Scribd
Upload
364 views22 pages

Artwork Analysis

The document provides an analysis of Georges-Pierre Seurat's painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". It examines the painting through three planes: semiotic (facts), iconic (subject and composition), and contextual (historical and cultural references). The analysis describes Seurat's pointillist technique and discusses various interpretations of the painting's meaning. The document also explains principles of artistic composition like the rule of thirds, balance, harmony, proportion, emphasis, variety, movement, and rhythm.

Uploaded by

April Jade Mendoza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
364 views22 pages

Artwork Analysis

The document provides an analysis of Georges-Pierre Seurat's painting "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte". It examines the painting through three planes: semiotic (facts), iconic (subject and composition), and contextual (historical and cultural references). The analysis describes Seurat's pointillist technique and discusses various interpretations of the painting's meaning. The document also explains principles of artistic composition like the rule of thirds, balance, harmony, proportion, emphasis, variety, movement, and rhythm.

Uploaded by

April Jade Mendoza
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 22

ARTWORK ANALYSIS

SUBTITLE
ARTWORK ANALYSIS
• The analytic study of how the various
elements and materials features of the art
work produce meaning should lead to a
more stable and consensual field of meaning
leading to a better understanding of an
artwork by an ordinary audience or viewer.
Three Planes of Analysis or in Reading
the Image:
• Semiotic – this is like a credit line, which lists important
facts about a work of art.
• Iconic (Subject – type, kind, source, and how the artist
describes the subject).
• Contextual – the work of art may contain references
and allusions, direct or indirect, to historical figures and
events, as well as to religious, literary, and philosophical
ideas and values, which are part of the meaning of the
work.
Semiotic
Title: A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Artist: Georges-Pierre Seurat
Dimensions: 2.08 m x 3.08 m (81.7 in x 121.25 in)
Location: Art Institute of Chicago Building
Genre: History Painting
Medium: Oil on canvas
Periods: Pointillism, Neo-impressionism
Year: 1884-1886
Subject: People relaxing at La Grande Jatte, Paris
Iconic
• Seurat spent two years working on his most famous work,
composed of tiny dots of contrasting or complementary colors
intended to fuse in the viewer’s eye a vibrant effect.
• The artist depicted people, city dwellers, gathered and relaxing in a
suburban park on an island in the Seine River called La Grande
Jatte.
• On an enormous canvas, the artist depicted all kinds of people
stroll, lounge sail, and fish in the park.
• The picture was unusual in showing people belonging to different
social classes frequenting the same park on an island in the Seine.
Cont…

• The artwork itself highlighted the controlled


surface of the painting, the use of aerial
perspective, which gives an impression of space,
and Seurat’s deeply shadowed foreground that
leads into a light, bright distance.
Contextual
• Seurat uses the technique of optical color mixture, also known as
pointillism or divisionism, to really accent and express his ideas
and originality.
• When dots of pure color are placed close together, they blend and
create the illusion of some other hues.
• Using newly discovered optical and color theories, Seurat rendered
his subject by placing tiny, precise brushstrokes of different colors
close to one another so that they blend at a distance.
Cont…
• Over the past several decades, many scholars have attempted to
explain the meaning of this great composition. For some it shows
the growing middle class at leisure.
• Others see it as a representation of social tensions between modern
city dwellers of different social classes, who gather in the same
public space but do not communicate or interact.
The Rule of Thirds
• One of the most useful composition techniques in
photography.
• It is considered to be an important concept to
learn as it can be used in all types of photography
to produce images, which are more engaging and
better balanced.
What is the Rule of Thirds?
• In its simplest form, the rule of thirds suggests that you
should imagine a tic-tac-toe or a pick-pack-boom board
on the frame of the picture.
• It involves mentally diving up your image using two
horizontal lines and two vertical lines.
• You then position the important elements in your scene
at the points where they meet along those lines.
41% 20%

25% 14%
How to Use the Rule of Thirds?

• When you are framing a photo,


you just have to imagine that
the scene is divided into three.
• When photographing moving
subjects, position them as
normal, but also pay attention
to the direction they are
moving.
• As a general rule, you should
leave more space in front of
them than behind, to show
where they are going.
Principles of Art

• Principles of Design refer to the visual


strategies used by artists, in conjunction with the
visual elements of arts – for expressive purposes.
1. Balance
• It is one of the principle of design; it is classified into three:
a. Symmetrical: also known as formal balance, as two equal
parts of the pictorial plane of an artwork placed like mirror
images of each other.
b. Asymmetrical: also known as informal balance, where elements
on either side of a composition do not reflect one another or when
several smaller items on one side are balanced by a large item on the
other side, or smaller items are placed further away from the center
of the screen than larger items.
c. Radial Symmetry: balance where all elements radiate out from
a center point in a circular fashion to all four quadrants of the
shape’s constraining plane.
2. Harmony – in the 3. Proportion – this is the size
principles of design, this can be relationship of forms and
described as sameness, the shapes. Good proportion causes
belonging of one thing with a sense of unity and harmony.
another.
4. Dominance/Emphasis – 5. Variety – this is a principle
this happens when the artist of design that refers to a way of
creates an area of the combining visual elements to
composition that is visually achieve intricate and complex
dominant and commands the relationships. It is a technique
viewer’s attention. This is often used by artists who wish to
achieved by contrast. increase the visual interest of
their work.
6. Movement
• This is the result using the
elements of art such that
they move the viewer’s eye
around and within the
image.
• A sense of movement can be
created by diagonal or curvy
lines, either real or implied,
by edges, by the illusion of
space, by repetition, by
energetic mark-making.
7. Rhythm
• In the principles of
design, this is a
continuance, a flow, or a
feeling of movement
achieved by the repetition
of regulated visual
information.

You might also like