Columbia College SC - CC Writing in the Disciplines

Comparative Art Analysis

Comparing two or more art works is usually the most rewarding way of writing about art. The process enables you to discover new perceptions and ideas with which to better or more deeply understand the art works. A comparative analysis focuses on corresponding formal elements, ideas, and concepts in individual art works, in the oeuvre of artists, in artistic periods or across several artistic periods. You are observing correlation and contrasts between works of art. The basic work steps of any comparative analysis are continuity and change. While observing the art works more closely, you want to focus on what is alike and what is unlike; on what is similar and what is dissimilar.

Your comparative essay should consist of a formal analysis as well as an interpretation that considers the context of the art work, such as the historic time when it was created, the purpose and function of the work, the artist's style, and the artistic period. When comparing individual art works, you want to compare the formal compositional elements, such as varieties and quality of line, concept of space, light and color, texture, pattern, time and motion, focal point or emphasis, and rhythm. You should also look closely at the art medium and specific technique.

It helps your understanding of an art work if you question it in your mind considering the four traditional roles of the artist. These roles are:

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

These roles have been identified by Henry M. Sayre in A World of Art (Upper Saddle River: Prentice Hall, 1994, chapter 1), and they are discussed in Liberal Arts 101 at Columbia College.

Henry M. Sayre elaborates on the topic of comparative art analysis more extensively including a brief example in Writing About Art, a book required for Art 100.

Classes that might require a comparative analysis:

Art 100
Art 204
Art 205
Art 261
Art 262
Art 308
Art 330
300-level art history courses