In this module, we review and practice techiques of formal analysis.

1. Week 5, Class 2
ART 100

2. agenda
• review of formal analysis: key concepts from
last session
• practicing formal analysis

3. form vs. content
What is being expressed is the content. In visual
art, we call this the subject matter.
How it is being expressed in visual language, is
the form.

4. formal analysis
When beginning to analyze a visual work, we
note the subject matter, then bracket it. (We will
return to it later, but form comes first.)

5. Two works can have the same subject, but be
formally quite different. The ultimate
meanings will be different as well.

6. PARMIGIANINO
Self Portrait in
a Convex Mirror
c. 1524

7. Elisabeth Vigée-Lebrun
Self Portrait
1790

8. Gustave Courbet, Self Portrait (The Desperate Man), 1844-5, 17.7 x 21.7 inches

9. Vincent VAN GOGH
Self Portrait
1888

10. Francis BACON, Three Studies for a Self Portrait, 1976

11. Composition
composition: what goes where, how the various
elements of the work are arranged in
relationship to each other

12. Edgar Degas
Four Jockeys
c. 1889
oil on board
18 1/8 x 14 5/8 inches

13. René MAGRITTE, The Listening Room, 1952

14. Andrew WYETH, Wind from the Sea, 1947, tempera on hardboard, 18 1/2 x 27 9/16 inches

15. line
“Line” can refer to literal lines that the artist
uses to create shape, suggest depth, etc. These
lines can have a variety of characteristics, for
example; line can be fine and delicate, or bold
and chunky, it can be fluid or halting, precise or
sketchy.
They can also be “implied lines” where one
shape meets another.

16. How would you
characterize
line in this
work?
Pablo PICASSO
Girl with a Fan
1905

17. Pablo PICASSO
Woman with a Fan
1907
LINE

18. Pablo Picasso
Woman with a Fan
1907
LINE

19. Willem de Kooning
Untitled XIX
1977
LINE

20. SHAPE

21. Janine Antoni, Gnaw, 1992, chocolate, lard
SHAPE

22. Damien Hirst, Mother and Child Divided, 1993
SHAPE

23. Damien Hirst, Mother and Child Divided, 1993

24. Richard Serra, Torqued Ellipse, 1996

25. Donald RODNEY, In the House of My Father, 1996-7

26. Carl ANDRE, Breda, 1986, blue Belgian granite
Before 1960,
sculpture was
usually on a pedestal
and paintings were
hung on the wall.
After 1960, artists
began to use
ORIENTATION as
an expressive formal
element.

27. Eva HESSE
No title, 1970.
Latex, rope, string, and wire.
Dimensions variable.
Whitney Museum of American Art
© The Estate of Eva Hesse.
photograph by Sheldan C. Collins

28. Martin PURYEAR
Ladder for Booker T. Washington
1996
Ash, 438 x 22 3/4 x 1 1/4 inches
Installation view at the Modern Art
Museum of Fort Worth, Texas
CONSIDER:
line
color
shape
size
Can the title help us?

29. Yayoi Kusama INFINITY NETS [FBB], 2013, Acrylic on canvas 130.3 x 97

30. Yayoi KUSAMA
Infinity Nets (MAE)
2013

31. Kusama working on an Infinity Net painting

33. Yoshitomo Nara, Too Young to Die, 2001