Final Art Essay
This is the last assignment to complete. You should finish going through all of the presentations before you complete this. This essay should be AT LEAST 1000 words but could be longer.
This is a chance for you to reflect on the work of the semester as well as complete a formal analysis of a few works of art. As the semester goes on, keep track of some the pieces/artists from the presentations that strike you the most (NOT FROM THE COMPARISON ESSAYS. The artists you write about here may NOT be ones that are found in that portion).
You will choose FOUR different pieces to write about for this essay. They must be different pieces by different artists.
The piece that you think is the most VISUALLY beautiful.
The piece that changed your idea of what form art could take.
The piece that struck you most with its meaning. This could be that you related to it personally or on a more universal scale.
The piece that you still do not get. Why is this art? It is just bad! It hurts my eyes! (for example)
You should put an image of each piece with the artist’s name, the title, the media and the date it was created in the document. You may do this as you write about each or put them all at the beginning or end.
Describe what you see. Begin by introducing the work. Who made it? What is the title? Is it sculpture? Paintings? Video? What is the medium? How big is the work? What kind of imagery is the artist using? Is it abstract? Does it tell a story? What are you looking at? You may need to look back at the Art PDFs in order to speak to the process/media by which the piece was made.
Using the elements and principles of art (you must mention AT LEAST three terms in your essay), do a short formal analysis of the work. Part of writing about each of these will be what is called a “FORMAL ANALYSIS.” This is a way to write/talk about Art that removes your subjective opinion. A formal analysis does NOT concentrate on subject matter, function, culture, etc., but it may consider them when they apply to decisions about formal element, things like color, line, size, etc. A clear, well-written formal analysis will contain three things: it will name the formal elements discussed, it will describe the use of the formal elements, and it will discuss the effects of that use of said formal element. That is, HOW the artist used these things to create a feeling, strengthen/convey an idea.
This should be the bulk of your writing on each piece. (If each piece gets 250 words, this part should be about 150 of them).
What is your reaction to the work? Why does this piece exemplify one of the four categories above? Why did you choose it? This part could be woven through the rest of the essay. For example, you may use the elements and principles to describe WHY you think the piece is the most visually beautiful. Think about what associations you have with the imagery/color/composition that they are using. Do not worry about getting this “correct”. Most works of art are open to interpretation and do not have a right answer.
You will need to go beyond simple answering the questions listed here. Your essay should be an analysis and interpretation of the chosen piece.
