essay on artist in english

Essay on Art

500 words essay on art.

Each morning we see the sunshine outside and relax while some draw it to feel relaxed. Thus, you see that art is everywhere and anywhere if we look closely. In other words, everything in life is artwork. The essay on art will help us go through the importance of art and its meaning for a better understanding.

What is Art?

For as long as humanity has existed, art has been part of our lives. For many years, people have been creating and enjoying art.  It expresses emotions or expression of life. It is one such creation that enables interpretation of any kind.

It is a skill that applies to music, painting, poetry, dance and more. Moreover, nature is no less than art. For instance, if nature creates something unique, it is also art. Artists use their artwork for passing along their feelings.

Thus, art and artists bring value to society and have been doing so throughout history. Art gives us an innovative way to view the world or society around us. Most important thing is that it lets us interpret it on our own individual experiences and associations.

Art is similar to live which has many definitions and examples. What is constant is that art is not perfect or does not revolve around perfection. It is something that continues growing and developing to express emotions, thoughts and human capacities.

Importance of Art

Art comes in many different forms which include audios, visuals and more. Audios comprise songs, music, poems and more whereas visuals include painting, photography, movies and more.

You will notice that we consume a lot of audio art in the form of music, songs and more. It is because they help us to relax our mind. Moreover, it also has the ability to change our mood and brighten it up.

After that, it also motivates us and strengthens our emotions. Poetries are audio arts that help the author express their feelings in writings. We also have music that requires musical instruments to create a piece of art.

Other than that, visual arts help artists communicate with the viewer. It also allows the viewer to interpret the art in their own way. Thus, it invokes a variety of emotions among us. Thus, you see how essential art is for humankind.

Without art, the world would be a dull place. Take the recent pandemic, for example, it was not the sports or news which kept us entertained but the artists. Their work of arts in the form of shows, songs, music and more added meaning to our boring lives.

Therefore, art adds happiness and colours to our lives and save us from the boring monotony of daily life.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Art

All in all, art is universal and can be found everywhere. It is not only for people who exercise work art but for those who consume it. If there were no art, we wouldn’t have been able to see the beauty in things. In other words, art helps us feel relaxed and forget about our problems.

FAQ of Essay on Art

Question 1: How can art help us?

Answer 1: Art can help us in a lot of ways. It can stimulate the release of dopamine in your bodies. This will in turn lower the feelings of depression and increase the feeling of confidence. Moreover, it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Question 2: What is the importance of art?

Answer 2: Art is essential as it covers all the developmental domains in child development. Moreover, it helps in physical development and enhancing gross and motor skills. For example, playing with dough can fine-tune your muscle control in your fingers.

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Home — Essay Samples — Arts & Culture — Contemporary Art — The Importance of Being an Artist

The Importance of Being an Artist

• Categories: Contemporary Art

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Published: Jun 13, 2024

Words: 522 | Page: 1 | 3 min read

Table of contents

Introduction, cultural impact, societal influence, personal significance.

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Essays About Art: Top 5 Examples and 9 Prompts

Essays about art inspire beauty and creativity; see our top essay picks and prompts to aid you.

Art is an umbrella term for various activities that use human imagination and talents. 

The products from these activities incite powerful feelings as artists convey their ideas, expertise, and experience through art. Examples of art include painting, sculpture, photography, literature, installations, dance, and music.

Art is also a significant part of human history. We learn a lot from the arts regarding what living in a period is like, what events influenced the elements in the artwork, and what led to art’s progress to today.

To help you create an excellent essay about art, we prepared five examples that you can look at:

1. Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? by Linda Nochlin

2. what is art by writer faith, 3. my art taught me… by christine nishiyama, 4. animals and art by ron padgett, 5. the value of art by anonymous on arthistoryproject.com, 1. art that i won’t forget, 2. unconventional arts, 3. art: past and present, 4. my life as an artist, 5. art histories of different cultures, 6. comparing two art pieces, 7. create a reflection essay on a work of art, 8. conduct a visual analysis of an artwork, 9. art period or artist history.

“But in actuality, as we all know, things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class, and above all, male. The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education–education understood to include everything that happens to us from the moment we enter this world…”

Nochlin goes in-depth to point out women’s part in art history. She focuses on unjust opportunities presented to women compared to their male peers, labeling it the “Woman Problem.” This problem demands a reinterpretation of the situation’s nature and the need for radical change. She persuades women to see themselves as equal subjects deserving of comparable achievements men receive.

Throughout her essay, she delves into the institutional barriers that prevented women from reaching the heights of famous male art icons.

“Art is the use of skill and imagination in the creation of aesthetic objects that can be shared with others. It involves the arranging of elements in a way that appeals to the senses or emotions and acts as a means of communication with the viewer as it represents the thoughts of the artist.”

The author defines art as a medium to connect with others and an action. She focuses on Jamaican art and the feelings it invokes. She introduces Osmond Watson, whose philosophy includes uplifting the masses and making people aware of their beauty – he explains one of his works, “Peace and Love.” 

“But I’ve felt this way before, especially with my art. And my experience with artmaking has taught me how to get through periods of struggle. My art has taught me to accept where I am today… My art has taught me that whatever marks I make on the page are good enough… My art has taught me that the way through struggle is to acknowledge, accept and share my struggle.”

Nishiyama starts her essay by describing how writing makes her feel. She feels pressured to create something “great” after her maternity leave, causing her to struggle. She says she pens essays to process her experiences as an artist and human, learning alongside the reader. She ends her piece by acknowledging her feelings and using her art to accept them.

“I was saying that sometimes I feel sorry for wild animals, out there in the dark, looking for something to eat while in fear of being eaten. And they have no ballet companies or art museums. Animals of course are not aware of their lack of cultural activities, and therefore do not regret their absence.”

Padgett recounts telling his wife how he thinks it’s unfortunate for animals not to have cultural activities, therefore, can’t appreciate art. He shares the genetic mapping of humans being 99% chimpanzees and is curious about the 1% that makes him human and lets him treasure art. His essay piques readers’ minds, making them interested in how art elevates human life through summoning admiration from lines and colors.

“One of the first questions raised when talking about art is simple — why should we care? Art, especially in the contemporary era, is easy to dismiss as a selfish pastime for people who have too much time on their hands. Creating art doesn’t cure disease, build roads, or feed the poor.”

Because art can easily be dismissed as a pastime, the author lists why it’s precious. It includes exercising creativity, materials used, historical connection, and religious value. 

Check out our best essay checkers to ensure you have a top-notch essay.

9 Prompts on Essays About Art

After knowing more about art, below are easy prompts you can use for your art essay:

Is there an art piece that caught your attention because of its origin? First, talk about it and briefly summarize its backstory in your essay. Then, explain why it’s something that made an impact on you. For example, you can write about the Mona Lisa and her mysterious smile – or is she smiling? You can also put theories on what could have happened while Leonardo da Vinci painted the Mona Lisa.

Rather than focusing on mainstream arts like ballet and painting, focus your essay on unconventional art or something that defies usual pieces, such as avant-garde art. Then, share what you think of this type of art and measure it against other mediums.

How did art change over the centuries? Explain the differences between ancient and modern art and include the factors that resulted in these changes.

Are you an artist? Share your creative process and objectives if you draw, sing, dance, etc. How do you plan to be better at your craft? What is your ultimate goal?

To do this prompt, pick two countries or cultures with contrasting art styles. A great example is Chinese versus European arts. Center your essay on a category, such as landscape paintings. Tell your readers the different elements these cultures consider. What is the basis of their art? What influences their art during that specific period?

Like the previous prompt, write an essay about similar pieces, such as books, folktales, or paintings. You can also compare original and remake versions of movies, broadway musicals, etc.

Pick a piece you want to know more about, then share what you learned through your essay. What did the art make you feel? If you followed creating art, like pottery, write about the step-by-step process, from clay to glazing.

Visual analysis is a way to understand art centered around what the eyes can process. It includes elements like texture, color, line, and scale. For this prompt, find a painting or statue and describe what you see in your essay.

Since art is a broad topic, you can narrow your research by choosing only the most significant moments in art history. For instance, if you pick English art, you can divide each art period by century or by a king’s ruling time. You can also select an artist and discuss their pieces, their art’s backstory, and how it relates to their life at the time.

If you are interested in learning more, check out our essay writing tips !

Art Essay Examples

Art Essay Examples to Get You Inspired - Top 10 Samples

Published on: May 4, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 30, 2024

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Are you struggling to come up with ideas for your art essay? Or are you looking for examples to help guide you in the right direction? 

Look no further, as we have got you covered!

In this blog, we provide a range of art writing examples that cover different art forms, time periods, and themes. Whether you're interested in the classics or contemporary art, we have something for everyone. These examples offer insight into how to structure your essay, analyze art pieces, and write compelling arguments.

So, let's explore our collection of art essay examples and take the first step toward becoming a better art writer!

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Good Art Essay Examples

In the following section, we will examine a selection of art essay examples that are inspiring for various academic levels.

College Art Essay Examples

Let’s take a look at college art essay examples below:  

The Intersection of Art and Politics: An Analysis of Picasso's Guernica

The Role of Nature in American Art: A Comparative Study

University Art Essay Examples

University-level art essay assignments often differ in length and complexity. Here are two examples:

Gender and Identity in Contemporary Art: A Comparative Study

Art and Activism: The Role of Street Art in Political Movements

A Level Art Essay Examples

Below are some art paper examples A level. Check out: 

The Use Of Color In Wassily Kandinsky's Composition Viii

The Influence of African Art on Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'avignon

A Level Fine Art Essay Examples

If you're a student of fine arts, these A-level fine arts examples can serve as inspiration for your own work.

The Use Of Texture In Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night

Exploring Identity Through Portraiture: A Comparative Study

Art Essay Examples IELTS 

The Impact of Art on Mental Health

The Effects of Technology on Art And Creativity

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AP Art Essay Examples

A Comparison of Neoclassical and Romantic Art

An Examination Of The Effects Of Globalization On Contemporary Art

Types of Art Essay with Examples

Art essays can be categorized into different types. Let's take a brief look at these types with examples:

Art Criticism Essay : A critical essay analyzing and evaluating an artwork, its elements, and its meaning.

The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali: A Critical Analysis

Art History Essay: A comprehensive essay that examines the historical context, development, and significance of an artwork or art movement.

The Renaissance: A Rebirth of Artistic Expression

Exhibition Review: A review of an art exhibition that evaluates the quality and significance of the artwork on display.

A Review of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Exhibition

Contemporary Art Essay: An essay that explores and analyzes contemporary art and its cultural and social context.

The Intersection of Technology and Art in Contemporary Society

Modern Art Essay: An essay that examines modern art and its significance in the development of modernism.

Cubism and its Influence on Modern Art [insert pdf]

Art Theory Essay: An essay that analyzes and critiques various theories and approaches to art.

Feminist Art Theory: A Critical Analysis of its Impact on Contemporary Art [insert pdf]

Additional Art Essay Example

Let’s take a brief look at some added art essay samples:

Artwork Essay Example

Artist Essay Example

Advanced Higher Art Essay Example

Common Art Essay Prompts

Here are some common art essay topics that you may encounter during your coursework:

• Describe a piece of artwork that has inspired you.
• A comparative analysis of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David.
• Analyze the cultural significance of a particular art movement.
• Discuss the relationship between art and politics.
• Compare and contrast two works of art from different time periods or cultures.
• The representation of identity in art
• The Evolution of Artists' Paintings:
• From Traditional to Contemporary Art
• The representation of identity in Frida Kahlo's self-portraits.
• The significance of oil on canvas in the history of art.
• The significance of the Mona Lisa in the Italian Renaissance

Art Essay Topics IELTS

Here are some art essay topics for IELTS students. Take a look: 

• The value of art education.
• The role of museums in preserving art and culture.
• The impact of globalization on contemporary art.
• The influence of technology on art and artists.
• The significance of public art in urban environments.

Tips For Writing a Successful Art Essay

Here are some tips for writing a stand-out art essay:

• Develop a clear thesis statement that guides your essay: Your thesis statement should clearly and concisely state the main argument of your essay.
• Conduct thorough research and analysis of the artwork you are writing about : This includes examining the visual elements of the artwork, researching the artist, and considering the historical significance.
• Use formal and precise language to discuss the artwork: Avoid using colloquial language and instead focus on using formal language to describe the artwork.
• Include specific examples from the artwork to support your arguments: Use specific details from the artwork to back up your analysis.
• Avoid personal bias and subjective language: Your essay should be objective and avoid using personal opinions or subjective language.
• Consider the historical and cultural context of the artwork: Analyze the artwork in the context of the time period and cultural context in which they were created.
• Edit and proofread your essay carefully before submitting it: Ensure your essay is well-organized, coherent, and free of grammatical errors and typos.
• Use proper citation format when referencing sources: Follow the appropriate citation style guidelines and give credit to all sources used in your essay.
• Be concise and focused in your writing: Stick to your main thesis statement and avoid going off-topic or including irrelevant information.
• Read your essay aloud to ensure clarity and coherence: Reading your essay out loud can help you identify inconsistencies or any other mistakes.

The Bottom Line!

We hope that the art essay examples we've explored have provided you with inspiration for your own essay. Art offers endless possibilities for analysis, and your essay is a chance to showcase your unique opinions.

Use these examples as a guide to craft an essay that reflects your personality while demonstrating your knowledge of the subject.

Short on time? Let CollegeEssay.org help you! All you have to do is to ask our experts, " write college essay for me " and they'll help you secure top grades in college.

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• How to Write an Essay About Art: Guide

Writing a formal art analysis essay often seems challenging for many students. This is because an art essay differs from regular papers and requires you to showcase critical and analytical skills.

This article will cover the guidelines and best tips to help you create a quality art criticism essay.

What is an art essay?

An art essay is an academic paper that analyzes different types of art to examine their relevance and impact on the audience. These essays analyze the elements of artwork and the aspects of the art following the period of its creation.

A good art essay should highlight the small details encompassed in a piece and how they contribute to a certain theme. This challenges your reader and highlights various explanations of the creator's purpose.

How to write an art essay

When writing an art essay, the key elements to consider are the structure and defining features of your art's design.

Some of the general information to consider when preparing an art essay include; the artist's information, the date the artist created the art piece, the provenance, and the current location of the piece.

Brief description of the work

After your introduction, you should analyze various artwork elements to determine why it is appealing to the audience. Some of the elements to consider when writing an art essay are:

Color : When describing an art piece, highlight the colors in the picture and how various colors are used to show different themes. We may talk about its hue, value, and intensity when defining color.

Lines : Lines are the primary elements to study in an art essay. You may use Lines to convey emotions, motion, or moods. Lines are analyzed depending on their composition. Horizontal lines can show calmness while analyzing diagonal lines to define a movement.  

Texture : this refers to the surface appearance of your art piece. Texture can be observed in 2-d art and felt in 3-D pieces.

Space  refers to the space between and around objects depicted in your art. Space can be defined as negative or positive and provides context for your piece.  

Shape : Like lines, shapes can relay emotions and aid in analyzing artwork. Various shapes were historically associated with various attributes and could thus shed some light on what the creator aimed to achieve with the piece.

Steps for writing an essay about art

Similar to other academic papers, limiting your art essay to a few characteristics that support your thesis statement is crucial. When handling a 'why art is important essay;

• Examine the artwork

Analyze various elements and principles embodied in the artwork and your feeling on the overall quality and message of the artwork. When examining the art, be keen to confirm the subject matter, artist, date of creation, and the current location of the piece.

This information helps you structure an informative introduction before presenting your thesis.

• Write your thesis

After examining your study piece, brainstorm on various ideas that you could address regarding the art piece. Next, note your points down and research to weed out topics that have been covered extensively.

Preferably, cover a topic that can be fully covered from analyzing the piece or one that empirical data on the topic can support.

• Body paragraphs

Within the body of your art analysis essay, expand on your claim and show how various elements and principles support your claim as exhibited in the art piece. Like other papers, the body should be structured into paragraphs containing a unique idea.

The paragraphs should start with a topic sentence, provide an argument for your claim and highlight the relevance of each section to the thesis.

• Prepare a conclusion

Finally, cover the main points of your essay and show how the paper supports your thesis statement. Be keen not to introduce new ideas into the conclusion section, as this may cause confusion and limit your overall performance.

Art essay topics

If you struggle to select a topic for your art history essay, here are some ideas to inspire your topic selection.

• Elements of Egyptian sculptures
• Fashion designs in African cultures
• Analyzing 'The Last Supper by Leonardo DaVinci
• Features of 18th century English portraits
• The representation of women in ancient art
• How Claude Manet embodied impressionism

We hope that this guide has helped you to approach your art essay. Feel free to engage our experts for further assistance.

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Defining ‘Art’

For a practice that has followed humanity since the dawn of consciousness, the question ‘What is Art?’ is notoriously difficult to answer. The Oxford English Dictionary, typically an authority when it comes to definition, calls art “the expression or application of human creative skill and imagination, typically in a visual form such as painting or sculpture, producing works to be appreciated primarily for their beauty or emotional power.”

When asked to ‘think of an artwork’ there’s a pretty good chance that Oxford’s definition covers what you imagined. Oxford’s definition establishes some crucial distinctions: art is created by humans, so a beautiful tree is not art unless a human has applied their creativity to it, as with a bonsai tree. Also, art may be appreciated for its beauty or emotional power. While many artworks are visually pleasing, ugly or disturbing work is valid, and can be appreciated for its emotional power. So if Oxford has the definition nailed, why have generations of aestheticians, philosophers, writers, artists and academics defined and redefined what they think art is? First, some examples. We’ll begin with the pragmatic. In 1957, the architect Frank Lloyd Wright wrote: “Art is a discovery and development of elementary principles of nature into beautiful forms suitable for human use.” Another practical definition comes to us from Charles Eames: “Art resides in the quality of doing; process is not magic.”

For many artists and writers art is an intensely personal and difficult act, with Oscar Wilde calling art a mode of individualism , the French writer André Gide saying it’s “the point where resistance is overcome” and Italian film director Federico Fellini called art “autobiography . “

For Leo Tolstoy art was something greater than the individual. In his essay What is Art he wrote: “Art is not, as the metaphysicians say, the manifestation of some mysterious idea of beauty or God; it is not, as the aesthetical physiologists say, a game in which man lets off his excess of stored-up energy; it is not the expression of man’s emotions by external signs; it is not the production of pleasing objects; and, above all, it is not pleasure; but it is a means of union among men, joining them together in the same feelings, and indispensable for the life and progress toward well-being of individuals and of humanity.” And this is the crux of why art is difficult to define. The Oxford English defines art as an object created with intention, but generations of artists have seen art as many things. And they are all correct, because art is as complicated, diverse and contentious as human nature. No one definition will ever properly encapsulate what art is. So here, in no particular order are Obelisk’s definitions of art:

— Art is a process — Art is communication — Art is an expression of humanness

Reed Enger, "Defining ‘Art’," in Obelisk Art History , Published August 15, 2019; last modified October 12, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/essays/defining-art/.

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Essay Samples on Art

While it may seem easy to compose essays about art, it’s not really so because you have to offer background information in your introduction part and explain why some exhibition or a school of thought is important. This should go to your first paragraph because your purpose is to inspire your readers and provide enough background information. When you already have a prompt that must be followed, determine what kind of essay must be written. It can be a descriptive essay, which is great for a description of the works of art or photography. Some other cases may require working with an explanatory tone where you have to explain why an artist has chosen certain palettes or what has been an inspiration. See various free art essay examples below for inspiration. It also helps to learn how to structure your writing and implement quotes or footnotes that are used to highlight the images. Remember to focus on the ways how to cite images and multimedia elements, depending on the chosen style. Your writing should address every image that you have by checking twice with the grading rubric to ensure that you use the sources that may have already been specified.

What Does Creativity Mean to You

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Censorship of Art and Artists: The Complex Discourse

The intersection of creativity and expression often finds itself entangled in a contentious debate: the censorship of art and artists. This complex issue has sparked discussions across societies and cultures, raising questions about freedom of speech, cultural preservation, and the power dynamics between creators and...

Why I Want to Study Architecture: the Power of Design

The world around us is a tapestry of structures, spaces, and designs that shape our lives and experiences. From towering skyscrapers to quaint houses, every architectural marvel carries a story and a vision. The allure of architecture, with its blend of artistic expression, technical precision,...

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The Impact of Technology on Art: A Modern Renaissance

Introduction The influence of technology on art is an evolving narrative that reflects the symbiotic relationship between human creativity and innovative tools. From the early use of simple tools to create cave paintings to the digital art technologies of today, the integration of technology in...

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Exploring Feminist Literary Criticism: Unveiling Mona Lisa Smile

Introduction Self-assessment and criticism help us improve our skills and the ways in which we communicate our ideas and perspectives with others. In this feminist literary criticism essay, I will be critiquing and analysis of the movie Mona Lisa Smile. Firstly, I will explain why...

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Debate Surrounding Graphic Novel and Relation to Literature

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Depicting Trauma: Symbolism in Graphic Novels

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Understanding Graphic Novels: Context and Analysis for Reading

Introduction Graphic novels are stories illustrated in comic form but have the length of a novel. “The term graphic novel was invented in 1970 however, the time of its origin is not concluded yet” (“Levitz”). Graphic novels have been debated for decades since some readers...

Jhene Aiko: Exploring the Artistry and Emotions in her Music

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The Joy of Painting: Exploring the Life and Legacy of Bob Ross

Who is Bob Ross, or rather, who was he? During the 80s and 90s, he was an artist who specialized in painting, hosting an instructional painting show on PBS called The Joy of Painting. Though Bob Ross has long since passed on, one will find...

The Uniqueness of Australian Artwork: Exploring Artists' Perceptions

Australian artists provide a unique way of displaying the Australian landscape. John Olsen is one of these artists, who uses symbolism to create a sense of movement. This is conveyed through his spontaneous linear line work as seen in Onkaparinga Hill, blue wren and fox...

Artistic World of Peter Doig: an Insight Into His Life and Work

Peter Doig is a contemporary Scottish artist I found that peaked my interest from his art work to his personal life. I’d like to start off by giving a brief background of the artist seeing that a lot of his work is landscapes from where...

• Contemporary Art

Being an Artist: My Passion, Place of Freedom and Courage

I remember constantly wondering if there was a way that I could make my life meaningful or if it even had meaning. I was just a thirteen year old starting to figure out her own self. My life revolved around wanting to please the people...

• About Myself

Sculpture From Dura Europas: the Head of a Bearded God

One of the artworks in the Yale art gallery is the Head of a Bearded God. This sculpture of bearded man that looks old and wise. This piece has curly hair, bushy eyebrows, and very wide/big eyes. The piece is is classified as a sculpture,...

Kashimiri Papier Mache Art: a Unique Dying Art Form

Kashmir has been wrought in conflict and upheaval for decades now, but its wonderful valleys give us a unique gift of native craftsmanship – Papier Mache art. Kashmir’s rich cultural past is often overlooked due to its troublesome political past. Its handicrafts and shawls (from...

The Art of the Meddah: Exploring Turkish Forms of Storytelling

Culture is the conglomeration of the beliefs and art forms of societiesm across places, along a long-time frame. And quite evidently, the Republic of Turkey has an extremely long history and a resultantly rich diversity in its culture. Throughout its history, the Turkish land was...

The Way Technologies Transform Already Existing Art Forms

Compelling games are not the consequences of accidents, any more than are riveting novels, movies, or music. Creators for all these medias draw on well-established set of strategies and techniques to create a particular emotional experience. Musicians, for example, may create tension through reiteration and...

How Shemistry Influenced the History and Presentation of Art

Chemistry is everywhere in our life. Of course, chemistry is also closely related to art. There are many forms of art, such as oil painting, gouache, watercolor and so on. These painting forms are inseparable from products such as pigments and watercolors, which are based...

Critical Understanding of the Sculptural Art of Alexander Calder

Calder was an American sculptor from Pennsylvania. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder was a sculptor and his mother a painter. Him and his family were constantly on the move around the country throughout Calder’s childhood due to his dads work. And through this Calder was...

Discussion on the Relationship Between Intelligence and Creativity

The relationship between intelligence and creativity has been subjected to research for many years. Unfortunately, there is yet no consensus on how these constructs are related. The connection between intelligence and creativity is that they are functions of the brain that handle data to determine...

• Intelligence

Do Schools Kill Creativity: the Issues of Music Education

In the TEDx video entitled, 'Do schools kill creativity?' Sir Ken Robinson discusses what he believes to be the main problem with our education system, providing a series of funny anecdotes and facts appropriate for his argument. After watching this video about 'Do schools kill...

Creative and Critical Thinking: Combining the Achievements of Thought

Creative, one word that can be interpreted in many ways whether in thoughts which is include ways of thinking and actions and also in verbal form. Critical, on the other side refers to the ability to analyse information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. It...

• Critical Thinking

Culture, Art and Creativity: the Way They Are Related

Art is a reflection of your thinking, your ideas, and your surroundings, the artist adopts his or her surroundings and then by using their imagination, outside thinking and their perspective they present a new face of it in front of the world. Art and creativity...

• Cultural Anthropology

Accessing the World of Theatre: Musicals and Music Theatre

Goodwin (2019) states music theatre is a type of stage performance using music from various forms such as ballets, operas, cabarets, and contemporary music. Musical theatre uses different techniques (e.g. music, dance, songs, acting as well as spoken dialogue) to tell a story to the...

Drawing for Architecture: A Key to Understanding Complex Designs

Architecture the word from Latin is called “architectura” originally from the Greek “arkhitekton”. Architectural drawing has never been taken for granted. All things we design and sketch are from our thinking to our hands. Therefore, drawings are the main development to architectural projects. When designing,...

Architecture: Bridging Vision into Reality

Architecture can be defined in various ways, but if I were to define it, I would simply use these following words, ‘Architecture is an abstract language that bridges a vision into reality.’ I think everyone would agree that architecture is best paired with great effort...

• Interior Design

The Development of Nationalism & Regionalism in Australian Architecture

Introduction From the 1880s, “nationalism” and “regionalism” had been started to be two of the keywords on the Australian development of architecture. These two words point toward the nation’s sake of rejecting foreign architectural approaches and seeking of the local architectural characteristics in Australia. During...

• Modern Architecture

Architecture: A Means to Improve People's Quality of Life

Introduction  “Architecture is about finding imaginative, creative solutions to improving people’s quality of life.” - Alejandro Aravena Architecture was born approach back in the prehistoric age, once the first man determined to come back up with shelters made up of twigs and bones. architecture isn't...

• Quality of Life

Architecture and its Role in Nation Building: A Critical Review

Brief introduction on architecture and how its spaces are perceived The universal definition of architecture as a synthesis of ‘art’ and ‘science’ is inadequate in the present democratic, globalized, and information world of the 21st century. Many modern good-looking buildings with sound structures have been...

Romanticism Paintings Analysis: The Raft of Medusa and Liberty Leading the People

I will be focusing on romanticism that is based on emotions and sublimity. I will be displaying the features of romantic art by analysing two paintings from the 19th century. These are The Raft of Medusa by Theodore Gericault (1819; Louvre Museum, Paris), oil on...

• Romanticism

The Ideas Behind The Persistence of Memory and Pillars of Society

George Grosz, Pillars of Society (1926) George Grosz was born in Berlin on July 26, 1893, he studied at Dresden Art Academy and began his career as a cartoonist. He later joined a Dada movement in 1917. And he was a famous figure in Neue...

• Salvador Dali

The Persistence of Memory, Starry Night and Analysis of Other Paintings

Dreams are something that everyone is or was able to have at one point in their life. Dreams are defined as, 'a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.' Many artists create their artworks from their dreams or other...

• Vincent Van Gogh

The System Of Education: If I Could Change The World

If I could change the world, I would completely change the system of education. It hasn't changed for hundreds of years, and the current system was designed in the Industrial Age. This means, that children in school have to obey every order and do only...

• Importance of Education

Expressive Art: Is Graffiti Art Or Vandalism

 Throughout time graffiti has received both overwhelming support and intense backlash. Some view it as a form of expressive art while others consider it a complete destruction of property. However, despite the amount of differentiation, charisma and personality graffiti can bring into cities, it is...

Why Is Art Important For Human

Art is not a necessary part of survival. So why does it matter? Oftentimes art is overlooked and viewed as an unimportant skill or ability to have. However, art has many qualities that one can benefit from. It is a stress reliever that allows people...

The Doll`s House" By H. Ibsen: Nora Helmer Character Analysis

Nora Helmer is a good wife and mother. She does all she can for her family, especially her husband. Considering all the things she does, and the lengths she went to to make sure her husband could regain his health, it was not enough in...

• A Doll's House

Why Is Graffiti Are Not Vandalism

Why is graffiti art not vandalism? According to the Mural Arts Philadelphia website, the village’s first legitimate effort to eradicate graffiti started with the form of the Anti-Graffiti Network in the 1980s. Some people assay that its vandalism, and some assay that its artifice. Park...

My Take On Comedy: From Tartuffe To Sylvia And Cards Against Humanity

Defining comedy is extremely difficult. When something happens that makes you laugh, whether that is in a play or in real life, it’s difficult to pin down why you laughed, to begin with. I find myself defining comedy as a series of events that went...

Attitudes Towards Consumerism in Contemporary Art

In this essay I will be using information gathered from my own personal research, studio research and relevant topics discussed throughout the lectures. Whilst also, considering social, economic, and cultural factors. I will be discussing and analyzing attitudes towards consumerism in Contemporary Art. Built from...

• Consumerism

One of the Most Common Forms of Theatre

Throughout this essay the focus of various practitioners will be explored thoroughly from the paths of life they took and how they became so successful, to the impact that their work had on other practitioners and in general the industry itself. The industry of theatre...

The Practice of Art Forgery and Monet's Aesthetic Flaws

A forgery is a work that is not genuine to its proclaimed origins, however, is presented as a genuine article, and is so acting with the intention to deceive. The practice of art forgery is as well established and mature as the practice of creating...

• Claude Monet

Visual Verbal Essay on Wilfred Owen and Franz Marc

This essay explores two artists, Franz Marc, Brett Whitely and two of their artworks depicting animal scenes. Franz Marc’s ‘Tiger’, ‘Blue Horse 1’ and Brett Whitley’s Giraffe and Hyena. These four artworks will be compared and contrasted using the structural and the subjective frame. In...

• Wilfred Owen

The Role of Creative Industries in the United Kingdom

In this essay I will go over and talk about the creative industries and the role they play in the United Kingdom, I will look at the history and the development of the Creative Industries and their sectors. I will then look at the wider...

• Great Britain

African Art: West African Sculpting 

West African sculpting greatly influenced us today because lots o people still do it like when Pablo Picasso recreated the style of west African art he created it like they would some real some supernatural and exaggerated on some body parts after Pablo Picasso shared...

• African Art

Caravaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham Due to Divine Intervention

First of all, there are several juxtapositions present throughout the painting. For example, there is a dichotomous relationship between the cold sensuality in the foreground and the pastoral beauty in the background. Secondly, Caravaggio manages to convey the sensational struggle present between the unconditional loyalty...

Greetings From the 1970s Contemporary Photography

The term contemporary refers to things happening in the same period of or in the style of the present or recent times so when referring to contemporary photography that is only basic modern 21st-century pictures or videos.. Over the past years, something called 'the medium'...

• Photography

Claude Monet and Modern Art Today

“Claude Monet” was a famous French painter who used to catch his everyday life's best minutes on canvas. “Claude Monet” was born on 14 November 1840 and His father was a businessman and his mother was a singer. He is one of the most praised...

The World’s Wife Borrowed From Other Texts

It is often that literature, whether being a poem or a book, often provides a voice for those who lack one. The work by Carol Ann Duffy is an accumulation of poems titled 'The World's Wife', first published in 1999 and the present works through...

• Drama (Play Genre)

Typography: From Billboards to Street Signs

Typography is everywhere we look, in the books we read on the websites we visit even in everyday life, from billboards to street signs, product packaging and even on your mobile phone. It is the art and technique of designing and arranging type. Today the...

• Advertising

Rebellious Aspect to Monet’s Personality

Claude Monet is an artist who continues to be adored and held in high esteem even to this day. There may be many who perhaps are not familiar with the name, yet still at least recognise one piece of his work. His paintings are a...

Edgar Degas and His Way of Critics

Mary Cassatt was born in 1844. She was born in what is now known as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and died on June 14, 1926 at her French home right outside of Paris. Mary was raised in Philadelphia where she spent her childhood with a social privilege...

• Edgar Degas
• Impressionism

The Principles of Art: Movement, Unity, Harmony, Variety

If you were to ask someone “what is art essay”, the majority of people in the world would think of art and immediately their mind would shoot to a painting. The truth is, art is so much more than just a painting. There are thousands...

• Art Movement

Fairy Tale Black Swan Is a Story of a Ballerina

“Black Swan” is not the fairy tale of “swan lake” but a story of a ballerina, Nina. The story begins with the change of the company, the old lead dancer Beth is about to leave. The stage needs a new lead dancer who can act...

The Book Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Calico

One may call war a side effect of human civilization. Nevertheless, it is in a war that people show their best virtues: courage, loyalty, strength, perseverance, and honesty. Nothing is surprising in the fact that texts on this subject have existed since the writing appeared....

Comparing Two Great Pieces by Pablo Picasso and by Francisco Goya

Today I will be comparing and contrasting two great pieces called “GUERNICA” by Pablo Picasso and “THE THIRD OF MAY” by Francisco Goya.The “GUERNICA” by Pablo Picasso was hard to understand at first but the longer you look at it you understand it is a...

• Pablo Picasso

Black Swan is About Destructive Nature of Ballet

Nina Portman is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica who exerts a suffocating control over her life. When artistic director...

The Development of Islamic Art

Islamic art is created not only for the Muslim faith, but it consists of artworks such as textiles, architecture, paintings and drawings that were produced in the regions that were once ruled by Muslim empires. Artists from various disciplines take part in collaborative projects and...

• History of Islam
• Islamic Art

Role of Cultural and Religious Pluralism

Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their own unique cultural identities. Migration is a key process that makes significant contribution to the growth of urbanism. Often immigrants belonging to particular region, language, religion ,tribe etc tend to...

• Art and Religion
• Religious Pluralism

John Berger: Understanding His Artwork

John Berger is a remarkable man who enlighten us with his knowledge using one of his brilliant essays “Ways of Seeing.” Berger has concurred the ability to fully understand any artwork and to recognize what is visible before him. He clarifies that there is a...

• John Berger

America’s Contemporary Multimedia Artist Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons is one of America’s most popular contemporary multimedia artists, who believes that art can change lives, give vastness and expand your parameters. Koons was born in York, Pennsylvania in 1955. He studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and the...

• American Culture

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (Italian: Volta Della Cappella Sistina), painted by Michelangelo somewhere in the range of 1508 and 1512, is a foundation work of High Renaissance craftsmanship. The Creation of Adam' is one of the nine ceiling boards in the Sistine Chapel portraying scenes...

• Michelangelo

History of Medieval And Byzantine Art Movements

A painting wealthy in color typical for St.George on a rearing white horse, shown against a rocky landscape, slaying the winged monster as it appears before him. An angel crowns St.George with a martyr’s crown, symbolizing the triumph of good over evil. The tower on...

• Byzantine Empire

The Power Of Photography: Capturing Emotions With Camera

Photographs help people preserve memories with its technology, but what is actually happening is much more interesting when thought about in more depth. A moment in time is captured forever, so long as the photograph is kept in good shape. It is the closest people...

Jackson Pollock as an Influential America Artist

The painter Jackson Pollock was an influential America painter and a key person to the abstract expressionist movement. He was born in Cody , Wyoming in 1912 and he was the youngest of 5 brothers. He grew up in Arizona and Chico, California he moved...

• Jackson Pollock

The Girl Who Loved Caravaggio by Belle Ami

The Girl Who Loved Caravaggio by Belle Ami is a romantic suspense thriller and the second book in the Out of Time series. High on the success of finding a centuries-old Leonardo da Vinci painting, Angela Renatus, and her fiance Alex Caine are on a...

The Portrayal of the Culture of Death and Afterlife in Art

Throughout history, different cultures dealt with the concept of death and afterlife according to their beliefs, and developed different perspectives about what happens after the body dies. These ideas were often reflected in their art, literature, and their lifestyle as well. Most cultures produce art...

Art Nouveau and Modernist Movements in Art

Art Nouveau is originated in England. William Morris collaborated with other artists so Art Nouveau was created. It has a wide range of different decorative arts, like architectural, painting, graphic art, and jewelry. It was most popular during the 1890s. Its popularity came to a...

• Art Nouveau
• William Morris

The Famous Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio

The famous Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio produced original paintings, criticizing those who imitated other artists creative styles. He even accused the great Giovanni Baglione and Guido Reni for imitating his uniquely developed techniques. Caravaggio was the building block for modern art and followed by many....

Art of Theatre and French Figure Joan of Arc

Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is an irish playwright, critic, and political activist. His influence on Western theatre started from the 1880s till after his death. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925 becoming the leading dramatist of his generation. Shaw's first play to bring...

• Joan of Arc

The Beauty and Skill of Ansel Adams’ Photography

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1902. As a child, Adams had many freedoms and lots of energy. He was an unattractive child, with big dark circles under his eyes, a crooked nose, and large ears. He was often teased...

• Ansel Adams

Holi Festival and Vibrant Celebration of Colors

Holi is a very vibrant celebration of colors. We have to wait for a whole year. So we can enjoy the festival of color. Although, Holi is fun and joyous. It's also immensely damaging to your skin. The colors are not extracted from flowers but...

• Holi Festival

The Struggle of the Graphic Designers and Social Media

Graphic designers relied heavily on word-of-mouth for their works to become popular and to be seen by the public, it was close to impossible to grow an organic dedicated fanbase to follow your work, nowadays with the rise of the internet and social media, you...

• Graphic Design

Some Interesting Facts About Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was one of the most, if not the most celebrated artist of the 20th century. His art is iconic, his personality, eccentric, his fashion sense, interesting, his style, unique, his showmanship, unforgettable. All these combined to make him an interesting human and a...

Salvador Dali's Biography: Main Topics

 Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. His father was an atheist lawyer who was very strict in Dali’s upbringing. Dali’s mother, on the other hand, was loving and encouraged him to be artistic. He has an older brother named...

Caravaggio’s Artwork Judith Beheading Holofernes

For this essay, you needed to decide on a painting, Sculpture and other selected types of art work by which ever artist that created them before the 1900’s.Select a topic out of the selection given to do research about the topic and art work to...

William Morris: Arts and Crafts Movement

William Morris was a famous artists who mainly focused on his wallpaper and fabric designs. While he was mainly known for his art, even today, he had many other notable careers and accomplishments, One of them being that he founded the Arts and crafts movement....

Breaking The Parametr In Red Wheelbarrow: Analysis

The most conspicuous element of modernist poetry is the invention and experimentation of new forms of representation. It featured movements such as imagism and symbolism and moved consciously away from naturalism and realism. Ezra Pound was one of the first to delve into this new...

The Importance Of Paying Attention To Detail In Architecture

The architectural detailing process of a project is a long process that includes a lot of steps and patterns to consider. The designing issue is not consecutive for making a theoretical plan for the entire structure, the detailing, and construction of a building. It is...

Depiction Of Revolution In Les Miserables And Musical Theatre

This essay will deliberate the framework of genre, and investigate Musical Theatre, a genre within performing arts. What is Genre? Genre has been around for centuries, it commenced with the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato, they created a classification system that would separate literature into...

• Les Miserables

The Concepts Of Love And Hate With Loyalty In "Romeo And Juliet"

Loyalty is a virtue that most people strive for as seen in the play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, which is about two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo, a Montague and Juliet, a Capulet fall in love. Throughout...

• Romeo and Juliet
• William Shakespeare

Romeo And Juliet: The Decision Between Choice And Fate

“God gave us free will, and we may choose to exercise it in ways that end up hurting other people”-Francis Collins. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play written by Shakespeare, that follows the lives of two star-crossed lovers. The setting of Romeo and Juliet...

Societal Views On Graffiti: Street Art Or Vandalism

When you think of graffiti what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Vandalism or street art? Most would say vandalism, but what makes the distinction between the two? The intention of the piece. There’s a difference between defiling the back of a building and...

Portrayal Of Love And Hate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Shakespeare’s exploration of themes through tragic conventions make the play, Romeo and Juliet, of enduring relevance to modern audiences. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1595) captures audiences through the thrill of lovers from feuding families racing together to their tragic demises. This play explores themes understood...

Graffiti And Street Art As An Act Of Vandalism

It is difficult to apply a single definition to what is considered Art. Whether it can or should be defined has been constantly debated. “The definition of art is controversial in contemporary philosophy. Whether art can be defined has also been a matter of controversy....

Passionate Pursuit: Being Passionate About Art

Different pieces of artwork inspire people all around the world. Artists use a wide variety of techniques to make their work unique. While creating new pieces of art, it is common to look at other artists' work for inspiration. While evaluating their artwork you can...

Andy Warhol's Album Artwork: Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

As the saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover, or in this case an album, but sometimes it cannot be helped. Custom packaging is an extremely important with any kind of product but despite this album cover art has not always been used...

• Andy Warhol

The Role Of Other Characters In Death Of Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is such a tragic love story. It is sad that their lives ended, but that doesn’t mean their love for eachother did; their love may still live on with them in the after life. There are many characters who had a role...

The Presentation Of Love In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by Shakespeare in the 1500’s. It tells us the tragedy of two young lovers named Romeo and Juliet who fall in love at first sight but can never be together due to their two families conflict which ends...

The Importance Of Different Types Of Love In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare during the 16th century that mainly follows the themes of love and tragedy. The intense passion the two lovers from both households have for one another causes the deaths of their friends, family and themselves....

The Use Of Hyperbole And Symbolism In "The Doll's House"

A Doll's House delves into the lives of a young couple living in Victorian era Norway. The play follows Nora through her journey, from her previously unexamined life of domestic, wifely comfort, to questioning the very foundation of everything she used to believe in. Having...

Realism In A Doll's House Play

Realism as a literary movement emerged in the late nineteenth century and extended to the twentieth century, the most important factors that led to the emergence of the period of realism is the horrors that happened to people after the World War, which made the...

20th Century Art: Representational Abstract Art

One of the most influential and significant periods in the history of the arts is the 20th century. It was a period that consisted of many rapid and radical artistic changes that gave birth to endless ideas, possibilities, experiences, and visions. Not only were ideas,...

• Abstract Art

The Opposite Concepts Of Realism Versus Idealism

 Introduction When comparing realism and idealism, the concepts must be understood historically, theoretically and practically. In this essay, a number of steps will be taken to present a thorough overview of the two schools of thought. Firstly, the epistemological and metaphysical questions of philosophy will...

The Abstract Art And Pop Art Artists And Movements

Pop art emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain, then later in the 1950s in the United States of America. Pop art still influences designers and artists to this day, was against abstract expressionists, pop artists saw abstract artists as intense. The art was a...

Romanticism & Realism: Changing Landscapes 

In my essay I will be looking at the contrast between romanticism and photo-realism, how light controls the image and how photographers are able to control how the picture will look like, by the time of day, the angle and being able to change the...

• Romantic Era

The Abstract Art And Expressionism In World War 2

In World War 2, many countries were destroyed by Hitler and his army. There were allies which were the U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia and the axis powers, which were...

Coriolanus: Plutarch's And William Shakespeare's Versions

Two of the greatest contributors to the “Struggle of the Orders” between Plebeians and Patricians were the Patricians’ fears of Plebeian power overshadowing their influence on Roman politics, as well as the issues of grain pricing and distribution. Plutarch’s “Coriolanus” within his Parallel Lives work...

The Definition Of Fate And Free Will In Macbeth

Throughout time, it has been believed that fate has the power to forge one’s destiny. On the other hand though, I believe these choices can defy fate and that fate only manipulates one's mind into choosing their own path. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare messes...

Reality Of Romanticism And Realism Under The Umbrella Of Gothic Genre

Two of the most common genres of writing that is found in literature belongs to either the Romanticism movement or the Realist/Naturalism movement. While these two movements might seem like they are related to each other, they are very opposite from one another in the...

Best topics on Art

1. What Does Creativity Mean to You

2. Censorship of Art and Artists: The Complex Discourse

3. Why I Want to Study Architecture: the Power of Design

4. The Impact of Technology on Art: A Modern Renaissance

5. Exploring Feminist Literary Criticism: Unveiling Mona Lisa Smile

6. Frida Kahlo: Exploring Her Biography Through the Film ‘Frida’

7. Debate Surrounding Graphic Novel and Relation to Literature

8. Depicting Trauma: Symbolism in Graphic Novels

9. Understanding Graphic Novels: Context and Analysis for Reading

10. Jhene Aiko: Exploring the Artistry and Emotions in her Music

11. The Joy of Painting: Exploring the Life and Legacy of Bob Ross

12. The Uniqueness of Australian Artwork: Exploring Artists’ Perceptions

13. Artistic World of Peter Doig: an Insight Into His Life and Work

14. Being an Artist: My Passion, Place of Freedom and Courage

15. Sculpture From Dura Europas: the Head of a Bearded God

• Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Visual Analysis: How to Analyze a Painting and Write an Essay

A visual analysis essay is an entry-level essay sometimes taught in high school and early university courses. Both communications and art history students use visual analysis to understand art and other visual messages. In our article, we will define the term and give an in-depth guide on how to look at a piece of art and write a visual analysis essay. Stay tuned until the end for a handy visual analysis essay example from our graduate paper writing service .

What Is Visual Analysis?

Visual analysis is essential in studying Communication, English, and Art History. It's a fundamental part of writing about art found in scholarly books, art magazines, and even undergraduate essays. You might encounter a visual analysis as a standalone assignment or as part of a larger research paper.

When you do this type of assignment, you're examining the basic elements of an artwork. These include things like its colors, lines, textures, and size. But it goes beyond just describing these elements. A good analysis also considers the historical context in which the artwork was created and tries to understand what it might mean to different people.

It also encourages you to look closely at details and think deeply about what an artwork is trying to say. This kind of analysis makes you appreciate art more and teaches you how to explain your ideas clearly based on what you see in the artwork.

What is the Purpose of Visual Analysis?

The purpose of a visual analysis is to recognize and understand the visual choices the artist made in creating the artwork. By looking closely at different elements, analysts can learn a lot about how an artwork was made and why the artist made certain choices. 

For example, studying how colors are used or how things are arranged in the artwork can reveal its themes or the emotions it's trying to convey. Also, understanding the time period when the artwork was created helps us see how societal changes and cultural ideas influenced its creation and how people reacted to it.

If you don’t feel confident working on your task alone, leave us a request - ' write my paper for me ' and we'll handle it for you professionally.

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How to Write a Visual Analysis Step-by-Step

To create an insightful visual analysis, you should not only examine the artwork in detail but also situate it within a broader cultural and historical framework. This process can be broken down into three main steps: 

• Identifying, describing, and analyzing the visual material
• Situating the visual material in its context
• Interpreting and responding to the content of the visual material.

Let’s discuss each of these steps in more detail.

Step 1: Identify, Describe, and Analyze the Visual Material

Begin by clearly identifying the visual material you will analyze. This could be a painting, photograph, sculpture, advertisement, or any other visual artwork. Provide essential information such as the title, artist, date, and medium. 

Next, offer a detailed description of the visual material. Focus on the key elements and principles of design, such as:

• Composition

Describe what you see without interpreting its meaning yet. For instance, note the use of bright colors, the placement of objects, the presence of figures, and the overall layout. This descriptive part forms the foundation of your analysis, allowing your reader to visualize the artwork.

Afterward, consider how the artist uses elements like contrast, balance, emphasis, movement, and harmony. Analyze the techniques and methods used and how they contribute to the overall effect of the piece. 

Step 2: Situate the Visual Material in its Context

To fully understand a piece of visual material, you need to consider its historical and cultural context. Start by researching the time period when the artwork was created. Look at the social, political, and economic conditions of that time, and see if there were any cultural movements that might have influenced the artwork.

Next, learn about the artist and their reasons for creating the visual material. Find out about the artist's life, other works they have made, and any statements they have made about this piece. Knowing the artist’s background can give you valuable insights into the artwork's purpose and message.

Finally, think about how the visual material was received by people when it was first shown and how it has impacted others over time. Look for reviews and public reactions, and see if it influenced other works or movements. This will help you understand the significance of the visual material in the larger cultural and artistic context.

Step 3: Interpret and Respond to the Content of the Visual Material

Now, combine your description, analysis, and understanding of the context to interpret what the visual material means. Talk about the themes, symbols, and messages the artwork conveys. Think about what it reveals about human experiences, society, or specific issues. Use evidence from earlier steps to support your interpretation.

Afterward, consider your own reaction to the visual material. How does it personally resonate with you? What emotions or thoughts does it provoke? Your personal response adds a subjective aspect to your analysis, making it more relatable.

Finally, summarize your findings and emphasize the importance of the visual material. Highlight key aspects from your identification, description, analysis, context, and interpretation. Then, it concludes by reinforcing the impact and significance of the visual material in both its original setting and its enduring influence.

Who Does Formal Analysis of Art

Most people who face visual analysis essays are Communication, English, and Art History students. Communications students explore mediums such as theater, print media, news, films, photos — basically anything. Comm is basically a giant, all-encompassing major where visual analysis is synonymous with Tuesday.

Art History students study the world of art to understand how it developed. They do visual analysis with every painting they look it at and discuss it in class.

English Literature students perform visual analysis too. Every writer paints an image in the head of their reader. This image, like a painting, can be clear, or purposefully unclear. It can be factual, to the point, or emotional and abstract like Ulysses, challenging you to search your emotions rather than facts and realities.

6 Questions to Answer Before Analyzing a Piece of Art

According to our experienced term paper writer , there are six important questions to ask before you start analyzing a piece of art. Answering these questions can make writing your analysis much easier:

• Who is the artist, and what type of art do they create? - To place the artwork in context, you should identify the artist and understand the type of art they create. 
• What was the artist's goal in creating this painting? - Determine why the artist created the artwork. Was it to convey a message, evoke emotions, or explore a theme?
• When and where was this artwork made? - Knowing the time and place of creation helps understand the cultural and historical influences on the artwork.
• What is the main focus or theme of this artwork? - Identify what the artwork is about. This could be a person, place, object, or abstract concept.
• Who was the artwork created for? - To provide insight into its style and content, consider who the artist intended to reach with their work. 
• What historical events or cultural factors influenced this painting? - Understanding the historical background can reveal more about the significance and meaning of the artwork.

Count on the support of the professional writers of our essay writing service .

Elements of the Visual Analysis 

To fully grasp formal analysis, it's important to differentiate between the elements and principles of visual analysis. The elements are the basic building blocks used to create a piece of art. These include:

Principles of the Visual Analysis

The principles, on the other hand, are how these elements are combined and used together to create the overall effect of the artwork. These principles include:

Visual Analysis Outline

It’s safe to use the five-paragraph essay structure for your visual analysis essay. If you are looking at a painting, take the most important aspects of it that stand out to you and discuss them in relation to your thesis. 

In the introduction, you should:

• Introduce the Artwork : Mention the title, artist, date, and medium of the artwork.
• Provide a Brief Description : Offer a general overview of what the artwork depicts.
• State the Purpose : Explain the goal of your analysis and what aspects you will focus on.
• Thesis Statement : Present a clear thesis statement that outlines your main argument or interpretation of the artwork.

The body of the visual analysis is where you break down the visual material into its component parts and examine each one in detail. This section should be structured logically, with each paragraph focusing on a specific element or aspect of the visual material.

• Description: Start with a detailed description of the visual material. Describe what you see without interpreting or analyzing it yet. Mention elements such as color, line, shape, texture, space, and composition. For instance, if analyzing a painting, describe the subject matter, the arrangement of figures, the use of light and shadow, etc.
• Analysis of Visual Elements: Analyze how each visual element contributes to the overall effect of the material. Discuss the use of color (e.g., warm or cool tones, contrasts, harmonies), the role of lines (e.g., leading lines, contours), the shapes (e.g., geometric, organic), and the texture (e.g., smooth, rough). Consider how these elements work together to create a certain mood or message.
• Contextual Analysis: Examine how the context in which the visual material was created and is being viewed influences its interpretation. This includes historical, cultural, social, and political factors. Discuss how these contextual elements impact the meaning and reception of the visual material.
• Interpretation: Discuss your interpretation of the visual material. Explain how the visual elements and contextual factors contribute to the meaning you derive from it. Support your interpretation with specific examples from the material.
• Comparative Analysis (if applicable): If relevant, compare the visual material with other works by the same creator or with similar works by different creators. Highlight similarities and differences in style, technique, and thematic content.

The conclusion of a visual analysis essay summarizes the main points of the analysis and restates the thesis in light of the evidence presented.

• Restate Thesis: Reiterate your thesis statement in a way that reflects the depth of your analysis. Show how your understanding of the visual material has been supported by your detailed examination.
• Summary of Main Points: Summarize the key points of your analysis. Highlight the most important findings and insights.
• Implications: Discuss the broader implications of your analysis. What does your analysis reveal about the visual material? How does it contribute to our understanding of the creator's work, the time period, or the cultural context?
• Closing Thought: End with a final thought that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. This could be a reflection on the significance of the visual material, a question for further consideration, or a statement about its impact on you or on a broader audience.

If you want a more in-depth look at the classic essay structure, feel free to visit our 5 PARAGRAPH ESSAY blog.

Visual Analysis Example

In this section, we've laid out two examples of visual analysis essays to show you how it's done effectively. Get inspired and learn from them!

Key Takeaways

Visual analysis essays are fundamental early in your communications and art history studies. Learning how to formally break down art is key, whether you're pursuing a career in art or communications.

Before jumping into analysis, get a solid grasp of the painter's background and life. Analyzing a painting isn't just for fun, as you need to pay attention to the small details the painter might have hidden. Knowing how to do this kind of assignment not only helps you appreciate art more but also lets you deeply understand the media messages you encounter every day. 

If you enjoyed this article and found it insightful, make sure to also check out the summary of Lord of the Flies and an article on Beowulf characters .

If you read the whole article and still have no idea how to start your visual analysis essay, let a professional writer do this job for you. Contact us, and we’ll write your work for a higher grade you deserve. All college essay service requests are processed fast.

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What are the 4 Steps of Visual Analysis?

How to write a formal visual analysis, what is the function of visual analysis.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

• Added new sections
• Added new writing steps
• Added a new example
• Updated an outline
• Duke University. (n.d.). Visual Analysis . https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/visual-analysis.original.pdf  
• Glatstein, J. (2019, December 9). Formal Visual Analysis: The Elements & Principles of Composition . Www.kennedy-Center.org. https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/articles-and-how-tos/articles/educators/visual-arts/formal-visual-analysis-the-elements-and-principles-of-compositoin/  
• MADA: Visual analysis . (n.d.). Student Academic Success. https://www.monash.edu/student-academic-success/excel-at-writing/annotated-assessment-samples/art-design-and-architecture/mada-visual-analysis  

165 Artists Essay Topics & Examples

In case you’re writing about contemporary artists or art history, we have a whole lot of interesting ideas for you! Our experts have collected visual art essay topics and examples right below.

🏆 Best Art Essay Topics & Examples

⭐ interesting art topics to write about, 📑 good research topics about art, 📌 simple visual art essay topics, 👍 good artists & art essay topics, ❓ art essay questions.

• Revolutionary Art in America: Society and Artists This paper will highlight the purpose of revolutionary art in the society and at the same time discuss how revolutionary art has affected art and artists in America.
• Art and Society: Goals and Duties of Artists Therefore, it can be asserted that one of the roles of art is to preserve the cultural trait and heritage of a community or society. This is both to the user of the artistic material […]
• Responsibility of Artists to Address Social Problems in Their Work In light of the significant power that art and by extension artists hold, there arises the question of whether artists have a responsibility to address social problems through their works.
• The Challenges Emerging Artists Are Facing in Emerging Art Scenes The Flemish art period between the fifteenth and seventeenth centuries involved significant and dynamic events in the historical mark in the field of artistry.
• Photography: An Artist Statement In the first image, I arranged the details in the composition to guide the observer through the place I captured by the camera. With the help of the play of the light and shadow, I […]
• “The Eco Artists Turning Trash Into Treasure” by Webster It is interesting to see how artists can convey the message and bring awareness to the environmental impact of the modern human lifestyle, which generates large amounts of waste and pollution.
• Optical Illusion: Technique to Artist and Designer The main aim of this paper is to reveal how optical illusion fascinates and deceives as influenced by art and design spearheaded by artists and designers of the modern day.
• Leonardo da Vinci – Artist, Scientist, Inventor The painting “The Amo Valley” also portrayed some of the best artistic styles. This talent made it easier for Leonardo da Vinci to produce the best paintings.
• Art History: A Close Study of a Chinese Artist Cai Guo-Qiang His unique skills in artwork have led to the advancement of his signature in most events. His inspiration has ensured that he remains in the limelight in most of his solo works.
• Pablo Picasso, Jackson Pollock: The Revolutionary Modern Artists The essay addresses the contribution of these famous artists to their particular art movements and in general, the world of art.
• Origin and History of Salsa Music, Greatest Artists It is important to note that the youth loves and have interest in music than adults and this is why salsa was heavily affected.
• Gibran Khalil Gibran-Lebanon Writer and Artist Gibran’s mother settled in Boston together with a young Gibran, his two younger sisters, and his half brother. Holland was a member of the European avant-garde-movement and he acted as a tutor and mentor to […]
• The Artist’s State of Mind: Van Gogh’s “The Starry Night” The painting also has a tree that also stretches to the sky; it is the tallest feature in the village. The choice of color in the painting is also an indication of the painter’s mood.
• An Artist-Entrepreneur’s Lean Startup Therefore, in the case of Sikander, the first key factor in ensuring the success of her project’s business model is having a stable customer base.
• A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce The most unique aspect of the book is the author’s innovative use of sense to describe the thoughts and feelings of the character.
• The Rise of Virtuoso Artists in the 18th Century While it is true that ornamentation played a very important role in the early baroque music performance and that it was instrumental to the early sociento style of music, there is no denying fact that […]
• How and Why Do Advertisers Use Specific Works of Art or Artists to Sell Their Products? The role of the art in the adverts is to give an image to the company and its products. In all the artistic values, the most comprehensive is space as it is a combination of […]
• Modernist Art: Pablo Picasso and Umberto Boccioni Early 20th-century European culture, which was characterized by a growing interest in the avant-garde and a rejection of conventional art forms, fostered the success of both artists, due to the fact that their experimentation and […]
• Jiro Takamatsu, a Japanese Artist In “The Temperature of the Sculpture,” Takamatsu may have used the materials and tools available to him to express this change in Japanese society.
• The Determinants of Self-Employment for Artists Working in the free art market has advantages: diversity is encouraged, and the artist is not limited to just painting and sketching.
• The Discussion of Women Artists For the situation to change, it is important to talk more about artists the heroines of the past, their contemporaries, and their heritage.
• Salvador Dali: Artist in the Area of Surrealism Art Salvador Dali was among the most prominent artists in the area of surrealism art. It “balances a rational vision of life with one that asserts the power of the unconscious and dreams”.
• Artists Peter Paul Rubens and Katharina Grosse Exemplified by the works of Peter Paul Rubens and Katharina Grosse, artworks have transitioned from the Flemish Baroque to the Gagosian style, where an artist enjoys the interplay of architecture, sculpture, and painting.
• Primavera 2021: Young Australian Artists Exhibition It identifies itself with the goals of the Aboriginal population of the country and engages in activities to support their cultural heritage. The institution is also on the frontline to showcase a number of activities […]
• Principles of Design in Female Artists’ Works Displayed in the Louvre In Peace Bringing Back Abundance, the level of precision while showing the figures is less intense than in the other painting, which creates a sense of lightness and sanctity.
• Social Media and Female Artist Representation Such a project has been facilitated by the emergence of new media, characterized by the emergence of both the internet and social media.
• Ron English: The Famous Graffiti Artist This paper explores and analyses the aspects of graffiti – a form of painting and the work of one of the most famous and talented graffiti artists.
• The Appearance of an Artist The musician’s wardrobe also influences the perception of performance, and it is important for performers not only of popular music, but also of classical music.
• Ai Weiwei as a Contemporary Art Artist The meaning of human rights and the destiny of the Chinese people are of primary significance for the artist, so many of his works reflect the issues that Weiwei recognizes and wants to eliminate.
• Jean Michel Basquiat and Zainul Abedin as Outstanding Artists The artist’s imagination gives the paintings a magical realism that reflects the actual situations in the world and the spirit of the time the master lived.
• Paul Benny’s Work: Artist Presentation Paul Benney’s artwork mainly deals with painting of people’s portraits. The themes of his work touch on issues embraced daily.
• An Analysis of Two Works by Digital Artists: Smith and Cutts This artwork is summoned to stress the peaceful nature of the protests and to show the inadequate response on the part of the authorities.
• David Hockney: The Pop Artist and His Works The “Day Pool with 3 Blues” is a picture of extreme simplicity, and it is necessary to mention, that the advantage of this particular canvass is the feelings, that arise when the picture is viewed.
• DaWangGang Artist: Exploring Music Interculturalism This paper discusses the role and the place of the Chinese musical band Dawanggang in the world that is still defined by the tension between the Occident and Orient.
• The Legacy of Artemisia Gentileschi: One of the Greatest Female Artists of the 16th-17th Centuries During her active years, Gentileschi had to face a great deal of adversity and social resistance, which was not unusual for driven and ambitious women of her era.
• “The Smoking Plant” Project: Artist Statement It is the case when the art is used to pass the important message to the observer. The live cigarette may symbolize the smokers while the plant is used to denote those who do not […]
• Romanticism. Artists Associated With the Movement Art dealt mostly with issues of motive and realism while other forms of art dealt with the darkness of the community on one hand and its magnificence on the other.
• Leonardo Da Vinci – The Greatest Artist of Renaissance In the modern day, Leonardo da Vinci is considered by many to be the greatest artist and possibly even the greatest person of all time. The greatness of Leonardo is evidenced by the description of […]
• Juan Luis Guerra a Dominican Artist Also, he is predominantly linked with the popular Dominican music genre known as bachata, though partly true, he exploits the elementals of bachata tempo with elements of bolero in his works. The impact of his […]
• Artist Willem de Kooning and Critic Harold Rosenberg the Language and Concepts The kind of art the artists in this movement did put America on the international stage and dimmed the light for Paris, which had been the center of art in the world.
• Marcelle Ferron and Celine Dion: Canadian Artists Moreso she learnt to be strong and fought for the rights of women and was straight forward in her approaches about life.
• Crossover Artists in the 1970s However, if analyze the peculiarities of each style, it is quite easy to find out the difference and be amazed of how rich and wonderful the world of music is.
• Colonialism in the Work of Some Artists In the second half of the past century, the American art world shattered the traditional views on the tradition to passively depict the objects.
• Artist-Promotion Relation: Commercialization and Art Through Orlean’s article, the artist-promotion relation, in addition to being a commercially successful marketing move, it could be sensed that the author views this relationship as a step of closing the gap between the art […]
• Andy Warhol: An American Pop-Artist In the process of describing the creative process of Andy Warhol it is evident how closely the word ‘Genius’ is intertwined with their creativity.
• European Baroque: Artists, Features, Ideas The style of Baroque was spread all over the European continent in different expressions of art from 1590 and until the beginning of the eighteenth century. Many outstanding artists are representing the style and epoch […]
• Angony Rising: Melbourne Native Artist His art is popular because of the way that he is able to reveal his experience through the bold figures and forms of primitive art.
• Canadian Artists: Emily Carr and Jack Bush My opponents may argue that this is a way of self-expression but in this case, the expressive means are very limited and narrow.
• Studies in Contemporary Art and Artists The paper is claimed to review some of the most known contemporary artists, and define the particularities, that may be regarded as mnemonic traces of their arts.
• The Origins of Poetry of Famous Americans Artists Realizing this is the origin of his own poems, Whitman may have extrapolated this concept to all poets in the above statement, suggesting that the origin of all poems is in the lives of the […]
• Artist Bibliography on Elizabeth Catlett Although she went to the university to study printing she has stated in her earlier interviews that she changed to painting because of the influence of James A Porter.
• Illustrators Artists and Designers They have indeed been a great influence in my interest to art and design and have greatly contributed to the economic growth, political and social enhancement of their nations.
• Tracey Moffatt: Australian Artist Her photography masterpieces are permanently included in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
• Women Writers and Artists About Social Problems The uniqueness of Mary Cassatt’s style is that she depicts the natural desires and values of women, women, and their hopes.
• Frida: The Biography of The Legendary Mexican Artist The plot revolves around two prominent events in Frida’s life – the trolley car accident in 1929 that breaks her back and dooms her to a life of excruciating pain, and her marriage to Diego […]
• Early Childhood Memories Impact on Artists’ Journey The reason for childhood memories to have such profound importance for the development of one’s artistic style and attributes can be explained by the acquisition of the executive function that occurs during early childhood.
• Great Women Artists in the World History The first overreaching cause of the absence of great female artist throughout history was the subjugated position of women as a gender in the majority of societies.
• Artists’ Legal Advice Services Definition ALAS has shown to foster collaboration with artists through holding events during which artists share their experiences and ask for the advice of the organization’s team.
• The Job of the Artist Is to Always Deepen the Mystery Among a variety of definitions of art, it is possible to say that it is one of the forms of education, and artists become the best educators who use their skills and experience.
• Artists in Jazz Music and Dance Development The core areas in this study will include; the presentation, the ensemble, the musical instruments, and the memories of the events.
• Artist as a Genius: Johann Sebastian Bach Bach’s talent was evident from his mastery of the organ and the violin, as well as the great pieces that he composed.
• Collaborating With Artists in the Luxury Brand Industry As the conventional approaches to product development fail to support the concept of exclusivity in the present-day environment, the collaboration of luxury brands with artists comes to the rescue of the very essence of luxury […]
• Contemporary Female Artists in Turkey The secrecy associated with Islam and gender roles in some parts of Asia has further compounded this mystery because few people know what to make of the place of women in traditional Islamic societies and […]
• Decoloniality in Art and Artist as Ethnographer The review is divided into three main sections including the identification of the main arguments and the explanation of their worth, the evaluation of the supportive material and the clarification of methodological framework, and, finally, […]
• Arabic Calligraphy and Contemporary Artists Arabic calligraphy is a form of art involving the use of the Arabic language and alphabet. In the old town of Jeddah, for instance, artists have blended Arabic calligraphy with graffiti to create calligraffiti.
• Pollaiuolo vs. Titian: Two Renaissance Artists Comparison For instance, in the fourteen century and at the beginning of the fifteenth century, “the profile form of a portrait head, largely inspired by antique coins,” was widespread.
• Robert Wilson: Artist and His Beliefs It is possible to say that by examining these qualities, one can better appreciate the achievements of Robert Wilson. This is one of the challenges Robert Wilson is ready to face.
• Artist Marcel Duchamp and His Works Duchamp claimed that the main purpose of art was intellectual satisfaction; he shared that he was tired from the expression “stupid as a painter,” and that attitude had to be changed.
• Edward Ruscha, an American Artist Ruscha was born in 1937 in Omaha, the largest city in Nebraska, and is currently based in Culver City, California. In 1969, Ruscha also worked as a guest professor of art at the University of […]
• Pre-Raphaelite Artists The Pre-Raphaelites artists opted to go back to the aspects of art that involved copious details, complex compositions of Italian and Flemish art, in addition to the use of intense colors.
• A.A. Bronson’s Through the Looking Glass: His Personal Identity as a Canadian Artist Thus, his work Through the Looking Glass is the one of the best works that reflect the author’s vision of reality and the one that reflects the author’s sense of Canadian identity.
• Living as a Non-Speaking English Artist in English Speaking Country The efficient performance of a non-English speaking artist as well as his or her participation in the growth of the economy of a host English speaking nation is to a larger extent, influenced by cultural […]
• Popular Street Artists In an effort to discredit the Bank of England, Banksy satirically replaced the words ‘Bank of England’ with ‘Banksy of England.’ During the Notting Hill Carnival, a certain individual dished out the fake money to […]
• A Written Analysis of Other Artists’ Works The composition of the painting The composition of the picture seems to be of a particular importance, as numerous elements of the painting, including texture, forms, lines, etc.show the depth or perspective of the author’s […]
• The Life of an Artist: “Just Kids” by Patti Smith Patti never thought of disclosing to anybody the change that had occurred in her relationship with Robert but she discovered that it was important for her to find something different.
• Melancholy Caused by Fasting: An Artist in the Modernist Period In the personality of the hunger artist, we may notice the generalized character of a modernist artist, and in the actions of fasting, we may recognize the characteristics of modernism as an epoch in history […]
• Post-Colonial and Contemporary British Muslim Artists The art presented by these Muslims bears the attitude portrayed by the British society towards them and the Islamic religion as a whole and the artists’ own views on Islam.
• How Director is Able to Yield Higher Productivity of the Artists? Through the above analysis it could be said that through effective thought-process, observation and thorough planning, a director is able to yield higher productivity of the directors.
• Arts and Artists Being Affected by Today’s Realities Arts and artists have inevitably been affected and influenced by advancement in technologies, changes in global communication, and an accelerated tempo of globalization in various ways.
• Fu Baoshi as One of the Most Famous Chinese Artists Fu Baoshi is one of the most famous Chinese artists who contributed greatly into the development of the national art. One of his works reveals aspirations of Chinese people who lived in the middle of […]
• Artists in Exile: How Refugees From Twentieth-Century War and Revolution Transformed the American Performing Arts, by Joseph Horowitz Knowledge of the type of music in that era is will help in the understanding of the book especially the German way of expressing inner motion.
• One Holy Image By Two Great Artists One of the most important themes in the western art is religion, and one of the most inspiring images for may be each of the greatest artists has been the Virgin Mary.
• The Contemporary Artists and Their Contributions Since childhood, she admired the work of Mexican and Southwest artists and this drove her to apply their employment of warm colors in her individual paintings.
• The Role of an Artist: Anne Deavere Smith and Tod Hackett In comparison to one literary character, Tod Hackett from The Day of the Locust by Nathanael West, Anna Deavere Smith does not want to lose her mind and be guided by the current events; she […]
• Artist Report: Antonio Puleo The postures of the children during the photography add strength to the morality theme, which is a major focus in the whole documentary. The process of growing up and sexuality is one of the key […]
• Chinese Art (Zhang Hongth: Studio Visit and Artist Talk) In a wide-ranging discussion, he touched on humor, the cathartic value of defacing the iconic image of a dictator, China’s imperiled environment, the dangers of political art in that country, and his feelings as a […]
• Madness and Art: Is The Artist a Holy Madman? The members of the movement known as l’Art Brut, and others, drew a connection between art and madness, art and mysticism, and art and outsider status for whatever reason.
• To What Extent Do Artists Using Collaborative Strategies Influence Society?
• The History of Women Artists During the Early Centuries in Italy
• Graffiti : How The Rise Of Graffiti Has Digitally Its Artists
• The Importance Of Art As A Guideline For Future Artists
• Three Unforgettable Artists Since The 1960’s: Heart, Brian Mc Knight, And Pink
• Impressionist Artists Georges Seurat and Camille Pissaro
• The Lives of the Painters of Modern Life: The Careers of Artists in France from Impressionism to Cubism
• The Lack Of Known Women Artists In Pre Modern Art
• Women Artists And The Female Form
• The World Through the Eyes of the Artists of the Harlem Renaissance the Early Modern Period
• Beneath the Rainbow: Enchanting Stories and Poems from Kenya, Illustrated by African Artists
• Comparison Of Musical Artists Rage Against The Machine And Writer George Orwell
• The Multicultural Influences of the Silk Road on Artists in the Tang Dynasty
• Transformation in the Artwork of Contemporary Artists
• Censorship In Music Children Artists Problems
• Distinctive Features in the Works of Kazakh and Russian Artists
• The Use of the Uncanny by Artists or Designers in Their Work
• Conflict & Tension: What Writers Can Learn From How Visual Artists Use Contrast
• The Role That Visual Artists Play In Our Modern Day Society
• The Importance of the Works of Art by Colombian Artists
• Graphic Design: A Superb Career Option For Technology Savvy Artists
• The Mexican Artists: The Artists on the Go for the Next Masterpiece
• Female Artists And Its Effects On Society
• A Graphic Cosmogony: Artists Imagine How the Universe Was Born
• How Geographic Differences Influenced American Artists
• Kandinsky on the Spiritual Element in Art and the Three Responsibilities of Artists
• The Moral Rights of Artists: Droit Moral ou Droit Pécuniaire
• The Link Between Artists and Bipolar Disease
• The Life and Painting Works of Pop Artists Andy Warhol
• Understanding Abstract Art Artist Artists Subject
• The Musical Tradition, Impact and Influential Artists of the Blues Musical Style
• The Shaping of Renaissance and the Artists During the Period
• Visual Artists Transmit the Values and Beliefs of Society
• The Portrayal of Female Artists
• The Rap Industry Has Been At War With New Artists Trying For Change Raps
• An Analysis of the Design and the Importance of Marketing for Post Collegiate Artists
• Use Of Art Criticism On The Artists Personal Opinions
• An Analysis of Formalist and Avant-Garde Artists in the Modern Art
• Why There are No Great Women Artists by Linda Nochlin
• Vincent Van Gogh Is One Of History’s Most Famous Artists
• How Has African Art Changed and Inspire European Art?
• Does the Self Referentiality of Postmodern Art Speak Only to the Elite Audience?
• How Did Ancient Greece Emulate the Egyptians and Left an Everlasting Legacy of Science, Art, and Trade?
• Can Art Change the Way We View the World?
• How Do Anthropologists Interpret Cave Art?
• Are Autographs Integrating the Global Art Market?
• How Do Architecture, Art, Science, and Spirituality Relate to Each?
• Can Art Still Play a Subversive Role in Society?
• How Are Science and Art Similar?
• Should Art and Music Education Be Included in School Education?
• How Did Islamic Beliefs Affect Islamic Art?
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• How Does Art Activity Shape Identity?
• Can Manufactured Bands Ever Be Classified as ‘Good’ Art?
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• How Do Art Critics Challenge and Provoke Artists and Audiences?
• Are Photography and Printmaking Art?
• How Has Art Changed Since the Middle Ages?
• Does Art Influence Culture, or Does Culture Influence Art?
• How Has Art Influenced the Views of the Public and Art Establishments?
• Are the Aztec Codices Art or Language?
• How Do Artists Express Anger and Protest Through Their Art?
• Does Gallery Lighting Have an Impact on Appreciation of Art?
• How Can Adlerian Art Therapy Impact Sexual Abuse?
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Essay on I Want To Be An Artist

Students are often asked to write an essay on I Want To Be An Artist in their schools and colleges. And if you’re also looking for the same, we have created 100-word, 250-word, and 500-word essays on the topic.

Let’s take a look…

100 Words Essay on I Want To Be An Artist

My dream to be an artist.

I dream of being an artist. I love to draw and paint, creating pictures that show my feelings and ideas. When I hold a brush or a pencil, I feel free and happy, like I can make anything.

Colors and Imagination

Sharing my art.

I want to share my art with others. When people see my work, I hope they feel joy and wonder. Being an artist isn’t just about making art; it’s about touching hearts.

250 Words Essay on I Want To Be An Artist

My dream of being an artist.

Ever since I was a little child, I have always loved making things with my hands. Drawing with crayons, painting with watercolors, and shaping clay into funny figures filled my heart with joy. This joy is why I want to be an artist when I grow up. Artists can use colors, shapes, and imagination to share their feelings and stories with the world.

The Magic of Art

Learning and growing.

To become a good artist, I know I must practice a lot. I will need to learn from teachers and from other artists who have made beautiful things. It’s important to keep trying, even when it’s hard, and to learn from mistakes. Every artist started as a beginner, and they got better by not giving up.

I dream of the day when I can share my art with others. Maybe my paintings will hang in a gallery, or my drawings will be in a book. I want to make art that will make others think and feel something special. I believe that being an artist will not only make me happy but also allow me to bring a little bit of happiness to others.

In short, I want to be an artist because it’s a way to spread joy and connect with people. It’s a journey I am excited to begin.

500 Words Essay on I Want To Be An Artist

My dream to become an artist.

Everyone has a dream about what they want to be when they grow up. My dream is to become an artist. An artist is someone who creates art, like paintings, drawings, sculptures, or even digital art on a computer. I love the idea of being able to share my thoughts and feelings through colors and shapes.

Why I Love Art

Art is special to me because it does not need words. You can look at a picture or a sculpture and feel happy, sad, or excited without anyone telling you what to feel. When I draw or paint, I forget about everything else and just focus on my art. It’s like magic, how a blank piece of paper can turn into something beautiful.

What Kind of Artist I Want to Be

Learning to be an artist.

To be an artist, I know I need to learn and practice a lot. I take art classes at school and watch videos online to learn new ways to make art. I also visit museums and art shows to see what other artists make. Every piece of art I see teaches me something new.

Challenges of Being an Artist

Being an artist is not always easy. Sometimes, it’s hard to make a picture look the way I want it to. Other times, I run out of ideas. But I think these challenges are part of being an artist. They help me grow and become better. And when I finally finish a piece of art that I am proud of, it feels amazing.

Sharing My Art with Others

One of my favorite things is to show my art to my family and friends. When they see my work and smile, it makes me very happy. In the future, I hope to share my art with more people. Maybe I can sell my art or have it in a gallery so that others can enjoy it too.

That’s it! I hope the essay helped you.

Happy studying!

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By Will Fenstermaker

June 14, 2017

There has never been a time when art critics held more power than during the second half of the twentieth century. Following the Second World War, with the relocation of the world’s artistic epicenter from Paris to New York, a different kind of war was waged in the pages of magazines across the country. As part of the larger “culture wars” of the mid-century, art critics began to take on greater influence than they’d ever held before. For a time, two critics in particular—who began as friends, and remained in the same social circles for much of their lives—set the stakes of the debates surrounding the maturation of American art that would continue for decades. The ideas about art outlined by Clement Greenberg and Harold Rosenberg are still debated today, and the extent to which they were debated in the past has shaped entire movements of the arts. Below are ten works of criticism through which one can trace the mainstreaming of Clement Greenberg’s formalist theory, and how its dismantling led us into institutional critique and conceptual art today.

The American Action Painters

Harold Rosenberg

Harold Rosenberg, a poet who came to art through his involvement with the Artist’s Union and the WPA, was introduced to Jean-Paul Sartre as the “first American existentialist.” Soon, Rosenberg became a contributor to Sartre’s publication in France, for which he first drafted his influential essay. However, when Sartre supported Soviet aggression against Korea, Rosenberg brought his essay to Elaine de Kooning , then the editor of ARTnews , who ran “The American Action Painters” in December, 1952.

RELATED: What Did Harold Rosenberg Do? An Introduction to the Champion of “Action Painting”

Rosenberg’s essay on the emerging school of American Painters omitted particular names—because they’d have been unfamiliar to its original French audience—but it was nonetheless extraordinarily influential for the burgeoning scene of post-WWII American artists. Jackson Pollock claimed to be the influence of “action painting,” despite Rosenberg’s rumored lack of respect for the artist because Pollock wasn’t particularly well-read. Influenced by Marxist theory and French existentialism, Rosenberg conceives of a painting as an “arena,” in which the artist acts upon, wrestles, or otherwise engages with the canvas, in what ultimately amounts to an expressive record of a struggle. “What was to go on the canvas,” Rosenberg wrote, “was not a picture but an event.”

Notable Quote

Weak mysticism, the “Christian Science” side of the new movement, tends … toward easy painting—never so many unearned masterpieces! Works of this sort lack the dialectical tension of a genuine act, associated with risk and will. When a tube of paint is squeezed by the Absolute, the result can only be a Success. The painter need keep himself on hand solely to collect the benefits of an endless series of strokes of luck. His gesture completes itself without arousing either an opposing movement within itself nor the desire in the artist to make the act more fully his own. Satisfied with wonders that remain safely inside the canvas, the artist accepts the permanence of the commonplace and decorates it with his own daily annihilation. The result is an apocalyptic wallpaper.

‘American-Type’ Painting

Clement Greenberg

Throughout the preceding decade, Clement Greenberg, also a former poet, had established a reputation as a leftist critic through his writings with The Partisan Review —a publication run by the John Reed Club, a New York City-centered organization affiliated with the American Communist Party—and his time as an art critic with The Nation . In 1955, The Partisan Review published Greenberg’s “‘American-Type’ Painting,” in which the critic defined the now-ubiquitous term “abstract expressionism.”

RELATED: What Did Clement Greenberg Do? A Primer on the Powerful AbEx Theorist’s Key Ideas

In contrast to Rosenberg’s conception of painting as a performative act, Greenberg’s theory, influenced by Clive Bell and T. S. Eliot, was essentially a formal one—in fact, it eventually evolved into what would be called “formalism.” Greenberg argued that the evolution of painting was one of historical determinacy—that ever since the Renaissance, pictures moved toward flatness, and the painted line moved away from representation. Henri Matisse and Pablo Picasso were two of the landmarks of this view. Pollock, who exhibited his drip paintings in 1951, freeing the line from figuration, was for Greenberg the pinnacle of American Modernism, the most important artist since Picasso. (Pollock’s paintings exhibited in 1954, with which he returned to semi-representational form, were regarded by Greenberg as a regression. This lead him to adopt Barnett Newman as his new poster-boy, despite the artist’s possessing vastly different ideas on the nature of painting. For one, Greenberg mostly ignored the Biblical titles of Newman’s paintings.)

Greenberg’s formalist theories were immensely influential over the subsequent decades. Artforum in particular grew into a locus for formalist discourse, which had the early effect of providing an aesthetic toolkit divorced from politic. Certain curators of the Museum of Modern Art, particularly William Rubin, Kirk Varnedoe, and to an extent Alfred Barr are credited for steering the museum in an essentially formalist direction. Some painters, such as Frank Stella , Helen Frankenthaler , and Kenneth Noland, had even been accused of illustrating Greenberg’s theories (and those of Michael Fried, a prominent Greenbergian disciple) in attempt to embody the theory, which was restrictive in its failure to account for narrative content, figuration, identity, politics, and more. In addition, Greenberg’s theories proved well-suited for a burgeoning art market, which found connoisseurship an easy sell. (As the writer Mary McCarthy said, “You can’t hang an event on your wall.”) In fact, the dominance of the term “abstract expressionism” over “action painting,” which seemed more applicable to Pollock and Willem de Kooning than any other members of the New York School, is emblematic of the influence of formalist discourse.

The justification for the term, “abstract expressionist,” lies in the fact that most of the painters covered by it took their lead from German, Russian, or Jewish expressionism in breaking away from late Cubist abstract art. But they all started from French painting, for their fundamental sense of style from it, and still maintain some sort of continuity with it. Not least of all, they got from it their most vivid notion of an ambitious, major art, and of the general direction in which it had to go in their time.

Barbara Rose

Like many critics in the 1950s and 60s, Barbara Rose had clearly staked her allegiance to one camp or the other. She was, firmly, a formalist, and along with Fried and Rosalind Krauss is largely credited with expanding the theory beyond abstract expressionist painting. By 1965, however, Rose recognized a limitation of the theory as outlined by Greenberg—that it was reductionist and only capable of account for a certain style of painting, and not much at all in other mediums.

RELATED: The Intellectual Origins Of Minimalism

In “ABC Art,” published in Art in America where Rose was a contributing editor, Rose opens up formalism to encompass sculpture, which Greenberg was largely unable to account for. The simple idea that art moves toward flatness and abstraction leads, for Rose, into Minimalism, and “ABC Art” is often considered the first landmark essay on Minimalist art. By linking the Minimalist sculptures of artists like Donald Judd to the Russian supremacist paintings of Kasimir Malevich and readymades of Duchamp, she extends the determinist history that formalism relies on into sculpture and movements beyond abstract expressionism.

I do not agree with critic Michael Fried’s view that Duchamp, at any rate, was a failed Cubist. Rather, the inevitability of a logical evolution toward a reductive art was obvious to them already. For Malevich, the poetic Slav, this realization forced a turning inward toward an inspirational mysticism, whereas for Duchamp, the rational Frenchman, it meant a fatigue so enervating that finally the wish to paint at all was killed. Both the yearnings of Malevich’s Slavic soul and the deductions of Duchamp’s rationalist mind led both men ultimately to reject and exclude from their work many of the most cherished premises of Western art in favor of an art stripped to its bare, irreducible minimum.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation

Philip Leider

Despite the rhetorical tendency to suggest the social upheaval of the '60s ended with the actual decade, 1970 remained a year of unrest. And Artforum was still the locus of formalist criticism, which was proving increasingly unable to account for art that contributed to larger cultural movements, like Civil Rights, women’s liberation, anti-war protests, and more. (Tellingly, The Partisan Review , which birthed formalism, had by then distanced itself from its communist associations and, as an editorial body, was supportive of American Interventionism in Vietnam. Greenberg was a vocal hawk.) Subtitled “Art and Politics in Nevada, Berkeley, San Francisco, and Utah,” the editor’s note to the September 1970 issue of Artforum , written by Philip Leider, ostensibly recounts a road trip undertaken with Richard Serra and Abbie Hoffman to see Michael Heizer’s Double Negative in the Nevada desert.

RELATED: A City of Art in the Desert: Behind Michael Heizer’s Monumental Visions for Nevada

However, the essay is also an account of an onsetting disillusion with formalism, which Leider found left him woefully unequipped to process the protests that had erupted surrounding an exhibition of prints by Paul Wunderlich at the Phoenix Gallery in Berkeley. Wunderlich’s depictions of nude women were shown concurrently to an exhibition of drawings sold to raise money for Vietnamese orphans. The juxtaposition of a canonical, patriarchal form of representation and liberal posturing, to which the protestors objected, showcased the limitations of a methodology that placed the aesthetic elements of a picture plane far above the actual world in which it existed. Less than a year later, Leider stepped down as editor-in-chief and Artforum began to lose its emphasis on late Modernism.

I thought the women were probably with me—if they were, I was with them. I thought the women were picketing the show because it was reactionary art. To the women, [Piet] Mondrian must be a great revolutionary artist. Abstract art broke all of those chains thirty years ago! What is a Movement gallery showing dumb stuff like this for? But if it were just a matter of reactionary art , why would the women picket it? Why not? Women care as much about art as men do—maybe more. The question is, why weren’t the men right there with them?

Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?

Linda Nochlin

While Artforum , in its early history, had established a reputation as a generator for formalist theory, ARTnews had followed a decidedly more Rosenberg-ian course, emphasizing art as a practice for investigating the world. The January 1971 issue of the magazine was dedicated to “Women’s Liberation, Woman Artists, and Art History” and included an iconoclastic essay by Linda Nochlin titled “Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists?”

RELATED: An Introduction to Feminist Art

Nochlin notes that it’s tempting to answer the question “why have there been no great women artists?” by listing examples of those overlooked by critical and institutional organizations (a labor that Nochlin admits has great merit). However, she notes, “by attempting to answer it, they tacitly reinforce its negative implications,” namely that women are intrinsically less capable of achieving artistic merit than men. Instead, Nochlin’s essay functions as a critique of art institutions, beginning with European salons, which were structured in such a way as to deter women from rising to the highest echelons. Nochlin’s essay is considered the beginning of modern feminist art history and a textbook example of institutional critique.

There are no women equivalents for Michelangelo or Rembrandt, Delacroix or Cézanne, Picasso or Matisse, or even in very recent times, for de Kooning or Warhol, any more than there are black American equivalents for the same. If there actually were large numbers of “hidden” great women artists, or if there really should be different standards for women’s art as opposed to men’s—and one can’t have it both ways—then what are feminists fighting for? If women have in fact achieved the same status as men in the arts, then the status quo is fine as it is. But in actuality, as we all know, things as they are and as they have been, in the arts as in a hundred other areas, are stultifying, oppressive, and discouraging to all those, women among them, who did not have the good fortune to be born white, preferably middle class and above all, male. The fault lies not in our stars, our hormones, our menstrual cycles, or our empty internal spaces, but in our institutions and our education.

Doctor, Lawyer, Indian Chief

Thomas McEvilley

One of the many extrapolations of Nochlin’s essay is that contemporary museum institutions continue to reflect the gendered and racist biases of preceding centuries by reinforcing the supremacy of specific master artists. In a 1984 Artforum review, Thomas McEvilley, a classicist new to the world of contemporary art, made the case that the Museum of Modern Art in New York served as an exclusionary temple to certain high-minded Modernists—namely, Picasso, Matisse, and Pollock—who, in fact, took many of their innovations from native cultures.

RELATED: MoMA Curator Laura Hoptman on How to Tell a Good Painting From a “Bogus” Painting

In 1984, MoMA organized a blockbuster exhibition. Curated by William Rubin and Kirk Varnedoe, both of whom were avowed formalists, “‘Primitivism’ in 20th Century Art: Affinity of the Tribal and the Modern” collected works by European painters like Paul Gaugin and Picasso with cultural artifacts from Zaire, arctic communities, and elsewhere. McEvilley takes aim at the “the absolutist view of formalist Modernism” in which MoMA is rooted. He argues that the removal tribal artifacts from their contexts (for example, many were ritual items intended for ceremonies, not display) and placement of them, unattributed, near works by European artists, censors the cultural contributions of non-Western civilizations in deference to an idealized European genius.

The fact that the primitive “looks like” the Modern is interpreted as validating the Modern by showing that its values are universal, while at the same time projecting it—and with it MoMA—into the future as a permanent canon. A counter view is possible: that primitivism on the contrary invalidates Modernism by showing it to be derivative and subject to external causation. At one level this show undertakes precisely to coopt that question by answering it before it has really been asked, and by burying it under a mass of information.

Please Wait By the Coatroom

Not content to let MoMA and the last vestiges of formalism off the hook yet, John Yau wrote in 1988 an essay on Wifredo Lam, a Cuban painter who lived and worked in Paris among Picasso, Matisse, Georges Braque, and others. Noting Lam’s many influences—his Afro-Cuban mother, Chinese father, and Yoruba godmother—Yau laments the placement of Lam’s The Jungle near the coatroom in the Museum of Modern Art, as opposed to within the Modernist galleries several floors above. The painting was accompanied by a brief entry written by former curator William Rubin, who, Yau argues, adopted Greenberg’s theories because they endowed him with “a connoisseur’s lens with which one can scan all art.”

RELATED: From Cuba With Love: Artist Bill Claps on the Island’s DIY Art Scene

Here, as with with McEvilley’s essay, Yau illustrates how formalism, as adapted by museum institutions, became a (perhaps unintentional) method for reinforcing the exclusionary framework that Nochlin argued excluded women and black artists for centuries.

Rubin sees in Lam only what is in his own eyes: colorless or white artists. For Lam to have achieved the status of unique individual, he would have had to successfully adapt to the conditions of imprisonment (the aesthetic standards of a fixed tradition) Rubin and others both construct and watch over. To enter this prison, which takes the alluring form of museums, art history textbooks, galleries, and magazines, an individual must suppress his cultural differences and become a colorless ghost. The bind every hybrid American artist finds themselves in is this: should they try and deal with the constantly changing polymorphous conditions effecting identity, tradition, and reality? Or should they assimilate into the mainstream art world by focusing on approved-of aesthetic issues? Lam’s response to this bind sets an important precedent. Instead of assimilating, Lam infiltrates the syntactical rules of “the exploiters” with his own specific language. He becomes, as he says, “a Trojan horse.”

Black Culture and Postmodernism

Cornel West

The opening up of cultural discourse did not mean that it immediately made room for voices of all dimensions. Cornel West notes as much in his 1989 essay “Black Culture and Postmodernism,” in which he argues that postmodernism, much like Modernism before it, remains primarily ahistorical, which makes it difficult for “oppressed peoples to exercise their opposition to hierarchies of power.” West’s position is that the proliferation of theory and criticism that accompanied the rise of postmodernism provided mechanisms by which black culture could “be conversant with and, to a degree, participants in the debate.” Without their voices, postmodernism would remain yet another exclusionary movements.

RELATED: Kerry James Marshall on Painting Blackness as a Noun Vs. Verb

As the consumption cycle of advanced multinational corporate capitalism was sped up in order to sustain the production of luxury goods, cultural production became more and more mass-commodity production. The stress here is not simply on the new and fashionable but also on the exotic and primitive. Black cultural products have historically served as a major source for European and Euro-American exotic interests—interests that issue from a healthy critique of the mechanistic, puritanical, utilitarian, and productivity aspects of modern life.

Minimalism and the Rhetoric of Power

Anna C. Chave

In recent years, formalist analysis has been deployed as a single tool within a more varied approach to art. Its methodology—that of analyzing a picture as an isolated phenomena—remains prevalent, and has its uses. Yet, many of the works and movements that rose to prominence under formalist critics and curators, in no small part because of their institutional acceptance, have since become part of the rearguard rather than the vanguard.

In a 1990 essay for Arts Magazine , Anna Chave analyzes how Minimalist sculpture possesses a “domineering, sometimes brutal rhetoric” that was aligned with “both the American military in Vietnam, and the police at home in the streets and on university campuses across the country.” In particular, Chave is concerned with the way Minimalist sculptures define themselves through a process of negation. Of particular relevance to Chave’s argument are the massive steel sculptures by Minimalist artist Richard Serra.

Tilted Arc was installed in Federal Plaza in lower Manhattan in 1981. Chave describes the work as a “mammoth, perilously tilted steel arc [that] formed a divisive barrier too tall to see over, and a protracted trip to walk around.” She writes, “it is more often the case with Serra that his work doesn’t simply exemplify aggression or domination, but acts it out.” Tilted Arc was so controversial upon its erecting that the General Services Administration, which commissioned the work, held hearings in response to petitions demanding the work be removed. Worth quoting at length, Chave writes:

A predictable defense of Serra’s work was mounted by critics, curators, dealers, collectors, and some fellow artists…. The principle arguments mustered on Serra’s behalf were old ones concerning the nature and function of the avant-garde…. What Rubin and Serra’s other supporters declined to ask is whether the sculptor really is, in the most meaningful sense of the term, an avant-garde artist. Being avant-garde implies being ahead of, outside, or against the dominant culture; proffering a vision that implicitly stands (at least when it is conceived) as a critique of entrenched forms and structures…. But Serra’s work is securely embedded within the system: when the brouhaha over Arc was at its height, he was enjoying a retrospective at the Museum of Modern Art…. [The defense’s] arguments locate Serra not with the vanguard but with the standing army or “status quo.” … More thoughtful, sensible, and eloquent testimony at the hearing came instead from some of the uncouth:

My name is Danny Katz and I work in this building as a clerk. My friend Vito told me this morning that I am a philistine. Despite that I am getting up to speak…. I don’t think this issue should be elevated into a dispute between the forces of ignorance and art, or art versus government. I really blame government less because it has long ago outgrown its human dimension. But from the artists I expected a lot more. I didn’t expect to hear them rely on the tired and dangerous reasoning that the government has made a deal, so let the rabble live with the steel because it’s a deal. That kind of mentality leads to wars. We had a deal with Vietnam. I didn’t expect to hear the arrogant position that art justifies interference with the simple joys of human activity in a plaza. It’s not a great plaza by international standards, but it is a small refuge and place of revival for people who ride to work in steel containers, work in sealed rooms, and breathe recirculated air all day. Is the purpose of art in public places to seal off a route of escape, to stress the absence of joy and hope? I can’t believe this was the artistic intention, yet to my sadness this for me has become the dominant effect of the work, and it’s all the fault of its position and location. I can accept anything in art, but I can’t accept physical assault and complete destruction of pathetic human activity. No work of art created with a contempt for ordinary humanity and without respect for the common element of human experience can be great. It will always lack dimension.

The terms Katz associated with Serra’s project include arrogance and contempt, assault, and destruction; he saw the Minimalist idiom, in other words, as continuous with the master discourse of our imperious and violent technocracy.

The End of Art

Arthur Danto

Like Greenberg, Arthur Danto was an art critic for The Nation . However, Danto was overtly critical of Greenberg’s ideology and the influence he wielded over Modern and contemporary art. Nor was he a follower of Harold Rosenberg, though they shared influences, among them the phenomenologist Maurice Merleau-Ponty. Danto’s chief contribution to contemporary art was his advancing of Pop Artists, particularly Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein .

In “The End of Art” Danto argues that society at large determines and accepts art, which no longer progresses linearly, categorized by movements. Instead, viewers each possess a theory or two, which they use to interpret works, and art institutions are largely tasked with developing, testing, and modifying various interpretive methods. In this way, art differs little from philosophy. After decades of infighting regarding the proper way to interpret works of art, Danto essentially sanctioned each approach and the institutions that gave rise to them. He came to call this “pluralism.”

RELATED: What Was the Pictures Generation?

Similarly, in “Painting, Politics, and Post-Historical Art,” Danto makes the case for an armistice between formalism and the various theories that arose in opposition, noting that postmodern critics like Douglas Crimp in the 1980s, who positioned themselves against formalism, nonetheless adopted the same constrictive air, minus the revolutionary beginnings.

Modernist critical practice was out of phase with what was happening in the art world itself in the late 60s and through the 1970s. It remained the basis for most critical practice, especially on the part of the curatoriat, and the art-history professoriat as well, to the degree that it descended to criticism. It became the language of the museum panel, the catalog essay, the article in the art periodical. It was a daunting paradigm, and it was the counterpart in discourse to the “broadening of taste” which reduced art of all cultures and times to its formalist skeleton, and thus, as I phrased it, transformed every museum into a Museum of Modern Art, whatever that museum’s contents. It was the stable of the docent’s gallery talk and the art appreciation course—and it was replaced, not totally but massively, by the postmodernist discourse that was imported from Paris in the late 70s, in the texts of Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, Jean Baudrillard, Jean-François Lyotard, and Jacques Lacan, and of the French feminists Hélène Cixous and Luce Irigaray. That is the discourse [Douglas] Crimp internalizes, and it came to be lingua artspeak everywhere. Like modernist discourse, it applied to everything, so that there was room for deconstructive and “archeological” discussion of art of every period.

Editor’s Note: This list was drawn in part from a 2014 seminar taught by Debra Bricker Balken in the MFA program in Art Writing at the School of Visual Arts titled Critical Strategies: Late Modernism/Postmodernism. Additional sources can be found here , here , here (paywall), and here . Also relevant are reviews of the 2008 exhibition at the Jewish Museum, “Action/Abstraction: Pollock, de Kooning, and American Art, 1940–1976,” notably those by Roberta Smith , Peter Schjeldahl , and Martha Schwendener .

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All prints are hinged to a conservation quality, acid-free and lignin-free Alpha Cellulose matboard, using an acid-free linen tape. The mat's surface paper is fade and bleed resistant and is attached to a conservation quality foam-core mounting board that will keep the work safe from deterioration over time. Artworks with a deckled or decorative edges will be floated on the matboard, with acrylic spacers to separate the art from the glazing. All mounting is fully reversible, without any potential damage to the art.

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All of our frames come with picture quality .090 mm plexiglass, which blocks 66% of UV to prevent color fading from exposure to light, keeping your art protected for years to come. It is now considered the industry standard for artists, museums and galleries throughout the world.

For images up to 30" x 40"

• 1 1/4” wide, 3/4” deep, with a 2 1/2” wide mat.
• We generally leave 1/4” - 1/2” of paper showing around the image, to accommodate signatures and for visual appeal.

For sheet sizes larger than 30” x 40”

• Please contact an Artspace advisor for a custom quote.

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Art Essay Examples

The admiration for the beauty and the urge for self-expression lies at the very foundation of what it means to be human and an art essay is a perfect opportunity to pay tribute to this natural necessity. Art takes multiple forms whether it involves painting, sculpture, taking photographs, creating animations, filming movies, composing or performing music, dancing, writing poetry or fiction. What unites all forms of art is the application of creativity, skill, imagination to produce works that attempt to evoke feelings and admiration. Writing an art research paper involves gathering information, formulating a thesis and supporting it with clear arguments. Feel free to review the samples listed in this category for examples of proper writing.

Music Today is All Noise

In recent times, the landscape of music has undergone a significant transformation. The digital age has brought about unprecedented access to music, allowing artists to reach global audiences with ease. However, this surge in availability has sparked a debate about the quality and essence of...

The Art of Hobby Drawing: Nurturing Creativity

The world of hobby drawing is a captivating and immersive realm where imagination comes to life through each stroke of a pencil and every burst of color. As a passionate enthusiast of this timeless art form, I have delved into the beauty of expressing myself...

The Symbolism of Piggy's Glasses

In William Golding's iconic novel, "Lord of the Flies" Piggy's glasses emerge as a powerful symbol that reflects the tension between civilization and savagery. This essay explores the symbolism behind Piggy's glasses, revealing their multifaceted meaning in the narrative and their role in highlighting the...

Medusa's Hair: Exploring Personal Symbols and Religious Experience

Personal symbols have a profound impact on how individuals perceive and interpret their experiences, particularly in the realm of religious and spiritual encounters. This essay delves into the concept of personal symbols, focusing on the significance of Medusa's hair as a symbol and its connection...

Music Today: Noise Versus Art

With the evolution of technology and the advent of digital platforms, the music landscape has undergone significant transformations. As a result, there has been an ongoing debate about the quality and artistic value of modern music. Some critics argue that music today is nothing but...

What is Art for You: a Way to Share Creativity Or Popularize Ideas

What is art for you? Surprisingly, the definition of art which I have read in one essay is somewhat vague and not comprehensive, and I agree with this statement. Also I can define art as “application of skill to production of beauty (esp. visible beauty)...

Analysis of "Mona Lisa": Elements and Principles of Art Used

Leonardo da Vinci's “Mona Lisa' was a painting that was made during the years 1503-1505, taking this whole time to perfect the piece of work. This portrait spread many rumors around the time this was being made and shown in the world. For one example,...

Michelangelo's Contributions to the Renaissance: Analysis of "La Pieta"

In this essay, I will analyze one of, if not the most famous artwork created by Michelangelo, that being “La Pieta”. This means pity in Italian specifically referencing the feeling of the Virgin Mary for her recently crucified son. 'La Pieta' is undoubtedly one of Michelangelo's...

Why Art is Important: Showing How It Works in Our Lives

Art is often seen as a luxury or a form of entertainment, but in reality, it plays a much more significant role in our lives than we may realize. Art has the power to inspire, to challenge, to comfort, and to transform us in profound...

Susan Sontag on Photography: How Photo Shows How We See the World

This literature review is intended to investigate photographs' relationship to the notions of reality and truth, with the idea that the photograph serves as a record of the thing photographed. The literary photographic practise is outlined by Susan Sontag on Photography ap essay. Throughout this...

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• Art Movements
• Visual Arts
• Impressionism
• Frida Kahlo
• Photography
• Art History
• Art and Religion
• Metropolitan Museum of Art

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