Four ways of looking at art

1. A personal Looking at Guiding questions Your notes

approach
YOURSELF- YOUR WORLD- YOUR • What are your first reactions to the work?
EXPERIENCE • How does it make you think or feel?
• What does the work remind you of?
• What connection can you make to other
things you have seen?
• How do your gender, class, age,
background influence the way you respond?

2. Looking at the CONTENT - MESSAGE - TITLE - GENRE • What is it about, what is happening?
subject- what is it • What is the message the artist is
about? What is the artwork telling us, through its content, communicating? Are there any symbols or
title or even, in the case of more abstract work, its indirect references?
form? • What does the artist call it? How does the
title change the way you see it?
• How does the work relate to art history and
other traditional genres such as the Nude,
Landscape, History painting, Still Life?

3. Looking at the COLOR- SHAPES- MARKS- SURFACE-SCALE-
Object- What can SPACE- MATERIALS- PROCESS- COMPOSITION
I see?
Look at the artwork formally, in terms of line, color,
tone, space, and mass. Look at the physical
properties of materials and processes, the
• What colors does the artist use and why do
you think this is? How are they organized?
• What kind of shapes and lines do you see?
• What kind of marks does the artist use?
• What kind of surface do you see? Is there
texture?
• How big is the work, is scale important to
this piece and why?

 associations and histories of materials affect our
understanding of the work.
4. Looking at the WHEN- WHERE WHO- HISTORY- OTHER ARTS-
context- relating OTHER FIELDS OF KNOWLEDGE- THE
the work to the PRESENT- THE HANG- INTERPRETATION-
wider world ENVIRONMENT
Investigating when, where and the cultural and
historical background of an artwork reveals more
about the work. The positioning in the gallery and
the information provided by the curators are also
helpful. Try to see the work within the larger
framework of culture, history and the audience who
sees it.
Resource from Tate Education, annotated by Heather McReynolds
• What sense of space do you see? Is there
illusionistic depth or is it flat?
• What materials does the artist use? Are
they traditional? Any found objects? What
connotations and associations do the
materials carry?
• How has the work been made? Has the
artist made it or is it fabricated? How visible
is the making process? If it is an installation
how is it assembled? If it is a video how is it
filmed and projected?
• How is the work organized and put
together?
• When was it made, what period in history?
• Where was it made, what does it tell us
about this?
• What were the social and historical events
at the time it was made?
• Can you relate it to other arts of its time,
music, literature, film?
• Relate it to other areas of knowledge such
as science, geography?
• How has the curator presented the work,
are there connections with other works?
How is the work hung, lit, displayed? Are
there thematic connections?
• How does the way it is curated affect the
viewers experience of the work?
• What information is available and how does
this affect your reading of the work?