Art Appreciation

1. Deriving Meaning
Criticism and Analysis

2. Form & Content
• Form= visual, art elements, principles of art
• Content= interpretation of themes, messages
• Subject Matter
• Context
• Subtext

3. • Janine Antoni
Gnaw, 1992
six hundred pounds of chocolate before biting
six hundred pounds of lard before biting
Consider the possible subtext and
context of Antoni’s art.

4. Iconography
• Visual METAPHOR-image or element that is
descriptive of something else.
• SYMBOL-image or element that stands for or
represents some other entity or concept.
• ICONOGRAPHY-system of symbols that allows
artists to refer to complex ideas.

5. Process
• Is there any METAPHOR, SYMBOL or
ICONOGRAPHY present in Gnaw?

6. Writings about Art
• Art critics, art historians, museum curators
• Writing helps develop ideas about art.
• Content is not fixed, rather is reevaluated over
time.
• Contradictory and opposing viewpoints over one
artwork.

7. Modernist Criticisms
• Formalist
• Idealogical
• Psychoanalytic
• Structuralism

8. Postmodern Philosophical
Positions
• Post-structuralism
• Deconstruction
• Feminist

9. Cindy Sherman

10. Guerilla Girls

11. Personal Interpretation
• “based on your own ideas, personal
tastes, experiences, and history…
emotional response…”, p.102 Meaning
often shifts…