(1) Description
What do you see?
Vincent Van Gogh ‘Le Cafe La Nuit’
The Cafe terrace on the place Du Forum,Arles,at night
DESCRIPTION is a process of reporting the things that are in the art work. Asking yourself these questions will help you with your assignment.
What art form or type of art is this? Is it a painting, a print, sculpture, ceramics, a photograph or something else? painting
What is the subject matter? Name the things in the artwork. Look closely.
the terrace of cafeteria , some people sitting on the table, the street at night
What lines dominate the artwork? Are they straight, curvy? Can you find other words to describe them? Curvy
What shapes dominate the artwork? Are they geometric (straight, mathematical-like shapes) or organic (curvy, naturalistic shapes), or perhaps both?
Curvy and naturalistic shapes
What are the major colors? Name them.
Yellow and Blue
Name the major patterns (e.g., stripes, circles, etc.) andtextures (bumpy, smooth, other) that you find. The texture of street is bumpy, the tables, people and buildings are smooth.
(2) Analysis
How is it arranged or designed?
ANALYSIS questions should be asked about any artwork, including the one you choose for your assignment.
Artists make relationships–they repeat lines, shapes, colors, and patterns in exciting ways to make an artwork more unified and interesting. This is called composition. (Check out composition athttp://artlex.com and Compositional Models)
How are the shapes arranged, what is the composition of the artwork? Do the shapes resemble any of the following shapes?
Curvy lines. straight and long lines
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What are the major colors?
both warm(yellow, orange) and cold(blue,purple) colors
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Are the colors predominantly light or dark or both?
both
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(This is color value.)
Are they bright or dull or both?
both
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(This is the intensity of the colors.)
How is the value or lighting? Is shading used? Shading means showing a variety of tones or grays, even in the colors. For instance, the lightness of red is pink and the darkness is maroon. Are there just lines in this painting? Or is there light shading, a deep illusion of depth, or high contrast with no shading?
shading is used. light shading and deep illusion of depth
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How is the space arranged? Is it flat with no depth? Is there an overlapping of shapes or is there a sense of three dimensions with some shading and shadows, and showing sides, or deep perspective. Find the foreground, middle ground, background.
there is a sense of three dimensions with some shading and shadows,
(3) Technique
How is it made?
TECHNIQUE, the manner in which it was created, is an important part of any piece of art. As part of your art criticism paper, you should answer these questions, too.
What materials did the artist use–paint, stone, clay, wood, paper,
other? oil paint and paper
(HINT: Museums usually list materials used to make the artwork.)
How did the artist make this __________? (Is it painted, carved, assembled, or made in another way?) painted
Where did the artist find these materials originally?
its not original though.
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(Look in dictionary.)
Do you think the artist made a plan before starting to paint or did she just spontaneously paint it? Why do you think so?
of course he did. gogh drew this painting in 1988, when he was staying Arles, the South of Paris. He stayed up 3 nights to paint this bcuz he wanted to express the feeling of night very lively.
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Where do you think the artist started to paint, with the background, foreground, or with a detail? background. the night sky.
How did the artist paint it? What tools did she use; how did she use them? brush and paint.
How were the brush strokes made? Are they broad, loose, fine, blended? blended ________________________________________
How many paint layers do you think the artist used?
6 or 7 layes?________________________________________________
What problems might the artist have had making it?
he wanted to draw the night sky so he might not be able to keep working when the sun rose. thats why he had to stay up 3 nights.
(4) Interpretation
What’s happening? What does it mean?
INTERPRETATION is the process of understanding or making meaning. This process involves several aspects: emotions, symbols, modern and historical importance, and reinterpretation. Your paper will not be complete without answers to these questions.
What could be a new title for this piece?
One beautiful night at Paris
What symbols do you see? A symbol is something that stands for something else. For example, a lion is often used as a symbol of strength.
empty table – loneliness
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What do the colors symbolize? For example, blue might mean loyalty or calmness like the sea. yellow means pleasure, happyness. blue might mean arcane, midnight,
What do the colors express–make you feel? Do they create a happy or sad mood? Or some other mood? both happy and sad
What theme, big idea, is this about? Is it, for instance, about nature, politics, religion, childhood, other? an atmosphere of the night
What does this work mean for people today?
its one of the Gogh’s masterpieces and still look so beautiful and impressive.
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(5) Judgment
Why is this work important?
JUDGMENT is a process of deciding the value of something. It is not important that we like or dislike an artwork, but that we try to understand why it is praised by other people. Please explain in your paper why the artwork you have chosen is important.
Choose as many good reasons (theories) as you think appropriate:
The painting is representational, like a photograph. How or how not?
it expresses the color of the night, the texture of street and buildings in detail. But the features of people are rather dull.
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The painting expresses emotions, symbols or ideals. What emotions, symbols or ideals?
kind of excited feeling
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The artwork is functional, useful? How?
Very useful. super expensive.
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The art work is formalistic. Does it have unusual lines or shapes or arrangement?
the shapes of street is very unique. It looks like rocky street.
The group of people or institution that would appreciate this painting the most is
everyone who love the excited feeling of night.
(Another theory)
Ask three others for their reactions to the artist’s work (a friend, a parent, a teacher). What differences do you notice in their opinions?
Answering the questions above will help you decide the style of the painting. Style is the way of painting, like your hair style or the way you use your paint brush. Art style has a lot to do with the way the artists use their brush strokes or color. Some use bold brush strokes and bright colors and others use delicate strokes and light colors. With these questions in mind, answer the following questions, too.
What style is the artwork?
delicate strokes and light colors
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Why is this painting effective?
Even if we see this painting during the day, we feel like we’re at night. The night sky is so beautiful. He didn’t use black to draw the night sky only using blue, purple, green. it makes this more mysterious and sophiscated.
homework assignment, please (1) find 3 quotes from chapters 9 and 10 (total of 6) from What I Wish I Knew When I Was 20.
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