, black,
white
•Texture=patterns
PRINCIPLES OF
ART/DESIGN
•Unity=
•Balance=
•Contrast=
•Focal Point=
•Movement=
•Pattern=
•Proportion=
PRINCIPLES OF ART/DESIGN
•Unity= organic shapes
•Balance= informal/asymmetrical
•Contrast= red-green, black-white
pattern-solid, curve-straight
•Focal Point= woman arranging fruit
•Movement= blue lines draw your
eye up from the bottom
•Pattern= repeated- curved pattern
(wall paper, cloth, trees),
dots of color (lemons/flowers)
•Proportion= accurate/normal
Interpretation
What do you think Matisse is trying to communicate?
Give your opinion based
on the clues you have
collected.
What ideas, moods,
emotions, and stories do
you think the artwork
communicates?
In Matisse's Harmony in Red
(Red Room) 1908-9, red is
the predominant color in the
painting.
How does the predominant
redness make you feel?
The color red usually makes one feel warm because it is associated
with the sun and fire, but also because the color red has a
physiological affect that excites and stimulates.
Artists understand the power of color in affecting the viewer's
feelings. Throughout art history, artists have used color to
convey and heighten the emotional content of a painting. In
the early twentieth century, artists began to focus on color
as a direct translation of their feelings, and to use color as an
emotional force.
This group of artists was called the Fauves (or the wild beasts
in French) and they included Henri Matisse (1869-1954),
Maurice de Vlaminck (1876-1958), and Andre Derain (18801954.)
How would you feel about the painting if it
was mostly green? Or overwhelmingly blue
instead of red?
This painting went through three successive
stages. First it was green, then blue, after it
hung at an exhibit in 1908. It was finally
delivered in scarlet to a Russian art collector
to decorate his dining room.
Matisse also limits his perspective in this work. He makes
breaks in the line around the table, frames the chair,
the window, and the little house in an innovative
manner by cutting them off, and encloses two of the
planes, the green and the blue in a window.
Judgment
Do you think this work is successful? Why or why not?
What reasons can you
give for your idea of
why this is a good or
bad artwork?
Now look at the painting
by Marc Chagall:
Paris Through the Window.
Answer each of the
criticism questions
on your own:
Description: What do I see?
Analysis: How are elements and principles of art used?
Interpretation: What is the artist trying to communicate?
Judgment: Is this a successful work of art?
Description: What do I see?
Analysis:
How are the
elements and principles
of art used?
Elements: line, shape, form, space, color, value, texture
Principles: Unity, Balance, Contrast, Focal Point, Movement,
Pattern, Proportion
Interpretation:
What is the artist trying to communicate? (story and mood)
Judgment: Is this a successful work of art?
Why or why not? (use your analysis!)
TEST YOUR UNDERSTANDING!
Look at the painting by Marc Chagall called Paris Through the
Window and choose the Art Criticism step that each statement
belongs in.
1. I see a city in the
background with a cat
on a ledge in the
middle ground and a
man with two faces in
the foreground.
a. description
b. analysis
c. interpretation
d. judgment
2. This seems like a
magical place.
a. description
b. analysis
c. interpretation
d. judgment
3. The artist uses neutral colors to contrast with
the bright primary colors.
a. description
b. analysis
c. interpretation
d. judgment
4. The artist is depicting his vision of Paris.
a. description
b. analysis
c. interpretation
d. judgment
5. The artist used informal balance.
a. description
b. analysis
c. interpretation
d. judgment
6. The artist successfully uses confusing imagery
to intrigue the viewer.
a. description
b. analysis
c. interpretation
d. judgment
7. The cat represents the artist looking out at Paris.
a. description
b. analysis
c. interpretation
d. judgment
Answers:
1. a. description
2. c. interpretation
3. b. analysis
4. c. interpretation
5. b. analysis
6. d. judgment
7. c. interpretation