Reading the Image by Alice Guillermo

Art
1. Has its specificity or formal aspect of art.
2. Historically situated and shaped by social, economic, and political forces.

Four Planes of Analysis

1. The Basic Semiotic Plane
-Study of signs

 Visual elements – lines, colors, texture, shape, movement, composition in space

 Choice of medium and Technique – materials used and the style of the artist
 Format of the work- symbolic elements
 Other physical properties and marks of the work – notations, traces, textual features, and marks

2. The Iconic Plane or The Image Itself

 Signifier- signified relationship
 Choice of the subject
– social or political implications
 Positioning of the figure/s
- frontal, in profile, three-fourths, figure stance
- presentation of the image
-defining the relationship of the subject ad viewer
 Style of figuration
- implies a particular representation or interpretation of the world.
 Classical figuration- formal
 Realist figuration – true portraits of individuals
 Impressionist figuration – fluid and informal
 Expressionist figuration – emotional impulses and drives

3. The Contextual Plane

- Full meaning of the work in terms of its human and social implications
- Dialogic relationship of art and society
- Situates the work in the personal and social circumstances of its production

4. The Axiological or Evaluative Plane

-analyzing the values of a work
- evaluating the form (rhythm, harmony, balance) and content (complex of concepts, values, and feeling which
derives from reality and have bearing on it).