Visual Formal Analysis

• Identifying the elements and principles of art that you see in works of art helps you to observe them more closely. It is the first step in completing a formal analysis.
• Using the elements and principles of art to describe works of art gives viewers a common language based in observed details of the work.

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The Elements and Principles of Art

• Identifying the elements and principles of art that you see in works of art helps you to observe them more closely.
• Using the elements and principles of art to describe works of art gives viewers a common language based in observed details of the work.

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*Visual Elements

• Line
• Shape
• Mass
• Space
• Value (light and dark)
• Texture
• Color (Hue)
• Motion
• Time

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*Line (characteristics)

• Width
• Length
• Hue
• Value
• The work of Henri Matisse is a good example of the use of line in art.

Line, Crosshatching

• A drawing technique created by using lines that cross one another.
• Image Search crosshatching, John Sloan & crosshatching, Charles White
• See Drawing section topics

Shape

• Usually a flat area bounded by an edge or line.
• Do an image search on Ellsworth Kelly and view his work at the Modern Museum of Art of Fort Worth

Light and Dark/ Value

• The quality of light and dark in a work of art especially applied to lines shapes and colors in two dimensional works of art.
• Chiaroscuro is a word used for light and dark value contrast especially in the Renaissance and Baroque periods of art
• Make sure to know the difference between light and dark value and value as a basic term

Light in sculpture

• Light effects on sculpture change the way the work is interpreted.
• Light fixtures and light itself is used by Dan Flavin as media for sculpture.

* Color/ Hue, value, intensity

• Hue is color such as red, yellow, blue.
• Value in color is the amount of white or black that is added to a hue.
• Intensity is the purity of the hue. The purest hues have a greater density of pigment per volume.

*Color schemes

• Planned combinations of color. Examples include monochromatic, analogous and contrasting color schemes.

*Actual/Simulated texture

• Actual texture can be felt with the hand and is raised from the surface of the work. Example impasto in painting.
• Simulated texture does not have any raised texture that can be felt with the hand, even though it looks like it could be.
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Mass and Space three dimensional

• Volumes or solid parts of a three dimensional sculpture.
• Closed or solid elements are referred to as masses and volumes between masses are referred to as spaces

*Closed Form

• Search “Kneeling Statue of Senenmut, Chief Steward of Queen Hatshepsut ” which is in the collection of the Kimbell Museum
• Search “Brancusi, The Kiss”

Mass and Space two dimensional

• Dark areas or areas of color create masses. These usually attract the eye.
• Space is created using the various means of perspective such as overlapping, fading detail, diminishing size, or linear perspective
• Mass can also be indicated by shading to show represent how a solid object interacts with light.

*Perspective

• Various ways of creating a three dimensional space on a two dimensional surface.
• Including linear perspective, overlapping, diminishing size, fading detail, and placing objects above or below one another in a composition.

*Perspective (figure-ground)

• Emphasizes overlapping of a “figure” or shape that is larger and overlaps smaller or flatter elements that appear to be behind the foreground figure/shape.

The paradox of color and light

• Light appears to be colorless but when refracted with a prism shows all the colors of the rainbow.

The difference between local color and optical color mixture

• Local color is color in a black background.
• Optical color mixing occurs when colors are placed close to one another and viewed from a distance.
• Colors are effected by the colors that surround them.

Symbolism of Color

• Colors can have symbolic meaning in works of art. Interpretations of meaning based on color are specific to cultures, individual artists, and viewers.

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*Motion and Implied motion

• If a sculpture does not move but yet looks as if it is moving it has implied motion.
• Search the “Dancing Krishna”
• Some sculpture have actual motion like Jenny Holzer’s piece Kind of Blue at the Fort Worth Modern (It may not be on view)

The element of time in art

• Defined as “the nonspatial continuum, the fourth dimension, in which events occur in succession”.
• Image Search “The meeting of Saint Anthony and Saint Paul” and the “Aztec Calendar” Note the multiple depiction of the saint on the road to show the passage of time as he moves towards us.
• Time as an element of art is observed primarily in the time based arts such as film or video where “events occur in succession and take specific amounts of time

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