De Anza College Winter Sunrise by Ansel Adams Analytical Review
I’m working on a art question and need guidance to help me learn.
At this stage, you are working to develop your own visual acuity and descriptive vocabulary without relying on what others have written about the piece. As Sylvan Barnet writes in A Short Guide to Writing About Art, your aim is to write “a highly detailed description that seeks to bring the image before the reader’s eyes.” This skill is one of the fundamental building blocks of formal analysis. Analysis involves separating the whole into its constitutive parts, then interpreting how these parts work on their own and in relation to each other. By creating a descriptive inventory of formal parts, you will naturally begin to analyze how they interrelate, gesturing at answers to the question: “How does the work mean?”
Write a formal analysis of your chosen artwork that includes a thorough visual description of the artwork, some analysis of the artwork, and very little interpretation. Describe the materials, dimensions, articulation, color, texture, line, composition, light/dark values, shapes, and space apparent in your work, as well as the balance, contrast, movement, unity, emphasis, patterns, proportions, and depicted scenes formed by these elements. The main goal is to demonstrate your abilities to look carefully and describe articulately, but you should also take a stab at a brief analysis and interpretation without doing any outside research.
Artwork : Ansel Adam
