Humanities Homework Help

How to Write a Critique (30 min)

An art critique is a review or an evaluation of any given piece of work.  You can think of it as an “essay” or a “summary” about a work of art.  There are however, important factors/categories that must be included within a critique.

Critiques are often done in four steps.  They are:

1. Description   2. Analysis   3. Interpretation   and    4. Evaluation/Judgement.

It is necessary to include these four main categories in a critique.  They are explained below:

Review each category and be sure to include them in your critique. Follow each step, using the questions included as a guide. This will help you put your critique together in a logical format.

Step One- Describe: Use complete sentences to tell what you see (the visual facts).

For ideas on what to discuss, review these questions:

• What is the name of the artist who created the artwork?
• What kind of artwork is it, what medium is it?
• What is the name of the artwork?
• When was the artwork created?
• List the literal objects in the painting (trees, people, animals, mountains, rivers, etc.).
• What do you notice first when you look at the work(s)? Why?
• What time of day/night is it? How can we tell?
• What is the overall visual effect or mood of the work(s)

Step Two- Analyze:  Use complete sentences to analyze the artist’s use of the elements and principles of art within the work.  You should have at least two fully developed paragraphs here to show your understanding of the previous modules.

• Describe the elements of art – line, shape, form, value, color, texture and space
• Describe the principles of art – balance, emphasis, proportion, movement, rhythm, pattern, unity, and variety
• Include as many of these as possible!

Step Three- Interpret: Use complete sentences to interpret what you have already discovered about the work in the first two steps.  Develop a good guess about the meaning of the work.  An interpretation explains what you have already observed and analyzed.  You will use your own knowledge to come up with your best guess as to the interpretation of the artwork.

Think about the following:

• What is the artist trying to say in this work and what makes you think that?
• Why did the artist create the work?
• What do you think is the meaning and why?
• Do you think there are things in this work of art that represent other things – symbols?  What are those things and what do they symbolize?

Step Four-  Evaluate/Judge:  Use complete sentences to make a judgment about the work’s worth based on the information you have gathered about the work.  Judgments must be supported by what you have learned through the first 3 steps.  You must give reasons for your judgments.  Judging art is a matter of being fair and logical.