This document provides guidelines for formal analysis of artworks. It discusses key visual elements like line, color, shape, texture, size, orientation, and composition. Line can be fine or bold, fluid or sketchy. Color can be significant or less so. Shape can be geometric or organic. Texture results from materials or handling techniques. Composition examines spatial relationships and object ordering. Formal analysis focuses on understanding works through their formal qualities rather than subjective interpretations.

2. agenda 9.24.15
what is formal analysis and why do we need it?
to assist us in understanding complex phenomena like works
of art

3. LINE and COLOR
Long history of talking about these two properties
Disegno versus colore (in Italy)
Dessin vs. couleur (in France)
Are considered the two most
basic elements of two-
dimensional art

4. LINE • Line/design can mean
several things:
• (It’s clearer if we use a
more direct translation:
design)
• Design could mean:
• A drawing
• A plan to make
something

5. Ingres,
Apotheosis of
Homer,
c. 1827,
brush,
gouache, and
gray wash on
paper, Louvre

6. This is both a “drawing” and a “plan’ for
how to make the work. It comes first.

7. The painting comes second.

8. So color was thought to be
secondary.
Except that some artists defied this rule.
They said, actually paint is what paintings are made of, and
paint is pigment (a color) suspended in a medium (some
sort of binder).

9. Assistant grinding colors for use in a Diego Rivera fresco

10. Pierre Bonnard’s worktable, 1945

12. Peter Paul RUBENS, The Triumph of Henry IV, sketch, 1627–31
Oil on wood; 19 1/2 x 32 7/8 inches

13. LINE
The 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.

14. How would you characterize
line in this work?

15. What about in
this work?

16. Bridget Riley
Fall
1963
polyvinyl acetate paint
on hardboard
55 x 55 inches
What is the role
of line in this work?

17. Cy Twombly, Untitled, 1971, Oil and crayon on canvas
300 x 478 cm 118 x 188¼"

18. COLOR
1. Ask yourself, how important is color in this work?
2. In some works, color is quite significant; in others, far less
so.

19. Otto Dix
Portrait of the Journalist Sylvia
van Harden
1926
Color is one strong element that
contributes to the sense of disharmony,
confusion and conflict in this picture.
It is not the only element Dix uses to
create that sensation, but it is a
significant one.

20. Otto Dix
Small Self-Portrait
1913
By contrast, color has a less
significant role in this earlier
painting by the same artist.
It is not that color is absent—of
course it isn’t—and it’s not that
color isn’t skillfully handled—
actually, the color here is quite
subtle and fascinating. And
perhaps
it is symbolically significant as
well:
those burning cheeks in tandem
with all those frosty blues and
silvers
seem to indicate a passionate
personality in a cool, even cold
environment.

21. SHAPE
• Can be geometric (e.g., cube,
cylinder, cone, pyramid, circle,
square, triangle)
• Or biomorphic (sometimes also
called organic); wiggly, blob-like
shapes with irregular outlines.

22. El Lissitzky, Beat the Whites with the Red Wedge, 1919

23. Wasily Kandinsky, Composition VIII, 1923
Oil on canvas, (55 1/8 x 79 1/8 in), Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York

24. Sonia Delaunay
Rhyme
1938
oil on canvas

25. Frank Stella, Jasper’s Dilemma, 1962-3, oil on canvas

26. Arshile Gorky, Garden in Sochi, 1943

27. Joan MIRO, Flight of the Dragonfly in Front of the Sun, 1968

28. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty, 1970, mud, salt, rocks, water, 15 ft x 1500 ft, Rozel Poin

29. Tina MODOTTI
Workers’ Demonstration,
Mexico City
1926
Platinum print

30. pattern

31. Bridget Riley
Fall
1963
polyvinyl acetate
paint
on hardboard
55 x 55 inches

32. Bridget Riley,
Hesitate
1964
Oil on canvas
1067 x 1124 mm

33. Bridget Riley, Fragment 3/1from Fragments,1965
Screenprint on Perspex, 615 x 797 mm

34. Vincent van Gogh, Irises, 1889, oil on canvas

35. Thomas RUFF
Interieur 13B
1980
Chromogenic print
10 7/8 x 8 inches

36. Tomma Abts
Fenke, 2014
Acrylic and oil on canvas
18 7/8 x 15 inches

37. Tomma Abts
Oke, 2013
Acrylic and oil on canvas
18 7/8 x 15 inches

38. light
how does light appear in the picture?
where are the highlights (brightest spots) in the picture)
from what direction is the light cast?
does the light create a point of emphasis?

39. Georges de la Tour
The Penitent Magdalen
c. 1645
oil on canvas
61.4 x 48 inches

40. Weegee (Arthur Fellig), Two Offenders in the Paddywagon

41. Mary Cassatt
Young Thomas and His
Mother
1893
Pastel on cardboard
24 x 20 inches
Pennsylvania Academy of
Fine Arts

42. texture/materials
• in contemporary art especially, artists often use materials
for expressive purposes; almost anything and everything
can be used as an art material
• texture can be a result of the specific qualities of the
chosen material
• texture can also be the result of specific handling of the
material; for example, scribbling or scratching

43. Mickalene Thomas
A-E-I-O-U and Sometimes Y
2009
Plastic rhinestones, acrylic,
and enamel on panel
24 x 20 in

44. Nayland Blake, Feeder 2, 1998, steel and gingerbread, 7 x 10 x 7 feet

45. Cady Noland, Frame Device, 1989, Pipes, stantions, and twelve walkers
132 × 132 × 54 in
installed at the Hammer Museum

46. Liu Wei, Density 1, 2013, books, mild steel and wood, dimensions variable

47. Jean DUBUFFET
Grand Master of the Outsider
1947
Here Dubuffet lays on oil
paint in thick, uneven strokes
to create pockmarked face
of his
Grand Master.

48. Paul Klee
Highway and Byways
1929
oil on canvas
32 5/8 x 26 3/8 inches

49. Cy Twombly
Leda and the
Swan
1962
oil, pencil and
crayon on canvas
6' 3" x 6' 6 3/4"

50. Texture can be also achieved through literal means, as in Yayoi Kusama’s Narcissus
Garden, 2013

51. SIZE

52. Donald Rodney, In the House of My Father, 1996-7

53. ORIENTATION
Carl Andre, Breda, 1986, blue Belgian granite

54. Robert Rauschenberg, Monogram, 1955

55. Xu Bing
A Book from the Sky
1987-1991

56. E.V. Day, Bride Fight, 2006

57. composition
composition: how the various elements of the work are
arranged in relationship to each other
things to look for:
spatial relationships:
foreground
middle ground
background
where is the viewer positioned?
how are the objects or elements ordered?

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

59. John Frederick Peto, Still Life with Cake, Lemon, Strawberries and Glass, 1890.

60. guidelines
• medium/materials (what is it made of?)
• subject matter/genre (keep very brief for now)
• composition
• line
• color
• shape
• texture
• size
• orientation
REMEMBER, not all of these categories will be applicable to every work of art.
Choose the categories that are most relevant to the work you are considering.

61. in matters of style…
…nuance is key. You are training your eyes to detect subtle
differences, rather than blatant ones.
The more fine-grained the differences you can observe, the
better you will have understood the artist’s style.
“God is in the details.”