Art Analysis and Interpretation
The analysis and interpretation of an art work is the most basic form of writing in the visual arts. All Columbia College students will encounter just a small taste of it in LA 101. All art and art history students will have a chance to learn in greater depth how to analyze and interpret art works in Art 100, the one-credit hour writing course for art majors and art history minors.

Art analysis and interpretation work within two concentric frameworks. The smaller inner framework considers the visual information as presented by the art work (i.e., the primary source), while the larger outer framework reflects on verbal information from the title of the art work to the artist's statement to the historical and cultural context (i.e., secondary sources).

To understand the visual information, you need to consider the following:

• Subject matter of the art work
• Formal compositional elements, such as:

1. line
2. shape and space
3. light and dark
4. color
5. principles of design, such as:
   1. rhythm and repetition
   2. balance
   3. proportion
   4. scale
   5. unity and variety

To understand the verbal information, you need to consider the following:

• Title and label of the art work
• Artist's statement and possible information in an exhibition catalog (in case you are looking at an art work in a museum or gallery exhibition)
• Helpful material in libraries or on the Internet, such as

1. books
2. professional magazine and journals
3. reliable newspapers (e.g., The New York Times)
4. art dictionaries and other reference guide books
5. reliable Web sites (e.g., museum Web sites or organizational Web sites)

• Oral history interview (in case you are discussing an art work that was produced within the last 50 years or so and you can find a person who remembers when this art work was first shown and how it was received)
• Historical and cultural context of the art work
  

After gathering all the information, you need to map it out or organize it in some fashion to help you decide what the focus of your finished essay should be. In order to help you understand the function and possible purpose(s) of the art work, it will be helpful to consider the four traditional roles of the artist:

1. to record the world
2. to give visible or tangible form to feelings
3. to reveal hidden or universal truths
4. to help us see the world in a new or innovative way

It will help your thought process to consider these roles while accumulating more information about the work. It is often surprising to experience how suddenly new ideas develop in creative writing about art while thinking about the roles of the artist or other verbal information. (The artist's roles have been identified by Henry M. Sayre in A World of Art, Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1994. They are also mentioned under “Comparative Analysis” on this Web site.)

The information above is in part based on Henry M. Sayre, Writing About Art (Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 1995). Sayre provides more extensive information including examples.

Classes that might require an art analysis and interpretation:

• Art 100 as a special writing for art and art history students
  
• All art history courses require analysis and interpretation on various levels