1. Introduction to Art Criticism

2. How do we critically engage with Art?

3. On writing Art Criticism

4. Comparing Literary works and Artworks

5. Western Art Movements, Genres, & Periods

6. Art Theories and Approaches

7. Digital Resources and Additional Readings

Additionally, critic Michel Foucault mentions: "A critique is not a matter of saying that things are not right as they are. It is a matter of pointing out on what kinds of assumptions, what kinds of familiar, unchallenged, unconsidered modes of thought the practices that we accept rest…”. As such, criticism is also a mode in which we can explore how artworks might reinforce or challenge dominant narratives, theories, or beliefs (especially Euro-American ones).

(a) What is this?

(b) What does it mean? and

(c) What is its significance?

The corresponding processes are then:

(a) a visual analysis,

(b) interpretation, and

(c) an evaluation/judgement

The questions you should ask are: What am I looking at? What is being represented?

You may also use the general information on the artwork label (artist name, title, date created, medium and size, location), in order to elaborate or evidence your analysis.

For instance, an analysis of colour in the above artwork: In Manit Sriwanichpoom’s Pink Man on Tour # 6 (Amazing Rice Field, Northern Thailand), the figure’s artificially garish pink suit and cart stand in stark contrast against the naturalistic surroundings of the paddy field. This draws emphasis to the figure, but also seems to suggest a sense of alienation.

On a deeper level, you can introduce theory, and how the works embody or disprove them. For example, gender and feminist theory, eco-criticism, post-colonial theory, psychoanalytic, political theory, and even literary theory, which will be covered in later sections.

Additionally, their Art Abridged page contains the series The ABCs of Asian Art with regional examples (V is for Video art, L is for Land art, etc.).

Some examples of essays that engage with critical concepts:

• The problematic representation of women in Liu Kang's paintings: https://pluralartmag.com/2023/07/15/between-artist-and-model-does-it-matter-that-liu-kang-wasnt-a-feminist/

• Historiography and coloniality: https://pluralartmag.com/2020/04/06/alternative-facts-wong-hoy-cheongs-re-looking/

Additionally, to simply conclude that art is purely subjective, as critic Weng Choy Lee says, is to "close the door on the discussion...To claim that varying judgements about art are merely differences in opinion is to flatten all arguments as somehow equivalent."

As such, while there are many possible interpretations of art, but not all statements are equally interesting, compelling, or relevant.

While a visual analysis is well suited to analysing figurative and traditional art (paintings, sculptures), it is harder to apply to abstract or conceptual works where concept takes precedence over form, and the work's meaning relies heavily on its context. Visual analyses of artworks hence should be supplemented by context in order to engage meaningfully with them.

For example, Tang Da Wu's Life Boat performance (above). The artist drew a spiral on the ground and asked audiences to fold paper boats, which he later pushed to the center of the spiral. At night, Tang asked audiences to light a candle on each boat and spread them out. There is limited visual information provided by a visual analysis of the artwork.

For context: in Life Boat, Tang's intention was to expresses his sympathy for Vietnamese refugees fleeing their country by sea to seek asylum in Singapore. Tang's audience participation hence activates the work, but also encourages people to (literally) take action to aid these refugees. Contextualising the work is hence necessary to illuminate the meanings of its visual and participative elements.

Additionally, the spatial context of the work adds to your interpretation as well: Life Boat's presentation in a space of consumer culture and extravagance (the Art Mart Singapore International Shopping festival) contrasts uncomfortably with the harsh realities faced by the refugees.

In other words: what claim does the artwork seem to make? 

If we were to continue with the interpretation of Tang Da Wu's Life Boat: there was an uncomfortable tension between the setting of the performance (in a shopping space) and the harsh realities faced by the refugees.

The "so what?" of this interpretation could hence be: this tension creates a sense of urgency and discomfort that compels audiences to reflect on their privilege, and hence activate them to take action to aid the refugees.

1. A thesis (your argument)

2. Engaging with the evidence in the artwork (this is where your analysis, interpretation, and evaluation will be)

3. Engaging with what others have said

Motivating the thesis:

What are some potential responses to the artwork that are not immediately obvious to a reader? Why would this make for an engaging essay that invites multiple readings?

Following this, how does my answer propose something new, rather than repeating a factual observation, and how does my answer relate to the larger concerns of the text? Does viewing the artwork through a certain theoretical framework presents a different understanding of it?

Additionally, avoid making grand claims, especially of the artist's intent, unless it is made clear in writing or interviews. For example, saying "The artist wanted..." is different from "The warm palette evokes..." The first phrasing necessitates proof of the artist's intent, as opposed to the effect of the image.

You should continue to link your evidence back to your thesis at different points in your essay to show how it addresses it.

While the above link pertains to literary theory, most frameworks used in literary analysis can also be broadly applied to art criticism, for example: post-colonial, feminist, and psychoanalytic theories. (The literature resource padlet boasts a more extensive list)

However, artworks' potential to be multidisciplinary in nature (visual, performance, auditory, temporal, participative) sets it apart from literary texts, and some frameworks are specific to analysing art. For example, artworks can be viewed specifically through the approaches of relational aesthetics, representation, objecthood, etc. The resource will go through a few of these theories in a later section.

XX's [artwork] depicts [short description summarising the artwork]. While a reading of [XX's artwork] may initially suggest _______, I argue that reading it through [theoretical framework] instead reveals _______ (i.e. something not immediately obvious to most readers). This approach hence suggests how _______ (the "so what?" portion).

Again, in the "so what?" portion, you should state why your argument is significant in the broader context of the primary text and/or theoretical framework.

Additionally, other art critics may have voiced similar or different interpretations of an artwork. Integrating these as secondary sources into your essay and engaging with them can help develop your argument to be more sophisticated and nuanced.

You may use secondary sources in different ways:

1. to expand on as the foundation of a more sophisticated argument you are trying to make (Yes, and...)

2. to agree, but correct the limitations/oversights in their argument with your own take (Yes, but....)

3. to consider as a possible counterargument that a skeptical reading might raise, subsequently disproving it in order give weight to your own argument (No, because...)

While it may be easier to integrate sources that already agree with your argument, doing so results in an essay that is one-dimensional and neglects alternative readings.

1. Have I considered any potential limitations in my choice of theoretical frameworks? Could my reader refute my arguments using different angles of my theoretical frameworks, or by using different theoretical frameworks?

2. How else do my theoretical frameworks illuminate the subject matter beyond my visual analysis?

Renowned artists include the likes of Michelangelo, Botticelli, Da Vinci and Rembrandt. The above Youtube channel has an extensive and detailed series on the period.

Themes: Christianity, realism, classical arts and humanism

There are certain underlying principles that define modernist art:

• A rejection of history and conservative values (such as realistic depiction of subjects)

• Innovation and experimentation with form (the shapes, colours and lines that make up the work) with a tendency to abstraction

• An emphasis on materials, techniques and processes. Artists increasingly focused on the intrinsic qualities of their media - visual elements like line, form - and moved away from inherited notions of art.

Modernism can hence be seen as a broader way of thinking rather than a specific way of art practice.

Themes: experimentation, reflexivity, the avant-garde

In the mid-19th century, a group called Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood was formed as a reaction against the teaching of the Royal Academy. They painted as accurately as possible from nature when able. Later, the period saw shifts from realism to poetry and attractiveness, and further, a revival of Classic subjects was seen. As the century progressed, mechanisation, economic decline, political chaos and religious faith made the population look back to pre-industrial times as a golden age. Artists hence became drawn to pre-industrial subjects and techniques.

Themes: Nature, realism, the Classical

These paintings exoticised their Oriental subjects, presenting scenes of sensuous excess and Western fantasies. Orientalists later presented these paintings as ethnographic and objective, despite being fabrications. While there were realist Oriental artists who painted from their voyages to the Orient, many Oriental artists imagined Orientalist scenes without ever leaving the studio. The above video explores representations in Orientalist art in tandem with Edward Said's conception of Orientalism.

Themes: the exotic Other, eroticism and sensuousness

Video on Eugène Delacroix's "The Women of Algiers":

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lcaNYS1q4SY&ab_channel=Smarthistory

Romanticism was partly a reaction to the Industrial Revolution, and the Age of Enlightenment, especially the scientific rationalisation of Nature.

Themes: the sublime, spirituality, imagination, mystery, tragedy, nature, the supernatural

Some key texts:

• Jacques Rancière, "The Emancipated Spectator", 2008.

  • Rancière discusses in the chapter The Intolerable Image how representing abject reality banalises it and disengages viewers.

• Susan Sontag, "On Photography", 1977; "Regarding the Pain of Others", 2003.

  • Sontag's works talk about how images mediate our relationship with war and violence, and how photography fosters a voyeuristic relationship between viewers and the world, diminishing the gravity and meaning of events.

  
  

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

• Alfredo Jaar, “Eyes of Gutete Emerita”, 1996; "Real Pictures", 1995; discuss alternative ways of representing the violent Rwandan genocide without aestheticising it.

• Dana Schutz, "Open Casket", 2016

Some key texts:

• Edward Said, "Orientalism", 1978.

  • Edward Said's concept of Orientalism examines how Western representations the East (or the Orient), constructs the image of the East as inferior and primitive. Additionally, he explores how this power dynamic is perpetuated through institutions -- through education, literature, sciences, scholarship, etc.

  • Other themes related to Orientalist representations include ideas of the "Noble Savage" and the "Magical Negro".

• Roh, et al., "Techno-Orientalism: Imagining Asia in Speculative Fiction, History, and Media", 2015.

  • This text looks the trend of Techno-Orientalism: representing the East in hypo- or hyper-technological terms in literary, cinematic, and new media representations. This presents the stereotype of Asians as still being intellectually primitive (much like in Said's Orientalism) despite being technologically advanced, and hence needing Western consciousness-raising.

  • Watch an introductory video here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8e8xtvElpQ&ab_channel=MaiaC

• Mark Dery, "Black to the Future: Interviews with Samuel R. Delany, Greg Tate, and Tricia Rose", 1993.

  • This text coins the term Afrofuturism, which is a cultural aesthetic that combines science-fiction, history and fantasy to explore the African-American experience and aims to connect those from the black diaspora with their forgotten African ancestry

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

• Orientalist artists: J. A. D Ingres, Eugène Delacroix, Jean-Léon Gérôme.

• Works that deal with Orientalism & Techno-Orientalism:

  • Lee Wen's Yellow Man series: "Journey of a Yellow Man No.13: Fragmented Bodies/Shifting Ground", 1999, "Strange Fruit", 2003.

  • Lu Yang, "Uterus Man", 2013.

• Afrofuturism:

  • Yinka Shonibare, "Refugee Astronaut" series, 2015-

  • Wangechi Mutu, "Water Woman", 2017.

  • Christina de Middel, "The Afronauts", 2012.

As Kristeva clarifies, it is "not the lack of cleanliness or health that causes abjection but what disturbs identity, system, and order. What does not respect borders, positions, rules. The in-between, the ambiguous, the composite". Abjection hence can take many forms: bodily fluids, corpses, and can even characterise or problematise women's bodies.

Video essay on how the female body is rendered abject in visual media:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1yfsfQphmo&ab_channel=BroeyDeschanel

Some key texts:

• Julia Kristeva, "Powers of Horror: An Essay on Abjection", 1980.

• Rina Arya & Nicholas Chare (ed.), "Abject Visions : Powers of Horror in Art and Visual Culture", 2016.

• Barbara Creed, "The Monstrous-Feminine: Film, Feminism, Psychoanalysis", 1993.

  • This text talks about how the feminine is fabricated as monstrous through association with [female] reproductive bodily functions.

• Harry M. Benshoff, "Monsters in the Closet: Homosexuality and the Horror Film", 1997.

  • This text talks about how non-normative cultures and identities are similarly made "monstrous" and villainised.

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

• Mona Hatoum, "Corps Étranger", 1994.

• Louise Bourgeois, "Spider (Bourgeois)", 1996; and "Maman", 1999.

• Carolee Schneeman, "Interior Scroll", 1975.

• Amanda Heng, "Yours Truly, My Body", 1999.

• Doreen Garner, "Red Rack of Those Ravaged and Unconsenting", 2018.

Some key texts:

• Nicolas Bourriaud, "Relational art", 1998.

• Claire Bishop, "Antagonism and Relational Aesthetics", 2004.

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

• Rirkrit Tiravanija, "Pad Thai", 1990.

• Mella Jaarsma, "Pribumi Pribumi", 1998.

• Adeline Kueh, "Sama-sama: Comfort is on the menu" 2023.

• Amanda Heng, "Let's Chat", 1996.

• Roslisham Ismail (Ise), "Langkasuka Cooking Project", 2012.

• Felix Gonzalez-Torres, "Untitled (Portrait of Ross in L.A)", 1991.

• Yoko Ono, "Cut Piece", 1964.

• Marina Abramović, "Rhythm 0", 1974.

while there are different forms of literature, they are primarily confined to text. In contrast, other than the familiar traditional forms of art (painting, sculpture), there are numerous other art media, disciplines, and genres, each with their unique characteristics and strategies.

Many of these artworks necessarily engage with the audience and space around them. As such, you should consider how each medium interacts with its surroundings.

Some artworks may engage with this concept when they simulate the stylistics of dominant institutes of knowledge, while re-writing histories or providing alternative narratives to challenge (or even supplant) existing narratives.

Some key texts:

• Jean Baudrillard, "Simulacra and Simulation", 1981.

Some artists and their artworks related to this subject:

• Ming Wong, "Four Malay Stories", 2005.

• Li Ran, "Beyond Geography", 2012.

• Ho Tzu Nyen, "Utama – Every Name in History is I", 2003, "CDOSEA (The Critical Dictionary of Southeast Asia)", 2017-

• Wong Hoy Cheong, "Re:Looking", 2002 – 2003.

• Debbie Ding, "Wikicliki", 2008 -

• What insight does looking at these two subjects together produce as opposed to looking at them in isolation?

• Are there differences or similarities in their engagement on an idea or concept? How does this complicate your understanding of this idea?

1. The block approach:

   • This approach allocates a separate paragraph(s) to each work, examining the ways each of them address the ideas raised by the topic. The final body paragraphs pull the material together and discuss the similarities/differences between the works’ approach to the essay's central idea.

   • It can be challenging to maintain a strong connection between the texts when discussing them in isolation. A careful use of linking words/terms is essential to ensure that the comparison of works is coherent.

2. The woven approach:

   • The woven approach draws evidence from both works within each body paragraph. Each paragraph focuses on how both works similarly demonstrate (or challenge) an aspect of the essay's central idea.

   • It can be challenging to move between two texts smoothly, be sure to signpost well and consistently link the arguments back to the central idea.

Different forms of art:

• Traditional (Painting, photography, sculpture, architecture, drawing, etc.)

• Performance

• Readymade (collage, found items)

• Conceptual

• Research-based art

• Arte povera

• Formalist

• Land art

• Participative or instructional art

• New media (augmented or virtual reality)

• Audio-visual (sound, video)

• Folk art/handicrafts

Instructional or participatory performance art further engages the audience, no longer passive spectators, but activating and taking part in the meaning-making. For example, Marina Abramović's "Rhythm 0", 1974, invited the audience to do whatever they wanted with her body and the 72 objects she had placed on a table. Abramović assumed the role of the medium or artwork, and the audience, the role of the artist.

As such, when looking at performance art, consider how the involvement of the audience creates meaning: What kind of people are in the audience? What bodies are being highlighted? What is the audience being made to do?

Public space is also political space. When a work of public art is put up or taken down, it is an inherently political statement, and the work’s aesthetics are inextricably entwined with its political message.

As such, when looking at art that is located outside galleries, consider the context of the space it is in, and the audiences in the space. What is the socio-cultural significance of the space? Who has access to this work? Why is this work allowed to be put up in public?

ARTSTOR is an online resource of more than 2.5 million images in the arts, architecture, humanities, and sciences, and as of 2024 is being centralised on the JSTOR site. You can find many high-resolution images of artworks in this database with accurate attributions, dates, and dimensions.

Some artistic periods even emerge as responses to existing ones: for example, the sentimental Romanticism era was a reactionary movement to the strict Classicism period before it, to which the objectivity of Realism was later a reaction to Romanticism. In the above link, you will find an summary of the many art periods and their corresponding examples.

Online resources:

• National Gallery's Free Resources and Publications

  • https://www.nationalgallery.sg/freeresources/

• Asian Art Archive

  • https://aaa.org.hk/en

  • Includes archival materials and documentation, as well as art essays

• The Environmentally-Engaged Artistic Practices in South, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Database

  • A comprehensive and rich data source on the artistic practices of artists and collectives from the South, Southeast Asian and Pacific Regions.

  • https://climateshabitatsenvironments.art/

• CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art

  • https://epa.culturalcenter.gov.ph/encyclopedia/

• Digital Archive of Indonesian Contemporary Art

  • https://archive.ivaa-online.org/

On-site resources:

• NTU Centre for Contemporary Art's Public Resource Centre

  • https://ntu.ccasingapore.org/public-resource-centre/

  • A library with many physical art collaterals and publications

• National Gallery's Rotunda Library & Archive Collection

  • https://www.nationalgallery.sg/discover-learn/rotunda-library-archive