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Yessica Duran
Professor Alley
ARTF100
September 16th, 2018
Analyzing a Work of Art Journal
PART 1: General Information
• Write a paragraph that includes the basics about the work of art (most of this information
will be found on the museum website)
• Artist: who created the work of art?
Date: when was the work of art made?
Provenance: where was the work of art made? This is important for later in the analysis
when discussing the content and meaning of the work
Technique and Medium: What materials was it made from?
Dimensions: What are the work's dimensions?
I have chosen is a photograph titled “The Road West” created by the artist Dorothea
Lange an American who lived from 1895- 1965). The date it was created is 1938 it is located in
Southern New Mexico. The provenance for this art is Sons of the artist (Edwynn Houk, New
York). The medium for this print is Gelatin silver print. The dimensions for this work of art are
17.3x24 cm (6 13/16 x 9 7/16 in.)
PART 2: Subject Matter
In this section, you will describe what you see. Subject matter is what is literally depicted
in the work. So, start there. In this part of the paper, the idea is simply to provide the reader with
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a sense of what the work of art looks like. Give a detailed description that gives the reader a
visual.
What I see in general when looking at this photograph all the reader knows is that there is
a road in the middle of nowhere leading to an unknown location. No buildings or people are in
site, only dirt surrounding the road and the sky above the horizon.
PART 3: The Form
In a formal analysis, this will be one of the key parts of the paper. But for now, we are
still going to keep things relatively objective. You still won't necessarily bring up the big
meaning behind the work. You will mainly focus on the way the artist arranged the composition.
And for this assignment, I want you to spend the most attention with this section. In this section,
go over the following components:
o Is the work two-dimensional or three-dimensional?
The Elements of Art
The Principles of Design
1. Describe the work you chose and how the artist has used all 7 of the Elements of Art listed
below. These are the formal elements that you have been studying in the first few weeks of this
course. Time and Motion might not play a big role in the work you select, so you might just
point that out.
2. Choose 4 of the Principles of Design listed below and describe how they have been
incorporated into the composition of the work. Make sure to do the reading in this week's
MindTap section to get a better understanding of the principles of design. To give you some
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examples, I will provide s...
