GE20 – CHAPTER 2: Art Making and Art Criticism 2.

Analysis - determining what described

elements suggest and why the artist used
ART MAKING IN SEEING AND SENSE those specific colors, angles or shapes to
Artmaking - applies human creative skill and convey meaning.
imagination. A fun and rewarding way for people to 3. Interpretation - establish context, explaining
express themselves and learn a broad range of skills why we think the artist created it and its
and concepts. meaning; analyze the work’s overall meaning.
Five (5) Stages of Art Making by Moore, J. O. (2021) 4. Evaluation of Judgement - decide where an
1. Inspiration – an exciting moment in the artwork stands alongside similar works and
process of creating art. explain what aspects are most important.
2. Percolation – it is refining your ideas before Aristotle – Reading inferring and identifying.
making art. Greatest threat to art criticism
3. Preparation – is a more active and focused ➢ development of defensive clichés
time to create your blueprint. ➢ settled expectations
4. Creation – can vary depending on your ➢ unquestioned presuppositions
personal temperament, artistic style, and Art criticism elaborates
medium. ➢ art psychological
5. Reflection – will vary depending on the artists ➢ moral
Aristotle - art-making traces back to the love of ➢ spiritual
imitation and recognizing likenesses that characterize Photograph - actual historical moment with two (2)
humans. interpretative strata:
➢ human voice as “semantikos psophos” - 1. Material structure - real meanings of the text,
“significant sound,” signs, specificity of its content.
Leo Tolstoy - artmaking is a human activity; conveys to 2. Reading of the conventional subject matter
others the feelings he has experienced.
Seeing and Sense, as Mirzoeff (1999) RELATIONSHIP OF VISUAL ARTS
Seeing - automatic, physiological function we perform Visual Arts - connects us to other areas of our lives;
without thinking and a complex and absorbing process. paves the way to communicate points of view and
shape the way communities think and identify
Communication and the Visual themselves.
Visual - something that can be seen using the human Popular art expressions:
eye; uses visual elements to communicate information 1. Film - movie or motion pictures/Movies are
or ideas. made up of a series of still photographs.
Visual communication - transmission of information 2. Narrative Painting - viewer sees a moment in
and ideas using symbols and imagery; includes signs, a story that allows the viewer to understand
graphic designs, films, typography. what happened prior to and after the moment
Semiotics - study of symbols and visual caught by the artist.
communication; aims to analyze how people make 3. History Painting - describe a painting that
meaning out of signs and how those symbols are focuses on a serious narrative or includes
interpreted. Undoubtedly an effective tool for analysis exemplary actions. Bible, mythology, secular
because it deals with the signs literature, or historical events.
One general truth of every seeing: to see is to believe. 4. Animation - Latin word ‘animare’ (to breathe
into life) visual art of taking a motion picture
ART CRITICISM AS READING THE REAL from a series of still drawings.
Art Criticism - analysis and evaluation of works of art; 5. Comics - Greek word ‘komikos’ (about
interpretive, involving the effort to understand a comedy); printed arrangement of art and
particular piece of art. It provides the viewers to see balloons in sequence.
the horizon it depicts and what lies behind it. 6. Narrative Illustrations - the pictorial
➢ The critic is minimally required to be a representations of or reference to one or more
connoisseur - he must have a “sound events.
knowledge” of art history. 7. Pictorial Narrative - Latin word ‘pictorius’-
➢ Wilson K. (2021) - art criticism analyzes and meaning of a painter. Image’s propensity to tell
evaluates any art form. a story.
Four ideas on how to assess a work of art
1. Description - describe what we see; elements
such as their size and scale, etc.
 VISUAL NARRATIVES 3. Interpretation - broader context for this type
Visual story-telling - phenomenon that every of art.
society is acquainted with; graphic that essentially “Why did the artist create it, and what does it
and explicitly narrates a story. mean?” (Main idea is the overall meaning of
Five (5) characteristic features of Visual the work.)
Narratives 4. Judgment - giving it rank in relation to other
1. Story is an essential feature of the visual works.
narrative; fiction, mythology, fairy tale, “Is it good artwork?”
folklore, fables, religious stories
2. Visual is constructed with the idea of Principles of Interpretation (Barrett, T. (1994)
communicating a story to the onlooker. 1. Artworks have “aboutness” and demand
3. Essential component is the presence of a interpretation.
participant (actor). 2. Interpretations are persuasive arguments.
4. Has a ‘universe’ of its own. 3. Some interpretations are better than others.
5. Could be expressed on any medium, e.g., 4. Good interpretations of art tell more about the
paper, stone. artwork than the critic.
5. Feelings are guides to interpretations.
NARRATIVE 6. There can be different, competing, and
Narrative - method of presenting related events to tell contradictory interpretations of the same artwork.
a compelling story; way of presenting related events to 7. Interpretations are often based on a worldview.
tell a good story. 8. Interpretations are not so much right, but more or
Narratology - study of narrative less reasonable, convincing, enlightening, and
4 Types of Narrative Writing (MasterClass (2021)) informative.
1. Linear Narrative - presents the story’s events 9. Interpretations can be judged by coherence,
in the order they happened/ chronologically. correspondence, and inclusiveness.
Ex. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice 10. An artwork is not necessarily about what the artist
2. Non-linear Narrative - presents the story’s wanted it to be.
events out of order, employing flashbacks. 11. A critic ought not to be the spokesperson for the
Ex. Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey artist.
3. Quest Narrative - protagonist works tirelessly 12. Interpretations ought to present the work in its
toward a goal. best rather than its weakest light.
Ex. J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit 13. The objects of interpretation are artworks, not
4. Viewpoint Narrative - designed to express the artists.
points of view or subjective personal 14. All art is in part about the world in which it
experience of the main character or other emerged.
fictional characters in the story. Moods, 15. All art is in part about other art.
feelings are filtered through the narrator’s own 16. No single interpretation is exhaustive of the
life and subjective point of view; first-person or meaning of an artwork.
third-person omniscient narration. 17. The meanings of an artwork may be different from
Ex. Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov their significance to the viewer. Interpretation is
ultimately a communal endeavor, and the community
is ultimately self-corrective.
PRACTICE IN ART CRITICISM
18. Good interpretations invite us to see for ourselves
Barret, T. (1994) - Art criticism responds to, interprets
and continue on our own (Barret, T., 1994).
meaning, and makes critical judgments about specific
works of art.
4 Levels of Formal Analysis
1. Description - description of the object without
value judgments, analysis, or interpretation.
“What do you see?” (Form of art, medium
used…)
2. Analysis - determining what the features
suggest and deciding why the artist used such
features to convey specific ideas.
“How did the artist do it?” (Determination of
subject matter)