GE20 – CHAPTER 2: Art Making and Art Criticism
Analysis - determining what described
ART MAKING IN SEEING AND SENSE
Artmaking - applies human creative skill and
imagination. A fun and rewarding way for people to
express themselves and learn a broad range of skills
and concepts.
Five (5) Stages of Art Making by Moore, J. O. (2021)
1. Inspiration – an exciting moment in the
process of creating art.
2. Percolation – it is refining your ideas before
making art.
3. Preparation – is a more active and focused
time to create your blueprint.
4. Creation – can vary depending on your
personal temperament, artistic style, and
medium.
5. Reflection – will vary depending on the artists
Aristotle - art-making traces back to the love of
imitation and recognizing likenesses that characterize
humans.
➢ human voice as “semantikos psophos” -
“significant sound,”
Leo Tolstoy - artmaking is a human activity; conveys to
others the feelings he has experienced.
Seeing and Sense, as Mirzoeff (1999)
Seeing - automatic, physiological function we perform
without thinking and a complex and absorbing process.
Communication and the Visual
Visual - something that can be seen using the human
eye; uses visual elements to communicate information
or ideas.
Visual communication - transmission of information
and ideas using symbols and imagery; includes signs,
graphic designs, films, typography.
Semiotics - study of symbols and visual
communication; aims to analyze how people make
meaning out of signs and how those symbols are
interpreted. Undoubtedly an effective tool for analysis
because it deals with the signs
One general truth of every seeing: to see is to believe.
ART CRITICISM AS READING THE REAL
Art Criticism - analysis and evaluation of works of art;
interpretive, involving the effort to understand a
particular piece of art. It provides the viewers to see
the horizon it depicts and what lies behind it.
➢ The critic is minimally required to be a
connoisseur - he must have a “sound
knowledge” of art history.
➢ Wilson K. (2021) - art criticism analyzes and
evaluates any art form.
Four ideas on how to assess a work of art
1. Description - describe what we see; elements
such as their size and scale, etc.
2.
elements suggest and why the artist used
those specific colors, angles or shapes to
convey meaning.
3. Interpretation - establish context, explaining
why we think the artist created it and its
meaning; analyze the work’s overall meaning.
4. Evaluation of Judgement - decide where an
artwork stands alongside similar works and
explain what aspects are most important.
Aristotle – Reading inferring and identifying.
Greatest threat to art criticism
➢ development of defensive clichés
➢ settled expectations
➢ unquestioned presuppositions
Art criticism elaborates
➢ art psychological
➢ moral
➢ spiritual
Photograph - actual historical moment with two (2)
interpretative strata:
1. Material structure - real meanings of the text,
signs, specificity of its content.
2. Reading of the conventional subject matter
RELATIONSHIP OF VISUAL ARTS
Visual Arts - connects us to other areas of our lives;
paves the way to communicate points of view and
shape the way communities think and identify
themselves.
Popular art expressions:
1. Film - movie or motion pictures/Movies are
made up of a series of still photographs.
2. Narrative Painting - viewer sees a moment in
a story that allows the viewer to understand
what happened prior to and after the moment
caught by the artist.
3. History Painting - describe a painting that
focuses on a serious narrative or includes
exemplary actions. Bible, mythology, secular
literature, or historical events.
4. Animation - Latin word ‘animare’ (to breathe
into life) visual art of taking a motion picture
from a series of still drawings.
5. Comics - Greek word ‘komikos’ (about
comedy); printed arrangement of art and
balloons in sequence.
6. Narrative Illustrations - the pictorial
representations of or reference to one or more
events.
7. Pictorial Narrative - Latin word ‘pictorius’-
meaning of a painter. Image’s propensity to tell
a story.
 VISUAL NARRATIVES
Visual story-telling - phenomenon that every
society is acquainted with; graphic that essentially
and explicitly narrates a story.
Five (5) characteristic features of Visual
Narratives
1. Story is an essential feature of the visual
narrative; fiction, mythology, fairy tale,
folklore, fables, religious stories
2. Visual is constructed with the idea of
communicating a story to the onlooker.
3. Essential component is the presence of a
participant (actor).
4. Has a ‘universe’ of its own.
5. Could be expressed on any medium, e.g.,
paper, stone.
NARRATIVE
Narrative - method of presenting related events to tell
a compelling story; way of presenting related events to
tell a good story.
Narratology - study of narrative
4 Types of Narrative Writing (MasterClass (2021))
1. Linear Narrative - presents the story’s events
in the order they happened/ chronologically.
Ex. Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice
2. Non-linear Narrative - presents the story’s
events out of order, employing flashbacks.
Ex. Homer’s epic poem The Odyssey
3. Quest Narrative - protagonist works tirelessly
toward a goal.
Ex. J.R.R. Tolkein’s The Hobbit
4. Viewpoint Narrative - designed to express the
points of view or subjective personal
experience of the main character or other
fictional characters in the story. Moods,
feelings are filtered through the narrator’s own
life and subjective point of view; first-person or
third-person omniscient narration.
Ex. Lolita by Vladamir Nabokov
PRACTICE IN ART CRITICISM
Barret, T. (1994) - Art criticism responds to, interprets
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)
3. Interpretation - broader context for this type
of art.
“Why did the artist create it, and what does it
mean?” (Main idea is the overall meaning of
the work.)
4. Judgment - giving it rank in relation to other
works.
“Is it good artwork?”
Principles of Interpretation (Barrett, T. (1994)
1. Artworks have “aboutness” and demand
interpretation.
2. Interpretations are persuasive arguments.
3. Some interpretations are better than others.
4. Good interpretations of art tell more about the
artwork than the critic.
5. Feelings are guides to interpretations.
6. There can be different, competing, and
contradictory interpretations of the same artwork.
7. Interpretations are often based on a worldview.
8. Interpretations are not so much right, but more or
less reasonable, convincing, enlightening, and
informative.
9. Interpretations can be judged by coherence,
correspondence, and inclusiveness.
10. An artwork is not necessarily about what the artist
wanted it to be.
11. A critic ought not to be the spokesperson for the
artist.
12. Interpretations ought to present the work in its
best rather than its weakest light.
13. The objects of interpretation are artworks, not
artists.
14. All art is in part about the world in which it
emerged.
15. All art is in part about other art.
16. No single interpretation is exhaustive of the
meaning of an artwork.
17. The meanings of an artwork may be different from
their significance to the viewer. Interpretation is
ultimately a communal endeavor, and the community
is ultimately self-corrective.
18. Good interpretations invite us to see for ourselves
and continue on our own (Barret, T., 1994).