ANALYSING ARTWORK

Targeting the Comparative Study Criteria  

A. FORMAL QUALITIES  

Analyzing Formal​ Qualities measure the artist’s use of the elements of art and the principles 
of design, and how they are applied to the content and subject matter of an artwork. To 
meet the criteria in your analysis of formal qualities, you will need to address the 
following points in your PPT: 

● What are the major areas of positive space in the work and where are they placed 
in the composition? 

● How would you describe the negative space? What is in it? What kind of 
relationship does it have with the positive space? 

● How are lines and shapes being used? 

● How are forms and space being used? Do we notice volume and depth or 
flatness? Is there a combination of both? 

● How are color and value being used? 

● Is there anything in the work that is emphasized? What has the artist done to 
make that happen? 

● How is the composition being balanced? 

● Is there any content in the work? If so, what is it? Describe the formal treatment 
of the content. 

● What is the subject matter of the work and how do the formal qualities contribute 
to the subject matter? 

Description of Successful Work:  

The work identifies and analyses the formal qualities of the selected pieces from at least two 
cultural origins. The analysis of these formal qualities is consistently informed and effective. 

B. INTERPRETATION OF FUNCTION AND PURPOSE 

This criteria area looks at how well you understand the relationship between how and what 
the artwork is communicating, to where and when an artwork is produced.​It is critical 
to interpret the meaning of artwork in this criteria area.​To meet these criteria you 
must address the following: 

● Where was the work made? When was the work made?  

● Does it have a specific use or function? If the function is personal expression, how 
does the cultural context from which it comes influence that expression? 

● Were there important philosophies, technologies or social developments specific 

to that time and place that may have informed the artist’s decisions considering 
content, form or subject? 

The major question a viewer would need to ask about content is: 

● What is being represented in this picture and how is that representation helping to 
create meaning? 

Key Questions for Analyzing the Subject in an Art Work: 

● What overall feelings or understandings is the artist trying to communicate 

through the artwork? How has the artist attempted to achieve this through the 
formal qualities and content? 

● How does the Cultural Context contribute to the subject matter? 

Description of Successful Work: The work demonstrates a consistently informed 

and appropriate interpretation of the function and purpose of the selected pieces 
and the cultural context in which they were created. 

C. CULTURAL SIGNIFICANCE  

This criteria area is very related to preceding one of (B) Function and Purpose, however the 
emphasis should be on detailing more specifically the effects that the culture of origin 
had on the production of the work.​It is critical to describe the cultural influence on 
the artwork in this criteria area.​To meet these criteria you must address the following: 
● Where was the work made? When was the work made? 

● Does it have a use or function specific to its culture of origin? Please explain. 

● What important philosophies, technologies or social developments specific to that 

time and place that may have informed the artist’s decisions considering content, 
form or subject? 

● How does this work connect to other art forms, whether they be visual, literal, 
performance, film, media, etc., that have been completed within the same historical 
or cultural context? 

● What forms of recognition has the artist or the work received