drawing and painting essay

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Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History Essays

Edgar degas (1834–1917): painting and drawing.

Edgar Degas

Young Woman with Ibis

A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers (Madame Paul Valpinçon?)

The Ballet from "Robert le Diable"

Dancer Adjusting Her Slipper

The Dance Class

Portraits at the Stock Exchange

The Fireside

Dancers Practicing at the Barre

Mademoiselle Bécat at the Café des Ambassadeurs, Paris

Mary Cassatt at the Louvre: The Etruscan Gallery

At the Milliner's

Dancers in the Rehearsal Room with a Double Bass

The Singer in Green

Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub

Race Horses

Dancers, Pink and Green

Ruth Schenkel Department of European Paintings, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

October 2004

Edgar Degas seems never to have reconciled himself to the label of “ Impressionist ,” preferring to call himself a “ Realist ” or “Independent.” Nevertheless, he was one of the group’s founders, an organizer of its exhibitions, and one of its most important core members. Like the Impressionists, he sought to capture fleeting moments in the flow of modern life, yet he showed little interest in painting plein-air landscapes , favoring scenes in theaters and cafés illuminated by artificial light, which he used to clarify the contours of his figures, adhering to his academic training .

Degas was born in 1834, the scion of a wealthy banking family, and was educated in the classics, including Latin, Greek, and ancient history, at the Lycée Louis-le-Grand in Paris. His father recognized his son’s artistic gifts early and encouraged his efforts at drawing by taking him frequently to Paris museums. Degas began by copying Italian Renaissance paintings at the Louvre and trained in the studio of Louis Lamothe, who taught in the traditional academic style, with its emphasis on line and its insistence on the crucial importance of draftsmanship. Degas was also strongly influenced by the paintings and frescoes he saw during several long trips to Italy in the late 1850s; he made many sketches and drawings of them in his notebooks.

Evidence of Degas’ classical education can be seen in his relatively static, friezelike early painting, Young Spartans Exercising (ca. 1860; National Gallery, London), done while he was still in his twenties. Yet despite the title, and the suggestion of classical drapery on some of the figures in the background, there is little that places the subject of this painting in ancient Greece. Indeed, it has been noted that the young girls have the snub noses and immature bodies of “ Montmartre types,” the forerunners of the dancers Degas painted so often throughout his career. After 1865, when the Salon accepted his history painting The Misfortunes of the City of Orléans (Musée d’Orsay, Paris), Degas did not paint academic subjects again, focusing his attention on scenes of modern life. He began to paint scenes of such urban leisure activities as horse racing and, after about 1870, of café-concert singers and ballet dancers .

Degas’s choice of subject matter reflects his modern approach. He favored scenes of ballet dancers, laundresses, milliners ( At the Milliner’s , 1882; 29.100.38 ), and denizens of Parisian low life. His interest in ballet dancers intensified in the 1870s, and eventually he produced approximately 1,500 works on the subject. These are not traditional portraits, but studies that address the movement of the human body, exploring the physicality and discipline of the dancers through the use of contorted postures and unexpected vantage points. In Dancer Adjusting Her Slipper (1873; 29.100.941 ), the figure’s pose is difficult to decipher, viewed from a steep angle with both her feet and her head at the bottom of the picture, yet it conveys a sense of the dancer’s flexibility.

Degas absorbed artistic tradition and outside influences and reinterpreted them in innovative ways. Following the opening of trade with Japan in 1854, many French artists, including Degas, were increasingly influenced by Japanese prints . But whereas his contemporaries often infused their paintings with Eastern imagery , Degas abstracted from these prints their inventive compositions and points of view, particularly in his use of cropping and asymmetry. Degas had also observed how sixteenth-century Italian Mannerists similarly framed their subjects, sometimes cutting off part of a figure. For example, in A Woman Seated beside a Vase of Flowers (1865; 29.100.128 ), the figure is cut off at the right edge of the painting, with part of her left hand just barely visible at the lower right corner. In her subdued attire she seems almost incidental to the riot of color that makes up the central floral arrangement. Unusual vantage points and asymmetrical framing are a consistent theme throughout Degas’ works, especially in his many paintings and pastels of ballet dancers, from the time of Dancers Practicing at the Barre (1877; 29.100.34 ), through the decades to  Dancers, Pink and Green (ca. 1890; 29.100.42 ) and beyond. Even in a more traditional work of portraiture like the Duchessa di Montejasi with Her Daughters, Elena and Camilla (ca. 1876; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston), he achieves a more modern effect by disrupting the compositional balance.

Degas had a lively, scientific interest in a wide range of media, including engraving , monotype , and photography . Before 1880, he generally used oils for his completed works ( 2008.277 ), which were based on preliminary studies and sketches made in pencil or pastel. But after 1875, he began using pastels more frequently, even in finished works, such as Portraits at the Stock Exchange (ca. 1878–9; 1991.277.1 ), which displays a subtle grasp of the characteristic postures and attire of the top-hatted gentlemen he portrays. By 1885, most of his more important works were done in pastel. He submitted a suite of nudes, all rendered in pastel, to the final Impressionist exhibition in 1886; among these was Woman Bathing in a Shallow Tub (1885; 29.100.41 ). The figures in these pastels were criticized for their ungainly poses, as in this work, in which the figure squats awkwardly in a tub, yet the steep perspective gives the work a solid, sculptural balance.

Degas experimented with an array of techniques, breaking up surface textures with hatching, contrasting dry pastel with wet, and using gouache and watercolors to soften the contours of his figures. In Race Horses (ca. 1885–88; 1999.288.3 ), which depicts another of Degas’ favorite themes, the use of hatching gives a sense of swaying grass. The immediacy of the moment is captured in the raised leg of the horse in the foreground and the foreshortened, angled approach of the vigorous horse in the background. The Singer in Green (ca. 1884; 61.101.7 ) demonstrates Degas’s use of pastel to achieve the effect of the glare of footlights illuminating his subject from below and his use of coarse hatching to suggest the curtained backdrop behind the singer.

By the late 1880s, Degas’ eyesight had begun to fail, perhaps as a result of an injury suffered during his service in defending Paris during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870–71. After that time he focused almost exclusively on dancers and nudes, increasingly turning to sculpture as his eyesight weakened. In his later years, he was concerned chiefly with showing women bathing, entirely without self-consciousness and emphatically not posed. Despite the seemingly fleeting glimpses he portrayed, he achieved a solidity in his figures that is almost sculptural.

In later life, Degas became reclusive, morose, and given to bouts of depression, probably as a consequence of his increasing blindness. His monotype Landscape (1892; 1972.636 ), an unusual work from this period, is an unexpected instance of Degas presenting an outdoor scene with no figures, which shows an imaginative and expressive use of color and freedom of line that may have arisen, at least in part, as a result of his struggle to adapt to his deteriorating vision.

Degas continued working as late as 1912, when he was forced to leave the studio in Montmartre in which he had labored for more than twenty years. He died five years later in 1917, at the age of eighty-three.

Schenkel, Ruth. “Edgar Degas (1834–1917): Painting and Drawing.” In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History . New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/dgsp/hd_dgsp.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Boggs, Jean Sutherland, et al. Degas . New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1988. See on MetPublications

De Vonyar, Jill, and Richard Kendall. Degas and the Dance . Exhibition catalogue. New York: Abrams, 2002.

Kendall, Richard. Degas and the Little Dancer . Exhibition catalogue. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

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Visual Analysis: How to Analyze a Painting and Write an Essay

A visual analysis essay is an entry-level essay sometimes taught in high school and early university courses. Both communications and art history students use visual analysis to understand art and other visual messages. In our article, we will define the term and give an in-depth guide on how to look at a piece of art and write a visual analysis essay. Stay tuned until the end for a handy visual analysis essay example from our graduate paper writing service .

What Is Visual Analysis?

Visual analysis is essential in studying Communication, English, and Art History. It's a fundamental part of writing about art found in scholarly books, art magazines, and even undergraduate essays. You might encounter a visual analysis as a standalone assignment or as part of a larger research paper.

When you do this type of assignment, you're examining the basic elements of an artwork. These include things like its colors, lines, textures, and size. But it goes beyond just describing these elements. A good analysis also considers the historical context in which the artwork was created and tries to understand what it might mean to different people.

It also encourages you to look closely at details and think deeply about what an artwork is trying to say. This kind of analysis makes you appreciate art more and teaches you how to explain your ideas clearly based on what you see in the artwork.

What is the Purpose of Visual Analysis?

The purpose of a visual analysis is to recognize and understand the visual choices the artist made in creating the artwork. By looking closely at different elements, analysts can learn a lot about how an artwork was made and why the artist made certain choices. 

For example, studying how colors are used or how things are arranged in the artwork can reveal its themes or the emotions it's trying to convey. Also, understanding the time period when the artwork was created helps us see how societal changes and cultural ideas influenced its creation and how people reacted to it.

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How to Write a Visual Analysis Step-by-Step

To create an insightful visual analysis, you should not only examine the artwork in detail but also situate it within a broader cultural and historical framework. This process can be broken down into three main steps: 

• Identifying, describing, and analyzing the visual material
• Situating the visual material in its context
• Interpreting and responding to the content of the visual material.

Let’s discuss each of these steps in more detail.

Step 1: Identify, Describe, and Analyze the Visual Material

Begin by clearly identifying the visual material you will analyze. This could be a painting, photograph, sculpture, advertisement, or any other visual artwork. Provide essential information such as the title, artist, date, and medium. 

Next, offer a detailed description of the visual material. Focus on the key elements and principles of design, such as:

• Composition

Describe what you see without interpreting its meaning yet. For instance, note the use of bright colors, the placement of objects, the presence of figures, and the overall layout. This descriptive part forms the foundation of your analysis, allowing your reader to visualize the artwork.

Afterward, consider how the artist uses elements like contrast, balance, emphasis, movement, and harmony. Analyze the techniques and methods used and how they contribute to the overall effect of the piece. 

Step 2: Situate the Visual Material in its Context

To fully understand a piece of visual material, you need to consider its historical and cultural context. Start by researching the time period when the artwork was created. Look at the social, political, and economic conditions of that time, and see if there were any cultural movements that might have influenced the artwork.

Next, learn about the artist and their reasons for creating the visual material. Find out about the artist's life, other works they have made, and any statements they have made about this piece. Knowing the artist’s background can give you valuable insights into the artwork's purpose and message.

Finally, think about how the visual material was received by people when it was first shown and how it has impacted others over time. Look for reviews and public reactions, and see if it influenced other works or movements. This will help you understand the significance of the visual material in the larger cultural and artistic context.

Step 3: Interpret and Respond to the Content of the Visual Material

Now, combine your description, analysis, and understanding of the context to interpret what the visual material means. Talk about the themes, symbols, and messages the artwork conveys. Think about what it reveals about human experiences, society, or specific issues. Use evidence from earlier steps to support your interpretation.

Afterward, consider your own reaction to the visual material. How does it personally resonate with you? What emotions or thoughts does it provoke? Your personal response adds a subjective aspect to your analysis, making it more relatable.

Finally, summarize your findings and emphasize the importance of the visual material. Highlight key aspects from your identification, description, analysis, context, and interpretation. Then, it concludes by reinforcing the impact and significance of the visual material in both its original setting and its enduring influence.

Who Does Formal Analysis of Art

Most people who face visual analysis essays are Communication, English, and Art History students. Communications students explore mediums such as theater, print media, news, films, photos — basically anything. Comm is basically a giant, all-encompassing major where visual analysis is synonymous with Tuesday.

Art History students study the world of art to understand how it developed. They do visual analysis with every painting they look it at and discuss it in class.

English Literature students perform visual analysis too. Every writer paints an image in the head of their reader. This image, like a painting, can be clear, or purposefully unclear. It can be factual, to the point, or emotional and abstract like Ulysses, challenging you to search your emotions rather than facts and realities.

6 Questions to Answer Before Analyzing a Piece of Art

According to our experienced term paper writer , there are six important questions to ask before you start analyzing a piece of art. Answering these questions can make writing your analysis much easier:

• Who is the artist, and what type of art do they create? - To place the artwork in context, you should identify the artist and understand the type of art they create. 
• What was the artist's goal in creating this painting? - Determine why the artist created the artwork. Was it to convey a message, evoke emotions, or explore a theme?
• When and where was this artwork made? - Knowing the time and place of creation helps understand the cultural and historical influences on the artwork.
• What is the main focus or theme of this artwork? - Identify what the artwork is about. This could be a person, place, object, or abstract concept.
• Who was the artwork created for? - To provide insight into its style and content, consider who the artist intended to reach with their work. 
• What historical events or cultural factors influenced this painting? - Understanding the historical background can reveal more about the significance and meaning of the artwork.

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Elements of the Visual Analysis 

To fully grasp formal analysis, it's important to differentiate between the elements and principles of visual analysis. The elements are the basic building blocks used to create a piece of art. These include:

Principles of the Visual Analysis

The principles, on the other hand, are how these elements are combined and used together to create the overall effect of the artwork. These principles include:

Visual Analysis Outline

It’s safe to use the five-paragraph essay structure for your visual analysis essay. If you are looking at a painting, take the most important aspects of it that stand out to you and discuss them in relation to your thesis. 

In the introduction, you should:

• Introduce the Artwork : Mention the title, artist, date, and medium of the artwork.
• Provide a Brief Description : Offer a general overview of what the artwork depicts.
• State the Purpose : Explain the goal of your analysis and what aspects you will focus on.
• Thesis Statement : Present a clear thesis statement that outlines your main argument or interpretation of the artwork.

The body of the visual analysis is where you break down the visual material into its component parts and examine each one in detail. This section should be structured logically, with each paragraph focusing on a specific element or aspect of the visual material.

• Description: Start with a detailed description of the visual material. Describe what you see without interpreting or analyzing it yet. Mention elements such as color, line, shape, texture, space, and composition. For instance, if analyzing a painting, describe the subject matter, the arrangement of figures, the use of light and shadow, etc.
• Analysis of Visual Elements: Analyze how each visual element contributes to the overall effect of the material. Discuss the use of color (e.g., warm or cool tones, contrasts, harmonies), the role of lines (e.g., leading lines, contours), the shapes (e.g., geometric, organic), and the texture (e.g., smooth, rough). Consider how these elements work together to create a certain mood or message.
• Contextual Analysis: Examine how the context in which the visual material was created and is being viewed influences its interpretation. This includes historical, cultural, social, and political factors. Discuss how these contextual elements impact the meaning and reception of the visual material.
• Interpretation: Discuss your interpretation of the visual material. Explain how the visual elements and contextual factors contribute to the meaning you derive from it. Support your interpretation with specific examples from the material.
• Comparative Analysis (if applicable): If relevant, compare the visual material with other works by the same creator or with similar works by different creators. Highlight similarities and differences in style, technique, and thematic content.

The conclusion of a visual analysis essay summarizes the main points of the analysis and restates the thesis in light of the evidence presented.

• Restate Thesis: Reiterate your thesis statement in a way that reflects the depth of your analysis. Show how your understanding of the visual material has been supported by your detailed examination.
• Summary of Main Points: Summarize the key points of your analysis. Highlight the most important findings and insights.
• Implications: Discuss the broader implications of your analysis. What does your analysis reveal about the visual material? How does it contribute to our understanding of the creator's work, the time period, or the cultural context?
• Closing Thought: End with a final thought that leaves a lasting impression on the reader. This could be a reflection on the significance of the visual material, a question for further consideration, or a statement about its impact on you or on a broader audience.

If you want a more in-depth look at the classic essay structure, feel free to visit our 5 PARAGRAPH ESSAY blog.

Visual Analysis Example

In this section, we've laid out two examples of visual analysis essays to show you how it's done effectively. Get inspired and learn from them!

Key Takeaways

Visual analysis essays are fundamental early in your communications and art history studies. Learning how to formally break down art is key, whether you're pursuing a career in art or communications.

Before jumping into analysis, get a solid grasp of the painter's background and life. Analyzing a painting isn't just for fun, as you need to pay attention to the small details the painter might have hidden. Knowing how to do this kind of assignment not only helps you appreciate art more but also lets you deeply understand the media messages you encounter every day. 

If you enjoyed this article and found it insightful, make sure to also check out the summary of Lord of the Flies and an article on Beowulf characters .

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What are the 4 Steps of Visual Analysis?

How to write a formal visual analysis, what is the function of visual analysis.

is an expert in nursing and healthcare, with a strong background in history, law, and literature. Holding advanced degrees in nursing and public health, his analytical approach and comprehensive knowledge help students navigate complex topics. On EssayPro blog, Adam provides insightful articles on everything from historical analysis to the intricacies of healthcare policies. In his downtime, he enjoys historical documentaries and volunteering at local clinics.

• Added new sections
• Added new writing steps
• Added a new example
• Updated an outline
• Duke University. (n.d.). Visual Analysis . https://twp.duke.edu/sites/twp.duke.edu/files/file-attachments/visual-analysis.original.pdf  
• Glatstein, J. (2019, December 9). Formal Visual Analysis: The Elements & Principles of Composition . Www.kennedy-Center.org. https://www.kennedy-center.org/education/resources-for-educators/classroom-resources/articles-and-how-tos/articles/educators/visual-arts/formal-visual-analysis-the-elements-and-principles-of-compositoin/  
• MADA: Visual analysis . (n.d.). Student Academic Success. https://www.monash.edu/student-academic-success/excel-at-writing/annotated-assessment-samples/art-design-and-architecture/mada-visual-analysis  

Essay on Art

500 words essay on art.

Each morning we see the sunshine outside and relax while some draw it to feel relaxed. Thus, you see that art is everywhere and anywhere if we look closely. In other words, everything in life is artwork. The essay on art will help us go through the importance of art and its meaning for a better understanding.

What is Art?

For as long as humanity has existed, art has been part of our lives. For many years, people have been creating and enjoying art.  It expresses emotions or expression of life. It is one such creation that enables interpretation of any kind.

It is a skill that applies to music, painting, poetry, dance and more. Moreover, nature is no less than art. For instance, if nature creates something unique, it is also art. Artists use their artwork for passing along their feelings.

Thus, art and artists bring value to society and have been doing so throughout history. Art gives us an innovative way to view the world or society around us. Most important thing is that it lets us interpret it on our own individual experiences and associations.

Art is similar to live which has many definitions and examples. What is constant is that art is not perfect or does not revolve around perfection. It is something that continues growing and developing to express emotions, thoughts and human capacities.

Importance of Art

Art comes in many different forms which include audios, visuals and more. Audios comprise songs, music, poems and more whereas visuals include painting, photography, movies and more.

You will notice that we consume a lot of audio art in the form of music, songs and more. It is because they help us to relax our mind. Moreover, it also has the ability to change our mood and brighten it up.

After that, it also motivates us and strengthens our emotions. Poetries are audio arts that help the author express their feelings in writings. We also have music that requires musical instruments to create a piece of art.

Other than that, visual arts help artists communicate with the viewer. It also allows the viewer to interpret the art in their own way. Thus, it invokes a variety of emotions among us. Thus, you see how essential art is for humankind.

Without art, the world would be a dull place. Take the recent pandemic, for example, it was not the sports or news which kept us entertained but the artists. Their work of arts in the form of shows, songs, music and more added meaning to our boring lives.

Therefore, art adds happiness and colours to our lives and save us from the boring monotony of daily life.

Get the huge list of more than 500 Essay Topics and Ideas

Conclusion of the Essay on Art

All in all, art is universal and can be found everywhere. It is not only for people who exercise work art but for those who consume it. If there were no art, we wouldn’t have been able to see the beauty in things. In other words, art helps us feel relaxed and forget about our problems.

FAQ of Essay on Art

Question 1: How can art help us?

Answer 1: Art can help us in a lot of ways. It can stimulate the release of dopamine in your bodies. This will in turn lower the feelings of depression and increase the feeling of confidence. Moreover, it makes us feel better about ourselves.

Question 2: What is the importance of art?

Answer 2: Art is essential as it covers all the developmental domains in child development. Moreover, it helps in physical development and enhancing gross and motor skills. For example, playing with dough can fine-tune your muscle control in your fingers.

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The Joy Of Art: An Essay On My Hobby Drawing

Essay On My Hobby Drawing: Drawing is one of the most ancient forms of human expression. From cave paintings to modern art, drawing has always been an important medium for humans to convey their thoughts and emotions. Drawing as a hobby is a wonderful way to explore your creativity, reduce stress, and improve your focus. In this essay, I will share my personal experience with drawing as a hobby, discuss the benefits of drawing, and provide tips for beginners to improve their skills.

In this blog, we include the Essay On My Hobby Drawing , in 100, 200, 250, and 300 words . Also cover Essay On My Hobby Drawing for classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and up to the 12th class. You can read more Essay Writing in 10 lines, and essay writing about sports, events, occasions, festivals, etc… The Essay On My Hobby Drawing is available in different languages.

Benefits Of Drawing As A Hobby

Drawing as a hobby has several benefits that go beyond the joy of creating a beautiful piece of art. Drawing can help reduce stress and anxiety by providing a meditative and relaxing activity. When we draw, we enter into a state of flow that takes our mind off our worries and focuses it on the present moment.

Drawing can also be therapeutic. Art therapy is an established form of therapy that uses art as a means of expression and healing. Drawing can help us express our emotions, thoughts, and feelings in a non-verbal way. This can be especially helpful for those who find it difficult to express themselves through words.

Another benefit of drawing is that it can improve our focus and mindfulness. When we draw, we have to pay attention to the details of what we are drawing. This requires us to be fully present in the moment, which can improve our overall mindfulness and awareness.

My Experience With Drawing

I started drawing as a hobby when I was a child. I would spend hours creating doodles and sketches in my notebook. As I got older, I continued to draw, but I never considered it to be more than just a fun pastime. It wasn’t until I started experiencing stress and anxiety in my adult life that I realized the therapeutic benefits of drawing.

Drawing has become a form of meditation for me. When I draw, I am fully immersed in the process, and my mind is free from worries and stress. Drawing has also helped me express my emotions in a non-verbal way. When I am feeling overwhelmed or anxious, I can sit down and draw, and it helps me feel more centered and calm.

Drawing Techniques And Tools

Drawing is a skill that can be improved with practice. There are several drawing techniques and materials that can help beginners improve their skills. One of the most important things for beginners is to start with simple shapes and lines. This will help you develop a steady hand and improve your control over the pencil or pen.

There are several drawing materials that beginners can use, including pencils, pens, charcoal, and pastels. Each material has its own unique qualities, and it’s important to experiment with different materials to find the ones that work best for you.

In addition to the materials, there are several drawing techniques that beginners can learn. These include shading, perspective, and composition. Learning these techniques can help beginners create more realistic and dynamic drawings.

Inspiration And Motivation

Inspiration for drawing can come from anywhere and everywhere. Some people find inspiration in nature, while others are inspired by music or literature. One of the best ways to find inspiration is to explore different art forms and styles. This can help you develop your own unique style and vision.

Motivation is also an important factor in the drawing. Like any skill, drawing requires practice and perseverance. It’s important to set goals and challenges for yourself to stay motivated. You can also find motivation by joining a community of artists or taking a drawing class.

Drawing as a hobby has several benefits that go beyond the joy of creating a beautiful piece of art. Drawing can reduce stress, improve focus and mindfulness, and be therapeutic. Learning drawing techniques and experimenting with different materials can help beginners improve their skills. Finding inspiration and staying motivated are also important factors in becoming a skilled artist. Drawing is wonderful.

Read More: My Hobby Essay

FAQ’s On Essay On My Hobby Drawing

Question 1. Why is drawing my hobby?

Answer: However, I can tell you that people have different reasons for taking up drawing as a hobby.

• Some people find drawing to be a relaxing and meditative activity that helps them reduce stress and anxiety. Others enjoy the creative process and the satisfaction of creating a beautiful piece of art. Some people use drawing as a means of expressing their emotions and thoughts in a non-verbal way.
• Drawing as a hobby can also be a way of challenging oneself and improving one’s skills. Learning new techniques and experimenting with different materials can be a fun and rewarding experience.
• Ultimately, the reasons for why drawing is your hobby are unique to you and may be influenced by your personal experiences, interests, and passions.

Question 2. How do you write a drawing essay?

Answer: Writing a drawing essay involves describing and analyzing a visual artwork, such as a painting, sculpture, or graphic design. Here are some steps to follow:

• Choose an artwork: Select an artwork that you want to write about. It’s best to choose a piece that you have seen in person, but if that’s not possible, find a high-quality image of the artwork to use as a reference.
• Observe and analyze: Look at the artwork carefully and take notes on what you see. Note the colors, shapes, lines, and textures used in the piece, as well as any patterns or motifs. Think about the overall composition of the artwork and how the various elements work together to create a visual impact.
• Research the artist and the artwork: If you’re writing a formal essay, you’ll want to research the artist and the artwork to provide context and background information. Find out when and where the artwork was created, what inspired the artist, and what artistic movements or styles influenced the piece.
• Develop a thesis statement: Your thesis statement should summarize the main point you want to make in your essay. It might be an analysis of the artwork’s meaning, an exploration of the techniques used by the artist, or a comparison of the artwork to other works in its genre.

Question 3. What is your favorite hobby and why is drawing?

Answer: Drawing can be a favorite hobby because it allows for self-expression and creativity. It can also be a relaxing and therapeutic activity that helps to reduce stress and anxiety. Furthermore, drawing can be a way to improve fine motor skills and hand-eye coordination. Additionally, with practice, it can lead to the development of a unique style and a sense of accomplishment.

Question 4. How do you mention drawing in hobbies?

Answer: If you want to mention drawing as one of your hobbies, you can do so in a variety of ways. Here are a few examples:

• “In my free time, I enjoy drawing. It’s a creative outlet that allows me to express myself and explore new ideas.”
• “One of my hobbies is drawing. I find it to be a relaxing and meditative activity that helps me unwind after a busy day.”

Question 5. How do you describe your drawing?

• Describe the subject matter: What is your drawing depicting? Is it a landscape, a portrait, a still life, or something else?
• Highlight the style: What techniques did you use in your drawing? Are there any unique features or elements that make it stand out?
• Comment on the composition: How did you arrange the elements in your drawing? Did you use any particular techniques to create balance or movement?
• Explain your intention: What message or feeling were you trying to convey with your drawing? What inspired you to create it?

The Value of Art Why should we care about art?

One of the first questions raised when talking about art is simple—why should we care? Art in the contemporary era is easy to dismiss as a selfish pastime for people who have too much time on their hands. Creating art doesn't cure disease, build roads, or feed the poor. So to understand the value of art, let’s look at how art has been valued through history and consider how it is valuable today.

The value of creating

At its most basic level, the act of creating is rewarding in itself. Children draw for the joy of it before they can speak, and creating pictures, sculptures and writing is both a valuable means of communicating ideas and simply fun. Creating is instinctive in humans, for the pleasure of exercising creativity. While applied creativity is valueable in a work context, free-form creativity leads to new ideas.

Material value

Through the ages, art has often been created from valuable materials. Gold , ivory and gemstones adorn medieval crowns , and even the paints used by renaissance artists were made from rare materials like lapis lazuli , ground into pigment. These objects have creative value for their beauty and craftsmanship, but they are also intrinsically valuable because of the materials they contain.

Historical value

Artwork is a record of cultural history. Many ancient cultures are entirely lost to time except for the artworks they created, a legacy that helps us understand our human past. Even recent work can help us understand the lives and times of its creators, like the artwork of African-American artists during the Harlem Renaissance . Artwork is inextricably tied to the time and cultural context it was created in, a relationship called zeitgeist , making art a window into history.

Religious value

For religions around the world, artwork is often used to illustrate their beliefs. Depicting gods and goddesses, from Shiva to the Madonna , make the concepts of faith real to the faithful. Artwork has been believed to contain the spirits of gods or ancestors, or may be used to imbue architecture with an aura of awe and worship like the Badshahi Mosque .

Patriotic value

Art has long been a source of national pride, both as an example of the skill and dedication of a country’s artisans and as expressions of national accomplishments and history, like the Arc de Triomphe , a heroic monument honoring the soldiers who died in the Napoleonic Wars. The patriotic value of art slides into propaganda as well, used to sway the populace towards a political agenda.

Symbolic value

Art is uniquely suited to communicating ideas. Whether it’s writing or painting or sculpture, artwork can distill complex concepts into symbols that can be understood, even sometimes across language barriers and cultures. When art achieves symbolic value it can become a rallying point for a movement, like J. Howard Miller’s 1942 illustration of Rosie the Riveter, which has become an icon of feminism and women’s economic impact across the western world.

Societal value

And here’s where the rubber meets the road: when we look at our world today, we see a seemingly insurmountable wave of fear, bigotry, and hatred expressed by groups of people against anyone who is different from them. While issues of racial and gender bias, homophobia and religious intolerance run deep, and have many complex sources, much of the problem lies with a lack of empathy. When you look at another person and don't see them as human, that’s the beginning of fear, violence and war. Art is communication. And in the contemporary world, it’s often a deeply personal communication. When you create art, you share your worldview, your history, your culture and yourself with the world. Art is a window, however small, into the human struggles and stories of all people. So go see art, find art from other cultures, other religions, other orientations and perspectives. If we learn about each other, maybe we can finally see that we're all in this together. Art is a uniquely human expression of creativity. It helps us understand our past, people who are different from us, and ultimately, ourselves.

Reed Enger, "The Value of Art, Why should we care about art?," in Obelisk Art History , Published June 24, 2017; last modified November 08, 2022, http://www.arthistoryproject.com/essays/the-value-of-art/.

Is there such a thing as Bad Art?

Yes, but it's complicated

What is Artistic Composition?

Geometry and the Subconscious

The Principles of Design

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Art Essay Examples and Topics

If you are studying art, chances are that you will have to write a lot of essays during your time in school or college. To receive an excellent grade on them, it is essential that you learn how to write an art essay. Here are the top tips for writing essays on art:

Choose a subject that is interesting to you . For example, if you are interested in graphic art, focus on it in your essay. If you are not sure of what to write about, try searching art essay topics online and choose the one you like most.

Look for sample papers on the topic . If you want to write about a particular movie, look for a film analysis example featuring it. Using this tip, you will be able to get some ideas and add more depth to your writing.

Find relevant scholarly sources . You can search Google Scholar or your school’s library for high-quality articles and books on the subject. Instead of merely citing the information from sources, try to offer some critique. Are the views shared by the author supported by other scholars? Do you agree with their evaluation and why?

Include a personal response . Many forms of art are subject to personal interpretation, and some tutors want their students’ essays to be expressive. This means that you should share your views on the topic and explain why you think the way you do. Doing so will help you to show your understanding of the topic and earn you some extra marks.

Hopefully, these tips will help you to earn an A on your art and design essays! You can explore our site for free essay samples and topics.

5477 Best Essay Examples on Art

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How to analyze an artwork: a step-by-step guide

Last Updated on August 16, 2023

This article has been written for high school art students who are working upon a critical study of art, sketchbook annotation or an essay-based artist study. It contains a list of questions to guide students through the process of analyzing visual material of any kind, including drawing, painting, mixed media, graphic design, sculpture, printmaking, architecture, photography, textiles, fashion and so on (the word ‘artwork’ in this article is all-encompassing). The questions include a wide range of specialist art terms, prompting students to use subject-specific vocabulary in their responses. It combines advice from art analysis textbooks as well as from high school art teachers who have first-hand experience teaching these concepts to students.

COPYRIGHT NOTE: This material is available as a printable art analysis PDF handout . This may be used free of charge in a classroom situation. To share this material with others, please use the social media buttons at the bottom of this page. Copying, sharing, uploading or distributing this article (or the PDF) in any other way is not permitted.

READ NEXT: How to make an artist website (and why you need one)

Why do we study art?

Almost all high school art students carry out critical analysis of artist work, in conjunction with creating practical work. Looking critically at the work of others allows students to understand compositional devices and then explore these in their own art. This is one of the best ways for students to learn.

Instructors who assign formal analyses want you to look—and look carefully. Think of the object as a series of decisions that an artist made. Your job is to figure out and describe, explain, and interpret those decisions and why the artist may have made them. – The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill 10

Art analysis tips

• ‘I like this’ or ‘I don’t like this’ without any further explanation or justification is not analysis . Personal opinions must be supported with explanation, evidence or justification.
• ‘Analysis of artwork’ does not mean ‘description of artwork’ . To gain high marks, students must move beyond stating the obvious and add perceptive, personal insight. Students should demonstrate higher order thinking – the ability to analyse, evaluate and synthesize information and ideas. For example, if color has been used to create strong contrasts in certain areas of an artwork, students might follow this observation with a thoughtful assumption about why this is the case – perhaps a deliberate attempt by the artist to draw attention to a focal point, helping to convey thematic ideas.

Although description is an important part of a formal analysis, description is not enough on its own. You must introduce and contextualize your descriptions of the formal elements of the work so the reader understands how each element influences the work’s overall effect on the viewer.  – Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art 2

• Cover a range of different visual elements and design principles . It is common for students to become experts at writing about one or two elements of composition, while neglecting everything else – for example, only focusing upon the use of color in every artwork studied. This results in a narrow, repetitive and incomplete analysis of the artwork. Students should ensure that they cover a wide range of art elements and design principles, as well as address context and meaning, where required. The questions below are designed to ensure that students cover a broad range of relevant topics within their analysis.
• Write alongside the artwork discussed . In almost all cases, written analysis should be presented alongside the work discussed, so that it is clear which artwork comments refer to. This makes it easier for examiners to follow and evaluate the writing.
• Support writing with visual analysis . It is almost always helpful for high school students to support written material with sketches, drawings and diagrams that help the student understand and analyse the piece of art. This might include composition sketches; diagrams showing the primary structure of an artwork; detailed enlargements of small sections; experiments imitating use of media or technique; or illustrations overlaid with arrows showing leading lines and so on. Visual investigation of this sort plays an important role in many artist studies.

Making sketches or drawings from works of art is the traditional, centuries-old way that artists have learned from each other. In doing this, you will engage with a work and an artist’s approach even if you previously knew nothing about it. If possible do this whenever you can, not from a postcard, the internet or a picture in a book, but from the actual work itself. This is useful because it forces you to look closely at the work and to consider elements you might not have noticed before. – Susie Hodge, How to Look at Art 7

Finally, when writing about art, students should communicate with clarity; demonstrate subject-specific knowledge; use correct terminology; generate personal responses; and reference all content and ideas sourced from others. This is explained in more detail in our article about high school sketchbooks .

What should students write about?

Although each aspect of composition is treated separately in the questions below, students should consider the relationship between visual elements (line, shape, form, value/tone, color/hue, texture/surface, space) and how these interact to form design principles (such as unity, variety, emphasis, dominance, balance, symmetry, harmony, movement, contrast, rhythm, pattern, scale, proportion) to communicate meaning.

As complex as works of art typically are, there are really only three general categories of statements one can make about them. A statement addresses form, content or context (or their various interrelations). – Dr. Robert J. Belton, Art History: A Preliminary Handbook, The University of British Columbia 5

…a formal analysis – the result of looking closely – is an analysis of the form that the artist produces; that is, an analysis of the work of art, which is made up of such things as line, shape, color, texture, mass, composition. These things give the stone or canvas its form, its expression, its content, its meaning. – Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art 2

This video by Dr. Beth Harris, Dr. Steven Zucker and Dr. Naraelle Hohensee provides an excellent example of how to analyse a piece of art (it is important to note that this video is an example of ‘formal analysis’ and doesn’t include contextual analysis, which is also required by many high school art examination boards, in addition to the formal analysis illustrated here):

Composition analysis: a list of questions

The questions below are designed to facilitate direct engagement with an artwork and to encourage a breadth and depth of understanding of the artwork studied. They are intended to prompt higher order thinking and to help students arrive at well-reasoned analysis.

It is not expected that students answer every question (doing so would result in responses that are excessively long, repetitious or formulaic); rather, students should focus upon areas that are most helpful and relevant for the artwork studied (for example, some questions are appropriate for analyzing a painting, but not a sculpture). The words provided as examples are intended to help students think about appropriate vocabulary to use when discussing a particular topic. Definitions of more complex words have been provided.

Students should not attempt to copy out questions and then answer them; rather the questions should be considered a starting point for writing bullet pointed annotation or sentences in paragraph form.

CONTENT, CONTEXT AND MEANING

Subject matter / themes / issues / narratives / stories / ideas.

There can be different, competing, and contradictory interpretations of the same artwork. An artwork is not necessarily about what the artist wanted it to be about. – Terry Barrett, Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary 6

Our interest in the painting grows only when we forget its title and take an interest in the things that it does not mention…” – Françoise Barbe-Gall, How to Look at a Painting 8

• Does the artwork fall within an established genre (i.e. historical; mythical; religious; portraiture; landscape; still life; fantasy; architectural)?
• Are there any recognisable objects, places or scenes ? How are these presented (i.e. idealized; realistic; indistinct; hidden; distorted; exaggerated; stylized; reflected; reduced to simplified/minimalist form; primitive; abstracted; concealed; suggested; blurred or focused)?
• Have people been included? What can we tell about them (i.e. identity; age; attire; profession; cultural connections; health; family relationships; wealth; mood/expression)? What can we learn from their pose (i.e. frontal; profile; partly turned; body language)? Where are they looking (i.e. direct eye contact with viewer; downcast; interested in other subjects within the artwork)? Can we work out relationships between figures from the way they are posed?

What do the clothing, furnishings, accessories (horses, swords, dogs, clocks, business ledgers and so forth), background, angle of the head or posture of the head and body, direction of the gaze, and facial expression contribute to our sense of the figure’s social identity (monarch, clergyman, trophy wife) and personality (intense, cool, inviting)? – Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art 2

• What props and important details are included (drapery; costumes; adornment; architectural elements; emblems; logos; motifs)? How do aspects of setting support the primary subject? What is the effect of including these items within the arrangement (visual unity; connections between different parts of the artwork; directs attention; surprise; variety and visual interest; separates / divides / borders; transformation from one object to another; unexpected juxtaposition)?

If a waiter served you a whole fish and a scoop of chocolate ice cream on the same plate, your surprise might be caused by the juxtaposition , or the side-by-side contrast, of the two foods. – Vocabulary.com

A motif is an element in a composition or design that can be used repeatedly for decorative, structural, or iconographic purposes. A motif can be representational or abstract, and it can be endowed with symbolic meaning. Motifs can be repeated in multiple artworks and often recur throughout the life’s work of an individual artist. – John A. Parks, Universal Principles of Art 11

• Does the artwork communicate an action, narrative or story (i.e. historical event or illustrate a scene from a story)? Has the arrangement been embellished, set up or contrived?
• Does the artwork explore movement ? Do you gain a sense that parts of the artwork are about to change, topple or fall (i.e. tension; suspense)? Does the artwork capture objects in motion (i.e. multiple or sequential images; blurred edges; scene frozen mid-action; live performance art; video art; kinetic art)?
• What kind of abstract elements are shown (i.e. bars; shapes; splashes; lines)? Have these been derived from or inspired by realistic forms? Are they the result of spontaneous, accidental creation or careful, deliberate arrangement?
• Does the work include the appropriation of work by other artists, such as within a parody or pop art? What effect does this have (i.e. copyright concerns)?

Parody: mimicking the appearance and/or manner of something or someone, but with a twist for comic effect or critical comment, as in Saturday Night Live’s political satires – Dr. Robert J. Belton, Art History: A Preliminary Handbook, The University of British Columbia 5

• Does the subject captivate an instinctual response , such as items that are informative, shocking or threatening for humans (i.e. dangerous places; abnormally positioned items; human faces; the gaze of people; motion; text)? Heap map tracking has demonstrated that these elements catch our attention, regardless of where they are positioned –  James Gurney writes more about this fascinating topic .
• What kind of text has been used (i.e. font size; font weight; font family; stenciled; hand-drawn; computer-generated; printed)? What has influenced this choice of text?
• Do key objects or images have symbolic value or provide a cue to meaning ? How does the artwork convey deeper, conceptual themes (i.e. allegory; iconographic elements; signs; metaphor; irony)?

Allegory is a device whereby abstract ideas can be communicated using images of the concrete world. Elements, whether figures or objects, in a painting or sculpture are endowed with symbolic meaning. Their relationships and interactions combine to create more complex meanings. – John A. Parks, Universal Principles of Art 11

An iconography is a particular range or system of types of image used by an artist or artists to convey particular meanings. For example in Christian religious painting there is an iconography of images such as the lamb which represents Christ, or the dove which represents the Holy Spirit. – Tate.org.uk

• What tone of voice does the artwork have (i.e. deliberate; honest; autobiographical; obvious; direct; unflinching; confronting; subtle; ambiguous; uncertain; satirical; propagandistic)?
• What is your emotional response to the artwork? What is the overall mood (i.e positive; energetic; excitement; serious; sedate; peaceful; calm; melancholic; tense; uneasy; uplifting; foreboding; calm; turbulent)? Which subject matter choices help to communicate this mood (i.e. weather and lighting conditions; color of objects and scenes)?
• Does the title change the way you interpret the work?
• Were there any design constraints relating to the subject matter or theme/s (i.e. a sculpture commissioned to represent a specific subject, place or idea)?
• Are there thematic connections with your own project? What can you learn from the way the artist has approached this subject?

Wider contexts

All art is in part about the world in which it emerged. – Terry Barrett, Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary 6

• Supported by research, can you identify when, where and why the work was created and its original intention or purpose (i.e. private sale; commissioned for a specific owner; commemorative; educational; promotional; illustrative; decorative; confrontational; useful or practical utility; communication; created in response to a design brief; private viewing; public viewing)? In what way has this background influenced the outcome (i.e. availability of tools, materials or time; expectations of the patron / audience)?
• Where is the place of construction or design site and how does this influence the artwork (i.e. reflects local traditions, craftsmanship, or customs; complements surrounding designs; designed to accommodate weather conditions / climate; built on historic site)? Was the artwork originally located somewhere different?
• Which events and surrounding environments have influenced this work (i.e. natural events; social movements such as feminism; political events, economic situations, historic events, religious settings, cultural events)? What effect did these have?
• Is the work characteristic of an artistic style, movement or time period ? Has it been influenced by trends, fashions or ideologies ? How can you tell?
• Can you make any relevant connections or comparisons with other artworks ? Have other artists explored a similar subject in a similar way? Did this occur before or after this artwork was created?
• Can you make any relevant connections to other fields of study or expression (i.e. geography, mathematics, literature, film, music, history or science)?
• Which key biographical details about the artist are relevant in understanding this artwork (upbringing and personal situation; family and relationships; psychological state; health and fitness; socioeconomic status; employment; ethnicity; culture; gender; education, religion; interests, attitudes, values and beliefs)?
• Is this artwork part of a larger body of work ? Is this typical of the work the artist is known for?
• How might your own upbringing, beliefs and biases distort your interpretation of the artwork? Does your own response differ from the public response, that of the original audience and/or  interpretation by critics ?
• How do these wider contexts compare to the contexts surrounding your own work?

COMPOSITION AND FORMAT

• What is the overall size, shape and orientation of the artwork (i.e. vertical, horizontal, portrait, landscape or square)? Has this format been influenced by practical considerations (i.e. availability of materials; display constraints ; design brief restrictions; screen sizes; common aspect ratios in film or photography such as 4:3 or 2:3; or paper sizes such as A4, A3, A2, A1)?
• How do images fit within the frame (cropped; truncated; shown in full)? Why is this format appropriate for the subject matter?
• Are different parts of the artwork physically separate, such as within a diptych or triptych ?
• Where are the boundaries of the artwork (i.e. is the artwork self-contained; compact; intersecting; sprawling)?
• Is the artwork site-specific or designed to be displayed across multiple locations or environments?
• Does the artwork have a fixed, permanent format, or was it  modified, moved or adjusted over time ? What causes such changes (i.e. weather and exposure to the elements – melting, erosion, discoloration, decaying, wind movement, surface abrasion; structural failure – cracking, breaking; damage caused by unpredictable events, such as fire or vandalism; intentional movement, such as rotation or sensor response; intentional impermanence, such as an installation assembled for an exhibition and removed afterwards; viewer interaction; additions, renovations and restoration by subsequent artists or users; a project so expansive it takes years to construct)? How does this change affect the artwork? Are there stylistic variances between parts?
• Is the artwork viewed from one angle or position, or are dynamic viewpoints and serial vision involved? (Read more about Gordon Cullen’s concept of serial vision here ).
• How does the scale and format of the artwork relate to the environment where it is positioned, used, installed or hung (i.e. harmonious with landscape typography; sensitive to adjacent structures; imposing or dwarfed by surroundings; human scale)? Is the artwork designed to be viewed from one vantage point (i.e. front facing; viewed from below; approached from a main entrance; set at human eye level) or many? Are images taken from the best angle?
• Would a similar format benefit your own project? Why / why not?

Structure / layout

• Has the artwork been organised using a formal system of arrangement or mathematical proportion (i.e. rule of thirds; golden ratio or spiral; grid format; geometric; dominant triangle; or circular composition) or is the arrangement less predictable (i.e. chaotic, random, accidental, fragmented, meandering, scattered; irregular or spontaneous)? How does this system of arrangement help with the communication of ideas? Can you draw a diagram to show the basic structure of the artwork?
• Can you see a clear intention with alignment and positioning of parts within the artwork (i.e. edges aligned; items spaced equally; simple or complex arrangement; overlapping, clustered or concentrated objects; dispersed, separate items; repetition of forms; items extending beyond the frame; frames within frames; bordered perimeter or patterned edging; broken borders)? What effect do these visual devices have (i.e. imply hierarchy; help the viewer understand relationships between parts of artwork; create rhythm)?
• Does the artwork have a primary axis of symmetry (vertical, diagonal, horizontal)? Can you locate a center of balance? Is the artwork symmetrical, asymmetrical (i.e. stable), radial, or intentionally unbalanced (i.e. to create tension or unease)?
• Can you draw a diagram to illustrate emphasis and dominance (i.e. ‘blocking in’ mass, where the ‘heavier’ dominant forms appear in the composition)? Where are dominant items located within the frame?
• How do your eyes move through the composition?
• Could your own artwork use a similar organisational structure?
• What types of linear mark-making are shown (thick; thin; short; long; soft; bold; delicate; feathery; indistinct; faint; irregular; intermittent; freehand; ruled; mechanical; expressive; loose; blurred; dashing; cross-hatching; meandering; gestural, fluid; flowing; jagged; spiky; sharp)? What atmosphere, moods, emotions or ideas do these evoke?
• Are there any interrupted, suggested or implied lines (i.e. lines that can’t literally be seen, but the viewer’s brain connects the dots between separate elements)?
• Repeating lines : may simulate material qualities, texture, pattern or rhythm;
• Boundary lines : may segment, divide or separate different areas;
• Leading lines : may manipulate the viewer’s gaze, directing vision or lead the eye to focal points ( eye tracking studies indicate that our eyes leap from one point of interest to another, rather than move smoothly or predictably along leading lines 9 . Lines may nonetheless help to establish emphasis by ‘pointing’ towards certain items );
• Parallel lines : may create a sense of depth or movement through space within a landscape;
• Horizontal lines : may create a sense of stability and permanence;
• Vertical lines : may suggest height, reaching upwards or falling;
• Intersecting perpendicular lines : may suggest rigidity, strength;
• Abstract lines : may balance the composition, create contrast or emphasis;
• Angular / diagonal lines : may suggest tension or unease;
• Chaotic lines : may suggest a sense of agitation or panic;
• Underdrawing, construction lines or contour lines : describe form ( learn more about contour lines in our article about line drawing );
• Curving / organic lines : may suggest nature, peace, movement or energy.
• What is the relationship between line and three-dimensional form? Are  outlines used to define form and edges?
• Would it be appropriate to use line in a similar way within your own artwork?

Shape and form

• Can you identify a dominant visual language within the shapes and forms shown (i.e. geometric; angular; rectilinear; curvilinear; organic; natural; fragmented; distorted; free-flowing; varied; irregular; complex; minimal)? Why is this visual language appropriate?
• How are the edges of forms treated (i.e. do they fade away or blur at the edges, as if melting into the page; ripped or torn; distinct and hard-edged; or, in the words of James Gurney, 9 do they ‘dissolve into sketchy lines, paint strokes or drips’)?
• Are there any three-dimensional forms or relief elements within the artwork, such as carved pieces, protruding or sculptural elements? How does this affect the viewing of the work from different angles?
• Is there a variety or repetition of shapes/forms? What effect does this have (i.e. repetition may reinforce ideas, balance composition and/or create harmony / visual unity; variety may create visual interest or overwhelm the viewer with chaos)?
• How are shapes organised in relation to each other, or with the frame of the artwork (i.e. grouped; overlapping; repeated; echoed; fused edges; touching at tangents; contrasts in scale or size; distracting or awkward junctions)?
• Are silhouettes (external edges of objects) considered?

All shapes have silhouettes, and vision research has shown that one of the first tasks of perception is to be able to sort out the silhouette shapes of each of the elements in a scene. – James Gurney, Imaginative Realism 9

• Are forms designed with ergonomics and human scale in mind?

Ergonomics: an applied science concerned with designing and arranging things people use so that the people and things interact most efficiently and safely – Merriam-webster.com

• Can you identify which forms are functional or structural , versus ornamental or decorative ?
• Have any forms been disassembled, ‘cut away’ or exposed , such as a sectional drawing? What is the purpose of this (i.e. to explain construction methods; communicate information; dramatic effect)?
• Would it be appropriate to use shape and form in a similar way within your own artwork?

Value / tone / light

• Has a wide tonal range been used in the artwork (i.e. a broad range of darks, highlights and mid-tones) or is the tonal range limited (i.e. pale and faint; subdued; dull; brooding and dark overall; strong highlights and shadows, with little mid-tone values)? What is the effect of this?
• Where are the light sources within the artwork or scene? Is there a single consistent light source or multiple sources of light (sunshine; light bulbs; torches; lamps; luminous surfaces)? What is the effect of these choices (i.e. mimics natural lighting conditions at a certain time of day or night; figures lit from the side to clarify form; contrasting background or spot-lighting used to accentuate a focal area; soft and diffused lighting used to mute contrasts and minimize harsh shadows; dappled lighting to signal sunshine broken by surrounding leaves; chiaroscuro used to exaggerate theatrical drama and impact; areas cloaked in darkness to minimize visual complexity; to enhance our understanding of narrative, mood or meaning)?

One of the most important ways in which artists can use light to achieve particular effects is in making strong contrasts between light and dark. This contrast is often described as chiaroscuro . – Matthew Treherne, Analysing Paintings, University of Leeds 3

• Are representations of three-dimensional objects and figures flat or tonally  modeled ? How do different tonal values change from one to the next (i.e. gentle, smooth gradations; abrupt tonal bands)?
• Are there any unusual, reflective or transparent surfaces, mediums or materials which reflect or transmit light in a special way?
• Has tone been used to help communicate atmospheric perspective (i.e. paler and bluer as objects get further away)?
• Are gallery or environmental light sources where the artwork is displayed fixed or fluctuating? Does the work appear different when viewed at different times of day? How does this affect your interpretation of the work?
• Are shadows depicted within the artwork? What is the effect of these shadows (i.e. anchors objects to the page; creates the illusion of depth and space; creates dramatic contrasts)?
• Do sculptural protrusions or relief elements catch the light and/or create cast shadows or pockets of shadow upon the artwork? How does this influence the viewer’s experience?
• How has tone been used to help direct the viewer’s attention to focal areas?
• Would it be appropriate to use value / tone in a similar way within your own artwork? Why / why not?

Color / hue

• Can you view the true color of the artwork (i.e. are you viewing a low-quality reproduction or examining the artwork in poor lighting)?
• Which  color schemes have been used within the artwork (i.e. harmonious; complementary; primary; monochrome; earthy; warm; cool/cold)? Has the artist used a broad or limited color palette (i.e. variety or unity)? Which colors dominate?
• How would you describe the intensity of the colors (vibrant; bright; vivid; glowing; pure; saturated; strong; dull; muted; pale; subdued; bleached; diluted)?
• Are colors transparent or opaque ? Can you see reflected color?
• Has color contrast been used within the artwork (i.e. extreme contrasts; juxtaposition of complementary colors; garish / clashing / jarring)? Are there any abrupt color changes or unexpected uses of color?
• What is the effect of these color choices (i.e. expressing symbolic or thematic ideas; descriptive or realistic depiction of local color; emphasizing focal areas; creating the illusion of aerial perspective; relationships with colors in surrounding environment; creating balance; creating rhythm/pattern/repetition; unity and variety within the artwork; lack of color places emphasis upon shape, detail and form)? What kind of atmosphere do these colors create?

It is often said that warm colors (red, orange, yellow) come forward and produce a sense of excitement (yellow is said to suggest warmth and happiness, as in the smiley face), whereas cool colors (blue, green) recede and have a calming effect. Experiments, however, have proved inconclusive; the response to color – despite clichés about seeing red or feeling blue – is highly personal, highly cultural, highly varied. – Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art 2

• Would it be appropriate to use color in a similar way within your own artwork?

Texture / surface / pattern

• Are there any interesting textural, tactile or surface qualities within the artwork (i.e. bumpy; grooved; indented; scratched; stressed; rough; smooth; shiny; varnished; glassy; glossy; polished; matte; sandy; grainy; gritted; leathery; spiky; silky)? How are these created (i.e. inherent qualities of materials; impasto mediums; sculptural materials; illusions or implied texture , such as cross-hatching; finely detailed and intricate areas; organic patterns such as foliage or small stones; repeating patterns ; ornamentation)?
• How are textural or patterned elements positioned and what effect does this have (i.e. used intermittently to provide variety; repeating pattern creates rhythm ; patterns broken create focal points ; textured areas create visual links and unity between separate areas of the artwork; balance between detailed/textured areas and simpler areas; glossy surface creates a sense of luxury; imitation of texture conveys information about a subject, i.e. softness of fur or strands of hair)?
• Would it be appropriate to use texture / surface in a similar way within your own artwork?

Industrial and architectural landscapes are particularly concerned with the arrangement of geometries and form in space… Dr. Ben Guy, Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment using CGI Digital Twins, Urban CGI 12

• Is the pictorial space shallow or deep? How does the artwork create the illusion of depth (i.e. layering of foreground, middle-ground, background ; overlapping of objects; use of shadows to anchor objects; positioning of items in relationship to the horizon line; linear perspective ( learn more about one point perspective here ); tonal modeling; relationships with adjacent objects and those in close proximity – including the human form – to create a sense of scale ; spatial distortions or optical illusions; manipulating scale of objects to create ‘surrealist’ spaces where true scale is unknown)?
• Has an unusual viewpoint been used (i.e. worm’s view; aerial view, looking out a window or through a doorway; a scene reflected in a mirror or shiny surface; looking through leaves; multiple viewpoints combined)? What is the effect of this viewpoint (i.e. allows certain parts of the scene to be dominant and overpowering or squashed, condensed and foreshortened ; or suggests a narrative between two separate spaces ; provides more information about a space than would normally be seen)?
• Is the emphasis upon mass or void ? How densely arranged are components within the artwork or picture plane? What is the relationship between object and surrounding space (i.e. compact / crowded / busy / densely populated, with little surrounding space; spacious; careful interplay between positive and negative space; objects clustered to create areas of visual interest)? What is the effect of this (i.e. creates a sense of emptiness or isolation; business / visual clutter creates a feeling of chaos or claustrophobia)?
• How does the artwork engage with real space – in and around the artwork (i.e. self-contained; closed off; eye contact with viewer; reaching outwards)? Is the viewer expected to move through the artwork? What is the relationship between interior and exterior space ? What connections or contrasts occur between inside and out? Is it comprised of a series of separate or linked spaces?
• Would it be appropriate to use space in a similar way within your own artwork?

Use of media / materials

• What materials and mediums has the artwork been constructed from? Have materials been concealed or presented deceptively (i.e. is there an authenticity / honesty of materials; are materials celebrated; is the structure visible or exposed )? Why were these mediums selected (weight; color; texture; size; strength; flexibility; pliability; fragility; ease of use; cost; cultural significance; durability; availability; accessibility)? Would other mediums have been appropriate?
• Which skills, techniques, methods and processes were used (i.e. traditional; conventional; industrial; contemporary; innovative)? It is important to note that the examiners do not want the regurgitation of long, technical processes, but rather to see personal observations about how processes effect and influence the artwork in question. Would replicating part of the artwork help you gain a better understanding of the processes used?
• Painting: gesso ground > textured mediums > underdrawing > blocking in colors > defining form > final details;
• Architecture: brief > concepts > development > working drawings > foundations > structure > cladding > finishes;
• Graphic design: brief > concepts > development > Photoshop > proofing > printing.
• How does the use of media help the artist to communicate ideas?
• Are these methods useful for your own project?

Finally, remember that these questions are a guide only and are intended to make you start to think critically about the art you are studying and creating.

Further Reading

If you enjoyed this article you may also like our article about high school sketchbooks (which includes a section about sketchbook annotation). If you are looking for more assistance with how to write an art analysis essay you may like our series about writing an artist study .

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[1] A guide for Analyzing Works of Art; Sculpture and Painting, Durantas

[2] A Short Guide to Writing About Art , Sylvan Barnet (2014) (Amazon affiliate link)

[3] Analysing Paintings , Matthew Treherne, University of Leeds

[4] Writing in Art and Art History , The University of Vermont

[5] Art History: A Preliminary Handbook , Dr. Robert J. Belton, The University of British Columbia (1996)

[6] Criticizing Art: Understanding the Contemporary , Terry Barrett (2011) (Amazon affiliate link)

[7] How to Look at Art , Susie Hodge (2015) (Amazon affiliate link)

[8] How to Look at a Painting , Françoise Barbe-Gall (2011) (Amazon affiliate link)

[9] Imaginative Realism: How to Paint What Doesn’t Exist James Gurney (2009) (Amazon affiliate link)

[10] Art History , The Writing Centre, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

[11] Universal Principles of Art: 100 Key Concepts for Understanding, Analyzing and Practicing Art , John A. Parks (2014) (Amazon affiliate link)

[12] Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment using CGI Digital Twins , Dr. Ben Guy, Urban CGI (2023)

Amiria has been an Art & Design teacher and a Curriculum Co-ordinator for seven years, responsible for the course design and assessment of student work in two high-achieving Auckland schools. She has a Bachelor of Architectural Studies, Bachelor of Architecture (First Class Honours) and a Graduate Diploma of Teaching. Amiria is a CIE Accredited Art & Design Coursework Assessor.

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Study Today

Largest Compilation of Structured Essays and Exams

My Hobby Drawing – Essay on My Hobby Drawing in English for Students

May 23, 2020 by Leya Leave a Comment

Table of Contents

My Hobby Drawing – Essay 1

When I was 5 years old, I loved to play with colors. I always used to use my elder sister’s pencil colors. Since then, my love for drawing and painting has increased. Everyone has some kind of habit and hobbies, and in my opinion, everyone should have hobbies. There are lots of benefits of hobbies. It gives freedom to express. It gives wings to the creator. It can be a stress bursting.

Essay on my Hobby : My favourite hobby drawing

As I mentioned above, my hobby of drawing started when I was 5. At first, I was just using colors to paint. I used just to draw some random pictures. I used to draw something every day. That is how I developed my drawing skills. I used to take part in various competitions. I was very interested in taking part in multiple events. I won lots of medals, trophies, and certificates by taking participate in these kinds of competitions and events. Apart from that, when I improved my skill, I started painting for others. I used to draw for my friends, cousins, and family members. I used to participate in school events. I was popular among my friends in my school days. Everyone wanted to make drawing for them. It gave me more motivation to do something new and to upgrade my skill.

Why do I love drawing?

I love drawing because it gave me respect. It made me popular among my friends. One of the major reasons why I love drawing because it gives me wings to fly. I can draw anything which is in my mind. I can express my thoughts through drawing. I draw various things. I draw for a social cause. I draw about the current situation. I love drawing because I can speak through my drawing and painting without uttering a word. I love drawing because this hobby is my favorite timepass. I draw in every mood. It helps me put my emotions on the canvas. Whenever I feel low or sad, I just put my sketchbook out from the cupboard and start drawing anything, whatever in my mind. People call it freestyle painting, it means without any purpose. After that, I feel very satisfied.

Benefits of Drawing

There is no particular benefit of drawing. But if we talk, there are many. There are several benefits of drawing, which I will be mentioning below.

It develops fine motor skills. Any specialized movement of hand, wrist, and fingers are included in fine motor skills. As an adult, you rely more on these fine motor skills whenever you type, write, drive, or even when you text on mobile. Holding and manipulating writing implements represent one of the best ways to improve fine motor skills. The drawing creates immediate visual feedback. That depends on what kind of writing instrument the child is holding.

It encourages visual analysis. Children don’t understand the concepts that you take for granted. Such as distance, size, color, or textural differences. Drawing offers the perfect opportunity for your child to learn these concepts. It helps children to get knowledge about fundamental visuals. To support this fundamental visual, give small projects to your children on an everyday basis. Which will help them get the difference between near and far, fat and thin, big and small, etc.?

It helps establish concentration. Most children enjoy drawing. this activity provides time to establish concentration. It helps children to concentrate. It helps children to practice drawing and eventually, it helps children to concentrate. It helps children observe small details.

It helps improves hand-eye concentration. In addition to improving fine motor skills, drawing enables your child to understand the connection between what they see and what they do. This hand-eye coordination is important in athletic and academic scenarios such as penmanship lessons, as well as in recreational situations. For a hand-eye coordination boost, have your child draw an object while looking at it or copy a drawing that you made.

It increases individual confidence. As a parent or guardian, you probably love to hear what your child has made new today. He or she gains confidence. When your child has an opportunity to create physical representations of his or her imagination, thoughts, and experiences. Drawing can help your child feel more intrinsic motivation and validity. This will make him or her more confident in other areas that may not come as naturally as drawing.

It teaches creative problem-solving. Drawing encourages your child to solve problems creatively, Along with visual analysis and concentration. When they draw, your child must determine the best way to connect body parts, portray emotions, and depict specific textures. Always Provide specific drawing tasks, such as creating a family portrait, and talk about your child’s color, method, or special choices that can help him or her develop stronger problem-solving skills over time.

Drawing events

As I mentioned, I loved taking part in the competition. When competing in the event, I used to meet many more talented people. It motivated me.  I have lots of painter friends now. Whenever I get stuck in the painting, they help me. When I used to participate, I won lots of medals and trophies. It motivated me a lot, too. Several drawing and painting events are happening every day across the world. I used to take part in most of the interschool and state-level competition. I used to take part in online events, too. It helped me know what kind of talents are there in the world.

My future in drawing

I will try to continue my drawing skills in the future also. I am learning more skills related to painting. I am currently focusing on graphic designing and doodling. The world is moving towards digitalization. That is the reason I am trying my hands there too. There is many things to learn from now. I am looking forward to doing that. Moreover, I am very excited.

In the end, I want to add that everyone should have one hobby. It helps a lot in daily life. It helps to build your social image.

My Hobby Drawing – Essay 2

Drawing is something I enjoy doing in my free time and it is my favourite hobby. Although I love to dance and sing, drawing has a special place in my heart.

When I was in kindergarten, my teacher drew a rose on the blackboard using a few simple shapes. I was surprised that it is so easy to create a rose on paper. I tried drawing it in my book and was really very happy when the little triangles I drew started resembling the flower. That was when I started enjoying drawing.

I understood that all complex images can be drawn by breaking them down into simple shapes. I used to follow instructions from children’s magazines on how you can improve your drawing. Recently, my sister has introduced me to YouTube drawing tutorials. Through these videos, I have learnt to draw beautiful Disney princesses and different types of fruits.

Colour Pencils, Crayons, and Oil Pastels

I was taught to use crayons and pencil colours during art classes in school. Later, I started using oil pastels, as these colours are much brighter than the others. Oil pastels add a special colour pop to the painting and these are easy to use, like crayons. There are several artists in the world who specialise in painting with oil pastels. These works of art also look like oil paintings.

The Motivation to Draw

I feel very happy when I complete a painting and my friends admire my work. My teacher has told me that I am very good at colouring. She has also encouraged me to participate in several drawing competitions as a representative of the school. So I take great pleasure in saying that my hobby is drawing.

One of my biggest sources of inspiration is my mother, who draws like a professional artist! She uses watercolours in most of her paintings. I have recently started using watercolours and I feel it is a lot of fun working with this medium.

The beauty of the colours blending into each other cannot be easily expressed in words. I have used watercolours to paint sunsets and to make abstract paintings. I prefer to use the colours in the tube, rather than the watercolour cakes.

Drawing Events

There are several drawing events that people follow these days. Inktober is an annual event where an artist creates one ink drawing each day for the whole month of October. The drawings will be based on prompts that are decided before the event. Artists display their work on social media and other forums for comments and criticisms.

I am looking forward to participating in Inktober this year. It will be fun to see the different drawings that people come up with for the same prompt.

My Future in Drawing

I intend to continue learning new drawing techniques like mandala art, doodling, and oil painting. There is so much to learn out there, and I am excited to try them all! My mother has promised me that she would enrol me into some painting classes where I can improve my skills in my hobby, drawing. I understand that practise is crucial here, and I should try to draw at least one illustration per day to improve my work.

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Student Essays

Essay on Drawing | Why I Love Drawing Essay For Students

Drawing is the process of using a pencil, pen or other drawing instrument to make marks on paper. It’s an art form that has been around for centuries and has always held great importance in society. The word “draw” comes from the Old English verb “dragan,” which means “to carry.” Its Latin root, “trahere,” means “to pull” or “to draw.” Drawing is about translating an idea into a visual format, often with time taken to explore different ways of making marks on paper until one feels right.

Read the following short & long essay on drawing that discusses brief history, meaning, importance and benefits of drawing. This essay is quite helpful for children & students for school exam, assignments, competitions etc.

Essay on Drawing | Short & Long Essay For Children & Students

Drawings are made with different kinds of tools and techniques, such as the ballpoint pen or pencil. There are a lot drawing instruments in the world which can help people draw what they want.

>>>> Related Post:     Essay on Art For Children & Students

Brief history of Drawing

Drawing is the technique of applying mark-making material to a surface. It’s one of those skills that we take for granted in this digital age, and yet it’s a skill that has been practiced in one form or another by every culture throughout history, whether on cave walls, parchments, animal skin or paper.

The history of drawing is the visceral history of human culture; it’s the way we’ve defined ourselves as people, telling stories, recording our surroundings and communicating our ideas.

Drawing is Easy

To draw is to put down lines, textures or colors that describe figures, forms and shapes. The act of drawing can be practiced by anyone; it does not require specialized tools beyond a piece of paper and writing utensils (e.g., pencils). Some people practice drawing as an art form (i.e., visual arts), or in a general manner as required by functional needs (e.g., quick sketches, architectural drawings).

My Hobby Drawing

People who love to do a drawing as their hobby, they will choose some kind of art that the most fit with their favorite style. For example: people who love to do a sketching will buy some good quality pencils and paper together with a nice sketchbook so that they can draw anytime and anywhere they want. However, many of them will choose to go to a bigger space where there is a good lighting and a big table so that they can easily sketch on their project.

People who love to do some painting will have some brushes, oil paint and canvas ready at home. When they feel boring or when they want to express something, they will bring all the art materials out and start their project.

Drawing vs Art

Drawing is a form of art where you use a pencil or a marker to create an image on paper. This can include sketching, doodles, cartoons, portraits or more complicated images that are finely detailed. If the image is on paper and you used some type of writing utensil to create it, then it’s a drawing!

Why people enjoy drawing?

Drawing is a great way to relax and de-stress. Also, drawings look beautiful on your bedroom or living room walls. No matter the age, there is always something new to learn about drawing. It could be learning to draw realistic eyes or learning different shading techniques. It is a great exercise for keeping the brain agile. As you continue to draw, especially if you are drawing objects that are unfamiliar to you, you are engaging the part of your brain that is responsible for problem solving

Drawing for children

Drawing drawing is not only child’s play, but also an important tool for his intellectual and creative development, as well as a means of expression.. Most parents believe that drawing is an act of scribbling, so they do not pay attention to this, that is a big mistake! Drawing – it’s not just scribbling. This is something more than that. To draw means to show imagination, fantasy and memories. Drawing is a means of expression for children (and adults). And it is the best way to develop fine motor skills, this is very important. When you draw, you move your hands and fingers, make shapes with your hands. This is the best way to work out.

>>>>> Also Read:    Essay on An Ideal Teacher For Students   

Today we have entered into the computer age. The field of drawing has also been profoundly impacted by drawing. There are a lot of drawing software in the world – but few people can draw artwork by using them. Some of them say “Drawing is simple” but if you are not professional, it is difficult to become familiar with the software. The fact that drawing by using these software has many rules which you need to know.

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Essay Samples on Art

While it may seem easy to compose essays about art, it’s not really so because you have to offer background information in your introduction part and explain why some exhibition or a school of thought is important. This should go to your first paragraph because your purpose is to inspire your readers and provide enough background information. When you already have a prompt that must be followed, determine what kind of essay must be written. It can be a descriptive essay, which is great for a description of the works of art or photography. Some other cases may require working with an explanatory tone where you have to explain why an artist has chosen certain palettes or what has been an inspiration. See various free art essay examples below for inspiration. It also helps to learn how to structure your writing and implement quotes or footnotes that are used to highlight the images. Remember to focus on the ways how to cite images and multimedia elements, depending on the chosen style. Your writing should address every image that you have by checking twice with the grading rubric to ensure that you use the sources that may have already been specified.

What Does Creativity Mean to You

Creativity, an intricate tapestry of imagination and innovation, holds a unique significance for each individual. It is a concept that transcends the boundaries of convention, sparking curiosity and igniting the flames of inspiration. In this essay, we embark on a journey to unearth the meaning...

Censorship of Art and Artists: The Complex Discourse

The intersection of creativity and expression often finds itself entangled in a contentious debate: the censorship of art and artists. This complex issue has sparked discussions across societies and cultures, raising questions about freedom of speech, cultural preservation, and the power dynamics between creators and...

Why I Want to Study Architecture: the Power of Design

The world around us is a tapestry of structures, spaces, and designs that shape our lives and experiences. From towering skyscrapers to quaint houses, every architectural marvel carries a story and a vision. The allure of architecture, with its blend of artistic expression, technical precision,...

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The Impact of Technology on Art: A Modern Renaissance

Introduction The influence of technology on art is an evolving narrative that reflects the symbiotic relationship between human creativity and innovative tools. From the early use of simple tools to create cave paintings to the digital art technologies of today, the integration of technology in...

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Exploring Feminist Literary Criticism: Unveiling Mona Lisa Smile

Introduction Self-assessment and criticism help us improve our skills and the ways in which we communicate our ideas and perspectives with others. In this feminist literary criticism essay, I will be critiquing and analysis of the movie Mona Lisa Smile. Firstly, I will explain why...

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Frida Kahlo: Exploring Her Biography Through the Film 'Frida'

In the 2002 film “Frida” directed by Julie Taymor, illustrates the life of Frida Kahlo based on the book Frida: A Biography of Frida Kahlo by Hayden Herrera. Who is Frida Kahlo? Her biography in this essay is explored with the help of the film...

• Film Analysis
• Frida Kahlo

Debate Surrounding Graphic Novel and Relation to Literature

Introduction In the past years, the noise about graphic novels has been constantly increasing. A graphic novel is basically a novel in comic-strip format, a book made up of comics’ content. However, they are not the same as comics. Unlike comic books, graphic novels are...

• Graphic Novel
• Visual Arts

Depicting Trauma: Symbolism in Graphic Novels

Introduction I must confess that I never read a graphic novel prior to this course. I think I’ve developed and expressed my opinion of graphic novels frequently over the course of the semester, and I think I would be remiss if I did not close...

Understanding Graphic Novels: Context and Analysis for Reading

Introduction Graphic novels are stories illustrated in comic form but have the length of a novel. “The term graphic novel was invented in 1970 however, the time of its origin is not concluded yet” (“Levitz”). Graphic novels have been debated for decades since some readers...

Jhene Aiko: Exploring the Artistry and Emotions in her Music

The artist I have chosen to write about is Jhene Aiko who is categorized in the R&B and Hip-Hop genre. Jhene Aiko is a popular singer who writes her music under the influence of cannibis, under the influence of therapeutic instruments and while having a...

• Famous Person
• Music Industry

The Joy of Painting: Exploring the Life and Legacy of Bob Ross

Who is Bob Ross, or rather, who was he? During the 80s and 90s, he was an artist who specialized in painting, hosting an instructional painting show on PBS called The Joy of Painting. Though Bob Ross has long since passed on, one will find...

The Uniqueness of Australian Artwork: Exploring Artists' Perceptions

Australian artists provide a unique way of displaying the Australian landscape. John Olsen is one of these artists, who uses symbolism to create a sense of movement. This is conveyed through his spontaneous linear line work as seen in Onkaparinga Hill, blue wren and fox...

Artistic World of Peter Doig: an Insight Into His Life and Work

Peter Doig is a contemporary Scottish artist I found that peaked my interest from his art work to his personal life. I’d like to start off by giving a brief background of the artist seeing that a lot of his work is landscapes from where...

• Contemporary Art

Being an Artist: My Passion, Place of Freedom and Courage

I remember constantly wondering if there was a way that I could make my life meaningful or if it even had meaning. I was just a thirteen year old starting to figure out her own self. My life revolved around wanting to please the people...

• About Myself

Sculpture From Dura Europas: the Head of a Bearded God

One of the artworks in the Yale art gallery is the Head of a Bearded God. This sculpture of bearded man that looks old and wise. This piece has curly hair, bushy eyebrows, and very wide/big eyes. The piece is is classified as a sculpture,...

Kashimiri Papier Mache Art: a Unique Dying Art Form

Kashmir has been wrought in conflict and upheaval for decades now, but its wonderful valleys give us a unique gift of native craftsmanship – Papier Mache art. Kashmir’s rich cultural past is often overlooked due to its troublesome political past. Its handicrafts and shawls (from...

The Art of the Meddah: Exploring Turkish Forms of Storytelling

Culture is the conglomeration of the beliefs and art forms of societiesm across places, along a long-time frame. And quite evidently, the Republic of Turkey has an extremely long history and a resultantly rich diversity in its culture. Throughout its history, the Turkish land was...

The Way Technologies Transform Already Existing Art Forms

Compelling games are not the consequences of accidents, any more than are riveting novels, movies, or music. Creators for all these medias draw on well-established set of strategies and techniques to create a particular emotional experience. Musicians, for example, may create tension through reiteration and...

How Shemistry Influenced the History and Presentation of Art

Chemistry is everywhere in our life. Of course, chemistry is also closely related to art. There are many forms of art, such as oil painting, gouache, watercolor and so on. These painting forms are inseparable from products such as pigments and watercolors, which are based...

Critical Understanding of the Sculptural Art of Alexander Calder

Calder was an American sculptor from Pennsylvania. His father, Alexander Stirling Calder was a sculptor and his mother a painter. Him and his family were constantly on the move around the country throughout Calder’s childhood due to his dads work. And through this Calder was...

Discussion on the Relationship Between Intelligence and Creativity

The relationship between intelligence and creativity has been subjected to research for many years. Unfortunately, there is yet no consensus on how these constructs are related. The connection between intelligence and creativity is that they are functions of the brain that handle data to determine...

• Intelligence

Do Schools Kill Creativity: the Issues of Music Education

In the TEDx video entitled, 'Do schools kill creativity?' Sir Ken Robinson discusses what he believes to be the main problem with our education system, providing a series of funny anecdotes and facts appropriate for his argument. After watching this video about 'Do schools kill...

Creative and Critical Thinking: Combining the Achievements of Thought

Creative, one word that can be interpreted in many ways whether in thoughts which is include ways of thinking and actions and also in verbal form. Critical, on the other side refers to the ability to analyse information objectively and make a reasoned judgment. It...

• Critical Thinking

Culture, Art and Creativity: the Way They Are Related

Art is a reflection of your thinking, your ideas, and your surroundings, the artist adopts his or her surroundings and then by using their imagination, outside thinking and their perspective they present a new face of it in front of the world. Art and creativity...

• Cultural Anthropology

Accessing the World of Theatre: Musicals and Music Theatre

Goodwin (2019) states music theatre is a type of stage performance using music from various forms such as ballets, operas, cabarets, and contemporary music. Musical theatre uses different techniques (e.g. music, dance, songs, acting as well as spoken dialogue) to tell a story to the...

Drawing for Architecture: A Key to Understanding Complex Designs

Architecture the word from Latin is called “architectura” originally from the Greek “arkhitekton”. Architectural drawing has never been taken for granted. All things we design and sketch are from our thinking to our hands. Therefore, drawings are the main development to architectural projects. When designing,...

Architecture: Bridging Vision into Reality

Architecture can be defined in various ways, but if I were to define it, I would simply use these following words, ‘Architecture is an abstract language that bridges a vision into reality.’ I think everyone would agree that architecture is best paired with great effort...

• Interior Design

The Development of Nationalism & Regionalism in Australian Architecture

Introduction From the 1880s, “nationalism” and “regionalism” had been started to be two of the keywords on the Australian development of architecture. These two words point toward the nation’s sake of rejecting foreign architectural approaches and seeking of the local architectural characteristics in Australia. During...

• Modern Architecture

Architecture: A Means to Improve People's Quality of Life

Introduction  “Architecture is about finding imaginative, creative solutions to improving people’s quality of life.” - Alejandro Aravena Architecture was born approach back in the prehistoric age, once the first man determined to come back up with shelters made up of twigs and bones. architecture isn't...

• Quality of Life

Architecture and its Role in Nation Building: A Critical Review

Brief introduction on architecture and how its spaces are perceived The universal definition of architecture as a synthesis of ‘art’ and ‘science’ is inadequate in the present democratic, globalized, and information world of the 21st century. Many modern good-looking buildings with sound structures have been...

Romanticism Paintings Analysis: The Raft of Medusa and Liberty Leading the People

I will be focusing on romanticism that is based on emotions and sublimity. I will be displaying the features of romantic art by analysing two paintings from the 19th century. These are The Raft of Medusa by Theodore Gericault (1819; Louvre Museum, Paris), oil on...

• Romanticism

The Ideas Behind The Persistence of Memory and Pillars of Society

George Grosz, Pillars of Society (1926) George Grosz was born in Berlin on July 26, 1893, he studied at Dresden Art Academy and began his career as a cartoonist. He later joined a Dada movement in 1917. And he was a famous figure in Neue...

• Salvador Dali

The Persistence of Memory, Starry Night and Analysis of Other Paintings

Dreams are something that everyone is or was able to have at one point in their life. Dreams are defined as, 'a series of thoughts, images, and sensations occurring in a person's mind during sleep.' Many artists create their artworks from their dreams or other...

• Vincent Van Gogh

The System Of Education: If I Could Change The World

If I could change the world, I would completely change the system of education. It hasn't changed for hundreds of years, and the current system was designed in the Industrial Age. This means, that children in school have to obey every order and do only...

• Importance of Education

Expressive Art: Is Graffiti Art Or Vandalism

 Throughout time graffiti has received both overwhelming support and intense backlash. Some view it as a form of expressive art while others consider it a complete destruction of property. However, despite the amount of differentiation, charisma and personality graffiti can bring into cities, it is...

Why Is Art Important For Human

Art is not a necessary part of survival. So why does it matter? Oftentimes art is overlooked and viewed as an unimportant skill or ability to have. However, art has many qualities that one can benefit from. It is a stress reliever that allows people...

The Doll`s House" By H. Ibsen: Nora Helmer Character Analysis

Nora Helmer is a good wife and mother. She does all she can for her family, especially her husband. Considering all the things she does, and the lengths she went to to make sure her husband could regain his health, it was not enough in...

• A Doll's House

Why Is Graffiti Are Not Vandalism

Why is graffiti art not vandalism? According to the Mural Arts Philadelphia website, the village’s first legitimate effort to eradicate graffiti started with the form of the Anti-Graffiti Network in the 1980s. Some people assay that its vandalism, and some assay that its artifice. Park...

My Take On Comedy: From Tartuffe To Sylvia And Cards Against Humanity

Defining comedy is extremely difficult. When something happens that makes you laugh, whether that is in a play or in real life, it’s difficult to pin down why you laughed, to begin with. I find myself defining comedy as a series of events that went...

Attitudes Towards Consumerism in Contemporary Art

In this essay I will be using information gathered from my own personal research, studio research and relevant topics discussed throughout the lectures. Whilst also, considering social, economic, and cultural factors. I will be discussing and analyzing attitudes towards consumerism in Contemporary Art. Built from...

• Consumerism

One of the Most Common Forms of Theatre

Throughout this essay the focus of various practitioners will be explored thoroughly from the paths of life they took and how they became so successful, to the impact that their work had on other practitioners and in general the industry itself. The industry of theatre...

The Practice of Art Forgery and Monet's Aesthetic Flaws

A forgery is a work that is not genuine to its proclaimed origins, however, is presented as a genuine article, and is so acting with the intention to deceive. The practice of art forgery is as well established and mature as the practice of creating...

• Claude Monet

Visual Verbal Essay on Wilfred Owen and Franz Marc

This essay explores two artists, Franz Marc, Brett Whitely and two of their artworks depicting animal scenes. Franz Marc’s ‘Tiger’, ‘Blue Horse 1’ and Brett Whitley’s Giraffe and Hyena. These four artworks will be compared and contrasted using the structural and the subjective frame. In...

• Wilfred Owen

The Role of Creative Industries in the United Kingdom

In this essay I will go over and talk about the creative industries and the role they play in the United Kingdom, I will look at the history and the development of the Creative Industries and their sectors. I will then look at the wider...

• Great Britain

African Art: West African Sculpting 

West African sculpting greatly influenced us today because lots o people still do it like when Pablo Picasso recreated the style of west African art he created it like they would some real some supernatural and exaggerated on some body parts after Pablo Picasso shared...

• African Art

Caravaggio's Sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham Due to Divine Intervention

First of all, there are several juxtapositions present throughout the painting. For example, there is a dichotomous relationship between the cold sensuality in the foreground and the pastoral beauty in the background. Secondly, Caravaggio manages to convey the sensational struggle present between the unconditional loyalty...

Greetings From the 1970s Contemporary Photography

The term contemporary refers to things happening in the same period of or in the style of the present or recent times so when referring to contemporary photography that is only basic modern 21st-century pictures or videos.. Over the past years, something called 'the medium'...

• Photography

Claude Monet and Modern Art Today

“Claude Monet” was a famous French painter who used to catch his everyday life's best minutes on canvas. “Claude Monet” was born on 14 November 1840 and His father was a businessman and his mother was a singer. He is one of the most praised...

The World’s Wife Borrowed From Other Texts

It is often that literature, whether being a poem or a book, often provides a voice for those who lack one. The work by Carol Ann Duffy is an accumulation of poems titled 'The World's Wife', first published in 1999 and the present works through...

• Drama (Play Genre)

Typography: From Billboards to Street Signs

Typography is everywhere we look, in the books we read on the websites we visit even in everyday life, from billboards to street signs, product packaging and even on your mobile phone. It is the art and technique of designing and arranging type. Today the...

• Advertising

Rebellious Aspect to Monet’s Personality

Claude Monet is an artist who continues to be adored and held in high esteem even to this day. There may be many who perhaps are not familiar with the name, yet still at least recognise one piece of his work. His paintings are a...

Edgar Degas and His Way of Critics

Mary Cassatt was born in 1844. She was born in what is now known as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and died on June 14, 1926 at her French home right outside of Paris. Mary was raised in Philadelphia where she spent her childhood with a social privilege...

• Edgar Degas
• Impressionism

The Principles of Art: Movement, Unity, Harmony, Variety

If you were to ask someone “what is art essay”, the majority of people in the world would think of art and immediately their mind would shoot to a painting. The truth is, art is so much more than just a painting. There are thousands...

• Art Movement

Fairy Tale Black Swan Is a Story of a Ballerina

“Black Swan” is not the fairy tale of “swan lake” but a story of a ballerina, Nina. The story begins with the change of the company, the old lead dancer Beth is about to leave. The stage needs a new lead dancer who can act...

The Book Caesar's Commentarii de Bello Calico

One may call war a side effect of human civilization. Nevertheless, it is in a war that people show their best virtues: courage, loyalty, strength, perseverance, and honesty. Nothing is surprising in the fact that texts on this subject have existed since the writing appeared....

Comparing Two Great Pieces by Pablo Picasso and by Francisco Goya

Today I will be comparing and contrasting two great pieces called “GUERNICA” by Pablo Picasso and “THE THIRD OF MAY” by Francisco Goya.The “GUERNICA” by Pablo Picasso was hard to understand at first but the longer you look at it you understand it is a...

• Pablo Picasso

Black Swan is About Destructive Nature of Ballet

Nina Portman is a ballerina in a New York City ballet company whose life, like all those in her profession, is completely consumed with dance. She lives with her obsessive former ballerina mother Erica who exerts a suffocating control over her life. When artistic director...

The Development of Islamic Art

Islamic art is created not only for the Muslim faith, but it consists of artworks such as textiles, architecture, paintings and drawings that were produced in the regions that were once ruled by Muslim empires. Artists from various disciplines take part in collaborative projects and...

• History of Islam
• Islamic Art

Role of Cultural and Religious Pluralism

Cultural pluralism is a term used when smaller groups within a larger society maintain their own unique cultural identities. Migration is a key process that makes significant contribution to the growth of urbanism. Often immigrants belonging to particular region, language, religion ,tribe etc tend to...

• Art and Religion
• Religious Pluralism

John Berger: Understanding His Artwork

John Berger is a remarkable man who enlighten us with his knowledge using one of his brilliant essays “Ways of Seeing.” Berger has concurred the ability to fully understand any artwork and to recognize what is visible before him. He clarifies that there is a...

• John Berger

America’s Contemporary Multimedia Artist Jeff Koons

Jeff Koons is one of America’s most popular contemporary multimedia artists, who believes that art can change lives, give vastness and expand your parameters. Koons was born in York, Pennsylvania in 1955. He studied at the Maryland Institute College of Art in Baltimore and the...

• American Culture

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling by Michelangelo

The Sistine Chapel Ceiling (Italian: Volta Della Cappella Sistina), painted by Michelangelo somewhere in the range of 1508 and 1512, is a foundation work of High Renaissance craftsmanship. The Creation of Adam' is one of the nine ceiling boards in the Sistine Chapel portraying scenes...

• Michelangelo

History of Medieval And Byzantine Art Movements

A painting wealthy in color typical for St.George on a rearing white horse, shown against a rocky landscape, slaying the winged monster as it appears before him. An angel crowns St.George with a martyr’s crown, symbolizing the triumph of good over evil. The tower on...

• Byzantine Empire

The Power Of Photography: Capturing Emotions With Camera

Photographs help people preserve memories with its technology, but what is actually happening is much more interesting when thought about in more depth. A moment in time is captured forever, so long as the photograph is kept in good shape. It is the closest people...

Jackson Pollock as an Influential America Artist

The painter Jackson Pollock was an influential America painter and a key person to the abstract expressionist movement. He was born in Cody , Wyoming in 1912 and he was the youngest of 5 brothers. He grew up in Arizona and Chico, California he moved...

• Jackson Pollock

The Girl Who Loved Caravaggio by Belle Ami

The Girl Who Loved Caravaggio by Belle Ami is a romantic suspense thriller and the second book in the Out of Time series. High on the success of finding a centuries-old Leonardo da Vinci painting, Angela Renatus, and her fiance Alex Caine are on a...

The Portrayal of the Culture of Death and Afterlife in Art

Throughout history, different cultures dealt with the concept of death and afterlife according to their beliefs, and developed different perspectives about what happens after the body dies. These ideas were often reflected in their art, literature, and their lifestyle as well. Most cultures produce art...

Art Nouveau and Modernist Movements in Art

Art Nouveau is originated in England. William Morris collaborated with other artists so Art Nouveau was created. It has a wide range of different decorative arts, like architectural, painting, graphic art, and jewelry. It was most popular during the 1890s. Its popularity came to a...

• Art Nouveau
• William Morris

The Famous Michelangelo Merisi Da Caravaggio

The famous Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio produced original paintings, criticizing those who imitated other artists creative styles. He even accused the great Giovanni Baglione and Guido Reni for imitating his uniquely developed techniques. Caravaggio was the building block for modern art and followed by many....

Art of Theatre and French Figure Joan of Arc

Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) is an irish playwright, critic, and political activist. His influence on Western theatre started from the 1880s till after his death. He won the Nobel Prize in literature in 1925 becoming the leading dramatist of his generation. Shaw's first play to bring...

• Joan of Arc

The Beauty and Skill of Ansel Adams’ Photography

Ansel Adams was born in San Francisco, California on February 20, 1902. As a child, Adams had many freedoms and lots of energy. He was an unattractive child, with big dark circles under his eyes, a crooked nose, and large ears. He was often teased...

• Ansel Adams

Holi Festival and Vibrant Celebration of Colors

Holi is a very vibrant celebration of colors. We have to wait for a whole year. So we can enjoy the festival of color. Although, Holi is fun and joyous. It's also immensely damaging to your skin. The colors are not extracted from flowers but...

• Holi Festival

The Struggle of the Graphic Designers and Social Media

Graphic designers relied heavily on word-of-mouth for their works to become popular and to be seen by the public, it was close to impossible to grow an organic dedicated fanbase to follow your work, nowadays with the rise of the internet and social media, you...

• Graphic Design

Some Interesting Facts About Salvador Dali

Salvador Dali was one of the most, if not the most celebrated artist of the 20th century. His art is iconic, his personality, eccentric, his fashion sense, interesting, his style, unique, his showmanship, unforgettable. All these combined to make him an interesting human and a...

Salvador Dali's Biography: Main Topics

 Salvador Dali was born on May 11, 1904 in Figueres, Catalonia, Spain. His father was an atheist lawyer who was very strict in Dali’s upbringing. Dali’s mother, on the other hand, was loving and encouraged him to be artistic. He has an older brother named...

Caravaggio’s Artwork Judith Beheading Holofernes

For this essay, you needed to decide on a painting, Sculpture and other selected types of art work by which ever artist that created them before the 1900’s.Select a topic out of the selection given to do research about the topic and art work to...

William Morris: Arts and Crafts Movement

William Morris was a famous artists who mainly focused on his wallpaper and fabric designs. While he was mainly known for his art, even today, he had many other notable careers and accomplishments, One of them being that he founded the Arts and crafts movement....

Breaking The Parametr In Red Wheelbarrow: Analysis

The most conspicuous element of modernist poetry is the invention and experimentation of new forms of representation. It featured movements such as imagism and symbolism and moved consciously away from naturalism and realism. Ezra Pound was one of the first to delve into this new...

The Importance Of Paying Attention To Detail In Architecture

The architectural detailing process of a project is a long process that includes a lot of steps and patterns to consider. The designing issue is not consecutive for making a theoretical plan for the entire structure, the detailing, and construction of a building. It is...

Depiction Of Revolution In Les Miserables And Musical Theatre

This essay will deliberate the framework of genre, and investigate Musical Theatre, a genre within performing arts. What is Genre? Genre has been around for centuries, it commenced with the Greek philosophers Aristotle and Plato, they created a classification system that would separate literature into...

• Les Miserables

The Concepts Of Love And Hate With Loyalty In "Romeo And Juliet"

Loyalty is a virtue that most people strive for as seen in the play, The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare, which is about two feuding families, the Montagues and the Capulets. Romeo, a Montague and Juliet, a Capulet fall in love. Throughout...

• Romeo and Juliet
• William Shakespeare

Romeo And Juliet: The Decision Between Choice And Fate

“God gave us free will, and we may choose to exercise it in ways that end up hurting other people”-Francis Collins. Romeo and Juliet is a tragic play written by Shakespeare, that follows the lives of two star-crossed lovers. The setting of Romeo and Juliet...

Societal Views On Graffiti: Street Art Or Vandalism

When you think of graffiti what’s the first thing that comes to mind? Vandalism or street art? Most would say vandalism, but what makes the distinction between the two? The intention of the piece. There’s a difference between defiling the back of a building and...

Portrayal Of Love And Hate In Shakespeare's Romeo And Juliet

Shakespeare’s exploration of themes through tragic conventions make the play, Romeo and Juliet, of enduring relevance to modern audiences. Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet (1595) captures audiences through the thrill of lovers from feuding families racing together to their tragic demises. This play explores themes understood...

Graffiti And Street Art As An Act Of Vandalism

It is difficult to apply a single definition to what is considered Art. Whether it can or should be defined has been constantly debated. “The definition of art is controversial in contemporary philosophy. Whether art can be defined has also been a matter of controversy....

Passionate Pursuit: Being Passionate About Art

Different pieces of artwork inspire people all around the world. Artists use a wide variety of techniques to make their work unique. While creating new pieces of art, it is common to look at other artists' work for inspiration. While evaluating their artwork you can...

Andy Warhol's Album Artwork: Don't Judge A Book By Its Cover

As the saying goes, don't judge a book by its cover, or in this case an album, but sometimes it cannot be helped. Custom packaging is an extremely important with any kind of product but despite this album cover art has not always been used...

• Andy Warhol

The Role Of Other Characters In Death Of Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is such a tragic love story. It is sad that their lives ended, but that doesn’t mean their love for eachother did; their love may still live on with them in the after life. There are many characters who had a role...

The Presentation Of Love In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by Shakespeare in the 1500’s. It tells us the tragedy of two young lovers named Romeo and Juliet who fall in love at first sight but can never be together due to their two families conflict which ends...

The Importance Of Different Types Of Love In Romeo And Juliet

Romeo and Juliet is a play written by William Shakespeare during the 16th century that mainly follows the themes of love and tragedy. The intense passion the two lovers from both households have for one another causes the deaths of their friends, family and themselves....

The Use Of Hyperbole And Symbolism In "The Doll's House"

A Doll's House delves into the lives of a young couple living in Victorian era Norway. The play follows Nora through her journey, from her previously unexamined life of domestic, wifely comfort, to questioning the very foundation of everything she used to believe in. Having...

Realism In A Doll's House Play

Realism as a literary movement emerged in the late nineteenth century and extended to the twentieth century, the most important factors that led to the emergence of the period of realism is the horrors that happened to people after the World War, which made the...

20th Century Art: Representational Abstract Art

One of the most influential and significant periods in the history of the arts is the 20th century. It was a period that consisted of many rapid and radical artistic changes that gave birth to endless ideas, possibilities, experiences, and visions. Not only were ideas,...

• Abstract Art

The Opposite Concepts Of Realism Versus Idealism

 Introduction When comparing realism and idealism, the concepts must be understood historically, theoretically and practically. In this essay, a number of steps will be taken to present a thorough overview of the two schools of thought. Firstly, the epistemological and metaphysical questions of philosophy will...

The Abstract Art And Pop Art Artists And Movements

Pop art emerged in the mid 1950s in Britain, then later in the 1950s in the United States of America. Pop art still influences designers and artists to this day, was against abstract expressionists, pop artists saw abstract artists as intense. The art was a...

Romanticism & Realism: Changing Landscapes 

In my essay I will be looking at the contrast between romanticism and photo-realism, how light controls the image and how photographers are able to control how the picture will look like, by the time of day, the angle and being able to change the...

• Romantic Era

The Abstract Art And Expressionism In World War 2

In World War 2, many countries were destroyed by Hitler and his army. There were allies which were the U.S., Britain, France, USSR, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, Greece, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Poland, South Africa, and Yugoslavia and the axis powers, which were...

Coriolanus: Plutarch's And William Shakespeare's Versions

Two of the greatest contributors to the “Struggle of the Orders” between Plebeians and Patricians were the Patricians’ fears of Plebeian power overshadowing their influence on Roman politics, as well as the issues of grain pricing and distribution. Plutarch’s “Coriolanus” within his Parallel Lives work...

The Definition Of Fate And Free Will In Macbeth

Throughout time, it has been believed that fate has the power to forge one’s destiny. On the other hand though, I believe these choices can defy fate and that fate only manipulates one's mind into choosing their own path. In the play Macbeth, Shakespeare messes...

Reality Of Romanticism And Realism Under The Umbrella Of Gothic Genre

Two of the most common genres of writing that is found in literature belongs to either the Romanticism movement or the Realist/Naturalism movement. While these two movements might seem like they are related to each other, they are very opposite from one another in the...

Best topics on Art

1. What Does Creativity Mean to You

2. Censorship of Art and Artists: The Complex Discourse

3. Why I Want to Study Architecture: the Power of Design

4. The Impact of Technology on Art: A Modern Renaissance

5. Exploring Feminist Literary Criticism: Unveiling Mona Lisa Smile

6. Frida Kahlo: Exploring Her Biography Through the Film ‘Frida’

7. Debate Surrounding Graphic Novel and Relation to Literature

8. Depicting Trauma: Symbolism in Graphic Novels

9. Understanding Graphic Novels: Context and Analysis for Reading

10. Jhene Aiko: Exploring the Artistry and Emotions in her Music

11. The Joy of Painting: Exploring the Life and Legacy of Bob Ross

12. The Uniqueness of Australian Artwork: Exploring Artists’ Perceptions

13. Artistic World of Peter Doig: an Insight Into His Life and Work

14. Being an Artist: My Passion, Place of Freedom and Courage

15. Sculpture From Dura Europas: the Head of a Bearded God

• Jean-Michel Basquiat

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Art History Analysis – Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis

Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis.

A formal analysis is just what it sounds like – you need to analyze the form of the artwork. This includes the individual design elements – composition, color, line, texture, scale, contrast, etc. Questions to consider in a formal analysis is how do all these elements come together to create this work of art? Think of formal analysis in relation to literature – authors give descriptions of characters or places through the written word. How does an artist convey this same information?

Organize your information and focus on each feature before moving onto the text – it is not ideal to discuss color and jump from line to then in the conclusion discuss color again. First summarize the overall appearance of the work of art – is this a painting? Does the artist use only dark colors? Why heavy brushstrokes? etc and then discuss details of the object – this specific animal is gray, the sky is missing a moon, etc. Again, it is best to be organized and focused in your writing – if you discuss the animals and then the individuals and go back to the animals you run the risk of making your writing unorganized and hard to read. It is also ideal to discuss the focal of the piece – what is in the center? What stands out the most in the piece or takes up most of the composition?

A stylistic approach can be described as an indicator of unique characteristics that analyzes and uses the formal elements (2-D: Line, color, value, shape and 3-D all of those and mass).The point of style is to see all the commonalities in a person’s works, such as the use of paint and brush strokes in Van Gogh’s work. Style can distinguish an artist’s work from others and within their own timeline, geographical regions, etc.

Methods & Theories To Consider:

Expressionism

Instructuralism

Postmodernism

Social Art History

Biographical Approach

Poststructuralism

Museum Studies

Visual Cultural Studies

Stylistic Analysis Example:

The following is a brief stylistic analysis of two Greek statues, an example of how style has changed because of the “essence of the age.” Over the years, sculptures of women started off as being plain and fully clothed with no distinct features, to the beautiful Venus/Aphrodite figures most people recognize today. In the mid-seventh century to the early fifth, life-sized standing marble statues of young women, often elaborately dress in gaily painted garments were created known as korai. The earliest korai is a Naxian women to Artemis. The statue wears a tight-fitted, belted peplos, giving the body a very plain look. The earliest korai wore the simpler Dorian peplos, which was a heavy woolen garment. From about 530, most wear a thinner, more elaborate, and brightly painted Ionic linen and himation. A largely contrasting Greek statue to the korai is the Venus de Milo. The Venus from head to toe is six feet seven inches tall. Her hips suggest that she has had several children. Though her body shows to be heavy, she still seems to almost be weightless. Viewing the Venus de Milo, she changes from side to side. From her right side she seems almost like a pillar and her leg bears most of the weight. She seems be firmly planted into the earth, and since she is looking at the left, her big features such as her waist define her. The Venus de Milo had a band around her right bicep. She had earrings that were brutally stolen, ripping her ears away. Venus was noted for loving necklaces, so it is very possibly she would have had one. It is also possible she had a tiara and bracelets. Venus was normally defined as “golden,” so her hair would have been painted. Two statues in the same region, have throughout history, changed in their style.

Compare and Contrast Essay

Most introductory art history classes will ask students to write a compare and contrast essay about two pieces – examples include comparing and contrasting a medieval to a renaissance painting. It is always best to start with smaller comparisons between the two works of art such as the medium of the piece. Then the comparison can include attention to detail so use of color, subject matter, or iconography. Do the same for contrasting the two pieces – start small. After the foundation is set move on to the analysis and what these comparisons or contrasting material mean – ‘what is the bigger picture here?’ Consider why one artist would wish to show the same subject matter in a different way, how, when, etc are all questions to ask in the compare and contrast essay. If during an exam it would be best to quickly outline the points to make before tackling writing the essay.

Compare and Contrast Example:

Stele of Hammurabi from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), ca. 1792 – 1750 BCE, Basalt, height of stele approx. 7’ height of relief 28’

Stele, relief sculpture, Art as propaganda – Hammurabi shows that his law code is approved by the gods, depiction of land in background, Hammurabi on the same place of importance as the god, etc.

Top of this stele shows the relief image of Hammurabi receiving the law code from Shamash, god of justice, Code of Babylonian social law, only two figures shown, different area and time period, etc.

Stele of Naram-sin , Sippar Found at Susa c. 2220 - 2184 bce. Limestone, height 6'6"

Stele, relief sculpture, Example of propaganda because the ruler (like the Stele of Hammurabi) shows his power through divine authority, Naramsin is the main character due to his large size, depiction of land in background, etc.

Akkadian art, made of limestone, the stele commemorates a victory of Naramsin, multiple figures are shown specifically soldiers, different area and time period, etc.

Iconography

Regardless of what essay approach you take in class it is absolutely necessary to understand how to analyze the iconography of a work of art and to incorporate into your paper. Iconography is defined as subject matter, what the image means. For example, why do things such as a small dog in a painting in early Northern Renaissance paintings represent sexuality? Additionally, how can an individual perhaps identify these motifs that keep coming up?

The following is a list of symbols and their meaning in Marriage a la Mode by William Hogarth (1743) that is a series of six paintings that show the story of marriage in Hogarth’s eyes.

• Man has pockets turned out symbolizing he has lost money and was recently in a fight by the state of his clothes.
• Lap dog shows loyalty but sniffs at woman’s hat in the husband’s pocket showing sexual exploits.
• Black dot on husband’s neck believed to be symbol of syphilis.
• Mantel full of ugly Chinese porcelain statues symbolizing that the couple has no class.
• Butler had to go pay bills, you can tell this by the distasteful look on his face and that his pockets are stuffed with bills and papers.
• Card game just finished up, women has directions to game under foot, shows her easily cheating nature.
• Paintings of saints line a wall of the background room, isolated from the living, shows the couple’s complete disregard to faith and religion.
• The dangers of sexual excess are underscored in the Hograth by placing Cupid among ruins, foreshadowing the inevitable ruin of the marriage.
• Eventually the series (other five paintings) shows that the woman has an affair, the men duel and die, the woman hangs herself and the father takes her ring off her finger symbolizing the one thing he could salvage from the marriage.

Art Essay Examples

Art Essay Examples to Get You Inspired - Top 10 Samples

Published on: May 4, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 30, 2024

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Are you struggling to come up with ideas for your art essay? Or are you looking for examples to help guide you in the right direction? 

Look no further, as we have got you covered!

In this blog, we provide a range of art writing examples that cover different art forms, time periods, and themes. Whether you're interested in the classics or contemporary art, we have something for everyone. These examples offer insight into how to structure your essay, analyze art pieces, and write compelling arguments.

So, let's explore our collection of art essay examples and take the first step toward becoming a better art writer!

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Good Art Essay Examples

In the following section, we will examine a selection of art essay examples that are inspiring for various academic levels.

College Art Essay Examples

Let’s take a look at college art essay examples below:  

The Intersection of Art and Politics: An Analysis of Picasso's Guernica

The Role of Nature in American Art: A Comparative Study

University Art Essay Examples

University-level art essay assignments often differ in length and complexity. Here are two examples:

Gender and Identity in Contemporary Art: A Comparative Study

Art and Activism: The Role of Street Art in Political Movements

A Level Art Essay Examples

Below are some art paper examples A level. Check out: 

The Use Of Color In Wassily Kandinsky's Composition Viii

The Influence of African Art on Pablo Picasso's Les Demoiselles D'avignon

A Level Fine Art Essay Examples

If you're a student of fine arts, these A-level fine arts examples can serve as inspiration for your own work.

The Use Of Texture In Vincent Van Gogh's Starry Night

Exploring Identity Through Portraiture: A Comparative Study

Art Essay Examples IELTS 

The Impact of Art on Mental Health

The Effects of Technology on Art And Creativity

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AP Art Essay Examples

A Comparison of Neoclassical and Romantic Art

An Examination Of The Effects Of Globalization On Contemporary Art

Types of Art Essay with Examples

Art essays can be categorized into different types. Let's take a brief look at these types with examples:

Art Criticism Essay : A critical essay analyzing and evaluating an artwork, its elements, and its meaning.

The Persistence of Memory" by Salvador Dali: A Critical Analysis

Art History Essay: A comprehensive essay that examines the historical context, development, and significance of an artwork or art movement.

The Renaissance: A Rebirth of Artistic Expression

Exhibition Review: A review of an art exhibition that evaluates the quality and significance of the artwork on display.

A Review of the Metropolitan Museum of Art's Exhibition

Contemporary Art Essay: An essay that explores and analyzes contemporary art and its cultural and social context.

The Intersection of Technology and Art in Contemporary Society

Modern Art Essay: An essay that examines modern art and its significance in the development of modernism.

Cubism and its Influence on Modern Art [insert pdf]

Art Theory Essay: An essay that analyzes and critiques various theories and approaches to art.

Feminist Art Theory: A Critical Analysis of its Impact on Contemporary Art [insert pdf]

Additional Art Essay Example

Let’s take a brief look at some added art essay samples:

Artwork Essay Example

Artist Essay Example

Advanced Higher Art Essay Example

Common Art Essay Prompts

Here are some common art essay topics that you may encounter during your coursework:

• Describe a piece of artwork that has inspired you.
• A comparative analysis of Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa and Michelangelo's David.
• Analyze the cultural significance of a particular art movement.
• Discuss the relationship between art and politics.
• Compare and contrast two works of art from different time periods or cultures.
• The representation of identity in art
• The Evolution of Artists' Paintings:
• From Traditional to Contemporary Art
• The representation of identity in Frida Kahlo's self-portraits.
• The significance of oil on canvas in the history of art.
• The significance of the Mona Lisa in the Italian Renaissance

Art Essay Topics IELTS

Here are some art essay topics for IELTS students. Take a look: 

• The value of art education.
• The role of museums in preserving art and culture.
• The impact of globalization on contemporary art.
• The influence of technology on art and artists.
• The significance of public art in urban environments.

Tips For Writing a Successful Art Essay

Here are some tips for writing a stand-out art essay:

• Develop a clear thesis statement that guides your essay: Your thesis statement should clearly and concisely state the main argument of your essay.
• Conduct thorough research and analysis of the artwork you are writing about : This includes examining the visual elements of the artwork, researching the artist, and considering the historical significance.
• Use formal and precise language to discuss the artwork: Avoid using colloquial language and instead focus on using formal language to describe the artwork.
• Include specific examples from the artwork to support your arguments: Use specific details from the artwork to back up your analysis.
• Avoid personal bias and subjective language: Your essay should be objective and avoid using personal opinions or subjective language.
• Consider the historical and cultural context of the artwork: Analyze the artwork in the context of the time period and cultural context in which they were created.
• Edit and proofread your essay carefully before submitting it: Ensure your essay is well-organized, coherent, and free of grammatical errors and typos.
• Use proper citation format when referencing sources: Follow the appropriate citation style guidelines and give credit to all sources used in your essay.
• Be concise and focused in your writing: Stick to your main thesis statement and avoid going off-topic or including irrelevant information.
• Read your essay aloud to ensure clarity and coherence: Reading your essay out loud can help you identify inconsistencies or any other mistakes.

The Bottom Line!

We hope that the art essay examples we've explored have provided you with inspiration for your own essay. Art offers endless possibilities for analysis, and your essay is a chance to showcase your unique opinions.

Use these examples as a guide to craft an essay that reflects your personality while demonstrating your knowledge of the subject.

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painting , the expression of ideas and emotions, with the creation of certain aesthetic qualities, in a two-dimensional visual language . The elements of this language—its shapes, lines, colours, tones, and textures—are used in various ways to produce sensations of volume, space, movement, and light on a flat surface. These elements are combined into expressive patterns in order to represent real or supernatural phenomena, to interpret a narrative theme, or to create wholly abstract visual relationships. An artist’s decision to use a particular medium, such as tempera , fresco , oil , acrylic , watercolour or other water-based paints, ink , gouache , encaustic , or casein , as well as the choice of a particular form, such as mural , easel, panel, miniature, manuscript illumination , scroll, screen or fan, panorama , or any of a variety of modern forms, is based on the sensuous qualities and the expressive possibilities and limitations of those options. The choices of the medium and the form, as well as the artist’s own technique, combine to realize a unique visual image.

(Read Sister Wendy’s Britannica essay on viewing art.)

Earlier cultural traditions—of tribes, religions, guilds, royal courts, and states—largely controlled the craft, form, imagery, and subject matter of painting and determined its function, whether ritualistic, devotional, decorative, entertaining, or educational. Painters were employed more as skilled artisans than as creative artists . Later the notion of the “fine artist” developed in Asia and Renaissance Europe. Prominent painters were afforded the social status of scholars and courtiers; they signed their work, decided its design and often its subject and imagery, and established a more personal—if not always amicable—relationship with their patrons .

During the 19th century painters in Western societies began to lose their social position and secure patronage. Some artists countered the decline in patronage support by holding their own exhibitions and charging an entrance fee. Others earned an income through touring exhibitions of their work. The need to appeal to a marketplace had replaced the similar (if less impersonal) demands of patronage, and its effect on the art itself was probably similar as well. Generally, artists in the 20th century could reach an audience only through commercial galleries and public museums, although their work may have been occasionally reproduced in art periodicals. They may also have been assisted by financial awards or commissions from industry and the state. They had, however, gained the freedom to invent their own visual language and to experiment with new forms and unconventional materials and techniques. For example, some painters combined other media, such as sculpture , with painting to produce three-dimensional abstract designs. Other artists attached real objects to the canvas in collage fashion or used electricity to operate coloured kinetic panels and boxes. Conceptual artists frequently expressed their ideas in the form of a proposal for an unrealizable project, while performance artists were an integral part of their own compositions . The restless endeavour to extend the boundaries of expression in art produced continuous international stylistic changes. The often bewildering succession of new movements in painting was further stimulated by the swift interchange of ideas by means of international art journals, traveling exhibitions, and art centres. Such exchanges accelerated in the 21st century with the explosion of international art fairs and the advent of social media , the latter of which offered not only new means of expression but direct communication between artists and their followers. Although stylistic movements were hard to identify, some artists addressed common societal issues, including the broad themes of racism, LGBTQ rights, and climate change .

This article is concerned with the elements and principles of design in painting and with the various mediums, forms, imagery, subject matter, and symbolism employed or adopted or created by the painter. For the history of painting in ancient Egypt , see Egyptian art and architecture . The development of painting in different regions is treated in a number of articles: Western painting ; African art ; Central Asian arts ; Chinese painting ; Islamic arts ; Japanese art ; Korean art ; Native American art ; Oceanic art and architecture ; South Asian arts ; Southeast Asian arts . For the conservation and restoration of paintings, see art conservation and restoration . For a discussion of the forgery of works of art, see forgery . For a discussion of the role of painting and other arts in religion, as well as of the use of religious symbols in art, see religious symbolism and iconography . For information on other arts related to painting, see articles such as drawing ; folk art ; printmaking .

Elements and principles of design

The design of a painting is its visual format: the arrangement of its lines, shapes, colours, tones, and textures into an expressive pattern . It is the sense of inevitability in this formal organization that gives a great painting its self-sufficiency and presence.

The colours and placing of the principal images in a design may be sometimes largely decided by representational and symbolic considerations . Yet it is the formal interplay of colours and shapes that alone is capable of communicating a particular mood, producing optical sensations of space, volume, movement, and light and creating forces of both harmony and tension , even when a painting’s narrative symbolism is obscure.

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Art Essay Writing Guide

Table of Contents

What is the purpose of an art essay?

Generally, an art essay is an essay that talks about art in sculpture, paintings, architecture, music and portraits.

These kinds of essays are used for:

• Painting visual pictures: an art essay is an essay that showcases visual arts and creative ideas that people have come up with.
• Improving creativity: the whole purpose of art essays is to provide a platform for students to tap into their creative side and vividly paint a picture of a certain image using words.

Art essay topic choice

Like every other essay, there are general tips that should be considered when coming up with an art essay writing topic.

• The type of art: this may include a painting, a sculpture or just a simple hand diagram. The type of art is important as it sets out what you are supposed to write about.
• What intrigues you about the art: this is the most important part of the essay. The whole art essay is based on what you want others to know about the piece of art.
• Personal interests: what you, as a writer, love is very important as it narrows down the topic. It is easier to write on topics that are well-known to you.

There are a number of art essay writing topics to choose from.

Below is a list of topics for an art essay

• Differences between Picasso’s concepts and Matisse’s
• The history of art in the Netherlands
• Differences between Bernini and Borromini
• The inspiration behind famous painting
• The Mona Lisa
• Leonardo Da Vinci
• Ancient Roman structures
• The sculptures of nude women
• Impressionism era of art in Netherlands
• The graphics of modern day art
• Insinuations behind ‘The Thinker’
• The Pieta of Michelangelo
• The contribution of Vincent Van Gogh and Piet Mondrian
• Flemish Baroque in the 17th century.

The above are some of the good topics for an art essay.

Structure of an art essay

The art essay topics determine the kind of structure to build on. However, most have a standard art essay structure.

Sample of art essay outline

Introduction.

The Mona Lisa is one of the most known paintings in the world. This is the painting of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco Del Giocondo, believed to have been painted in the 16th century. It is the work of Leonardo da Vinci and it was purchased by King Francis I. The Mona Lisa is currently under the ownership of the French government.

Thesis statement

The Mona Lisa has had a great impact towards the contribution of art in France:

(i)    It is one of the most famous paintings in the world. The Mona Lisa is the painting that everyone wants to see. It is so precious that only a copy of it is actually showcased in the museum.

(ii)    It has led to the growth of art. The Mona Lisa has inspired artists all over France. There has been a rise of many artists including Camille Pissarro, a painter, and Etienne-Jules Marey, a photographer.

It is clear that the Mona Lisa is the soft spot in France. The French take pride in it and have used it to improve their lives. Besides its contribution to art, it has also placed France among the leading countries that celebrate art. This has therefore created a culture of being drawn to art and it is reflected in their way of life.

The above is a sample of outline for an art essay.

Arts essay tips on writing the introduction

An art essay introduction identifies the art and the artist. Art is diverse, as it could be sculptures, architecture, performing arts or paintings in it. This is where you state why you chose that topic.  It also contains a history of the said art and brief details, like who the artist is, the year, the location, etc.

The introduction for an art essay states the thesis. It may be a general statement about the art or a specific aspect of it.

Tips on thesis writing

The thesis statement should be simple and easy to write about. Too complex statements tend to be confusing.

• Pick a statement that is closer to your understanding.
• Ensure it is as simple as possible.
• To avoid irrelevancy, one can have an art essay draft that they can build on.

Tips on the body (transitions, paragraphs, and length)

This is the main part of the essay where you derive analysis based on your point of view.  Describe why the art is so appealing to you. Ensure that your defense covers an angle that has not already been covered for uniqueness. For example, one can focus only on the strokes of a portrait. However, ensure that what you describe is relevant to the thesis of your art essay topics.

The essay should not be too long. The sentence construction should also be well done. For this reason, it is advisable to have your points arranged into paragraphs. Ensure that each paragraph is independent and speaks volumes. This ensures that the art essay hooks the reader.

The transition from one paragraph to the next should also be smooth. Using cliché transitions makes the essay boring; therefore, you need to be creative.

Tips on conclusion writing

In an art essay conclusion, one needs to state their opinion. What you think the artists` feelings were and why they decided to paint it the way they did. At this point, you can state the events that contributed to the artist coming up with that art. The conclusion for an art essay requires a lot of research into the background of both the art and the artist(s). For this reason, the references and sources of the information should be cited.

Advice for writers

In art essay writing it is important to first do your research. Art is so diverse and this can be sometimes confusing. The topic to write on should be related to your interests, for example, as a musician, you would find it easier to write about performing arts and music. Besides this, do not plagiarize any work done. Cite and state all sources, making sure that you observe all rules of patent and copyrights.

For you to be a good writer, these art essay tips will be very helpful.  The best writer is the one who admits to being in a need of help. The art essay writing guide can also be used to find more about art essay writing steps. Different sources could give different art essay outlines so you need to be careful.

Finalizing the essay

After writing the art essay, it is important to have a clean essay. This calls for proofreading and editing. Proofreading ensures that you do not have any grammatical errors, the art essay outlining is as required, your sentence construction is good and the language used is the required one. Some sites offer art essay writing guide for use when one gets stuck.  Proofreading also ensures that the art essay structure is followed. After this is done, ensure that the format used is correct whether APA, MLA or Chicago.

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On Painting: An Essay by Jim Cogswell

Paint is a living language for me, with grammars and nuances that challenge me beyond any other intellectual or creative pursuit that I have ever experienced.

For some people paint is simply a material, another medium, and a very traditional medium at that. For others it is the Bible — the Holy Writ. Or it is the Constitution. Divine what the Founding Fathers intended and strictly adhere to it, or risk anarchy. For others, it is one minor piece in a complicated art world chess game, a pawn to be moved about in a theoretical construct of art practice. Relevant or irrelevant? Dead or alive?

That is one set of questions that, naively, doesn’t trouble me.

For me, painting as a language and practice is alive and changing all the time.

I study it. I try to keep up with it. I struggle to speak it better. I am thrilled when I hear others speak it well. I love visiting countries where it is spoken. I get excited when I discover someone who is adding another layer to its tapestry of possibilities. And that is happening all the time. Right now. As we speak.

Painting is the magical conjunction of space/​no space; movement in stillness. A balanced experience of absorption and self-awareness. Slow looking.

A painting is both a tangible surface and a perceptual space. Great painters create fluctuating tensions between the experience of seeing surface and depth. The task of doing that well is mammoth.

The territory is well traveled, but the possibilities endless, like this tired language of ours that still manages to produce incisive and ecstatic poetry, the limited chromatic scale that still results in new arrangements of sounds in music, bringing deep feelings into somatic awareness, putting my body in motion, bringing me to tears.

All of it is accomplished within a tight range of restrictions. The restrictions are the source of the poetry and the thrill.

There are many strategies for keeping the viewer in that delicate balance of seeing the painting as both window and surface. Emphasizing paint’s materiality is one of many strategies for calling attention to the physical surface, but that easily can degenerate into gratuitous gesture, the pseudo-heroics of the urgent mark.

A big issue is how to translate the materiality of paint into something that points beyond itself. Allowing the inspirational source itself to provide the gesture while acknowledging the illusion. The tension is the thrill.

Within a painting, color has the capacity to become a noun, one might even say a concept in itself. Color becomes magical and potent when it crosses that threshold from adjective to noun, from quality of thing to thing in itself.

All of these strategies and many more work in tandem with our desire to recognize objects or qualities of experiences, even intangible feelings, within that structure of colored marks on a surface. Those desires are closely tied to our perceptual experiences, ways that the brain is hard wired but also shaped by cultural context, historical exposure.

Looking at a painting is a magnificently dense experience for me. I never tire of it.

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The Most Important Art Essays of the Year

What were the ideas that had everyone talking?

Atmosphere from the Zombie Formalism panel.

It was an eventful year for art writing, with plenty of shifts in the landscape, as new publications opened (including this one), or popped up , or reinvented themselves . But beneath all the institutional shuffles, what were the ideas that got people excited? To try to answer that question, I polled colleagues, but the final selection below is obviously a personal one. It reflects the world around me, and is weighted towards pieces that reflect my own location and  my own sense of this year’s troubled qualities .  In any case, here are a few of the pieces of writing that I think are touchstones of 2014:

Holland Cotter, “ Lost in the Gallery-Industrial Complex, ” New York Times , January 17, 2014 It’s a little crazy to me that Cotter’s fretful, sweeping state-of-the-scene piece is already a year old. But it stands in here for all the angst of money in a year of record auction prices and continued angst about inequality .

Jason Farago, “ Learning to Live With MoMA ,” Frieze blog, January 17, 2014 Amid all the outcry around MoMA’s annexation of the Folk Art Museum building, Farago did the best, to my taste, of getting to the heart of what was really at stake by placing it within the longer arc of change in the museum’s identity going back to its failed encounter with Rem Koolhaas.

Christian L. Frock, “ Priced Out: New Tech Wealth and San Francisco’s Receding Art Scene ,” KQED, February 7, 2014 Frock’s multipart series (here’s the second: “ Priced Out: San Francisco’s Changing Values and Artist Exodus “) captured the voices of a Bay Area arts community trying to stay afloat in a sea of “disruptive” tech money, but testifies to a conversation artists were having seemingly everywhere artists were found (see also Jen Graves’s “ How Artists Can Fight Back Against Cities That Are Taking Advantage of Them ”).

Trevor Paglen, “ Overhead: New Photos of the NSA and Other Top Intelligence Agencies Revealed ,” Creative Time Reports, February 10, 2014 If you haven’t been paying attention to what Marisa Mazria Katz has been up to for the last two years at Creative Time Reports —essentially, supporting artists in finding new ways to cover the news—you should be. In February, the publication teamed up with The Intercept to launch this Paglen photo essay, serving up images that immediately became a kind of visual shorthand for the sinister powers of government surveillance in the age of Snowden.

Walter Robinson, “ Flippers and the Rise of Zombie Formalism ,” Artspace Magazine, April 3, 2014 If there is an essay that touched off more discussion this year, then I can’t think of what it was. The tongue-in-cheek “Zombie Formalism” label, applied either to that funky-junky art-school look or used as a diagnosis of an art world obsessed with “artificial milestones” and the “simulacrum of originality” in general, is now lodged deep in the conversation .

Eunsong Kim and Maya Isabella Mackrandilal, “ The Whitney Biennial for Angry Women ,” The New Inquiry, April 4, 2014 This unsparing, percussive manifesto denouncing the Biennial and the art establishment in general set the stage for many of the debates of the year. It was, as the authors summed it up in their conclusion, “[a] demand for the impossible: decolonization, decentering, radical thinking, radical action, radical making.”

Helen Molesworth, review of the Whitney Biennial , Artforum , May 2014 The Whitney Biennial always draws fire. But this is really less of a review than a curator’s series of frustrated questions for her peers about the profession and its fundamental aims.

Jamilla King, “ The Overwhelming Whiteness of Black Art ,” Colorlines, May 21, 2014 This is one from well outside the regular circle of art coverage—but King’s thoughtful piece about Kara Walker’s A Subtlety  and the demographics of the art audience opened up a conversation that reverberated throughout the piece’s run, culminating with “We Are Here,”  an event for people of color to view Walker’s work together, to experience it as the majority.

Rahel Aima, “ Christian Marclay Goes to Bollywood ,” The New Inquiry, May 21, 2014 Christian Marclay’s epoch-making The Clock toured the world telling the story of a day through film clips culled mainly from Western film. He follows it up with  a supercut of Bollywood dream sequences set in Switzerland , destined to be shown in a chairlift in Gstaad, and Aima considers the cultural asymmetries and structures of power that this makes visible.

Christopher Glazek, “ Shopkeepers of the World Unite ,” Artforum , June 2014 A sympathetic and convincingly intricate account of the rise of the artists around DIS magazine, making a case for the new Post-Internet cool school while still remaining just critical enough to convince yourself that you were seeing it plain.

Molly Crabapple, illustration for Slaves of Happiness Island. Courtesy of the artist and Vice

Molly Crabapple, “ Slaves of Happiness Island ,” Vice, August 4, 2014 A neat feat of first-person journalism, this piece recounts one artist’s voyage onto the site of the soon-to-be built Guggenheim Abu Dhabi to see for herself what labor conditions looked like there. With the main and most demanding construction still to come, Crabapple talked to a worker laying the infrastructure for the new institution: “I don’t know how much longer I can go on like this. My body is on the verge of giving up, but I cannot leave my job because I am responsible for my sisters.”

John Yau, “ Andy Warhol and Jeff Koons and the Culture of Hyperbole ,” Hyperallergic, August 17, 2014 Taking a long look at the deep values of today’s Koons craze, Yau finds that they amount to this: “to be out of the mainstream is in fact a mark of imperfection.”

Whitney Kimball, “ How Do People Feel About the Gramsci Monument, One Year Later? ,” Art F City, August 20, 2014 A year after artist Thomas Hirschhorn’s pop-up community center won plaudits and raised hackles at a Bronx housing project, Kimball returns to ask people in the neighborhood what good it left behind—the kind of follow-up that almost never happens. The answers she finds are probably neither positive nor negative enough to satisfy pro-or-anti-Monument camps, which is part of what makes the exercise important.

Carolina Miranda, “ Art and race at the Whitney: Rethinking the Donelle Woolford debate ,” Los Angeles Times , June 17, 2014 It’s hard to sum up what makes this article important, given everything that’s involved: the Whitney Biennial, a black artist collective’s decision to publicly leave the show in protest of perceived racism , and the artist Joe Scanlan’s work made in the persona of a fictional African-American artist, Donelle Woolford. By interviewing Jenn Kidwell, the actress involved in Scanlan’s work, Miranda added important nuance to a very difficult conversation about race, racism, and art.

Jeff Chang, “ Color Theory: Race Trouble and the Avant Garde ,” n+1 , Fall 2014 Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop author Jeff Chang’s deeply researched, penetrating beat-by-beat account of a 1979 scandal at Artists Space around the artist known as Donald and his so-called “ Nigger Drawings ” (it’s an excerpt from his new book, Who We Be ) unearths all sides of a painful chapter in recent art history. Given the year that we’ve had (see above), its lessons couldn’t feel more relevant.

Assorted essays on contemporary art and feminism , edited by Kara L. Rooney, The Brooklyn Rail , September 2014 There are individual essays here that have stuck with me as offering particularly useful ways to grasp the question of feminism in art today (Chloe Wyma’s “ Lean Back: Resisting Branded Feminism ” is one that I find myself quoting a lot). But the collection of writings in the Rail ‘s special section on the subject is also eclectic, which maybe makes it more useful as a snapshot of the unsettled nature of the present conversation.

Mira Schor, “ The Feminist Wheel ,” A Year of Positive Thinking, September 20, 2014 An exasperated rant from inside Mira Schor’s head (and Twitter feed) at The Hole’s “Future Feminism” show takes on larger significance as a reflection on the difficulty of staying true to hard-earned—and needed—feminist principles while not missing out on the “utopian ebullience” of more recent arrivals.

Roberta Smith, “ In a Mattress, a Lever of Art and Protest ,” New York Times , September 21, 2014 In protest over institutional ineptitude around sexual assault , Columbia art student Emma Sulkowicz launched Carry That Weight , vowing to carry a mattress around campus until the man she says raped her leaves. The artistic protest touched off a deafening roar of media coverage of the “hot takes” type—so there was something significant about one of the country’s most authoritative art critics stepping up to explain why this work of protest-as-performance was worth your actual considered attention.

Mostafa Heddaya, “ Delusions of Grandeur: GCC at MoMA PS1 and the New Museum ,” Hyperallergic, September 26, 2014 This is an adept polemic about the buzzy “ Gulf Futurism ” of the art group GCC —and through it, a reflection on what strategies of political art might be viable today.

Art Post-Internet , edited by Karen Archey and Robin Peckham, October 2014 If you are one of those people who this year realized that you suddenly had to have something to say about “Post-Internet” art, this sprawling pamphlet with contributions from artists, academics, curators, and writers (including me) is as fine a place to start as any. In a neat Post-Internet touch, each PDF is a “unique” edition, stamped with a number and record of your location and the weather where you were at the moment you hit download.

Andrew Berardini, “ How to Write About Contemporary Art ,” Momus, October 15, 2014 This year, Toronto-based writer Sky Goodden launched  Momus.ca , an online art platform that bills itself as a “return to art criticism.” Berardini’s essay on the petty indignities and strange detours of a life of writing about art is probably my favorite piece on this list. I can’t do it justice, so just go read it.

Brian Droitcour, “ The Perils of Post-Internet Art ,” Art in America , November 2014 You know something has become a thing when it starts to draw the kind of sustained intellectual attack that Droitcour levels at the avatars of Post-Internet art, framing the whole trend as an attempt to recapture the web’s anarchic energies for the professional gallery world rather than a step into some new realm beyond it.

Philip Kennicott, “ An art loan from Bill Cosby draws the Smithsonian into a national debate ,” The Washington Post , November 20, 2014; Jillian Steinhauer, “ What Should the Smithsonian Do About Its Show of Bill Cosby’s Art Collection? ,” Hyperallergic, November 20, 2014; Kriston Capps, “ Why Is the Smithsonian Standing Behind Bill Cosby? ,” The Atlantic , November 21, 2014 The fallout from the allegations against Bill Cosby is far from over, but at year’s end, it provoked a series of excellent articles that went beyond the immediate scandal to look at the responsibilities of art institutions and the ethical traps of showcasing private collections.

Victor Merida, “ Excited Delirium: Graffiti and Miami ,” The Miami Rail , Winter 2014 Some sober, sobering reflections on graffiti art’s place in the branding of Miami, made more resonant by the tragic death of the young artist Israel “REEFA” Hernandez last year at the hands of the police.

Pac Pobric, “ Sturtevant’s Provincialism ,” Los Angeles Review of Books , December 18, 2014 There’s just something about a righteously pissed-off review, right? And while this year will be remembered as one where everyone once again proved their seriousness by lining up to take shots at Jeff Koons , here’s one that goes after a target that’s more difficult to pin down.

Mel Chin, “ Miley, Eric and Me: Basel’s Dazzle and the Dark Death Around Us ,” Creative Time Reports, December 18, 2014 I’m not sure I could believe that anything that great came of Miley Cyrus’s coronation as an art star at Art Basel in Miami Beach. But this soul-searching essay did come of it, which is definitely worth something.

Special mentions:

W.A.G.E. Wo/Manifesto This is a bullet-pointed call for change, from the group that calls for a new social contract between art institutions and artists.

Not That This! Nathaniel Donnett’s blog focusing on adding coverage of the African-American art scene in Houston not only adds a needed perspective, but does so in experimental ways; for instance, using poetry . It just won an Idea Fund grant to expand and make its coverage more regular, so keep it bookmarked.

Christian Viveros-Fauné and Blake Gopnik, “ Strictly Critical ” video series, artnet News, and Casey Jane Ellison, “ Touching the Art ,” Ovation TV Having seen many, many attempts to make art-themed videos work over the years, I know how hard it is—but this year brought two strong contenders. Viveros-Fauné and Gopnik perfected a Siskel and Ebert routine that made it seem suddenly fun and interesting to debate art, not a chore. Meanwhile, Ellison, whose Twitter bio describes herself as “artist + comic with a mole on her face,” brought her own alluringly wacky touch to bear on Ovation’s art-themed chat show.

Raphael Rubinstein, The Miraculous (Paper Monument) Here’s another outlier because it is a book and not an essay, strictly speaking, which opens up a whole other can of worms . But, in terms of things I read this year that really made me rethink how I looked at contemporary art, this one particularly affected me . So it stays on! If you still need a gift for an art lover, this is it.

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Essay Papers Writing Online

Exploring the art of essay writing – a collection of insights and reflections.

Essay writing is a craft that allows individuals to express their thoughts, ideas, and arguments in a structured and compelling manner. It is a form of art that requires creativity, critical thinking, and eloquence. Through the art of essay writing, writers have the power to influence and persuade their readers, sparking new perspectives and inspiring change.

When delving into the realm of essay writing, one explores the nuances of language, the intricacies of rhetoric, and the depth of analysis. Essays come in various forms, from persuasive to analytical, from narrative to argumentative. Each type of essay challenges the writer to convey their message effectively, captivating the audience and leaving a lasting impression.

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Unlocking the Secrets

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In the realm of essay writing, one of the most powerful tools at your disposal is the ability to convey your thoughts and ideas with clarity and precision. By mastering the art of crafting well-structured and compelling essays, you open the door to a world of influence and impact.

Through the process of writing, you have the opportunity to delve deep into your subject matter, exploring its nuances and complexities. This journey of discovery not only enriches your own understanding but also allows you to share your insights with others, shaping their perspectives and sparking thought-provoking conversations.

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Embracing the Craft

Essay writing is not just a task or an academic exercise; it is an art form that allows us to express our thoughts, ideas, and emotions in a structured and coherent manner. To truly excel in the art of essay writing, one must embrace the craft with passion, dedication, and creativity.

Embracing the craft of essay writing means approaching each piece with an open mind and a willingness to experiment with different styles, tones, and techniques. It involves honing your skills through practice, feedback, and continuous learning. Embracing the craft also requires a deep appreciation for language, storytelling, and the power of words to create impact and inspire change.

By embracing the craft of essay writing, you can transform your ideas into compelling narratives, persuasive arguments, and thought-provoking reflections. Whether you are writing for academic purposes, personal expression, or professional communication, embracing the craft will help you communicate effectively, connect with your audience, and leave a lasting impression.

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Art History 354: American Art 1870 - Present

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Gerry Bergstein, the American artist, has had work on exhibition at the Danforth Museum; The Museum of Fine Arts in Boston; Davis Museum at Wellesley College; the MIT List Visual Arts Center; the deCordova Museum; the Rose Art Museum; and elsewhere, and has a solo exhibition upcoming at Gallery NAGA in 2023. Among his numerous awards are a grant from the Mass Cultural Council, an Artadia grant, and a career achievement award from the St. Botolph Club. He taught for forty years at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. (updated 10/2022)

A look at James Baldwin’s enduring influence on art and activism

Jeffrey Brown Jeffrey Brown

Lena I. Jackson Lena I. Jackson

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The legendary writer and activist James Baldwin would have turned 100 this month. He is best known for his novels and essays and as a moral voice addressing race, sexuality and the very fabric of American democracy. Jeffrey Brown looks at Baldwin's enduring legacy for our series, Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy and for our arts and culture coverage, CANVAS.

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Notice: Transcripts are machine and human generated and lightly edited for accuracy. They may contain errors.

Amna Nawaz:

This month, the legendary writer and activist James Baldwin would have turned 100 years old.

Baldwin is best known for his novels and essays and as a moral voice addressing race, sexuality and the very fabric of American democracy. Nearly 40 years after his death, his words are more relevant than ever.

Jeffrey Brown looks at his enduring legacy for our series Art in Action, exploring the intersection of art and democracy, and our ongoing Canvas coverage.

James Baldwin, Writer:

The inequality suffered by the American Negro population of the United States has hindered the American dream.

Jeffrey Brown:

James Baldwin, novelist, essayist, civil rights activist, public intellectual, here debating William F. Buckley Jr. at the University of Cambridge in 1965.

Eddie Glaude Jr., Princeton University:

He's engaged in this ongoing work of self-creation, in this sustained reflection on the power of the American idea. He's bringing the full weight of his intellect to bear on this project.

Eddie Glaude Jr. is a professor of African American studies at Princeton University and author of the 2020 book "Begin Again: James Baldwin's America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own."

Eddie Glaude Jr.:

I think, if you read Baldwin closely, there is this underlying idea that we have yet to discover who we are, right, because the ghosts of the past in so many ways, not only blind us, but they have us by the throat.

James Arthur Baldwin was born in Harlem in 1924 and raised there by his mother and stepfather, a Baptist preacher. The oldest of nine children, he excelled in school and served as a junior minister.

A man on the margins, Black and queer, he spent years of his life abroad, much of it in France, beginning at age 24. He wrote novels, including "Go Tell It on the Mountain," an autobiographical book about growing up in Harlem, and "Giovanni's Room" about a tormented love affair between two men living in Paris, and powerful essays exploring race and American identity, including "Notes of a Native Son" and "The Fire Next Time."

He's one of the greatest essayists we have ever produced, the world has ever produced I think, and his subject is us. But his vantage point, it's not that of a victim. His vantage point is from those who've had to bear the burden of America's refusal to look itself squarely in the face.

He was also a playwright and poet, an activist who marched and spoke out for civil rights, including on television, here on "The Dick Cavett Show" in 1969.

James Baldwin:

And the word Negro in this country really is designed, finally, to disguise the fact that one is talking about another man, a man like you, who wants what you want.

And insofar as the American public wants to think there has been progress, they overlook one very simple thing. I don't want to be given anything by you. I just want you to leave me alone, so I can do it myself.

Baldwin died in 1987, but he's remained a powerful cultural presence, one that's only grown in the past decade.

There are days — this is one of them — when you wonder what your role is in this country and what your future is in it.

In the 2016 documentary "I Am Not Your Negro," director Raoul Peck drew from Baldwin's own words. As he told me then:

Raoul Peck, Director:

He was already a classic, and he wrote those things 40, 50 years ago. And watching the film, you think that he would have — he wrote that in the morning, the morning before watching the film, because those words are so accurate, they are so prescient and so impactful, that you can't do it better.

In 2018, Baldwin's 1974 novel "If Beale Street Could Talk" was adapted by Oscar-winning director Barry Jenkins.

Barry Jenkins, Director:

Whether I had won eight Oscars or no Oscars, it's James damn Baldwin, you know? It's James Baldwin. That's pressure enough, in and of itself, because I wanted to honor his legacy in the way that I thought it should be honored.

And now a celebration of the centennial of his birth, including an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery called This Morning, This Evening, So Soon: James Baldwin and the Voices of Queer Resistance, which takes its name from a short story he published in 1960, another at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture titled Jimmy: Gods Black Revolutionary Mouth, presenting Baldwin's archive of personal papers.

There's a new album by singer-songwriter and bassist Meshell Ndegeocello called No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, and reissues of seminal works with new introductions and artwork.

Cree Myles, Host, "The Baldwin 100": What is the best lesson you have learned being in the spiritual community that you are in with James Baldwin?

Along with a podcast, "The Baldwin 100," in which host Cree Myles talks with contemporary writers and thinkers.

What is his relevance today, especially when you think about younger people, younger readers, younger citizens?

Cree Myles:

Despite the time that has passed, his amount of truth is still relatively radical. When I think about his novels and "Giovanni's Room," and we're thinking about the ways that he grappled with, like, sexuality, those are things were still coming to terms with.

Acclaimed Irish novelist Colm Toibin contributed the new book "On James Baldwin."

Colm Toibin, Author, "On James Baldwin": I'm interested in him as, I suppose, someone who really found ways of dealing with individuality versus community, with being an artist in a difficult time.

But more than anything, more than anything, he wrote well.

Toibin saw connections to his own upbringing and told us how Baldwin has influenced him as writer and man.

Colm Toibin:

It's a question of engaging with this great intelligence and with the sensuous intelligence, with someone sort of thinking brilliantly and glittering sort of way.

But it is also, of course, developing strategies, which he did in relation to his family, in relation to Harlem, in relation to Black America, in relation to exile, in relation to attempting to being an artist in a time of flux, and also in a way of being a gay artist, a homosexual artist coming out of a world which is very conservative and very religious, and attempting also to build strategies around that that give you energy, rather than ones that take you down.

One deeply resonant thread through all the commemorations, Baldwin's focus on the fragility of democracy itself.

Baldwin's exposing the lie that is the source of the suffering, that defines this fragile project, it seems to me. He's committed to democracy. He's committed to America. After all, we are deeply American. But, by virtue of that commitment, he has to relentlessly critique it.

It comes as a great shock to discover the country, which is your birthplace and to which you owe your life and your identity, has not, in its whole system of reality, evolved any place for you.

A commitment, as Glaude puts it, to the complex experiment called America.

For the "PBS News Hour," I'm Jeffrey Brown.

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In his more than 30-year career with the News Hour, Brown has served as co-anchor, studio moderator, and field reporter on a wide range of national and international issues, with work taking him around the country and to many parts of the globe. As arts correspondent he has profiled many of the world's leading writers, musicians, actors and other artists. Among his signature works at the News Hour: a multi-year series, “Culture at Risk,” about threatened cultural heritage in the United States and abroad; the creation of the NewsHour’s online “Art Beat”; and hosting the monthly book club, “Now Read This,” a collaboration with The New York Times.

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Defending the Past, Present, and Future of Gamelan Semara Pegulingan Saih Pitu in Kamasan, Bali

By Tyler Yamin

Figure 1. Map of Bali

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Figure 2. Sekehe Semara Pegulingan Balé Batur, Kamasan, performing at the Bali Arts Festival on July 7, 2013. Photo by Geoff Dent

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Figure 3: Front row: trompong and kajar. Second row: gangsa pemade. Third row: gangsa kantilan. Fourth row: jublag. Fifth row: jegogan. Photo by Geoff Dent

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Figure 4. Kendang in front of gangsa jongkok. Photo by Geoff Dent

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Figure 5. Kecicak (front left), gumanak (front right), suling, gong. Photo by Geoff Dent.

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In this article

Music in kamasan, kamasan style, a historical perspective, current events, music and regeneration, looking forward.

The village of Kamasan, in the Klungkung Regency of Bali, houses the last remaining gamelan ensemble that sustains the semara pegulingan repertoire of the Klungkung court. A performance of its unique repertoire, featuring a provenance linking it to the golden age of Balinese monarchy, evokes the royal sonic atmosphere of this bygone era. The fall of the Klungkung court in 1908, however, saw this once-regal music relegated to a distant corner of the Balinese musical landscape. Resuscitated by Kamasan villagers, this individual gamelan style has overcome more than a century of threats to its very existence. This essay details the valiant efforts of Banjar Sangging, Kamasan, to defend its unique piece of Balinese cultural history from extinction, including the present-day struggle precipitated by the premature loss of the tradition’s major culture-bearer. As the only student of the late trompong player I Wayan Sumendra, I describe my own role in this ongoing effort, which includes the repatriation of previously unheard recordings from the early 1970s and the reconstruction of the original drum part for the 2013 Bali Arts Festival with several of the same musicians who were featured on the recordings made more than four decades ago.

The village of Kamasan, in the Klungkung regency of Bali ( fig. 1 ), houses a seven-tone gamelan orchestra renowned throughout Bali as the last remaining expression of an ancient musical tradition. A performance of its unique repertoire, featuring a provenance linking it to the golden age of Balinese monarchy, evokes the royal sonic atmosphere of this bygone era. Centuries of political and cultural change, however, have relegated this once-regal music to a distant corner of Bali’s musical landscape. As it stands today, the sekehe (group) semara pegulingan 1 of the Balé Batur Temple in Kamasan village ( fig. 2 ) is the very last of its kind. Unaltered by modern Balinese musical innovations, its repertoire is uniquely devoid of those characteristically ubiquitous Balinese devices, such as angsel (articulated rhythmic break), nguncab (sudden dynamic change), and even kotekan (interlocking parts). Here I describe the distinguishing aspects of this particular gamelan, including its fascinating history of repeated resuscitation from the brink of extinction.

Although I wish to avoid such loaded terms as “evolution” or “progress,” it is undeniable that cultures tend to change over time—they are on some sort of trajectory, even if a particular trajectory only becomes apparent in hindsight. Musical traditions, as important aspects of culture, are not exempt from these transformative impulses. The social dynamics contributing to the trajectory of a musical tradition are of particular interest to ethnomusicologists; Peter Manuel and other authors identify and explore the various cultural forces operating within their case studies (see Manuel 2015 ). This essay, however, is instead focused on the musical tradition itself and on the numerous features that change, or resist change, as a result of historical events. That being said, this study would not be complete without some discussion of the cultural influences at work. These influences, the complex set of dynamics operating on the tradition that I describe here, are largely subsumed under the ideology of kemajuan (social progress). At once political, cultural, and aesthetic, kemajuan, in its literal sense of “moving forward,” has been a driving force behind Indonesian modernization, applying pressure on such far-off phenomena as traditional music genres ( Rappaport 2004 :391–92). Another important influence is the Balinese aesthetic ideal of wayah (maturity), which prescribes works of art to be as refined, yet as complex, busy, and energetic, as possible. Together, I would argue, these two concepts demonstrate considerable impact on the current state of Balinese music, which has reached an astounding, unprecedented level of sophistication, recognition, and dissemination, both locally and internationally ( McGraw 2013a ; Tenzer 2000 ; Steele 2013 ).

That is all well and good, then, but what about the cultural traditions left in the wake of the engine of progress that is kemajuan? Do they remain relegated to a history de-emphasized by our synchronic ethnomusicological tendencies? Although processes of globalization and modernization can ultimately empower the musical traditions they shape (e.g., Hayward 2012 ), was there not merit to the original practices they replaced? With the prospect of “cultural grey-out” ( Lomax 1968 :4) looming large on the horizon, both academics and organizations are becoming increasingly troubled by the issues of culture loss and cultural sustainability. The advent of UNESCO-sponsored intangible cultural heritage preservation initiatives have raised awareness of these issues ( Howard 2012 ). In rare cases, such as China’s “original ecology folksong” ( Rees 2016 ), aesthetic preferences have begun to shift from those of polished, institutionalized music to those that refer to some sense of cultural authenticity through the use of local dialects and minority languages, coarse vocal and instrumental textures, and other non-institutionalized musical devices. All of these instances speak to this growing global concern regarding the fate of cultural traditions. In his essay on the sustainability of music genres, Jeff Todd Titon identifies, evaluates, and advocates specific approaches to the protection of musical heritage ( Titon 2009b ).

Who are we, however, to speak for a musical tradition? Do these practices not have as much right to change or grow as much as a television actor has the right to mature out of the role for which she is famous? It could be argued, along these lines, that a musical tradition even has the right to become extinct. After all, all traditions exist in a sociocultural context, and unless we are arguing for a complete halt to any sort of societal development, then it is entirely possible that this all-important context may likewise vanish, therefore eliminating or forcing a drastic transformation of the tradition’s entire raison d’être. Some scholars note that musical preservation projects do not achieve their intended consequences; instead, the ostensibly protected tradition becomes “fossilized” ( Tenzer 2005 :110) or “frozen in time and space, like a museum display” ( Hesselink 2004 :407). Musical authority, furthermore, changes hands from the musicians to distant government administrators ( Hesselink 2004 :407).

This essay, instead, offers a different rationale for the preservation or conservation of a musical tradition. That approach derives from the sheer weight of meaning it has for the people it envelops. In this manner, the argument for preservation comes not from politics or nationalism but from semiotics. How, though, is it possible to measure the symbolic importance of something? Although a semiotic justification for the safeguarding of musical heritage is inherently unquantifiable, it is indeed qualifiable . Turino, offering an ethnomusicological theory of semiotics based on the work of C. S. Peirce, describes three distinct ways in which an item can exhibit symbolism: as an icon (something that resembles what it represents), as an index (something that co-occurs with what it represents), and as a symbol (something represented through language) ( Turino 1999 :227). Icons and indexes receive the majority of attention in ethnomusicological analysis; this chapter focuses on the latter. Ethnomusicologist Megan Rancier theorizes the indexical capacity of musical instruments themselves. She conceptualizes these instruments as cultural “‘archives’ that contain layers of historical, social, musical, and emotional information” ( Rancier 2014 :379).

Here I principally focus on two of these “layers” indexed by the Kamasan gamelan: the historical and the musical. I offer this information not only out of scholarly interest but also to empathize with those who experience this music as an integral part of their lives. Although we may never be able to attain a fully emic understanding of the meaning of Kamasan’s gamelan tradition, this chapter is an attempt to at least approach this indigenous epistemology. By considering the significance of this music’s unique stylistic elements, and its implication in two distinct eschatological events, we might just appreciate the tremendous significance it represents and why it may necessitate, and even deserve, some protection.

Until the beginning of the twentieth century, gamelan semar pagulingan , which is usually translated into English as the “gamelan of the love god” or some variation thereof, could be found performing outside the king’s bedchamber to accompany whatever nighttime activities were occurring within ( Tenzer 2000 :158). While Balinese scholars I Made Bandem and I Nyoman Rembang believe that this type of ensemble dates to the sixteenth-century reign of Dalem Watu Renggong ( Rai 1996 :3), there is a dearth of concrete evidence. Jaap Kunst suspects that the gamelan described by a member of the 1597 Houtman Expedition was indeed a semar pagulingan ( Kunst and Kunst-van Wely 1925a :72). If it was, it would have been the one belonging to the Klungkung court ( Hanna 2004 :36–41), the direct ancestor of the ensemble described in this essay. Julius Jacobs, a Dutch medical doctor, recorded his encounter with the gamelan semar pagulingan of the Gianyar court in 1881, emphasizing its aesthetic superiority over the Javanese ensembles he had previously witnessed (Jacobs 1883, quoted in Vickers 1985b :144). Early indigenous mention of this gamelan is found in a palm-leaf document known as the Prakempa ( Bandem 1986 ), variously dated from the late eighteenth century to the early twentieth century. In it, gamelan semara pegulingan is described as one of four royal and sacred types of gamelan ensembles. Unfortunately, no scholarly tradition of research on gamelan semar pagulingan existed prior to the twentieth century. It begins well after the ensemble’s traditional function had already ceased, with the defeat of the last Balinese kings by invading Dutch colonists. 2

If Kunst was correct in his conjecture, then the semara pegulingan repertoire of Kamasan has been performed for more than four centuries. Although it would be naïve to claim that this music has not changed at all over this time, gamelan semar pagulingan nevertheless still exudes an aura of ancientness, linking it to the gamelan gambuh tradition of percussion and long bamboo flutes, which is older still.3 The underlying, generative melodic and rhythmic elements of gambuh compositions—their “inner melodies,” to appropriate Sumarsam’s conception of Javanese gamelan ( Sumarsam 1984 )—are present in the music of gamelan semar pagulingan. Each piece can be seen as a transcription of a gambuh composition for bronze gamelan. In many cases, the entirety of the original gambuh piece can be experienced intact in Kamasan’s semara pegulingan version. The only major areas of difference are found in the introductions and transitions. As the strict requirements of dance accompaniment were lost when these pieces were transposed to the purely instrumental gamelan semar pagulingan, their arrangements were adapted to suit this gamelan’s image of calm, introspective music. 4 Consider the introductions played by the trompong ( fig. 3 ), the horizontal row of gong chimes that plays the same melodic role as the bamboo flutes do in gambuh. The trompong’s melody is still the same as the gambuh original, but the drums begin their entrance relatively later in the gong cycle, providing a relaxed quality not felt in the equivalent gambuh piece.

The influence of gambuh in Kamasan’s ensemble is also seen in its instrumentation. Instead of the melody being carried by the bamboo flutes, it is played on the trompong. The trompong of the Kamasan gamelan is unique in having seventeen individual kettles, distinguishing it from the trompongs of all other semar pagulingan groups, which typically comprise no more than fifteen kettles. 5 While the melodic component of gamelan gambuh is monophonic by design, realized by a number of suling (flutes) and possibly a rebab (spike-fiddle), all performing the same melodic line with minimal individual ornamentation, in Kamasan it is bolstered by a host of bronze metallophones, each either embellishing the trompong or stressing important nuclear tones. The pokok (base melody), derived from the trompong’s part, is provided by four jublag (twice as many instruments as other groups) and reinforced by two jegogan . Four gangsa jongkok ( fig. 4 ), the only instrument type to feature keys sitting on the frames instead of hanging from a cord, play a doubled version of the pokok in a style comparable to the penyacah of more common ensembles. 6 Four gangsa pemade and four kantilan , always acting in unison, perform an elaboration of the pokok at a rate twice as fast as the gangsa jongkok.

The fastest rate of rhythmic density—twice as fast as the gangsa—is the province of a collection of non-pitched idiophones that were imported directly from gambuh. These old-fashioned instruments ( fig. 5 ) have become a hallmark of the few ensembles like Kamasan’s that still include them. They have faded from use in most other semara pegulingan ensembles. The instruments, known as gumanak (two hollow, split bronze cylinders struck with metal beaters), kecicak (a pair of mounted cymbals struck by two additional cymbals tied to wooden mallet handles, known as kangsi elsewhere), and gentorag (a bell tree), combine with the more popular ceng-ceng and klenang to provide constantly moving, shifting rhythmic undercurrents to the music. 7 Two paired kendang krumpungan (drums), the ensemble’s rhythmic leaders, and a kajar (a small handheld gong with a sunken boss) that reinforces the kendang part and marks important points in the colotomic structure, are analogous to their gambuh ancestors. Interestingly, this ensemble makes use of only a single hanging gong for colotomic punctuation (the gong kempur ). Although the ensemble possesses a smaller kemong as well, it is not employed in the traditional repertoire.

A striking feature of this music is the complete absence of interlocking figuration, known as kotekan, which is endemic to most genres of Balinese gamelan. All other documented semar pagulingan ensembles, furthermore, feature this interlocking texture. In Kamasan, however, polos and sangsih —the two components of kotekan—are absent. 8 Compared with a gamelan semar pagulingan performing in the modern style, 9 the simple texture of Kamasan’s music conveys the impression that it hails from several steps earlier in the development of the genre. Although it is dangerous to make such classically evolutionary assumptions (especially in the case of Balinese gamelan, where older genres are often much more complex in many respects than their successors), this particular assertion does have relevance. I Lunyuh, the semar pagulingan teacher of Colin McPhee, articulates the premise that this music originated with simple ornamentation, and it gradually gave way to increasingly complex interlocking figuration. In a description of I Lunyuh’s style of transmitting the traditional repertoire, McPhee writes that “he refused to consider the flowers [melodic ornamentation]. . . . In his time they were very simple. They had only to follow the melody. But now . . . [w]ords failed him” ( McPhee 1946 :210).

This statement implies that the melodic ornamentation styles of semar pagulingan experienced an increase in complexity during the life of I Lunyuh, which began circa 1876. (McPhee estimated I Lunyuh to be sixty years old in 1936 [ Oja 1990 :127].) The Kamasan style of ornamentation can be tentatively dated to this period, as the rules governing its derivation from the pokok agree with I Lunyuh’s description of the older style. Slightly more complex interlocking ornamentation styles, however, also “only follow the melody.” The silih asih style, 10 as utilized by the ensembles of Banjar Titih and Besang-Ababi, 11 could be described as a “kotekan-ized” version of the Kamasan style, 12 possibly derived by treating the original unison line as polos and inserting a sangsih part rhythmically between each note of the polos.

Another contribution to the apparent simplicity of Kamasan’s style is the consistent use of this single, non-interlocking ornamentation style. In contrast to more modern genres, which make extensive use of ensemble texture modulation ( Tenzer 2000 :61–68), this particular semara pegulingan repertoire is rigidly consistent. Other traditional semar pagulingan ensembles, however, make use of a range of ornamentational textures. The gamelan of Pagan Kelod, which McPhee found to be the only other active seven-tone ensemble during his residency in the 1930s, when it was housed in Tampak Gangsal ( McPhee 1966 :14), employs both norot (for body sections) and ubitan telu (for introductions and conclusions). The argument for the relative modernity of Pagan Kelod’s music, in comparison to that of Kamasan, is bolstered by the fact their pengawak (body sections) are metrically augmented twofold to include double the number of pokok tones and therefore units of ornamentation. 13 In this treatment, which is known as wilet ( Rai 1996 :215) and bears similarity to the Javanese concept of rangkep , the original gambuh melody is abstracted due to the two-fold reduction of its relative speed. This application, which could only have been achieved by intentional design, suggests a further degree of sophistication or development than the relative simplicity of the Kamasan style.

With the exception of one anomalous piece, the entire Kamasan repertoire is performed in the metric form commonly known as tabuh telu pegambuhan ( McPhee 1966 :127), although the Kamasan musicians do not use terminology describing the general form. Typically consisting of several movements, including at least two pengawak with a 256-beat pokok, the complete realization of a single piece in this gambuh-style form can last as long as half an hour. A successful performance relies on the trompong player to remember the copious melodic contours and the drummers to know their fixed part and its relationship with the trompong melody.

The protracted musical form of tabuh telu pegambuhan , demanding constant focus and attention during performance due to the copious room for melodic twists and turns, is not an anomaly but instead a common feature of pre-twentieth-century court genres. A form defined by its 256-beat pengawak is encountered in the royal gamelan gong gede ( tabuh empat [ Tenzer 2000 :359]), encompassing about 40 percent of the repertoire ( Hood 2010 :303). Gamelan pelegongan, a popular derivative of semar pagulingan, deals exclusively with pengawak of this length. This similarity of extreme length in palace music is almost certainly by design, as it symbolizes the majestic grandeur of established dynastic traditions. Listeners encountering these genres in their heyday would undoubtedly have been struck by the “weightiness” of the music, underscored by the remarkable physical size of the ensembles. Even today, Balinese are impressed by the evocation of sovereignty an ordinary performance cannot help but elicit. Renowned musician I Made Terip, an established specialist in many different genres of gamelan, acknowledges the indexical power of this music—its “special potential for creating emotional effects” ( Turino 1999 :232)—in a discussion of lelambatan (the illustrious repertoire of the gong gede orchestra) on the 1992 documentary film Bali, les Couleurs du Divin . Terip explains that “of all the groups that I know, only the sound of this orchestra gives me the shivers” ( Caracache and Fassola 1992 ).

The semiotic power of gamelan semara pegulingan derives not only from the indexicality of its sonic information but also from the “layers of historical . . . information” it also evokes ( Rancier 2014 :379). Listeners are affected both by nostalgia for a long-lost era and by knowledge of the events experienced within the hundred years since this gamelan was severed from its royal affiliation. For those who are aware of this history, it is the chilling recollection of these circumstances that represents an essential component of its complete contextual experience.

The history of the semara pegulingan ensemble of Pura Balé Batur in Kamasan begins in the year 1908, with the fall of the kingdom of Klungkung as the last to resist the invasion of colonizing Dutch forces. Vastly outnumbered and facing inevitable defeat, the Raja of Klungkung chose to stand up to the invaders through the defiant act known as puputan . On April 28, 1908, the king and his military forces, armed and accompanied by his family and all his court, met the invaders on the road outside the palace. Instead of conceding loss or recognizing the Dutch army’s authority, the Balinese turned their weapons on themselves. They set fire to their buildings, destroyed their own family heirlooms to prevent them from falling into the hands of their enemies, and walked directly into enemy fire. Through this act, which recurred in several distinct cases during the Dutch invasion, the Balinese sovereigns were able to end their lives on their own terms ( Pringle 2004 :103–108).

In her analysis of the factors involved in the puputan Klungkung, Margaret Wiener reaches past superficial, etic description to approach an emic, Balinese understanding of the events that unfolded ( Wiener 1995 ). According to her interpretation, the significance of the puputan was not due merely to the act of martyrdom it depicted, or even to the regime change it entailed, but to the epistemological shift it mandated. After this event Bali was no longer a magical realm, protected by the spiritual energy of its paramount king. Instead, it was a secular place, defined by the cold, hard realities of life under foreign colonization. The puputan was more than just the destruction of the royal family, the palace, and the royal heirlooms—it was the destruction of the world ( uug gumi ) ( Wiener 1995 :277–87). This eschatological event—the shattering of a central characteristic of Balinese life—did not occur with the royal sacrifice but earlier, when King Dewa Agung Jambe had failed to summon his niskala (occult) power and destroy the invading army with a certain heirloom weapon. This moment verified that the Klungkung dynasty had lost the divine protection it had enjoyed for centuries. The Dutch invaders with their white eyes, furthermore, were viewed as reincarnations of the blinded Kebo Iwa, the mythical general who governed Bali before it was conquered by Kepakisan’s Majapahit compatriots. By defeating Kebo Iwa through deceit, the famed Majapahit general Gajah Madah had ensured a time limit on the divine grace afforded to the Balinese kings ( Wiener 1995 :301–303; Geertz 2004 :89–92). The puputan Klungkung was, in this regard, inevitable. It was the bloody termination of an era, the culmination of events set in motion at the very moment of the dynasty’s inception.

So, then, what transpired after the end of the world? Ultimately, these eye-opening events, coupled with the two 1906 puputan in Badung that occurred just hours apart, inspired a sense of nationalist pride in generations of Balinese and steered the colonial Dutch administration to a governing style that was empathetic to Balinese concerns ( Pringle 2004 :108). In the immediate sense, however, elements of royal Balinese culture, and traditions such as its unique styles of music, had been sacrificed. As the only orchestra of musicians that played this music belonged to the palace, they were obliged to face the Dutch army and perish alongside their king. The burning of the palace’s instruments was almost certainly the work of the Balinese residents, as it was during the puputan at Puri Pemecutan, Denpasar, on September 20, 1906. As Made Hood observes, however, the regal gong gede orchestra of the Pemecutan court, unlike the doomed semar pagulingan of Klungkung, was rescued from the flames by court members unwilling to see it destroyed ( Hood 2010 :70). This act of saving the instruments, though, was not adequate to ensure the survival of its repertoire. Describing an event epitomizing the characteristic Dutch lack of respect for the conquered Balinese traditions, Hood relates the treatment of a 360-year-old gamelan in the aftermath of the 1906 puputan, as recounted by Cokorda Ngurah Pemecutan.

Dutch soldiers . . . “played” with the gong gede ensemble. Pemecutan was quick to point out he did not mean that the soldiers sat down with Balinese musicians and played drums and cymbals in the name of Balinese music. Instead the Dutch soldiers ideally passed their time by literally playing with instruments such as the trompong kettles, using them as bowling balls [and] rolling them across the palace grounds. Pemecutan referred to this as . . . “early morning sport” and according to the stories told among residents of the puri, the sound of rolling trompong kettles could be heard all throughout the palace!

Although the Pemecutan instruments survived these events and the subsequent Dutch occupation, it is a notable exception. The gamelan semar pagulingan of the Klungkung court, reflecting a more typical outcome, did not survive the battle and was never heard again (I Mangku Ketut Suradnya, interview, July 29, 2013).In the years following this event, the absence of semar pagulingan was noticed, and lamented, by members of the  Pura  (temple) Balé Batur in the nearby village of Kamasan. This village, located equidistantly between the palace in Semarapura and its original home in Gelgel, had for centuries been home to the artisans of the various palaces. The long tradition of patronage by the kings of the region has given rise to the famous local style of painting known as  lukisan wayang  Kamasan, and even the very root of the village’s name ( mas ) refers to the gold used by the legions of goldsmiths working for the royal family. The Kamasan residents, having grown up around the music of the semar pagulingan, felt it was their responsibility to revive it.

The reconstruction of the semar pagulingan of the Klungkung court faced two major problems. The first was physical. A gamelan equipped with the particular tuning to play this music simply did not exist, as the only set had been destroyed a decade earlier. According to I Mangku Ketut Suradnya, the closest substitute was the six-tone semar pagulingan in the neighboring town of Gelgel. 14  The Kamasan residents, however, wished to experience the original music, which required no less than seven tones to realize all the different melodic and modal combinations found in the repertoire. The congregation of Pura Balé Batur decided to sell their five-tone gamelan pelegongan and use the proceeds to build a new seven-tone gamelan. Having decided on a tuning created by members of the temple, who claimed to remember that of the  saih pitu  (seven-tone) original gamelan, and guided by the intervallic structure of suling gambuh, the congregation went to work building a new set of instruments. Under the direction of a  pandé  (gamelan smith) from the nearby village of Tihingan, they did all the work in the  jeroan  (inner sanctum) of the Balé Batur temple. 15  A temporary forge was built to smelt the bronze for the keys, and the wooden cases were built on site. From this cooperation of the temple community, a unique gamelan was created, one ready to bring semar pagulingan Klungkung back into the world (I Mangku Ketut Suradnya, personal communication, July 29, 2013).

One nearly insurmountable obstacle remained: no one in the community knew the music they hoped to play. If any of the original court musicians had come from Kamasan, they had certainly perished in the battle with the Dutch. Fortunately, one of the palace musicians had in fact survived the slaughter of the puputan Klungkung. Years after he wielded a spear in the confrontation, the man who became known as  Kaki  (Grandfather) Gondol was called upon to teach this music, which only survived in his memory, to an eager group of new musicians (I Wayan Sumendra, personal communication, June 7, 2013).

Under the guidance of Kaki Gondol, the new musicians of Kamasan mastered the repertoire of the Klungkung palace in the early decades of the twentieth century. After passing on this musical tradition, Kaki Gondol left its responsibility in the hands of the Kamasan villagers themselves. Colin McPhee visited this group in the late 1930s. His unpublished field notes contain an analysis of their tuning and repertoire ( McPhee n.d. ). When he published his 1966 work  Music in Bali , however, McPhee neglected to include a description of the Kamasan style in his chapter on “Gamelan Semar Pegulingan,” instead favoring the ensemble from Tampak Gangsal, Badung. The main attention given to “Kamassan” describes the gamelan as “badly out of tune” ( McPhee 1966 :140). This statement is completely plausible given the relatively young age of the gamelan and the tuning instability associated with new instruments. In McPhee’s analysis of the Kamasan gamelan’s tuning ( McPhee 1966 :42), as well as in the second volume of  De Toonkunst van Bali  ( Kunst and Kunst-van Wely 1925b :484), its scale does not deviate from its current form more than the accepted range of detuning between paired instruments ( umbang-isep ). 16  In his review of  Panji in Bali I , Andrew Toth addresses this discrepancy by providing the further justification that “any paired tuning must stretch or compress at least half of its octaves if the beat rate of its ‘unisons’ is intended to be constant throughout the ambitus of the ensemble; octave deviations therefore cannot necessarily serve as criteria for mistuning” ( Toth 1979 :356). 17  Furthermore, McPhee claims that the “musicians knew only a small repertory of compositions” ( McPhee 1966 :140). The incomplete list of ten individual pieces found among McPhee’s field notes, alone totaling more than five hours of continuous music, can only be assumed to have yielded inferior data compared to Tampak Gangsal, the only other contemporary, active seven-tone ensemble.

By the 1960s, the group was directed by I Ketut Bhuana, who led the performances on the trompong. Although semara pegulingan is played by a large group of musicians, the prohibitively long nature of the music has caused the task of its retention to fall to a single individual capable of remembering it all, thus making that person responsible for directing the twists and turns of the melodies during performance. Without a leader capable of this, realization of the music, especially the uncommon pieces, is almost impossible to accomplish. The Kamasan gamelan has always been fortunate to possess a leader with these remarkable qualities, but in late 1965 a particularly violent episode in Indonesia’s history targeted at suspected communists claimed the lives of thousands of Balinese, including Ketut Bhuana and the only musicians who were able to perform this repertoire (I Mangku Ketut Suradnya, interview, July 29, 2013).

On October 1, 1965, a subversive group formed within the Indonesian armed forces left Jakarta reeling from their attempt to overthrow the Indonesian government by assassinating key figures in the military. While this attempted coup was quickly thwarted by the army’s Strategic Reserve, the victorious generals, led by future president Suharto, were quick to blame the source of this event on the Indonesian communist party, their political rivals. 18  What followed was a government-sponsored, countrywide witch hunt of suspected communists. People only remotely associated with the communist party or its ideals were rounded up and tortured or killed. By the time this frenzy of killings reached Bali, they were undertaken by groups of native Balinese acting at the instigation of military personnel ( Robinson 1995 :280–81). Kamasan was not immune to this bloodshed, and among the dead was Ketut Bhuana, the only remaining authority in the gamelan group (I Mangku Ketut Suradnya, interview, July 29, 2013).

After this anti-communist purge subsided, the semara pegulingan in Kamasan was unable to continue. The instruments still stood, but the organization lacked any individuals who were able to lead the group or teach the repertoire. Especially bothered by this was Pan Soka, 19  the priest of the Balé Batur temple. He decided to seek out Kaki Gondol, the man who had led the revival of this music in the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1966 Kaki Gondol was in his nineties and living alone. Having agreed to return to Kamasan to reteach the music he had preserved in his head for many years, he walked several miles roundtrip each day by himself in order to ensure the survival of this music (I Wayan Sumendra, personal conversation, June 8, 2013).

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, a group of mostly young musicians learned the traditional repertoire of the semara pegulingan from Kaki Gondol. It was very difficult for them, and it took until the middle of the 1970s to master the long, slow compositions. Unfortunately, three days after teaching them their ninth song (“Gabor”), Kaki Gondol died (I Wayan Sumendra, personal conversation, June 8, 2013). From that point, the torch of leadership was passed to I Wayan Sumendra, a fifteen-year-old trompong player.

A son of Pan Soka, the priest who instigated this most recent musical revival, Pak Sumendra personified this musical tradition. Under his guidance, the group flourished. His excellent memory kept the music Kaki Gondol taught him unchanged. The pieces are remembered and performed today in nearly the same manner as they are performed on recordings from the 1970s. 20  The reputation of the ensemble, performing this traditional music with an unparalleled degree of integrity, attracted interest from many contemporary Balinese scholars. Prominent teacher I Wayan Sinti’s 2006 article describes his own fascination with traditional repertoires and the influence of the Kamasan tuning on that of his own gamelan ( Sinti and Sanger 2006 :44). I Wayan Gandera, one of the first Balinese musicians to teach gamelan in the United States, observed rehearsals in Kamasan upon his return to Bali from UCLA in the late 1960s (Jan Steward, personal conversation, October 15, 2013) and conducted oral interviews with the musicians (I Wayan Sumendra, personal conversation, June 10, 2013).

As evidenced by recordings, the music of Kamasan has undergone very little change over the subsequent five decades. The long, non-repetitive melodies forming the body sections of each piece have not experienced  any  modification or suffered from any lapse in recollection, which is no small feat considering the body section of each piece contains at least 512 beats (two  gongan  of 256 beats each) of melodic material, and the musicians did not utilize any sort of notational aid. By contrast, the kendang part, practically identical for every song, had begun taking on influence from the drum styles of gamelan pelegongan. 21  Possibly due to the monotony of playing the same slow, unchanging patterns day after day, year after year,  pengaruh  pelegongan (pelegongan influence) began creeping in. Gamelan pelegongan, as a direct descendant of semar pagulingan with faster, more intricate kendang patterns designed to accompany complex dances, was a logical and fitting choice for source material from which to enhance the simple patterns of the semara pegulingan. The changes may be subtle, but it is in fact these simple original patterns, already forsaken by every other group in Bali, that demonstrate the individuality and importance of the Kamasan style.

In the summer of 2013, I was introduced to these musicians, their art, and their stories when Pak Sumendra accepted me as his student (and houseguest). Originally inspired by the single circulating commercial recording dedicated to semara pegulingan Kamasan ( Sekehe Semara Pegulinan Bale Batur 1991 ), I was then intrigued by the dearth of available knowledge. I endeavored to learn more about this fascinating and neglected form of Balinese music. Although Pak Sumendra had never taken a student before, I was able to secure an introduction through Dr. I Nyoman Wenten, my instructor in California. What follows is a first-person narrative of my involvement in learning, playing, and eventually safeguarding gamelan semara pegulingan. Nevertheless, this section is not about me. As anthropologist Mark Pedelty so astutely notes, “We become anthropologists [or ethnomusicologists] because other people are infinitely more interesting than we are” ( Pedelty 2012 :8). I offer my own experiences here with this same deferential attitude, in the hope that my reflexivity can offer an informative perspective on these infinitely more interesting people and traditions.

I participated in an effort to reintroduce these original drum patterns during the preparations for the group’s performance at the yearly Pesta Kesenian Bali (PKB, or Bali Arts Festival) on June 17, 2013. The involvement of the Kamasan ensemble in the PKB, recognized with substantial support from Klungkung’s local government, had not occurred since 2006 and was therefore cause for much attention by the musicians. Beginning a month before the performance date, nightly rehearsals helped to refine the performance material and bring the many new members up to speed. My interest in and study of the kendang parts outside rehearsals led to an invitation for me to join the group as a drummer, an offer I enthusiastically accepted. 22  The part I learned, however, was not the original  pupuh  kendang but was instead rife with pengaruh pelegongan as proliferated through the 1991 CMP recording. Just three days before the performance, Pak Sumendra’s offhand comment of “tidak boleh pakai pung” (you may not use the  pung  stroke), referring to the distinctive pelegongan style drum stroke used to direct the music’s flow, 23  opened my eyes to those subtle differences lost over the years. I was shocked to discover that, except for a single anomalous section of “Unduk,” the pung stroke is not used at all. Without the availability of this stroke, the vocabulary of drum patterns used to signal tempo changes and transitions becomes drastically different. In turn, the differences between these patterns represent another degree of distinction from pelegongan-inspired repertoire. Hurriedly working with my drum partner I Wayan Sedana Yoga, an original member of the group who studied kendang with Kaki Gondol in the late 1960s, we reconstructed elements of the original style and successfully presented them at the televised PKB performance. While the changes we affected probably went unnoticed by most of the audience, this recovery was a major source of personal satisfaction for the group, and it was just one aspect of a growing sense of awareness and nostalgia for the old repertoire that was partly activated by my inquiries.

Prior to my fieldwork, I was principally familiar with the music through the group’s 1991 recording, the only commercial release dedicated to Kamasan’s semara pegulingan group. This well-recorded work provides clear, effective documentation of the four pieces that comprise the album ( Harnish 1993/94 ). Having studied these recordings incessantly, I was eager to expand my knowledge of the music beyond the capabilities of an American resident with access to the Internet. Upon my arrival in Kamasan village, however, I was dismayed to find that my familiarity with only these four pieces was paralleled by the majority of the Kamasan musical community. In the two decades since the release of the album, these digital tracks have permeated every level of musical life in Kamasan. With an absence of any other easily obtained recordings, an entire generation of the Kamasan community has grown up hearing only these four pieces played on home stereos, temple loudspeakers, and more recently on cell phones and perpetually shared via Bluetooth. The opportunity to experience them outside the boundaries of rehearsals and sporadic performances, while the physical instruments are locked inside the temple, has even influenced the older generation, whose recollection of the documented pieces is undeniably better than that of the remaining undocumented repertoire. This pervasiveness is easily seen in the choice of repertoire for the 2013 PKB concert. Three of the four pieces rehearsed and performed are found on the CMP recording, and the remaining piece was a dance from outside the traditional repertoire, one designed to meet audience expectations for variety in the performance. Aside from the two sections of “Unduk” cut from the CD (due to time constraints) and certain minor stylistic changes, the traditional component of Kamasan’s PKB performance was a direct reproduction of the recorded work. On the surface, the unrecorded aspects of Kamasan’s unique repertoire were in great danger. At the time of my fieldwork, only four active members in the group had firsthand experience learning the repertoire from Kaki Gondol.

Hope of fostering the revival of these disappearing pieces still lingered, despite the neglect of over half of the repertoire. Even the musicians unfamiliar with the unrecorded pieces felt much pride in possessing such a unique repertoire and in their corresponding interest in studying and preserving it. Outside of rehearsal I was regularly approached by individuals wishing to discuss the music, each of whom would invariably identify one of the more uncommon pieces as their personal favorite. My attempts to learn these pieces were received favorably by the Kamasan musicians, who would often devote portions of their precious PKB rehearsal time to my personal enlightenment. Faced with the difficulty of accessing the instruments, I habitually arrived early to the nightly rehearsals to work on the rare pieces with the more experienced members of the group, who were also in the habit of appearing early. Together, we played through such pieces as “Gabor” and “Sembung Radas.” As the younger members of the ensemble trickled in, they would join in on their respective instruments and follow along, and eventually the entire ensemble would be present, playing these pieces that most of them had never before encountered. Even for some seasoned musicians, these ventures at the beginning of rehearsals were a good review of this subject matter. Attempts to record “Sembung Radas,” with musicians who had performed it as recently as during the Bali Arts Festival of 2006, were blemished by one prominent performer’s regular cries of “jarang, ini!” (this is unusual!). Evidently, the common performance repertoire was on its way to being “fossilized” in a similar manner to Tenzer’s description of the Gunung Sari group from Peliatan, which has been performing the same concert weekly since the mid-1960s ( Tenzer 2005 :110). However, no consternation over the fate of these pieces was then evident. None of the participants in these revival sessions, including myself, was aware of it at the time, but these efforts would soon prove invaluable when an unanticipated event changed the course of the Kamasan gamelan’s future. 24

On July 7, 2013, just weeks after the group’s successful performance at PKB, I Wayan Sumendra, the trompong player and the tradition’s principal culture-bearer, suddenly passed away of an apparent heart attack. This came as a complete shock, as the sixty-two-year-old man was in excellent health, and there were no outward signs of any health problems. His passing spelled disaster for the semara pegulingan ensemble. Pak Sumendra had been the guiding light of the gamelan for many years, and no one else felt the need to step up to his role in the group. Concern over the future of the gamelan dominated the days following his death. While the ensemble consented unanimously to continue, the exact method of sustaining the music without the man who had dominated its perpetuation for the past forty-seven years was less clear. Only the four pieces recorded by CMP were playable with any conviction by the surviving members. The leadership of the ensemble decided to make several prominent members each responsible for the trompong part of two pieces in an attempt to avoid the unfortunate historical precedent.

I therefore found myself in a remarkable situation, one where my research could be turned around quickly to benefit the subjects. As the only formal student of Pak Sumendra, I was privy to the details of the unrecorded pieces, those compositions unfamiliar and unknown to the rest of the group. After Pak Sumendra passed, I was the only remaining person to know “Brahmara,” a song that had not been played for decades. Engaged to pass on this disappearing music, I spent the last of my time in Bali at Pak Sumendra’s home, helping to prepare the remaining members of the group to continue without him.

Three weeks, however, was not enough time to train the ensemble fully. The young musicians have more than enough drive to sustain the music, but it is a challenge for the two remaining members of the original group. These elderly men had never needed to assume a leading role. Scattered recordings of the group made over the last four decades, unearthed on far sides of the globe, will help keep the repertoire from fading away. My personal efforts in America to raise awareness of this music and perform the rare pieces, in an expression of my newfound responsibility as a major culture-bearer for this tradition, will hopefully inspire the Kamasan group to do the same and provide a framework for future interaction. 25  Under the direction of Pak Sumendra’s eldest son, I Wayan Suhardi Yasa, the story of the Sekaa Semara Pegulingan Balé Batur, from Kamasan village, has entered a new chapter. 26

Has this essay, thus far, illustrated the lives of people involved in the semara pegulingan tradition of Kamasan village? Or has it narrated the life of the gamelan itself? Whether one chooses to view this gamelan in terms of an emic Balinese, anthropomorphic understanding of objects ( Eiseman 1990 :9) or chooses to accept the motivational power of its indexicality, it would be hard to deny its “curious ability . . . to animate, to act, to produce effects dramatic and subtle” ( Bennett 2010 :6). While this is not the proper venue to argue for or against the various qualities of material agency, it is nevertheless useful to envisage this musical tradition as something tied to, yet distinct from, human agency, even if our attention only remains at the level of “methodological fetishism” ( Appadurai 1986 :5). In her study of language revival projects, Maori linguist Margie Hohepa speaks of language “regeneration.”

Regeneration speaks to me more of such growth and regrowth, development and redevelopment. Nothing regrows in exactly the same shape that it had previously, or in exactly the same direction. The way a new shoot of a fern, a koru, grows might be used to symbolise the return and regrowth of a language. The koru first circles back towards itself, then, unfurling from itself spreads . . . out in different directions, the frond connected back through the strength and stability of its trunk into the nurture of Papatuanuku, our Earth Mother

As Hohepa demonstrates, a regenerated language (or musical tradition) will not grow identically to its originator—nor should it. It is still a metaphorical koru (or the Balinese equivalent,  paku  [ diplazium esculentum ]), however, it exhibits the same “dynamic permanence” ( Titon 2013 :10) as its predecessors and its progeny. Although these individual, diachronic manifestations take on new symbolism as they grow and unfurl into the world, they are nevertheless linked to a synchronic, fundamental concept of paku, distinct from its earthly materializations. The semara pegulingan of Kamasan, in this way, is like paku. It simultaneously exists independently of, because of, and despite human agency. Indigenous rights advocate Linda Tuhiwai Smith explains that “a language does not die and need to be brought to life; rather, the generations of people who speak the language die, and the new generations need to make the language live by speaking it” ( Smith 2012 :149). The Kamasan gamelan tradition also functions exactly in this regard. We may help it live by replanting its seeds and cultivating its unfurling shoots—perhaps even pruning as necessary—but we humans are mere gardeners, custodians of something greater than any one of us.

In the first week of November 2013, the Pura Balé Batur held its anniversary ceremony. As one of the most important annual events for the gamelan, a  ngayah  devotional service is provided each of the nine days of the ceremony. This one marked the first major performance in almost half a century without I Wayan Sumendra at the helm. Endeavoring to preserve this music that has survived for so long, this successful effort was certainly inspired by the gamelan’s forefathers, including Pak Sumendra, who has already entered the group’s pantheon. The surviving members are fully aware of the importance of their music and its unique place in the continuum of Balinese music. If the events of the last century are any indication, there is no doubt that the music of the Sekehe Semara Pegulingan Balé Batur, of Kamasan village, will endure.

• Next: Kenyah Kendau Kancet Choral Singing of Indonesian and Malaysian Borneo: Reflections on a Triptych

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The Secret to Tom Wolfe’s Irresistible Snap, Crackle and Pop

How the author of “The Right Stuff,” “Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” and other classics turned sociology into art.

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By David Brooks

David Brooks is an Opinion columnist for The Times. This essay is adapted from his introduction to a new edition of “Radical Chic and Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers,” to be published by Picador this month.

There are certain writers you should never read before you yourself sit down to write, like P.G. Wodehouse and Tom Wolfe. For if you do, you will not be able to get their voices and rhythms out of your head, and you will have to confront the absolute certainty that you can’t pull off what they did. In Wolfe’s case you’ll find that you can’t quite replicate the raw energy of his prose: the fun; the snap, crackle, pop; the fuzzy effusions of new sociological categories — masters of the universe, social X-rays.

And then there’s his sheer audacity. His essay “Radical Chic” — about a cocktail party the conductor Leonard Bernstein and his wife, Felicia, threw for the Black Panthers in 1970 — begins with Bernstein waking up in the middle of the night in a state of wild alarm. He had mentioned having a bad dream in an interview somewhere, and Wolfe took that little autobiographical morsel and spun it into a grand tour through the inside of Bernstein’s brain. Any responsible journalist can report, “Bernstein had a nightmare,” but Wolfe has the guts to take a flight of fancy and describe the nightmare from the inside, with its moments of narcissistic grandiosity and its descent into degrading humiliation.

Wolfe was known for his style, but it was his worldview that made him. He read Max Weber at Yale and it all clicked : Life is a contest for status. Some people think humans are driven by money, or love, or to heal the wounds they suffered in childhood, but Wolfe put the relentless scramble up the pecking order at the center of his worldview. It gave him his brilliant eye for surfaces, for the care with which people put on their social displays. He had the ability to name the status rules that envelop us in ways we are hardly aware of. He had a knack for capturing what it feels like to be caught up in a certain sort of social dilemma.

He was drawn to times and places where the status rules were shifting. His book “The Right Stuff,” about the U.S. space program, takes place at such a moment. Before, the combat pilots were the tippy-top alpha males in the world of flight, but then along came the astronauts to knock them off their perch. In “Radical Chic,” you can catch glimpses of the old blue-blood Protestant elite — the Astors, the Whitneys, the Rockefellers. But this is 1970. A new crowd is beginning to displace them: the Bernsteins, Barbara Walters. The members of this rising elite have often made their money in culture and the media, and include the formerly unthinkables — Catholics, Jews, Black people.

The old aristocrats had it so easy, those stately bankers in the J.P. Morgan mold. They may have been frequently bewildered about why the masses didn’t like them, but their own place in the social aristocracy was secure. It was right there in their bloodlines — the generations of grandees stretching back centuries. The status rules were simple. All you had to do was live like an English earl and collect European culture by the boatload, and you could cruise through Manhattan amid the sound of others bowing and scraping.

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Opinion: Banksy's London Zoo, art's simple joy during complex times

Scott Simon

ESSAY 08172024

A man eats an apple as he walks past a mural depicting a goat, purportedly by the street artist Banksy, on August 5, 2024 in the Richmond borough of London, England. Carl Court/Getty Images/Getty Images Europe hide caption

London has been abloom with images of animals in recent days. They are the work of Banksy, the mysterious street artist, who has posted art in unexpected places since the 1990s.

Over the past two weeks, he has spray-painted a mountain goat atop a wall buttress in west London, two elephants with their trunks reaching across a brick wall, and a rhinoceros standing on its hind legs, climbing on top of a car or — and I have to be oblique here — availing itself of the automobile below.

ARTnews said one of Banksy’s 13 million followers on Instagram declared, “This has to be a metaphor for technology replacing nature — maybe a commentary on AI and job security,” which, I confess, was not my reaction on seeing the libidinous rhino and the motorcar.

Banksy has also stenciled a pair of pelicans above a fish and chips bar, and monkeys on the side of a train bridge, swinging by their arms or tails, and a wolf, and a cat.

Each of the works posted on Banksy’s Instagram page has included the hashtag "#LondonZoo." On Tuesday, London awoke to behold a Banksy on a security shutter of the zoo, showing a gorilla lifting a cover to allow a seal and five birds to flap out, free.

Have Banksy’s recent artworks been saying, “Come see animals in this zoo!”? Or, “Isn’t it an outrage that animals are put in a zoo?”

But Vanessa Thorpe, arts correspondent for The Guardian, says the Pest Control Office, the organization that supports Banksy’s works, told her such theorizing is “way too involved … (T)he latest street art has been designed to cheer up the public during a period when the news headlines have been bleak.”

We can forget, when we look for artistic statements to fit an argument, that art can just bring cheer, too.