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oral or written discussion strategy used to describe, analyze, interpret and evaluate works of art
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Doing art criticism is like playing a detective. You must assume that the artist has a secret message hidden inside the work. Your job is to solve the mystery and find the message
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What is your topic?
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What is your stance of claim?
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What is your rationale (basis) for this stance?
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What acknowledgement will you make to qualify your stance and consider opposition?
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Qualification + Stance + Rationale = THESIS
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Study the work under discussion
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Make notes on key parts of the work.
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Develop an understanding of the main argument or purpose being expressed in the work
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Consider how the work relates to a broader issue or context (e.g societal, political, racial).
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Description
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describe the work without using value words such as “beautiful” or “ugly”
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What do I see?
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Analysis
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describe how the work is organized as a complete composition
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How is the work organized?
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Interpretation
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describe how the work makes you think or feel
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What is the artist trying to say?
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Judgement
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present your opinion work’s success or failure
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What do I think of the work?
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Creative works
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novels, exhibits, films, images
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Research
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monographs, journal articles, reviews
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Media
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news reports, feature articles
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a knowledge of the work’s subject or related works
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an understanding of the work’s purpose, intended audience, development of argument, structure of evidence or creative style
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a recognition of the strengths and weaknesses of the work
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Analytical Verbs
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Different verbs have different meanings or suggest different relationships between authors, readers, characters and ideas.
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Connectives
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words we use in between sentences to join them
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allow us to be more precise about the relationships between statements
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Audience Positioning
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When discussing audience, you can also use the words 'reader' or 'viewer'
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Imitationalism
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It is when people think that art should imitate what we see in real world.
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Formalism
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It is when people feel that art uses the principles of design and the elements of art.
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Emotionalism
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It is when people believe that art must speak to the viewer through their emotions.
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It is not a fact
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A fact is irrefutable. Writing a fact as a thesis makes no argument.
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It is not a question
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A question does not express one's claim or comment about a topic.
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It is not an announcement
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avoid saying what you will discuss in the text
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It is not too broad
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Avoid making vague and confusing thesis statements by making a specific and focused thesis
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It is a complete sentence
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A phrase does not convey complete ideas or thoughts. Stating the thesis in a complete sentence makes it easier for the reader to understand the main idea of the text.
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It requires support
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Facts, surveys, reports, etc. should be used as proof or pieces of evidence to support your claim/opinion on the topic to make it persuasive
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It takes a stand
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The thesis should clearly show your claim about a subject/topic
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It is arguable
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The thesis should be contestable, debatable, or argumentative. It should never be a factual statement.
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Introduction
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Introduce the work and author
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Define main argument or purpose
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Explain context of the work being evaluated
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Construct a concluding sentence with signposts
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Body
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Summary (shorter than the critical evaluation)
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Critical Evaluation
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Conclusion (brief paragraph)
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overall evaluation of the work
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short recall of the key reasons why this evaluation was formed
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in some circumstances, recommendations for improvement of the work may be provided
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it is important to take note that new ideas or concepts related to the work should no longer be introduced or discussed in this section
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Reference List
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humss/abm/tvl : american psychological association (APA)
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stem : council of science editors (cse)
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Cheatography n. The art of mapping complex subjects into clear, instantly navigable reference guides.
