ENG 1021 Visual Analysis  (Art)


Your assignment is to select a painting by Duy Huynh, Julie Heffernan, or another surrealist artist of your choosing and to analyze its compositional elements in an effort to identify an overall theme communicated by the work and explain its relationship to what you see as the three most important symbols in the work.    

Please note that if you choose an artist other than Huynh or Heffernan that you must know the title of the work and the artist's name.  If you do not, you must choose another piece.

Purpose

The purpose of your essay is to analyze/interpret and to argue. You are to identify an overall theme communicated by the painting and explain how three of the objects present in the work are symbolically connected to this idea.

Audience

Imagine that you are in a local museum or art gallery with a very close friend or family member.  After examining the painting together in silence for about 10 minutes, you turn to this person to argue your interpretation.

NOTE:  THE IDEAS PRESENTED IN YOUR PAPER MUST BE YOUR OWN.  DO NOT USE OUTSIDE SOURCES.  YOU ARE TO FORM YOUR OWN ARGUMENT USING YOUR OWN INTERPRETATIONS, NOT RELY OWN SOMEONE ELSE'S.

Your analysis

You will need to go beyond just describing the photograph or painting.  You will also need to analyze it in detail using the Strategies for Understanding Visuals to arrive at an overall theme.  After you have identified this one word idea (theme) that the text communicates, identify the three symbols in the work that you feel best communicate that idea/theme.   Your description in your essay should lead you (and your audience) to discover the painting's meaning.  For each descriptive detail you consider including in your essay, you should ask yourself a simple question:  “So what?” Why is what you are describing important? What does it mean? How is it connected to the theme I have identified?  In your essay, you should avoid including descriptive details if you do not explain their importance or their connection to your theme (which will be your overall claim).  

While their may be no “right” or “wrong” interpretation of the painting you write about, there is quite a difference between a weak and strong interpretation.  Your analysis will be strong, and thus convincing to readers, if you draw logical conclusions from the details based on the evidence that is present in the text.  You also must make clear connections between your interpretation and the specific details of the painting and need to organize and explain your ideas clearly and logically.

To analyze something is to break it down into its parts to make sense of it more easily.  But analysis doesn’t just stop at the breakdown.   The breakdown is the beginning of understanding.  Analysis provides a method for putting the whole back together again in a more meaningful way.

As invention work for this essay, and the first step towards an analysis, understanding, and interpretation, you must answer each of the following questions about your painting BEFORE you attempt a draft.

While the actual paper itself is not that lengthy, the analytical process for understanding what you see requires time, deep critical thought, and patience.

The analytical act tends to separate a whole into its constituent parts, an object into its elements.  During analysis we take things apart so we can examine them, come to some understanding about the parts and their relationships, and finally, develop awareness of the chemistry or the logic that holds the parts together.  Eventually, the analyst wants to put these individual components back together with a deeper understanding of the whole—the object itself and the idea it inspires.  This idea is your overall theme.



Important Tips to Keep in Mind

  • Avoid describing the painting or photograph in second person (you can see, you can hear…). It sounds as if you’re telling the reader what he or she perceives (Maybe they don’t see it).  
  • This is a FORMAL ESSAY with a formal structure, NOT a freewrite.  You must have an intro that previews the content of your body paragraphs, states a clear claim (what you see as the overall theme), and establishes a solid CONTEXT for your argument.  To do this, present answers to each of the following questions in your intro:  
****Identify the focal point and explain how the artist draws your eye to that particular area
        of the image. Next, argue why you think the artist might wish to emphasis this section of
        the painting. Look at your cast of characters: What does their facial expression
        communicate about what they are thinking for feeling? What does their posture
        communicate about these things? Next, what do you think the story is here? What is
        going on and why? What has happened? This is your character's story/situation. Lastly,'
         what might be the significance of the title and how is it connected to the focal point,
         character(s), and story?
  • NOTE:  IF YOU DO NOT ESTABLISH THIS CONTEXT IN THE INTRO, THERE IS NO CLEAR UNDERSTANDING FOR YOUR READER WHY YOUR SYMBOLS ARE RELEVANT TO THE THEME.
  • Use present tense throughout and be consistent in your use of verb tense. Proofread carefully so that you don’t mix past and present-tense verbs in the same account.  Use active verbs!!! Do not overuse the verb "to be." Too many sentences using "It was. . ." not only kill your prose; they can kill your reader.
  • Make certain that you have clear sub-claims (topic sentences) that are directly connected to your overall claim (theme).
  • Help others understand the painting and its compositional elements as you do; Provide clear, direct explanations, and make strong connections between each of your ideas and your overall claim.


Format 
Your essay should be a minimum of 3 - 4 FULL pages, and you must give it a title that adequately reflects the entire content of the paper. It should also be typed, double spaced, with one-inch margins all around, Times New Roman Font, & 12 pt. (See MLA format).  



Your grade for this essay will be determined as follows: 

Total Possible Points:  40/

Focus (11 points): Does essay have a clear purpose? Provide the reader with a deeper understanding of the photograph/painting?  Present s clear meaning/interpretation?

Development (11 points):  Are there detailed descriptions of the painting/photo? Does the writer avoid giving detail without illustrating importance? Does the writer break the work down into individual components and discuss their importance to the work as a whole?  Does the writer make use of the strategies for understanding visual representations?  Does the writer use this knowledge to create a basis for breakdown with the purpose and audience squarely in mind? Help others understand the image as they do?

Organization (11 points):   Do ideas and paragraphs proceed in logical and apparent sequence or pattern? Does writer use sufficient audience cues to let the reader know what has been discussed, what is being discussed, or what will be discussed?  Does writer use attention-getting title and lead-in, paragraph hooks, transitional words and phrases?  Does writer guide the reader from beginning to end?

Style (4 points):  Is language clear direct and readable? Are sentences clear, concise, and easily read by intended audience? Is word choice appropriate for audience? Do sentences reveal and sustain appropriate voice and tone? 

Mechanics (3 points):  Are there obvious errors in spelling, punctuation, and grammar? Are there patterns of error?

NO INVENTION WORK (-3 POINTS)

NO 1ST DRAFT ON DUE DATE (-3 POINTS)

NO PEER CRITIQUE (-3 POINTS)

NO REFLECTION (-3 POINTS)

NO PROCESS=NO GRADE 

Grading scale:

A 36-40
B 32-35
C 28-31
D 24-27
F   0-23