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Analysis of a Piece of Art

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Mrs. Sally,

Happy New Year. Can you please help me with Assignment?

Assignment

For your first assignment, you will need to find a work of art (the work you select need not be a non-western image, but it can be from any time period or culture) in your community. Once you have found something, you will need to take a photograph of this work of art and analyze it based upon the terminology presented in your textbook and outlined below. Your detailed analysis should be written in the form of a five page essay, where you discuss such aspects as subject, color, composition, material, scale, technique, and style. When you are finished with your paper, please place the essay along with any images together in the appropriate drop box.

Although you may find several works of interest, please select only one work of art to write about. Your paper will be a "formal analysis" which entails a complete visual description of the image. It requires careful and thoughtful observation, and does not require any historical background or any research. Before you begin, copy down the complete identification information on the work you choose, which should then appear at the top of your completed paper. You may simply copy this information from the museum label, or ask for the information at the location you have selected. The information should include title, artist, date, scale, medium (material), and location.

Next, examine this work very carefully, taking notes and thinking about how and why the work was constructed. Your description of the work must be very precise, complete, well-organized and articulate. Therefore, please make sure to consider all of these aspects (although not necessarily in this order):
1. Composition: What is the subject or narrative? How is the work organized and unified? How do your eyes move around the work, and what do you focus on?

2. Color: Describe the color and explain how it affects the mood of the work and how it is used to organize the composition.

3. Objects: What exactly is in the work? Figures? Landscape? Is it crowded or empty? Is it naturalistic or abstract, and to what degree?

4. Technique: Describe the brushstroke in a painting, or the particular material of a sculpture, and how the material is used or manipulated. How does the material that the artist chose contribute to the reading of the work?

5. Size and shape: Is the work large or small, horizontal or vertical? How does this contribute to how you read it?

Give a brief introduction to the work. Then write at least one paragraph on each of these aspects explained above, making sure to write clearly and to organize your paper carefully. You do not need to follow the order that I have given, but write in a way that presents each aspect in a unified manner. If you are not certain what type of work of art to discuss, you may submit photographs of your options to your faculty member for approval before you begin your essay. In your conclusion, explain how the creative process is revealed in the work you have selected.

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Solution Summary

This very detailed solution identifies a piece of art and describes/analyzes its' composition, color, object, technique, size, shape, subject, and style. Includes lots of information utilizing terms found in Gardner's text. APA formatted reference and picture of the discussed piece is included.

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Hope this is what you need? Good luck!

Title: Mother Earth
Artist: Lisa Reinertson
Scale: 1:1.25
Medium: Bronze
Location: Rockville and Abernathy Roads, Suisun Valley, California

Art Review: Mother Earth

Mother Earth, a seven foot bronze sculpture of a female figure, welcomes visitors to the Suisun Valley. The art was originally commissioned by county elected representative and local citizens as part of a plan to attract more visitors to the bountiful valley. The sculpture has local connections. A professor who lives locally and teaches at the nearby community college created it. The sculpture is found among native plantings in the center of a roundabout, where travellers must choose between the city, freeway, or rural areas to travel. An additional purpose of the installation, in conjunction with the roundabout, was to discourage speeding motorists traveling down a straight rural road and offer visual pleasure to visitors. The sculpture was chosen to symbolically represent the bounty of the land and the beauty of the environment. The overall theme of the artwork is to welcome visitors to the gateway of Suisun Valley and its rich agricultural base.
Composition
"Mother Earth" is a three-dimensional sculptures that been composed in a manner to tell a narrative. "Mother Earth" is depicted as a female figure with her hands outstretched above her head. Spanning hand to hand is an arc of a rainbow. The figure's long hair flows out from her head along her arms. This creates a sense of a mountain range (the local valley is surrounded by mountains). Together, the rainbow and hair form a circle, adding to the idea of the harvest and circle of life. In addition, this circle serves as a contour line, defining the sculpture's outer shape. There are cloud images floating behind the rainbow and her hair, and the texture of the hair is composed of rows, to signify the rows of field crops found in the area. At the bottom of Mother Earth's flowing skirt are fruits and vegetables incorporated in bas-relief into the design, as if this produce is growing from the earth below the sculpture.
The sculpture is unified around nature. The circle formed by the rainbow, clouds and hair evoke the image of sun and rain, incorporating weather as a crucial part of the ...

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Sally Baldwin, Ed.D
Education
  • BA, University of Southern California
  • MSS, United States Sports Academy
  • Ed.D, Boise State University
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