Art History Visual Analysis Essay | PDF Example, Study notes of Art

Download Art History Visual Analysis Essay | PDF Example and more Study notes Art in PDF only on Docsity! Sample Paper #2 [Student Name] [Assignment Name] [Date] [Instructor’s Name] Statue of Liberty (1962) by Andy Warhol Approx. 80 x 61 in. Silkscreen ink and spray paint on linen Viewed at Arkansas Arts Center Andy Warhol exhibition (October 26, 2008) A Formal Analysis of Andy Warhol’s Statue of Liberty Andy Warhol created his silk screen painting Statue of Liberty in 1962 using silkscreen ink and spray paint on linen. Just as the title suggests, the painting’s subject is the Statue of Liberty, repeated in a pattern twelve times (not including the right side of the painting where the image repeats four additional times, but is cut off). The painting is currently being exhibited at the Arkansas Arts Center, but it belongs to the Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. It is relatively large at 80 by 61 inches (that’s bigger than me!). One must look up at the painting if not standing far enough away to view it in its entirety. The image that repeats twelve times in the painting is that of the Statue of Liberty standing face on, and we view her from her legs up. We are able to see her torch, or at least most of it, and the horizon in the background. The painting is mostly in the cool hue of blue, but not in its normal value; it may have some green mixed in with it. In contrast to the blue, there is the warm hue of red visible in the top right quarter of the painting. The painting is not centered on the linen, but rather somewhat aligned to the right, so there is a significant amount of unused or unpainted space on the left side. The repetition of the statue’s image gives the work a sense of unity, while the differences between the twelve images in the pattern (and there are many) offer variety. It appears as though the image of the statue itself is not painted for the most part, but it must be to some degree or it would not be distinguishable, so it must be a significantly lighter value than the blue that colors in the ocean. The sky in the background is the color of linen. The blue and/or red paint (depending on which rectangle it is) fills in the ocean in the bottom two thirds of each rectangular image. In about three fourths of the rectangles there is a cloud of blue in a darker value than that used on the statue that shrouds the statue’s face and/or torch, preventing us from seeing the entire image clearly. There are two rectangles at the top right corner of the work in which red paint is used, if you do not count the rectangles to the far right that are cut off. Because the painting is aligned to the right, and because the red paint is only used in the rectangles in the top right corner, there appears to be more weight on the right and less on the left, more weight on the top and less on the bottom. It looks like someone is pulling the painting up and away by its top right corner, like a tissue being pulled out of a tissue box. The torch the statue holds, though it is certainly an implied line, surprisingly does not direct my eyes elsewhere. A grid of six implied lines is created by the repetition of the image. They are in between the four columns and four rows, unpainted and the color of linen. A line is created where the bluish ocean and the linen-colored sky meet. There are subtle, unstable lines that imply motion in the water behind the statue, more subtly in some rectangles than in others. Besides the shapes I have already described in the painting, the screen printing technique has left some areas of unpainted linen, particularly in the top row, where you