A01 – Critical and Contextual

Artist Research pages

Artists Artists For your first research page, please choose one
Karl Blossfeldt Andy Warhol artist from this list (In your next artist research
you’ll have free choice)
Edward Weston Katsushika Hokusai
Peter Randall-Page MC Escher From the internet you can find:
Georgia O’Keefe Paul Morrison Who
Yayoi Yusama Melanie Wickhan Where
When
Raoul Dufy Andy Goldsworthy What
Paul Cezanne Ernst Haeckle Inspiration
Process
Henri Matisse Janet Fish Media
Vincent Van Gogh Nuala O’Donovan What you’ll need you head for:
Paul Nash Meredith Woolnough Analysis
Interpretation
Joan Cotan Garet Kane
Rachel Roysch (let’s do this together)
Damien Hirst
Patrick Coulfield
LO: to understand and be able to explain how meaning is convey through the art elements.

Step 1. Work with your table and circle any words you are unsure of the meanings
Step 2. Highlight the sentences that are most relevant to this artwork

Analysis
Breaking something down and explaining it

CHOOSE ONE ARTWORK

Henri Matisse
1869–1954
31 December 1869 – 3 November 1954 was a French artist, known for both his use of colour and his fluid and original
draughtsmanship. He was a draughtsman, printmaker, and sculptor, but is known primarily as a painter.
Matisse is commonly regarded, along with Pablo Picasso, as one of the artists who best helped to define the
revolutionary developments in the visual arts throughout the opening decades of the twentieth century, responsible
for significant developments in painting and sculpture. Along with Picasso, Matisse helped to define and influence
radical contemporary art in the 20th century. Although he was initially labelled a Fauve (wild beast), by the 1920s he
was being hailed as an upholder of the classical tradition in French painting. His mastery of the expressive language of
colour and drawing, displayed in a body of work spanning over a half-century, won him recognition as a leading figure
in modern art.
-Commissioned by Sidney and Frances Brody in the last
years of his life to create a ceramic wall

- Tiled mosaic 4x3m

- In his later life, Matisse was bedridden and could no

longer paint. Instead he cut simple shapes from
coloured paper
Henri Matisse La Gerb 1953
Describe Do you like it/why did you choose is?

1. What is the title of the work of art?

2.Who created it?
3. Where was it created?
4. When?
6. What is the medium of the work of art? Acrylic, Oil, Pen & Ink. . .
7. Is it a painting, a lithograph, a piece of sculpture, a crafted piece
of furniture, a drawing, etc?
8. What are the dimensions?
10. What is represented?
11. Who is represented?
12. Is it a myth?
13. A landscape?
14. A Portrait?
15. A Seascape?
16. A Religious Scene?
17. Take an inventory of what you see. List everything that is in
front of you. Imagine that you are taking a report, do not leave Henri Matisse La Gerb 1953
anything out. Write in such a way that the person who is reading
the analysis can get a mind's eye view of what is in the painting.
Formal Analysis
1. What is the mood of the painting?
2. What is your initial reaction to it?
3. How has the artist utilized the elements of composition line, texture, space, colour and shape to create this mood, or
establish the content of the work?
4. How would you describe the line quality?
5. How would you describe the brushwork?
6. What is the focal point?
7. How do the elements of composition, draw you into the painting?
8. How does the line quality, colour relationships, shapes, spatial considerations textural surface contribute to the
understanding of the painting's content?
9. Is the texture slick or matte?
10. Shiny or dull?
11. Describe the colour harmonies and contrasts in the composition.
12. Are warm colours (those colours that are warm in nature, red-yellow-orange) used by the artist?
13. Are cool colours (those colours that are cool in nature, violet-green-blue) used by the artist?
14. Is there an overall colour theme or tonality used?
15. Has the artist used dramatic light and dark lighting effects, much like stage lighting (chiaroscuro) effects in the
painting or work of art?
16. Where are you the viewer in relationship to the painting?
17. Are forms organized on a flat plane or are they set deep into space?
18. How does the artist achieve this?
19. What objects are low on the compositional plane? What objects are high? Henri Matisse La Gerb 1953
20. What objects or figures are clear and distinct? What object are blurry?
21. Is the composition closed or open?
22. Is harmony achieved in the composition through formal, asymmetrical, or intuitive balance devices?
23. Are the shapes biomorphic? geometrical?
24. Are the shapes diffused? highly delineated? painterly?
25. What are the relationship of the elements of composition to the overall meaning of the work of art?
Interpretation
1. What does the painting "say" to you personally?
2. How has the artist used the elements of composition-line, texture,
space, colour, and she to create meaning or content?
3. What is the function of this work of art?
4. What connection do you see between subject matter and the
techniques used?
5. How successful has the artist been in presenting and synthesizing
the elements of composition with the overall content of the work of
art?
6. What is your subjective reaction to the work of art?
7. What is the cultural meaning and context of the work of art?
8. How does the work of art reflect the social, political, aesthetic,
psychological, or cultural ideas of its time?
9. What do you know abut other works of art by this artist?
10. How are the attributes of artist's individual style examined and
explored
in this particular work? Henri Matisse La Gerb 1953
11. What is the function of the work?
12. Who might the audience or buyer be for this piece?
13. How do others react to this work? How do they interpret it?
From the internet you can find:
Today
Who Write up a draft for your
Where
When
Artist Research. Use me to
What ask any questions or bounce
Inspiration ideas off your peers.
Process
Media
On Your artist Research page
What you’ll need you head for:
Due Thursday after half term
Description
Analysis Complete 1 double page spread on one artist.
Interpretation Include images and thoughtful presentation.