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Guidelines for analysis of art.

Formal Analysis Paper Examples
Guidelines for Writing Art History Research Papers
Oral Report Guidelines
Annual Arkansas College Art History Symposium

Knowing how to write a formal analysis of a work of art is a fundamental skill learned in an art appreciation-level class. Students in art history survey and upper-level classes further develop this skill. Use this sheet as a guide when writing a formal analysis paper. Consider the following when analyzing a work of art. Not everything applies to every work of art, nor is it always useful to consider things in the order given. In any analysis, keep in mind: HOW and WHY is this a significant work of art?

Part I – General Information

In many cases, this information can be found on a label or in a gallery guidebook. An artist’s statement may be available in the gallery. If so, indicate in your text or by a footnote or endnote to your paper where you got the information.
Subject Matter (Who or What is Represented?)
Artist or Architect (What person or group made it? Often this is not known. If there is a name, refer to this person as the artist or architect, not “author.” Refer to this person by their last name, not familiarly by their first name.)
Date (When was it made? Is it a copy of something older? Was it made before or after other similar works?)
Provenance (Where was it made? For whom? Is it typical of the art of a geographical area?)
Location (Where is the work of art now? Where was it originally located? Does the viewer look up at it, or down at it? If it is not in its original location, does the viewer see it as the artist intended? Can it be seen on all sides, or just on one?)
Technique and Medium (What materials is it made of? How was it executed? How big or small is it?)

Part II – Brief Description

In a few sentences describe the work. What does it look like? Is it a representation of something? Tell what is shown. Is it an abstraction of something? Tell what the subject is and what aspects are emphasized. Is it a non-objective work? Tell what elements are dominant. This section is not an analysis of the work yet, though some terms used in Part III might be used here. This section is primarily a few sentences to give the reader a sense of what the work looks like.

Part III – Form

This is the key part of your paper. It should be the longest section of the paper. Be sure and think about whether the work of art selected is a two-dimensional or three-dimensional work.

Art Elements

Line (straight, curved, angular, flowing, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, contour, thick, thin, implied etc.)
Shape (what shapes are created and how)
Light and Value (source, flat, strong, contrasting, even, values, emphasis, shadows)
Color (primary, secondary, mixed, complimentary, warm, cool, decorative, values)
Texture and Pattern (real, implied, repeating)
Space (depth, overlapping, kinds of perspective)
Time and Motion

Principles of Design

Unity and Variety
Balance (symmetry, asymmetry)
Emphasis and Subordination
Scale and Proportion (weight, how objects or figures relate to each other and the setting)
Mass/Volume (three-dimensional art)
Function/Setting (architecture)
Interior/Exterior Relationship (architecture)

Part IV – Opinions and Conclusions

This is the part of the paper where you go beyond description and offer a conclusion and your own informed opinion about the work. Any statements you make about the work should be based on the analysis in Part III above.

In this section, discuss how and why the key elements and principles of art used by the artist create meaning.
Support your discussion of content with facts about the work.

General Suggestions

Pay attention to the date the paper is due.
Your instructor may have a list of “approved works” for you to write about, and you must be aware of when the UA Little Rock Galleries, or the Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts Galleries (formerly Arkansas Arts Center) opening April 2023, or other exhibition areas, are open to the public.
You should allow time to view the work you plan to write about and take notes.
Always italicize or underline titles of works of art. If the title is long, you must use the full title the first time you mention it, but may shorten the title for subsequent listings.
Use the present tense in describing works of art.
Be specific: don’t refer to a “picture” or “artwork” if “drawing” or “painting” or “photograph” is more exact.
Remember that any information you use from another source, whether it be your textbook, a wall panel, a museum catalogue, a dictionary of art, the internet, must be documented with a footnote. Failure to do so is considered plagiarism, and violates the behavioral standards of the university. If you do not understand what plagiarism is, refer to this link at the UA Little Rock Copyright Central web site: https://ualr.edu/copyright/articles/?ID=4
For proper footnote form, refer to the UA Little Rock Department of Art website, or to Barnet’s A Short Guide to Writing About Art, which is based on the Chicago Manual of Style. MLA style is not acceptable for papers in art history.
Allow time to proofread your paper. Read it out loud and see if it makes sense. If you need help on the technical aspects of writing, contact the University Writing Center at 501-569-8343 or visit the Online Writing Lab at https://ualr.edu/writingcenter/
Ask your instructor for help if needed.

Further Information

For further information and more discussions about writing a formal analysis, see the following sources. Some of these sources also give information about writing a research paper in art history – a paper more ambitious in scope than a formal analysis.

M. Getlein, Gilbert’s Living with Art (10th edition, 2013), pp. 136-139 is a very short analysis of one work.

M. Stokstad and M. W. Cothren, Art History (5th edition, 2014), “Starter Kit,” pp. xxii-xxv is a brief outline.

S. Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing About Art (9th edition, 2008), pp. 113-134 is about formal analysis; the entire book is excellent for all kinds of writing assignments.

R. J. Belton, Art History: A Preliminary Handbook http://www.ubc.ca/okanagan/fccs/about/links/resources/arthistory.html is probably more useful for a research paper in art history, but parts of this outline relate to discussing the form of a work of art.

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Cite Sources UT Austin Guide Learn more about what citations are and how to manage them. Includes information about citation tools like Noodle Tools and Zotero.
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OWL Purdue - Chicago Style The OWL Purdue is a great resource for writing and citation help. Chicago Style is the preferred citation format for art history. The OWL also includes citation help for other styles include APA and MLA.

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Writing About Art

For those new to art history (and for general inspiration for everyone) discipline-specific guides to art research and writing about art can be very useful:

Writing an Artist's Statement

Artist's Statement Guidelines from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago [PDF] These two short pages from SAIC provide tips in a good consolidated guide.

Citing Your Sources

Writing a research paper means documenting, or " citing ," the sources of the information you use. How do you cite your sources? Every time you quote from or mention another person's writing or research in your own paper, you also mention the source of that work in a little aside called an " annotation. " At the end of your paper, you include a list called a bibliography of all the sources you used throughout.

There are many different ways to annotate or call out sources in your paper, and many different ways to format the bibliography. These are called citation styles , and the professor who assigns a paper (or the publisher of a paper if it is being written for publication) tells writers which style they should use for any particular paper. Two common styles used when writing about the arts are Chicago (the Chicago Manual of Style) and MLA (the MLA Handbook).

Citing Images

Here is a short, authoritative guide to image citation from Colgate University:

Colgate University Library's Image Citation Guide

image citations

Chicago-Style Citation Quick Guide Examples of the humanities style that is preferred by many in literature, history, and the arts.

Chicago Manual of Style, examples

( from : colgate visual resources library, colgate university, hamilton, new york. https://sites.google.com/a/colgate.edu/colgatevr/citing-images/citing-images-chicago (accessed october 28, 2015), image scanned from a book:, alice neel, nancy and the rubber plant . 1975, oil on canvas, 203.2 x 91.4 cm. the estate of alice neel. from: ann temkin et al. alice neel . new york: harry n. abrams, 2000. plate 64., image downloaded from artstor:.

Rogier van der Weyden, Saint Catherine of Alexandria . 1430-1432, Diptych panel, 18.5 x 12 cm. Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria. Available from: ARTstor, http://www.artstor.org (accessed September 30. 2009).

Image downloaded from museum website:

Caravaggio, The Denial of Saint Peter . Early 15th century. Oil on canvas, 94 x 125.4 cm. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. From: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, http://www.metmuseum.org (accessed September 29, 2009).

Image downloaded from Flickr Commons:

Thomas eakins, william rudolf o'donovan . 1981, black and white photographic print, 6 x 8 cm. archives of american art, smithsonian institution, washington, dc. available from: flickr commons, http://www.flickr.com/photos/smithsonian/2547841439 (accessed september 29, 2009)., image downloaded from flickr (personal images uploaded by others):.

Friedrich von Schmidt, Vienna Rathaus . 1872-1883. Source: Harshil Shah, Vienna - Rathaus. 2009, Digital Image. Available from: Flickr, http://www.flickr.com/photos/harshilshah/3823135957 (accessed September 14, 2012).

Style Manuals

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Art History Analysis – Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis

Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis.

A formal analysis is just what it sounds like – you need to analyze the form of the artwork. This includes the individual design elements – composition, color, line, texture, scale, contrast, etc. Questions to consider in a formal analysis is how do all these elements come together to create this work of art? Think of formal analysis in relation to literature – authors give descriptions of characters or places through the written word. How does an artist convey this same information?

Organize your information and focus on each feature before moving onto the text – it is not ideal to discuss color and jump from line to then in the conclusion discuss color again. First summarize the overall appearance of the work of art – is this a painting? Does the artist use only dark colors? Why heavy brushstrokes? etc and then discuss details of the object – this specific animal is gray, the sky is missing a moon , etc. Again, it is best to be organized and focused in your writing – if you discuss the animals and then the individuals and go back to the animals you run the risk of making your writing unorganized and hard to read. It is also ideal to discuss the focal of the piece – what is in the center? What stands out the most in the piece or takes up most of the composition?

A stylistic approach can be described as an indicator of unique characteristics that analyzes and uses the formal elements (2-D: Line, color, value, shape and 3-D all of those and mass).The point of style is to see all the commonalities in a person’s works, such as the use of paint and brush strokes in Van Gogh’s work. Style can distinguish an artist’s work from others and within their own timeline, geographical regions, etc.

Methods & Theories To Consider:

Expressionism

Instructuralism

Postmodernism

Social Art History

Biographical Approach

Poststructuralism

Museum Studies

Visual Cultural Studies

Stylistic Analysis Example:

The following is a brief stylistic analysis of two Greek statues, an example of how style has changed because of the “essence of the age.” Over the years, sculptures of women started off as being plain and fully clothed with no distinct features, to the beautiful Venus/Aphrodite figures most people recognize today. In the mid-seventh century to the early fifth, life-sized standing marble statues of young women, often elaborately dress in gaily painted garments were created known as korai. The earliest korai is a Naxian women to Artemis. The statue wears a tight-fitted, belted peplos, giving the body a very plain look. The earliest korai wore the simpler Dorian peplos, which was a heavy woolen garment. From about 530, most wear a thinner, more elaborate, and brightly painted Ionic linen and himation. A largely contrasting Greek statue to the korai is the Venus de Milo. The Venus from head to toe is six feet seven inches tall. Her hips suggest that she has had several children. Though her body shows to be heavy, she still seems to almost be weightless. Viewing the Venus de Milo, she changes from side to side. From her right side she seems almost like a pillar and her leg bears most of the weight. She seems be firmly planted into the earth, and since she is looking at the left, her big features such as her waist define her. The Venus de Milo had a band around her right bicep. She had earrings that were brutally stolen, ripping her ears away. Venus was noted for loving necklaces, so it is very possibly she would have had one. It is also possible she had a tiara and bracelets. Venus was normally defined as “golden,” so her hair would have been painted. Two statues in the same region, have throughout history, changed in their style.

Compare and Contrast Essay

Most introductory art history classes will ask students to write a compare and contrast essay about two pieces – examples include comparing and contrasting a medieval to a renaissance painting. It is always best to start with smaller comparisons between the two works of art such as the medium of the piece. Then the comparison can include attention to detail so use of color, subject matter, or iconography. Do the same for contrasting the two pieces – start small. After the foundation is set move on to the analysis and what these comparisons or contrasting material mean – ‘what is the bigger picture here?’ Consider why one artist would wish to show the same subject matter in a different way, how, when, etc are all questions to ask in the compare and contrast essay. If during an exam it would be best to quickly outline the points to make before tackling writing the essay.

Compare and Contrast Example:

Stele of Hammurabi from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), ca. 1792 – 1750 BCE, Basalt, height of stele approx. 7’ height of relief 28’

Stele, relief sculpture, Art as propaganda – Hammurabi shows that his law code is approved by the gods, depiction of land in background , Hammurabi on the same place of importance as the god, etc.

Top of this stele shows the relief image of Hammurabi receiving the law code from Shamash, god of justice, Code of Babylonian social law, only two figures shown , different area and time period, etc.

Stele of Naram-sin , Sippar Found at Susa c. 2220 - 2184 bce. Limestone, height 6'6"

Stele, relief sculpture, Example of propaganda because the ruler (like the Stele of Hammurabi) shows his power through divine authority, Naramsin is the main character due to his large size, depiction of land in background, etc.

Akkadian art, made of limestone, the stele commemorates a victory of

Naramsin, multiple figures are shown specifically soldiers, different area and time period, etc.

Iconography

Regardless of what essay approach you take in class it is absolutely necessary to understand how to analyze the iconography of a work of art and to incorporate into your paper. Iconography is defined as subject matter, what the image means. For example, why do things such as a small dog in a painting in early Northern Renaissance paintings represent sexuality? Additionally, how can an individual perhaps identify these motifs that keep coming up?

The following is a list of symbols and their meaning in Marriage a la Mode by William Hogarth (1743) that is a series of six paintings that show the story of marriage in Hogarth’s eyes.

Man has pockets turned out symbolizing he has lost money and was recently in a fight by the state of his clothes.
Lap dog shows loyalty but sniffs at woman’s hat in the husband’s pocket showing sexual exploits.
Black dot on husband’s neck believed to be symbol of syphilis.
Mantel full of ugly Chinese porcelain statues symbolizing that the couple has no class.
Butler had to go pay bills, you can tell this by the distasteful look on his face and that his pockets are stuffed with bills and papers.
Card game just finished up, women has directions to game under foot, shows her easily cheating nature.
Paintings of saints line a wall of the background room, isolated from the living, shows the couple’s complete disregard to faith and religion.
The dangers of sexual excess are underscored in the Hograth by placing Cupid among ruins, foreshadowing the inevitable ruin of the marriage.
Eventually the series (other five paintings) shows that the woman has an affair, the men duel and die, the woman hangs herself and the father takes her ring off her finger symbolizing the one thing he could salvage from the marriage.

Defining Art Criticism

Art criticism is responding to, interpreting meaning, and making critical judgments about specific works of art.
Art critics help viewers perceive, interpret, and judge artworks.
Critics tend to focus more on modern and contemporary art from cultures close to their own.
Art historians tend to study works made in cultures that are more distant in time and space.
When initially introduced to art criticism, many people associate negative connotations with the word "criticism."

A professional art critic may be

a newspaper reporter assigned to the art beat,
a scholar writing for professional journals or texts, or
an artist writing about other artists.

Journalistic criticism –

Written for the general public, includes reviews of art exhibitions in galleries and museums.
(Suggestions that journalistic criticism deals with art mainly to the extent that it is newsworthy.)

Scholarly art criticism

Written for a more specialized art audience and appears in art journals.
Scholar-critics may be college and university professors or museum curators, often with particular knowledge about a style, period, medium, or artist.

FORMAL ANALYSIS

Four levels of formal analysis, which you can use to explain a work of art:

1. Description = pure description of the object without value judgments, analysis, or interpretation.

It answers the question, "What do you see?"
The various elements that constitute a description include:

a. Form of art whether architecture, sculpture, painting or one of the minor arts

b. Medium of work whether clay, stone, steel, paint, etc., and technique (tools used)

c. Size and scale of work (relationship to person and/or frame and/or context)

d. Elements or general shapes (architectural structural system) within the composition, including building of post-lintel construction or painting with several figures lined up in a row; identification of objects

e. Description of axis whether vertical, diagonal, horizontal, etc.

f. Description of line, including contour as soft, planar, jagged, etc.

g. Description of how line describes shape and space (volume); distinguish between lines of objects and lines of composition, e.g., thick, thin, variable, irregular, intermittent, indistinct, etc.

h. Relationships between shapes, e.g., large and small, overlapping, etc.

i. Description of color and color scheme = palette

j. Texture of surface or other comments about execution of work

k. Context of object: original location and date

2. Analysis = determining what the features suggest and deciding why the artist used such features to convey specific ideas.

It answers the question, "How did the artist do it?"
The various elements that constitute analysis include:

a. Determination of subject matter through naming iconographic elements, e.g., historical event, allegory, mythology, etc.

b. Selection of most distinctive features or characteristics whether line, shape, color, texture, etc.

c. Analysis of the principles of design or composition, e.g., stable,

repetitious, rhythmic, unified, symmetrical, harmonious, geometric, varied, chaotic, horizontal or vertically oriented, etc.

d. Discussion of how elements or structural system contribute to appearance of image or function

e. Analysis of use of light and role of color, e.g., contrasty, shadowy,

illogical, warm, cool, symbolic, etc.

f. Treatment of space and landscape, both real and illusionary (including use of perspective), e.g., compact, deep, shallow, naturalistic, random

g. Portrayal of movement and how it is achieved

h. Effect of particular medium(s) used

i. Your perceptions of balance, proportion and scale (relationships of each part of the composition to the whole and to each other part) and your emotional

j. Reaction to object or monument

3. Interpretation = establishing the broader context for this type of art.

It answers the question, "Why did the artist create it and what does it mean
The various elements that constitute interpretation include:

a. Main idea, overall meaning of the work.

b. Interpretive Statement: Can I express what I think the artwork is about in one sentence?

c. Evidence: What evidence inside or outside the artwork supports my interpretation?

4. Judgment: Judging a piece of work means giving it rank in relation to other works and of course considering a very important aspect of the visual arts; its originality.

Is it a good artwork?
Criteria: What criteria do I think are most appropriate for judging the artwork?
Evidence: What evidence inside or outside the artwork relates to each criterion?
Judgment: Based on the criteria and evidence, what is my judgment about the quality of the artwork?

Barrett's Principles of Interpretation

Artworks have "aboutness" and demand interpretation.
Interpretations are persuasive arguments.
Some interpretations are better than others.
Good interpretations of art tell more about the artwork than they tell about the critic.
Feelings are guides to interpretations.
There can be different, competing, and contradictory interpretations of the same artwork.
Interpretations are often based on a worldview.
Interpretations are not so much absolutely right, but more or less reasonable, convincing, enlightening, and informative.
Interpretations can be judged by coherence, correspondence, and inclusiveness.
An artwork is not necessarily about what the artist wanted it to be about.
A critic ought not to be the spokesperson for the artist.
Interpretations ought to present the work in its best rather than its weakest light.
The objects of interpretation are artworks, not artists.

Art Criticism

internet art

Ways to Describe Art

General Information

In many cases, this information can be found on the label or a quick google search.

Artist or Architect
Technique and Medium (exp. Sculpture, Photograph, Painting, Installation, etc.)
Subject Matter (Who or What is Represented?)

Ways to Describe Form

Line (straight, curved, angular, flowing, horizontal, vertical, diagonal, contour, thick, thin, implied etc.)
Shape (what shapes are created and how)
Light and Value (source, flat, strong, contrasting, even, values, emphasis, shadows)
Color (primary, secondary, mixed, complimentary, warm, cool, decorative, values)
Texture and Pattern (real, implied, repeating)
Space (depth, overlapping, kinds of perspective)
Time and Motion
Unity and Variety
Balance (symmetry, asymmetry)
Emphasis and Subordination
Scale and Proportion (weight, how objects or figures relate to each other and the setting)
Mass/Volume (three-dimensional art)
Function/Setting (architecture)
Interior/Exterior Relationship (architecture)
Words for Art Looking for descriptive art words? Below you'll find a "masterpiece" of art words and phrases, perfect for the description of any form of art or artistic expression. Adjectives | Nouns | Verbs | Negatives | Styles & Movements | Phrases

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What Is Beauty? : An Art Critic's Journey Is beauty found only in the eye of the beholder or is there something more universal we can conclude about it? In this visually stunning program, renowned art critic Matthew Collings takes us on a thoughtful and memorable exploration of beauty in art. He explores the timeless visual principles that form the basis of all great art, and which produce the rush of pleasure one experiences when encountering a beautiful painting or sculpture. Examples are drawn from the works of Piero della Francesca, Michelangelo, Magritte, Gauguin, Rauschenberg, and others. From the prehistoric cave art of the Dordogne to the masterpieces of the Renaissance to the much more debatable pleasures of contemporary art, viewers discover underlying aesthetic tenets which, in Collings's view, run through all of art history.
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Research Process: A Step-By-Step Guide: 5e. Chicago Formatting

Getting Started
1a. Books and Ebooks
1b. Videos & Images
1c. Articles and Databases
1d. Internet Resources
1e. Periodical Publications
1f. Government and Corporate Information
1g. One Perfect Source?
2a. Know your information need
2b. Develop a Research Topic
2c. Refine a Topic
2d. Research Strategies: Keywords and Subject Headings
2e. Research Strategies: Search Strings
3a. The CRAAP Method
3b. Primary vs. Secondary Sources
4a. Incorporate Source Material
4b. Plagiarism
4c. Copyright, Fair Use, and Appropriation
4d. Writing Strategies
5a. MLA Formatting
5b. MLA Citation Examples
5c. APA Formatting
5d. APA Citation Examples
5e. Chicago Formatting
5f. Chicago Examples
5g. Annotated Bibliographies
Visual Literacy

Chicago Style

Welcome to the Academy of Art Library's Chicago Citation Guide. Below, you will find examples for citing the books, articles and other resources that you have used in your research. Chicago citations are typically used in the discipline of Art History because this style "allows scholars to accurately and thoroughly denote and differentiate scriptural, classical, archival, and other historical sources, as well as to represent the range of multimedia and other new electronic forms of publication."¹

This guide has been updated to reflect changes in the 17th edition of The Chicago Manual of Style .

Use the information on this page as well as the links below to learn more about Chicago Style citations.

Always make sure to double check the assignment instructions before choosing a citation style. Please contact Dunyau Maqsoudi-Moreno , the Art History subject librarian, if you have any questions.

Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide
Note: Students only have access to the PDFs on the site.
Chicago Style Guide Q&A
Chicago Manual of Style 17th Edition - Purdue OWL

1 "Cite Source - Chicago Manual of Style." Cite Source - Chicago Manual of Style. Accessed July 28, 2016. http://citesource.trincoll.edu/chicago/.

Chicago Style Manual

Format of the Research Paper

Use 1" margins for the entire document.
Indent the first line of paragraphs a 1/2" from the left margin.
Indent set-off quotations 1" from the left margin.

Text Formatting

Pick a readable 12 pt font (e.g. Times New Roman).
Do not justify the text or use hyphenation
Double-space the text of your paper
Leave only one space after periods or other punctuation marks.

Heading and Title

Do not use a title page unless required by your instructor
Place your name, the instructor's name, the course number and the date on separate lines at the top of the first page, flush with the left margin.
Center and double-spaced the title between the course heading and the first line of text.
Do not underline, italicize, or place your title in quotation marks

Page Numbers

Place page numbers in a header in the upper right-hand corner, 1/2" inch from the top and flush with the right margin.
Type your last name before the page number.
Do not use the abbreviation p. or pg before the page number or any other mark or symbol.
If you have any endnotes, include them on a separate page before your Works Cited page.
Entitle the section Notes (centered, unformatted).

Chicago Style Footnotes

Chicago Style uses footnotes instead of in-text citations. Just like another citation style, footnotes ensure that your sources are properly attributed to avoid issue of plagiarism. When it doubt, assign a footnote! Use the following guidelines to create your footnotes:

Generally, you want to provide the author’s name, publication title, publication information, date of publication, and page number(s) if it is the first time the source is being used. Any additional usage, simply use the author’s last name, publication title, and date of publication.
Footnotes should match with a superscript number at the end of the sentence referencing the source. You should begin with 1 and continue numerically throughout the paper. Do not start the order over on each page.

1.Henry James, The Ambassadors (Rockville: Serenity, 2009), 34-40.

When citing a source more than once, use a shortened version of the footnote.

1.James, The Ambassadors , 14.

if the same source is used two or more times in a row, then the name/keyword/page number are given once, and thereafter the abbreviation “Ibid.” is used.

Please review a sample paper from Purdue University's OWL Chicago Style Guide for further examples

Format of the Works Cited Page

Purdue's OWL Guide on Chicago Style recommends the following guidelines for your Works Cited page. The Works Cited list provides bibliographic information for the sources you used, thereby allowing your reader to identify and locate those materials. To format the page:

Margins should be set at no less than 1” and no greater than 1.5”.
Typeface should be something readable, such as Times New Roman or Palatino.
Font size should be no less than 10 pt. (preferably, 12 pt.).
Notes and bibliographies should be singled-spaced internally; however, leave an extra line space between note and bibliographic entries.
For two to three authors, write out all names.
For four to ten authors, write out all names in the bibliography but only the first author’s name plus “et al.” in notes and parenthetical citations.
When a source has no identifiable author, cite it by its title, both on the references page and in shortened form (up to four keywords from that title) in parenthetical citations throughout the text.
Write out publishers’ names in full.
Do not use access dates unless publication dates are unavailable.
If you cannot ascertain the publication date of a printed work, use the abbreviation “n.d.”
Provide DOIs instead of URLs whenever possible.
If you cannot name a specific page number when called for, you have other options: section (sec.), equation (eq.), volume (vol.), or note (n.).

Citation Generators

BibMe BibMe is a free automatic citation creator that supports Chicago formatting. BibMe leverages external databases to quickly fill citation information for you (or you can enter it manually). BibMe will then format the citation and compile a bibliography according to the guidelines of the Chicago style manual.
EasyBib Free automatic Chicago citation style generator. Allows you to cite more than the usual assortment of sources including photographs, emails, patents, paintings, and more. It also lets you search by ISBN.
Microsoft Word In Microsoft Word, you can automatically generate a bibliography based on the source information that you provide for the document.
Zotero Zotero is a free, easy-to-use tool to help you collect, organize, cite, and share research.
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Purdue Online Writing Lab Purdue OWL® College of Liberal Arts

Writing Essays in Art History

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Art History Analysis – Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis

Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis.

Organize your information and focus on each feature before moving onto the text – it is not ideal to discuss color and jump from line to then in the conclusion discuss color again. First summarize the overall appearance of the work of art – is this a painting? Does the artist use only dark colors? Why heavy brushstrokes? etc and then discuss details of the object – this specific animal is gray, the sky is missing a moon, etc. Again, it is best to be organized and focused in your writing – if you discuss the animals and then the individuals and go back to the animals you run the risk of making your writing unorganized and hard to read. It is also ideal to discuss the focal of the piece – what is in the center? What stands out the most in the piece or takes up most of the composition?

Methods & Theories To Consider:

Expressionism

Instructuralism

Postmodernism

Social Art History

Biographical Approach

Poststructuralism

Museum Studies

Visual Cultural Studies

Stylistic Analysis Example:

Compare and Contrast Essay

Compare and Contrast Example:

Stele of Hammurabi from Susa (modern Shush, Iran), ca. 1792 – 1750 BCE, Basalt, height of stele approx. 7’ height of relief 28’

Stele, relief sculpture, Art as propaganda – Hammurabi shows that his law code is approved by the gods, depiction of land in background, Hammurabi on the same place of importance as the god, etc.

Top of this stele shows the relief image of Hammurabi receiving the law code from Shamash, god of justice, Code of Babylonian social law, only two figures shown, different area and time period, etc.

Stele of Naram-sin , Sippar Found at Susa c. 2220 - 2184 bce. Limestone, height 6'6"

Akkadian art, made of limestone, the stele commemorates a victory of Naramsin, multiple figures are shown specifically soldiers, different area and time period, etc.

Iconography

The following is a list of symbols and their meaning in Marriage a la Mode by William Hogarth (1743) that is a series of six paintings that show the story of marriage in Hogarth’s eyes.

Man has pockets turned out symbolizing he has lost money and was recently in a fight by the state of his clothes.
Lap dog shows loyalty but sniffs at woman’s hat in the husband’s pocket showing sexual exploits.
Black dot on husband’s neck believed to be symbol of syphilis.
Mantel full of ugly Chinese porcelain statues symbolizing that the couple has no class.
Butler had to go pay bills, you can tell this by the distasteful look on his face and that his pockets are stuffed with bills and papers.
Card game just finished up, women has directions to game under foot, shows her easily cheating nature.
Paintings of saints line a wall of the background room, isolated from the living, shows the couple’s complete disregard to faith and religion.
The dangers of sexual excess are underscored in the Hograth by placing Cupid among ruins, foreshadowing the inevitable ruin of the marriage.
Eventually the series (other five paintings) shows that the woman has an affair, the men duel and die, the woman hangs herself and the father takes her ring off her finger symbolizing the one thing he could salvage from the marriage.

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Art History Research at Yale: How to Cite Your Sources

How to Research Art
Primary Sources
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Image & Video Resources
How to Cite Your Sources
Copyright and Fair Use
Collecting and Provenance Research This link opens in a new window
How to Find Images

WHAT EXPERT RESEARCHERS KNOW

Citation management tools (examples include Zotero, EndNote, and RefWorks, among others) help you organize and track sources you are using in your research so that you can easily cite them. They save you time in formatting footnotes, endnotes, bibliographies, etc. Which one you use is up to you! Check out this comparison guide .

Citing Images

Consult citation style guides (typically Chicago Manual of Style or MLA Handbook ) and note the components below while you are collecting and managing your images—this will save time later when you cite your images. Citation style guides will detail specific formatting, but these are the major parts:

Creator’s name
Title of work
Date of composition
Name and location of institution housing the work

Image Management

Keeping track of image citation information can be daunting as you acquire more and more images. Consider using an image management system such as Tropy to help keep them organized, and citation management systems to keep track of other sources.

Citation Styles Basics

Chicago Manual of Style

Researchers in arts fields often use the Chicago Manual of Style. The notes in this system are typically footnotes or endnotes that correspond to superscript numerals within a paper.

Resources for Chicago Manual of Style citations: The Chicago Manual of Style Online CiteSource Guide to the Chicago Manual of Style (Trinity University)

Appear within the actual text at the foot of the page.
Preferred by many for easier reference by readers.
Appear at the end of an article or chapter (but before the bibliography).
Are preferred over lengthy and unwieldy footnotes.
Good places to quote or discuss supplementary material.

MLA: Modern Language Association Style

MLA Style consists of in-text parenthetical citations and a Works Cited or bibliography section at the end of the paper. Sources are cited in parentheses immediately following the sentence or idea cited within the paper. A Works Cited or bibliography should be at the end of the paper referencing each source used, following these parameters:

Only sources that are directly referenced in the paper should appear in the Works Cited list (not supplemental or background reading).
The list should be organized in alphabetical order according to the authors' last names. If no author name is given, use the first main word in the title.

Resources for MLA citations: MLA Handbook (eighth edition) MLA Formatting and Style Guide (Purdue Online Writing Lab)

Giving Credit and Avoiding Plagiarism

You must give credit whenever you use:

another person’s idea, opinion, or theory
any facts, statistics, graphs, images—anything—that is not common knowledge
quotations of another person’s actual spoken or written words
paraphrase of another person’s spoken or written words

Check out these sources to understand more about avoiding plagiarism:

What Is Plagiarism? Yale Center for Teaching and Learning
Online Writing Lab: Avoiding Plagiarism (Purdue OWL)
Plagiarism Tutorial: Test Your Knowledge (University of Southern Mississippi)
You Quote It, You Note It! (Acadia University)
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URL: https://guides.library.yale.edu/arthistoryresearch

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Art Research Guide

Find information
Images & videos

Citation style guides for Art

Zoterobib: the quickest way to build an accurate bib, annotated bibliographies, how to cite images, writing about art, writing center.

Zotero Citation Manager
Art databases
Research artists
Arts Administration
New York Times
Washington Post

The most often used citation styles for Art is the Chicago Manual of Style , and sometimes the MLA Handbook for Writers . For more assistance, please consult a librarian or your professor.

The Art Bulletin is considered the flagship journal of the discipline. This journal probably provides the safest choice if you seek a model style.

Art Bulletin guidelines (Chicago Manual of Style)

Listed below are a few good online citation style guides, as well as print style guides which are located at the library service desk.

Chicago Manual of Style Online
Citation Builder (UNC-CH)
Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition From Purdue University; includes examples of many different formats
MLA Formatting and Style Guide at Purdue's Online Writing Lab

Zotero now has a quick and accurate tool to create a bibliography entry!

go to https://zbib.org/
enter a URL (website), ISBN (book), DOI (online article), PMID (PubMed), arXiv ID (author), or title
click on the Cite button
select a Bibliography style
copy to clipboard to paste into your document
formatted citations are stored in your browser until you delete them
How to prepare an annotated bibliography (Cornell) Explanation, process, directions, and examples

Visual sources can be difficult to cite, so be sure to 1) include as much information as you can, 2) format the elements consistently, and 3) adapt the general formats as described in published citation style guides as needed. If you have questions, please contact me.

Citing images from an image database, such as ARTstor, should include most, if not all, of this information (or as much of it as can be easily determined from the source).

creator's name
title of the image as given in the database
date of creation
name and location of the institution that houses the image (if any)
dimensions (if known)
material or format (painting, sculpture, photograph, etc.)
database name and URL
date accessed the database
How do I cite an image? CMOS shop talk (blog) from The Chicago Manual of Style
Citing Images in Chicago Style Examples from Dickinson College, PA
How to cite images (University of Cincinnati) Examples for MLA, APA, Turabian, Chicago Manual of Style
How to cite images (Purdue Online Writing Lab) MLA examples of how to cite a painting, sculpture, or photograph (about half way down the page)
Citing image sources (Artstor) Examples of how to cite images, including a museum object, a database and a website; from Artstor

The Writing Center offers online, real-time appointments. Students can make appointments as usual via http://elon.mywconline.com and meet with a consultant via video and text chat. Appointments will be available during the usual hours and all appointments will be scheduled for eastern standard time. For more information: https://www.elon.edu/u/academics/writing-excellence/the-writing-center/ .

Elon's Writing Center will help you understand an assignment, as well as brainstorm, draft, revise, edit & document sources.

Schedule an appointment at the Writing Center You can pick the day, time, duration and the WC consultant
Writing Center website Visit the WC website for current hours and locations
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Last Updated: Sep 4, 2023 10:23 AM
URL: https://elon.libguides.com/art

Art and Art History Research Guide

Terminology
Background research and finding books
Advanced searching in databases and Google
Evaluating sources
Chicago / Turabian Style

What is MLA?

Mla resources, citing your sources in mla style, cite right in mla library workshop, microsoft word templates, mla handbooks in the library.

Each academic discipline has its own rules for presenting research and citing ideas and words borrowed from other writers and researchers.

Courses in English and the humanities use the Modern Language Association (MLA) style rules.
The MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers contains comprehensive rules and examples for citing.
MLA 9 Quick Guide
MLA Style Sample Paper
Excelsior OWL MLA Guide
ZoteroBib Citation Generator
How to Create a Hanging Indent in Word
How to Create a Hanging Indent in Google Docs

How does citing in MLA work?

Step 1: Create a Works Cited page

Include a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper. It should contain a full citation for each source referenced within your paper. The full citation should include the specific publication information required by the MLA rules. This allows your reader to find the sources, if desired.

Step 2: Use in-text citations throughout your paper

Use an in-text citation to acknowledge that you are quoting or paraphrasing another author's words or ideas in the text of your research paper.
Your reader will use the information provided in the signal phrase and in-text citation to find additional information about the source in your Works Cited page.

Critser noted that despite growing numbers of overweight Americans, many health care providers still “remain either in ignorance or outright denial about the health danger to the poor and the young” (5). If the author is not named in the signal phrase, place the author’s name and the page number in parentheses after the quotation or paraphrase like this (Critser 5).

Step 3: Double-check your formatting

The MLA Handbook dictates the rules for formatting your in-text citations, Works Cited page, and your final research paper.
Review the links in the " MLA Resources " box on this page to see formatting examples.

Take the Quiz: Cite Right in MLA Complete this online quiz after watching the video above. A certificate of completion will be emailed to you.

Use MLA templates in Word and Google Docs

When creating a new Microsoft Word document (or Google Doc), search for "MLA" to see MLA-style research paper templates.

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Last Updated: Feb 13, 2024 2:41 PM
URL: https://researchguides.elac.edu/art

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Resource Guides

Art Research Guide

Articles & Images*
Research Starters
Biographical Information
Open Educational Resources
Interlibrary Loan
Citing Sources
Chicago Manual of Style
Organizing Your Paper
Images of Movie Posters
Books about Movies

Quick Links

Penfield Library
Research Guides
A-Z List of Databases & Indexes

MLA General Image Rules

For photographic reproductions of artwork (e.g. images of artwork in a book) , treat the book or website as a container. Remember that for a second container, the title is listed first, before the contributors. Cite the bibliographic information as above followed by the information for the source in which the photograph appears, including page or reference numbers (plate, figure, etc.).

Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800 , Museo del Prado, Madrid. Gardener's Art Through the Ages, 10th ed., by Richard G. Tansey and Fred S. Kleiner, Harcourt Brace, p. 939.

If you viewed the artwork on the museum's website , treat the name of the website as the container and include the website's publisher and the URL at the end of the citation. Omit publisher information if it is the same as the name of the website. Note the period after the date below, rather than the comma: this is because the date refers to the painting's original creation, rather than to its publication on the website. Thus, MLA format considers it an "optional element."

Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV. 1800 . Museo del Prado, museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos-iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-71759e417e74. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.

A work of art viewed on a website would be formatted

Artist's last name, first name . Title of Artwork . Date created. Title of Database or Website , Publisher or sponsor of Database or Website, URL or DOI. Date of access.

The Purdue OWL Family of Sites . The Writing Lab and OWL at Purdue and Purdue U, 2008, owl.english.purdue.edu/owl. Accessed 9 Feb. 2021.

Create an Image Caption

All visuals/illustrations that are not tables or musical score examples (e.g. maps, diagrams, charts, videos, podcasts, etc.) are labeled Figure or Fig.

Refer to the figure in-text and provide an Arabic numeral that corresponds to the figure. Do not capitalize figure or fig .

MLA does not specify alignment requirements for figures; thus, these images may be embedded as the reader sees fit. However, continue to follow basic MLA Style formatting (e.g. one-inch margins).

Below the figure, provide a label name and its corresponding arabic numeral (no bold or italics), followed by a period (e.g. Fig. 1.). Here, Figure and Fig . are capitalized.

Beginning with the same line as the label and number, provide a title and/or caption as well as relevant source information in note form (see instructions and examples above). If you provide source information with your illustrations, you do not need to provide this information on the Works Cited page.

If you are referring to an image but not including it in your paper you must provide an in-text citation and include an entry in the Works Cited List.

If you place the artwork in your paper, you must label the figure. The caption should be the Works Cited list citation for the source the figure was found in. For example, if it was found on a website, cite the website.

Information about the figure (the caption) is placed directly below the image in your assignment.

The Family of Charles IV, 1800 by Francisco Goya

Fig. 1. Goya, Francisco. The Family of Charles IV . 1800. Museo del Prado, museodelprado.es/en/the-collection/art-work/the-family-of-carlos- iv/f47898fc-aa1c-48f6-a779-71759e417e74.

Citation Building Tools

Use these tools to format your reference list citations in APA, Chicago, or MLA styles. Check the accuracy of these citations (e.g. capitalization, indentation, etc.) using a citation guide.

Calvin College KnightCite
NoodleTools Express
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Home » Artistic Research – Methods, Types and Examples

Artistic Research – Methods, Types and Examples

Table of Contents

Artistic Research

Definition:

Artistic Research is a mode of inquiry that combines artistic practice and research methodologies to generate new insights and knowledge. It involves using artistic practice as a means of investigation and experimentation, while applying rigorous research methods to examine and reflect upon the process and outcomes of the artistic practice.

Types of Artistic Research

Types of Artistic Research are as follows:

Practice-based Research

This type of research involves the creation of new artistic works as part of the research process. The focus is on the exploration of artistic techniques, processes, and materials, and how they contribute to the creation of new knowledge.

Research-led practice

This type of research involves the use of academic research methods to inform and guide the creative process. The aim is to investigate and test new ideas and approaches to artistic practice.

Practice-led Research

This type of research involves using artistic practice as a means of exploring research questions. The aim is to develop new insights and understandings through the creative process.

Transdisciplinary Research

This type of research involves collaboration between artists and researchers from different disciplines. The aim is to combine knowledge and expertise from different fields to create new insights and perspectives.

Research Through Performance

This type of research involves the use of live performance as a means of investigating research questions. The aim is to explore the relationship between the performer and the audience, and how this relationship can be used to create new knowledge.

Participatory Research

This type of research involves collaboration with communities and stakeholders to explore research questions. The aim is to involve participants in the research process and to create new knowledge through shared experiences and perspectives.

Data Collection Methods

Artistic research data collection methods vary depending on the type of research being conducted and the artistic discipline being studied. Here are some common methods of data collection used in artistic research:

Artistic production: One of the most common methods of data collection in artistic research is the creation of new artistic works. This involves using the artistic practice itself as a method of data collection. Artists may create new works of art, performances, or installations to explore research questions and generate data.
Interviews : Artists may conduct interviews with other artists, scholars, or experts in their field to collect data. These interviews may be recorded and transcribed for further analysis.
Surveys and questionnaires : Surveys and questionnaires can be used to collect data from a larger sample of people. These can be used to collect information about audience reactions to artistic works, or to collect demographic information about artists.
Observation: Artists may also use observation as a method of data collection. This can involve observing the audience’s reactions to a performance or installation, or observing the process of artistic creation.
Archival research : Artists may conduct archival research to collect data from historical sources. This can involve studying the work of other artists, analyzing historical documents or artifacts, or studying the history of a particular artistic practice or discipline.
Experimental methods : In some cases, artists may use experimental methods to collect data. This can involve manipulating variables in an artistic work or performance to test hypotheses and generate data.

Data Analysis Methods

some common methods of data analysis used in artistic research:

Interpretative analysis : This involves a close reading and interpretation of the artistic work, performance or installation in order to understand its meanings, themes, and symbolic content. This method of analysis is often used in qualitative research.
Content analysis: This involves a systematic analysis of the content of artistic works or performances, with the aim of identifying patterns, themes, and trends in the data. This method of analysis is often used in quantitative research.
Discourse analysis : This involves an analysis of the language and social contexts in which artistic works are created and received. It is often used to explore the power dynamics, social structures, and cultural norms that shape artistic practice.
Visual analysis: This involves an analysis of the visual elements of artistic works, such as composition, color, and form, in order to understand their meanings and significance.
Statistical analysis: This involves the use of statistical techniques to analyze quantitative data collected through surveys, questionnaires, or experimental methods. This can involve calculating correlations, regression analyses, or other statistical measures to identify patterns in the data.
Comparative analysis: This involves comparing the data collected from different artistic works, performances or installations, or comparing the data collected from artistic research to data collected from other sources.

Artistic Research Methodology

Artistic research methodology refers to the approach or framework used to conduct artistic research. The methodology used in artistic research is often interdisciplinary and may include a combination of methods from the arts, humanities, and social sciences. Here are some common elements of artistic research methodology:

Research question : Artistic research begins with a research question or problem to be explored. This question guides the research process and helps to focus the investigation.
Contextualization: Artistic research often involves an examination of the social, historical, and cultural contexts in which the artistic work is produced and received. This contextualization helps to situate the work within a larger framework and to identify its significance.
Reflexivity: Artistic research often involves a high degree of reflexivity, with the researcher reflecting on their own positionality and the ways in which their own biases and assumptions may impact the research process.
Iterative process : Artistic research is often an iterative process, with the researcher revising and refining their research question and methods as they collect and analyze data.
Creative practice: Artistic research often involves the use of creative practice as a means of generating data and exploring research questions. This can involve the creation of new works of art, performances, or installations.
Collaboration: Artistic research often involves collaboration with other artists, scholars, or experts in the field. This collaboration can help to generate new insights and perspectives, and to bring diverse knowledge and expertise to the research process.

Examples of Artistic Research

There are numerous examples of artistic research across a variety of artistic disciplines. Here are a few examples:

Music : A composer may conduct artistic research by exploring new musical forms and techniques, and testing them through the creation of new works of music. For example, composer Steve Reich conducted artistic research by studying traditional African drumming techniques and incorporating them into his minimalist compositions.
Visual art: An artist may conduct artistic research by exploring the history and techniques of a particular medium, such as painting or sculpture, and using that knowledge to create new works of art. For example, painter Gerhard Richter conducted artistic research by exploring the history of photography and using photographic techniques to create his abstract paintings.
Dance : A choreographer may conduct artistic research by exploring new movement styles and techniques, and testing them through the creation of new dance works. For example, choreographer William Forsythe conducted artistic research by studying the physics of movement and incorporating that knowledge into his choreography.
Theater : A theater artist may conduct artistic research by exploring the history and techniques of a particular theatrical style, such as physical theater or experimental theater, and using that knowledge to create new works of theater. For example, director Anne Bogart conducted artistic research by studying the teachings of the philosopher Jacques Derrida and incorporating those ideas into her approach to theater.
Film : A filmmaker may conduct artistic research by exploring the history and techniques of a particular genre or film style, and using that knowledge to create new works of film. For example, filmmaker Agnès Varda conducted artistic research by exploring the feminist movement and incorporating feminist ideas into her films.

When to use Artistic Research

some situations where artistic research may be useful:

Developing new artistic works: Artistic research can be used to inform and inspire the development of new works of art, music, dance, theater, or film.
Exploring new artistic techniques or approaches : Artistic research can be used to explore new techniques or approaches to artistic practice, and to test and refine these approaches through creative experimentation.
Investigating the historical and cultural contexts of artistic practice: Artistic research can be used to investigate the social, cultural, and historical contexts of artistic practice, and to identify the ways in which these contexts shape and influence artistic works.
Evaluating the impact and significance of artistic works : Artistic research can be used to evaluate the impact and significance of artistic works, and to identify the ways in which they contribute to broader cultural, social, and political issues.
Advancing knowledge and understanding in artistic fields: Artistic research can be used to advance knowledge and understanding in artistic fields, and to generate new insights and perspectives on artistic practice.

Purpose of Artistic Research

The purpose of artistic research is to generate new knowledge and understanding through a rigorous and creative investigation of artistic practice. Artistic research aims to push the boundaries of artistic practice and to create new insights and perspectives on artistic works and processes.

Artistic research serves several purposes, including:

Advancing knowledge and understanding in artistic fields: Artistic research can contribute to the development of new knowledge and understanding in artistic fields, and can help to advance the study of artistic practice.
Creating new artistic works and forms: Artistic research can inspire the creation of new artistic works and forms, and can help artists to develop new techniques and approaches to their practice.
Evaluating the impact and significance of artistic works: Artistic research can help to evaluate the impact and significance of artistic works, and to identify their contributions to broader cultural, social, and political issues.
Enhancing interdisciplinary collaboration: Artistic research often involves interdisciplinary collaboration, and can help to foster new connections and collaborations between artists, scholars, and experts in diverse fields.
Challenging assumptions and pushing boundaries: Artistic research can challenge assumptions and push the boundaries of artistic practice, and can help to create new possibilities for artistic expression and exploration.

Characteristics of Artistic Research

Some key characteristics that can be used to describe artistic research:

Creative and interdisciplinary: Artistic research is creative and interdisciplinary, drawing on a wide range of artistic and scholarly disciplines to explore new ideas and approaches to artistic practice.
Experimental and process-oriented : Artistic research is often experimental and process-oriented, involving creative experimentation and exploration of new techniques, forms, and ideas.
Reflection and critical analysis : Artistic research involves reflection and critical analysis of artistic practice, with a focus on exploring the underlying processes, assumptions, and concepts that shape artistic works.
Emphasis on practice-led inquiry : Artistic research is often practice-led, meaning that it involves a close integration of creative practice and research inquiry.
Collaborative and participatory: Artistic research often involves collaboration and participation, with artists, scholars, and experts from diverse fields working together to explore new ideas and approaches to artistic practice.
Contextual and socially engaged : Artistic research is contextual and socially engaged, exploring the ways in which artistic practice is shaped by broader social, cultural, and historical contexts, and engaging with issues of social and political relevance.

Advantages of Artistic Research

Artistic research offers several advantages, including:

Innovation : Artistic research encourages creative experimentation and exploration of new techniques and approaches to artistic practice, leading to innovative and original works of art.
Interdisciplinary collaboration: Artistic research often involves collaboration between artists, scholars, and experts from diverse fields, fostering interdisciplinary exchange and the development of new perspectives and ideas.
Practice-led inquiry : Artistic research is often practice-led, meaning that it involves a close integration of creative practice and research inquiry, leading to a deeper understanding of the creative process and the ways in which it shapes artistic works.
Critical reflection: Artistic research involves critical reflection on artistic practice, encouraging artists to question assumptions and challenge existing norms, leading to new insights and perspectives on artistic works.
Engagement with broader issues : Artistic research is contextual and socially engaged, exploring the ways in which artistic practice is shaped by broader social, cultural, and historical contexts, and engaging with issues of social and political relevance.
Contribution to knowledge : Artistic research contributes to the development of new knowledge and understanding in artistic fields, and can help to advance the study of artistic practice.

Limitations of Artistic Research

Artistic research also has some limitations, including:

Subjectivity : Artistic research is subjective, meaning that it is based on the individual perspectives, experiences, and creative decisions of the artist, which can limit the generalizability and replicability of the research.
Lack of formal methodology : Artistic research often lacks a formal methodology, making it difficult to compare or evaluate different research projects and limiting the reproducibility of results.
Difficulty in measuring outcomes: Artistic research can be difficult to measure and evaluate, as the outcomes are often qualitative and subjective in nature, making it challenging to assess the impact or significance of the research.
Limited funding: Artistic research may face challenges in securing funding, as it is still a relatively new and emerging field, and may not fit within traditional funding structures.
Ethical considerations: Artistic research may raise ethical considerations related to issues such as representation, consent, and the use of human subjects, particularly when working with sensitive or controversial topics.

About the author

Muhammad Hassan

Researcher, Academic Writer, Web developer

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Art Research Paper

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The Sociology of Art

The arts and sociology, as Pierre Bourdieu (1980:207) observed, make uneasy bedfellows. It is an unease that pervades American sociology even more than he imagined. We should bear in mind that barely two decades have elapsed since a handful of American Sociological Association members succeeded in convincing a necessary quorum of colleagues to sign the petition required to set up a new Section. The Culture Section’s growth since then must have come as a surprise even to some of those early supporters.

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Culture and the arts have become increasingly visible in sociological publications (Peterson 1976; Becker 1982; Crane 1987; Balfe 1993), disciplinary recognition (Griswold 2000), and professional organizations, both in the United States and elsewhere (Zolberg 1990). But despite the richly textured potential that the arts afford for social science disciplines, it appears that American sociologists continue to devote relatively little attention to them. The success of culture’s reentry as a domain of considerable significance in American sociological investigation provides an opportune moment to reexamine the standing of the arts in what should be the most hospitable field of the discipline. This research paper provides an account of the persistent hesitancy to recognize the arts as central rather than peripheral in the social scientific field even in the face of the extraordinary promise that artistic transformations in the past century would seem to offer. The theme is that despite the increasing prominence of culture in the profession, the standing of the arts in American sociology appears to have changed less than might have been expected. 232

Staging the Sociology of the Arts in America

Less than a half century ago, a survey of the sociology of art would have begun and ended with contentiously worded assertions concerning the relationships of the arts and society. Certainly, many scholars affirmed that in some ways art mirrors society, but at that point consensus would end. Some insisted that art reflects societal production relationships, serving largely as an ideological tool to maintain dominant groups in favorable situations. Deriving from the materialist orientation of Karl Marx, who actually wrote little about the arts, that perspective provides the foundation of Arnold Hauser’s (1951) massive analysis of artistic creativity through the ages, The Social History of Art. Other scholars, with equal certainty, maintained that great art should be treated as part of an autonomous sphere, surmounting material constraints, but in some way reflecting the spirit of its age. Certain versions of reflection analysis see art reaching for higher values, foretelling cultural and societal tendencies. Of the many anti-Marxist variants on this idea, the one elaborated by Pitirim Sorokin (1937), a work that preceded Hauser’s by more than a decade, was nearly as massive.

As divergent as they are in their foundations, these interpretations of the relations of the arts and society aim to unearth hidden postulates of art in relation to broad social structural processes. Whether from the standpoint of Marxist analysis or anti-Marxist idealism, these are universalizing conceptions of art, representing a Western European, hierarchical scheme of cultural classification (Bourdieu 2000:73, 105). Sorokin embraced 2,500 years of civilization; Hauser starts from the even earlier point— prehistoric cave painting—and both ended their analyses with their own artistic contemporaries. Neither passes muster in the face of modern anthropological perspectives, which see art as part of a cultural system, embedded in its cultural context (Geertz 1973). Regardless of the political or intellectual stance of individual scholars today, their ambitions are far more modest. They rarely undertake to encompass such magisterial breadth entailing so speculative an outlook. This does not necessarily result in a narrowing of vision, however, since the types of art that contemporary researchers consider worthy of analysis are far more varied than what their predecessors documented. Neither Hauser nor Sorokin paid much attention to nonWestern civilizations, barely any at all to primitive and folk forms, and, except disparagingly, to commercial art and entertainment (Hauser 1982). Neither considered the absence of women artists a question worthy of scrutiny. Even within the domain of fine art, both shared a largely unexamined but generally unfavorable opinion of avantgarde art. Finally, like most of their more aesthetically oriented peers, although they dealt with changing genres and stylistic modes, they accepted extant categories of art as unproblematic givens, without considering that other creative forms might be valid for inclusion in the aesthetic field (Zolberg 1997). Yet beyond their ambitious reach, what is remarkable about the Hauser and Sorokin studies is that they were truly exceptional, since on the whole social scientists gave short shrift to the subject of art.

On the Sociological Periphery

Early work in sociology of art.

Even though American sociology had its origins in, and continued to look toward European theoretical formulations, aside from literary and aesthetic scholars who sometimes touched ever so lightly on the social contexts or cultural history surrounding the arts, in the first half of the twentieth century, the sociology of art was largely the concern of a few European scholars. A single major work by Max Weber (1958) dealt directly with a specific art form— music—as a case of his theory of cultural rationalization in the West. When Émile Durkheim founded his important publication, Annales, he situated what he termed “aesthetic sociology” within the sociology that he was trying to establish but only under the residual rubric “ divers ” and beyond considering it as part of the “elementary forms of the religious life” of aboriginal society, he himself did no study of it (Zolberg 1990:38). Only Georg Simmel (1968) wrote frequently about the arts, although less as a social scientist than as a literary and art critic, philosopher, or fashionable essayist (Coser 1965).

By the end of World War II, American sociology, along with American science more generally, became the most dynamic and expansive in the world. This growth was a counterpart to the prominence of the United States on the international scene as the champion of Western humanist values during the war, and defender of freedom during the cold war (Guilbaut 1983; Saunders 1999).

American social scientific scholarship, however, hardly acknowledged the arts as a legitimate object of study. This stance had its nearly symmetrical correlative in the opposing and equally intransigent stance on the part of humanistic scholarship, including literature, aesthetics, art theory, musicology, and history of culture, toward what seemed the threat of the social sciences. The increasing preeminence of the exact sciences during and after the war had drawn many social scientists to adopt the presuppositions, techniques, and methodologies of these disciplines, an orientation that cast a shadow over humanistic subjects such as the arts, and qualitative interpretive methods that art calls for. Still, as higher education was expanded, despite official emphasis on the exact sciences, all university studies were made to grow, including the social sciences and the humanities.

A New Moment in Late-20th Century Sociology

Until the post–World War II period, in the United States, the few scholars who did social studies of the arts were emigré scholars, especially members of the Frankfurt School, such as Theodor Adorno ([1962] 1976), who were escaping persecution by totalitarian states. Straddling the intersection of the humanities and social sciences, these exiles often remained marginal to mainstream intellectual life, were treated as outsiders, and saw themselves in that light (Wilson 1964:v). Their marginality was enhanced by the Marxist orientation to which some adhered, combined more generally with their critical views on American sociology’s “scientistic empiricism,” and, in many cases, contempt for what they took to be its intellectual shallowness (Zolberg 1990:72). Most of them deplored the development of “mass society” and its impact on individual autonomy. Their insistence on taking an evaluative position in their social analysis, rejecting what they regarded as a fictive scientific objectivity, reinforced the exclusion they suffered from the academic mainstream of American sociology. Nevertheless, some of them attracted a following of American scholars, intrigued by and sympathetic to their inquiry in the spheres both of high culture and their critique of culture industries. Although the legacy of earlier misgiving persists, in recent times, it has become considerably muted because of changes in both sets of disciplines that have produced convergences in their orientations (Zolberg 1990).

Foundations for a New Social Study of the Arts

Although in many European countries a considerable body of scholarship was devoted to aesthetics, it was only in the post–World War II period that an autonomous field of sociology of art, distinct from philosophy, history, or criticism materialized. This was the case in France, as the sociologists Pierre Bourdieu ([1979] 1984) and Raymonde Moulin ([1967] 1987, 1992) provided important intellectual leadership and the French state gave institutional support. German philosophical, musicological, and art historical scholarship continued to straddle the social domain as successors to the Frankfurt School tradition for whom the arts, both fine and commercial, were foci of critical study. English literary and historical scholarship infused Raymond Williams’s social analysis of what he saw as the hegemonic role of the arts and served to underpin the development of British culture studies. Williams led the way to open up the social study of the arts by introducing popular forms, such as the movies, radio, jazz, and more popular forms. In the United States, students and faculty who considered the university an agent of government policy, especially through its involvement in the Vietnam War, challenged what they suspected were biases of the social sciences.

Simultaneously, in relation to some of the same developments, the art world itself was undergoing transformation. The trend that had begun much earlier, for the center of the international art market to shift from Paris to New York became a reality in the immediate post–World War II period. As happened during World War I, when the arts were challenged by Marcel Duchamp’s gathering of “found objects”—bathroom plumbing, snow shovels, bicycle wheels—and “assisting” them to the status of art by supplying them with titles and signatures by purported artists, in the 1950s the arts “exploded.” Artists introduced new media, broke the barriers separating genres, and challenged conventional hierarchies, routinely wreaking havoc with artistic traditions, including even the historical avant-garde.

The material conditions that encouraged the entry of large numbers of aspiring artists into the avant-garde art world included growing foundation, corporate, and government support for the arts (Crane 1987). Political ideology played an important role in the form of cold war strategy by American advocates of government support for the arts, who successfully argued for creating a hospitable environment for artistic originality to serve as evidence of the creative freedom that was anathema under authoritarian regimes (Guilbaut 1983; Saunders 1999). Besides providing an opportunity structure for artists, indirectly, it opened the path for social scientists interested in culture, whose forays into studies of the arts gained some legitimacy.

On the basis of what had become “normal sociology” of the 1950s and 1960s, it would have been difficult to predict the efflorescence in the sociology of art that was in the offing. Prior to that time, aside from a few articles, no major sociological works had increased the small, pre-1950s bookshelf. An indication of the new trend appeared in the exploratory work, The Arts in Society a reader edited by Robert Wilson (1964), who wrote a number of its essays and solicited additional ones. Justifying his choices by taking as his point of departure the fairly orthodox idea that artists could “often see what is going on in the society or the psyche a good bit earlier than other men do” (p. vi), he was unabashedly “concerned with the products and producers of high culture.” Only a few years later, another collection of essays heralded an “institutional” approach that examines the functions of the arts in meeting human needs and maintaining social stability (Albrecht, Barnett, and Griff 1970). The editors included studies of the relationship of forms and styles to various social institutions; artists’ careers and their interactions in a variety of artistic milieus; distribution and reward systems; the roles of critics, dealers, and the public in recognizing artists and works.

They were generously open to divergent views that encompassed even Marxian analysts. At the same time, however, these essays demonstrated the infancy of the field of sociology of art: of the authors represented, only onefourth were actually sociologists, while the rest were in anthropology, comparative literature, history, art history, or were practicing artists, painters, dancers, writers. The happy result of this omnium gatherum was that Albrecht and his coauthors contributed to the creation of an American field that integrated European approaches and was strongly cross-disciplinary, ranging over the fine arts, classical and contemporary, as well as folk art, music, dance, and literature, and their corresponding institutional grounding.

A Sociological Space for Art: Current Trends

In light of changes within sociology itself, as well as developments exogenous to the discipline, the sociology of art in the third millennium may be characterized by four trends. First, continuing from already tested frameworks, sociologists examine the roles of the institutions and processes that give rise to or constrain the emergence of artworks. Second, they analyze the artistic practice of creators and patterns of appreciation and acquisition of patrons and collectors. Third, they investigate degrees of access for diverse publics to the arts and the role of the arts in status reproduction. Fourth, in a radical shift, some scholars call into question the very nature of the category “Art,” arguing that “art” needs to be understood not as selfevident but as a social construction. The rapid succession of art styles that has characterized nineteenth- and twentieth-century Europe and the United States is taken by some to be emblematic of the innovativeness of modernity but by others as an indication of over-ripeness, cultural decadence, and anomie. For some observers, the entry of commercial art forms into galleries and museums (Cherbo 1997), the newly found respectability of previously denigrated musical forms such as jazz (Adorno 1976), the growing presence of non-Western music, simultaneously in commercial and serious musical domains, are a sign of the West’s decline. Many question whether these genres— new entrants to “Art”—deserve to be so designated (Zolberg 1990).

For sociologists of culture, generally more dispassionate than cultural critics, developments of this kind provide opportunities for research and theorizing that many analysts hope will help to understand the nature of societal transformations more generally. The use and misuse of aesthetic creation in the interest of particular groups or political ends is one of their recurring concerns (Gans 1974, 1999; Goldfarb 1982; Halle 1993). At the same time, the idea of a domain of art free from material purposes outside of itself remains a seemingly unrealizable ideal, both for artists and for publics more generally.

Methodological approaches range from an empiricism that relies on quantitative tools to analyze masses of available data, such as the degree of access to cultural resources (Blau 1988), survey data of art world practices, and audience studies (Gans 1974). Equally empirical, but based on microscopic observation and qualitative analysis of cultural practices, is the ethnography of Howard S. Becker’s (1982) Artworlds. Historical and semiotic perspectives have been imported from literary analysis into the social studies. Even more striking is that the range of works and art forms investigated has burgeoned and includes the commercial domain—culture industry—as well as the more traditional fine arts (Peterson 1997). Increasingly, sociologists, following Gans (1974), recognize that the arts may exclude as well as include. The absence of certain classes of aspiring artists such as women and racial minorities from what were defined as the most distinguishing and distinguished art forms is no longer taken for granted (Bourdieu [1979] 1984).

In its most distinctive manifestation, American sociology of culture has synthesized approaches to the social study of science, religion, and work, under the rubric of the “production of culture” (Peterson 1976). Defining culture in a broadly pragmatic sense that allies it to anthropology, it comprises art, popular culture, science, religion, symbols or, more generally, meanings, Richard Peterson and his associates urged that the questions broached by scholars themselves determine the use of synchronic or diachronic modes according to their appropriateness. Proponents of the production of culture approach consider how cultural products were constituted, accentuating the effects of institutional and structural arrangements, both as facilitators of or impediments to creation. Characteristically, they prefer doing middle-range and microscopic analysis that, they believe, more effectively reveals the impact of laws, culture industry practices, and gatekeepers of the form and content of artworks.

Institutions and Processes

Critics and artists have decried, virtually since their establishment, the role of certain institutions, such as official academies and government agencies or ministries that are supposed to provide support for artistic creation. Following the pioneering sociological study by Harrison White and Cynthia White (1965), among the first to analyze systematically the changing structure of opportunity that the French Academy provided for artists of the French painting world in the nineteenth century, more recently, a study of how academies selected for exclusion was carried out by Gladys Engel Lang and Kurt Lang (1990). Focusing on the revival of etching as an art form in the nineteenth century, they show how keeping out or severely limiting women as students and members by most European academies impeded their entry into the highly regarded world of oil painting. Diverted to other, lesser media, such as etching and watercolor, whose professional organizations were newer and less restrictive, aspiring women artists were able to launch careers and gain a measure of status and recognition.

Research on French art institutions has continued to thrive with the work of Raymonde Moulin on the interplay among art museums, the art market, and government policy in providing official recognition for innovative art (1992). In the United States, a system in which the national government’s support for the arts is far more limited, and even declining, the study of how institutions affect the arts has advanced under the leadership of Paul DiMaggio (1986a, 1986b) and Judith Balfe (1993).

Artistic Practices and Worlds of Art

The most significant contribution to understanding how the arts are constituted was Howard S. Becker’s (1982) Artworlds. By adapting a “sociology of work” approach to study what is customarily viewed as unique creations of individual geniuses, Becker’s premise is that making art is not qualitatively different from engagement in other social activities. Becker argues that far from being an individual act, the making of art needs to be understood as a collective process, in which interactions among participants, of whom the named artist is only one, result in the production of “artworks.” The other participants—support personnel— may range from assistants to servants, to managers or agents, critics, buyers, and organizations. Taking into account the size and complexity of modern societies, Becker does not reduce the arts to a single art world. Instead, he argues that art making is constituted in four principal art worlds, each characterized by a particular style of working, based on its own conventions. Thus, the integrated professional artist is trained according to the conventions of an art form such as music, painting, and dance, within the domain either of high culture or commercial. The Maverick is also trained according to those conventions but refuses to abide by them, preferring to risk isolation and failure to innovate on his own terms. The folk artist works within conventions traditional in his community’s lore. Finally, outside of actual constituted art worlds, the least integrated is the naive artist, untrained in art who follows an internal urging to create works that represent idiosyncratic experiences or ideas about religion, representations of personal remembrances, or even aberrations and madness. Whereas the other art worlds have ties to regular art world institutions or practitioners or make it their business to develop ties to them, naive artists must be “discovered” by others or else remain unknown (Becker 1982).

Art and Its Publics: Status Reproduction and Taste

One of the most misleading adages of all time must be there’s no arguing about taste. In reality, taste is always being argued about. Thorstein Veblen (1934) had been one of the first social scientists to interpret the symbolic meanings of taste in his analysis of leisure class behavior during the Gilded Age. Approximately a half century later, Russell Lynes ([1949] 1980) published his classification of high-, middle-, and low-brow taste preferences, in which artworks and fashion are taken as status markers. On the basis of writings by these and other astute analysts, a number of sociologists have noted that taste, in art, design, and fashion may be a person’s social standing. Far from viewing taste as trivial, purely personal, and difficult to fathom because it is nonrational, sociologists such as Bourdieu contend that taste is social in its formation, symbolic in its expression, and has real social consequences for individuals and social institutions. In his more complex level of analysis, Bourdieu goes beyond the idea of taste as a “right” of consumerism. Instead, his observations of social differences in artistic taste enable him to show linkages among taste, symbolic status, and the mechanisms by which they tend to reproduce existing status hierarchies in society at large from generation to generation. Treating taste as an aspect of the individual’s cultural baggage, a durably structured behavioral orientation whose origin stems from early childhood experience in the family, and schooling, Bourdieu employs a variety of methods, quantitative and ethnographic, to show how taste functions as a form of capital to crystallize inequalities based on economic and social advantages or disadvantages. In this way, taste becomes a badge of social honor or, conversely, of scorn, signaling to influential groups that some are more acceptable than others (Bourdieu [1979] 1984, [1992] 1995).

English sociologists of culture have been pursuing cultural reproduction from a parallel perspective. Although they do not, as a rule, use large surveys of taste, many have analyzed the content and uses of aesthetic culture, both high and popular. Raymond Williams (1981), beginning from a Marxian perspective, and moving between literary or film criticism and academic life, was a major influence on what became the field of Culture Studies. Beyond the simple base-superstructure correspondence of Marxism, in which culture is conceived as merely epiphenomenal to existing production relationships, Williams, Stuart Hall (1980), and Janet Wolff (1984), among many others, conceived of culture as a constitutive practice in the construction of social meanings. They have tried to overcome the prevailing, decontextualized, literary-critical mode of analysis by elucidating the relations between, on the one hand, cultural images, objects, and practices, and on the other, social institutions and processes. Scholars associated with the Birmingham Centre for Contemporary Cultural Studies analyzed many aspects of British youth subcultures, and their relationship to new artistic styles.

It would be disingenuous to suggest that there is complete agreement among sociologists about how taste and status are related, and with what consequences. Whereas Bourdieu attributes expertise in manipulating symbolic capital through complex codes available in the lore of dominant class fractions, many others prefer to emphasize observable changes in social stratification patterns, and the conditions of their expression. One of those who question Bourdieu’s analysis is David Halle (1993), who has studied the collection and display of art inside of people’s homes. His interviews with elite collectors of abstract art reveal that, contrary to Bourdieu’s assumption, collectors have little facility or understanding of the works they own. Indeed, such art is nearly as esoteric for them as for nonelites. Halle finds widespread sharing of taste across status lines, especially noting a nearly universal and, it appears, similar mode of appreciation of the landscape genre. Moreover, although educational level is an important enabler of high culture taste, ethnicity and race play important roles in how people select works for the home, in contrast to their responses to questionnaires administered in public spaces (Halle 1993).

Equally unexpected, in their studies of how musical tastes are related to occupational status, Peterson and Simkus suggest that although classical music continues to be a marker for high status occupational groups, more striking is the great breadth of their preference for a variety of music. Thus, whereas less than a third of respondents occupying prestigious occupations say they like classical music best, a somewhat larger proportion say they prefer country and Western music to grand opera. More “distinguishing” is that high-status individuals participate in more cultural activities and enjoy a wider range of music than do those of lesser status. As Peterson and Simkus put it, they are “omnivores” as opposed to less elite groups, whose range of taste in music is much more limited, and whom they characterize as “univores” (Peterson and Simkus 1993:152–86).

For scholars of Renaissance behavior, the omnivore is strongly reminiscent of the character type emergent with the “civilizing process” to which Norbert Elias (1978) devoted his early figurational analysis. In that period of expanded possibilities for travel in Europe as feudalism declined centralized states and monarchical structures began to form, promising young men (and rare women) from more or less isolated localities were being drawn to centers offering new opportunities. They had to learn to behave differently before a new audience and circles of courtly societies than they had in the familiar traditional worlds they inhabited, where their status (for better or for worse), was secure. Cosmopolitanism and the idea of the Renaissance Man came to mark the ideal of behavior, giving rise to a virtual industry of etiquette books, epic poetry, and other literature by authorities such as Erasmus, Castiglione, Chaucer, Shakespeare (Elias 1978). To be considered a country bumpkin was disastrous for seekers after the Renaissance notion of fame. As Bourdieu points out, these qualities became institutionalized in the development of secondary and higher education from the sixteenth through the twentieth centuries, and remnants of this cultural structure persist despite, as Bourdieu noted, the twentieth century’s valorization of science and technology (Bourdieu [1979] 1984).

But What Is Art?

Finally, whereas in the past scholars investigating the place of the arts in society have taken for granted the categories of art conventionally agreed to by art world participants, in recent times certain sociologists have turned their attention to tracing how art classifications are constructed. Like the sociologist of science, Bruno Latour (1987), who questions the processes by which certain frameworks of analysis, categories, and findings come to be incorporated into the scientific canon, some see even more plausible reasons for interrogating how artistic canons are established. Art is a stake in the arena of competition that pervades much of social life, as Bourdieu contends, not only for artists themselves, but for their supporters, patrons, collectors, dealers, and for the writers and scholars who constitute the art worlds in which they exist. In recent times, under pressure from potential publics, market forces, including collectors, and political action, and in light of the openness of the fine arts to new media, existing cultural institutions, such as art museums, are exhibiting works previously excluded from consideration as Art. Previously, for example, African carvings were largely consigned to ethnological collections; now, their entry into art museums has taken the form of an upward spiral in prestige; art of the “insane” has attained high market value (Anne E. Bowler as cited in Zolberg and Cherbo 1997:11–36); and women artists are gaining a level of recognition that had routinely been denied them (Zolberg and Cherbo 1997:1–8). In the worlds of culture industry as well, new musical forms such as “Rock-n-roll” and Rap have emerged from the interplay of business developments, technological innovations, and enacted statutes in such fields as copyright law, which set the parameters for works to come to public attention (Ennis 1992:5–7).

The seemingly impermeable barrier between high art and popular art that took over a century to construct (Levine 1988) has since been breached countless times, not only in America but in Europe as well (Circle 1993:12). In the past three decades, even the massive wall between commercial art forms and the “disinterested” arts has endured a jolting to the point of crumbling. The entry of Latin American, Asian, and African visual and musical forms and motifs into the Western dominated canon has gained increasing legitimacy and audiences (Zolberg 1997:53–72). Moreover, since any kind of art—fine, popular, commercial—may be disseminated through commercial channels of distribution, adding the interplay of official policy with market forces helps to thicken one’s understanding of processes of democratization.

21st Century Prospects for the Arts in American Sociology

By the beginning of the third millennium, the sociological study of culture and the arts is no longer a stepchild of the serious business of sociologists. If not central, then the arts are at least legitimately scholarly, as opposed to a frivolous subject. This flowering came about despite the traditional anti-aesthetic orientation in American social science and the more general unease between social science and the arts. Still, the position of the arts in the social science disciplines continues to remain tenuous and requires repeatedly renewed justification as an intellectual enterprise. In part, this is due to the fact that the crux of the arts since the Renaissance has been the artist as an individual, a tradition of several centuries that emphasizes the uniqueness of the actor and the work he (rarely, she) created. While the notion of such individual agency is relatively compatible with the discipline of psychology, it is less easily reconciled with the collectivist understanding of behavior by sociology. As noted above, this perception underlies the view of art as a collective process (Becker 1982) and sociologists’ emphasis on the production rather than creation of culture. Retaining or reinserting the individual artist as a creative agent has both ethical importance, since it implies respect for the autonomy of the individual, and intellectual validity in a discipline that could easily reduce art to no more than an outcome of general structures and processes. Thus, whereas culture has become a deeply embedded component of sociology dealing with science, theory, macrohistorical questions, education, religion, ethnicity, to name a few, the place of the traditional fine arts has not grown proportionately.

Two edited books published under the aegis of the ASA Culture Section seem to confirm this observation. Whereas the first, Diana Crane’s (1994) edited collection includes an essay on the arts, the second volume, edited by Elizabeth Long, includes not even one chapter on the fine arts and only one that even approaches this domain (Long 1997). On the other hand, the third and most recent collection of Culture Section sponsored essays suggests that the arts have conquered a new place in the sociological sun (Mark D. Jacobs and Nancy Weiss Hanrahan 2005). The coeditors rehearse the several decades in American social science characterized by “the cultural turn,” the reconceptualization of culture away from the functionalist emphasis on the need for culture to bring about a homogeneous consensus in society. Instead, proponents of the cultural turn sought variations and heterogeneity in the arrival on the public scene of pluralism and tolerance of difference. Rather than require uniformity, the goal is for a more “organic” (as in Durkheim’s formulation) conception to be the basis of social solidarity, not to promote conformity but individual human agency.

The cultural turn had challenged the elite standing of high culture by recognizing the existence of talent and striving among all social groups and the democratization embedded in Pragmatism. For all the attractiveness of openness to different forms, culture was frequently reduced to unending debate on ideology, functionalism, and essentialism versus constructivism. In a break from the past, Jacobs and Hanrahan (2005) put forth a new idea in the field of cultural sociology. They refer to “this newly emerging conception of culture as . . . an aesthetic one, which offers possibilities for intensifying and re-imagining the experience of civic life” (p. 12). From a static or, at the most, slowly changing notion of societal existence, their new approaches emphasize the dynamism of process and human intervention and their impact on existing traditional structures. Beyond these important changes, the new aesthetic conception helps, instead, in the more than two dozen essays by American, Canadian, European, and Asian sociologists, to turn toward normative commitments for the revival of civic discourse in relation to legality and social justice, the politics of recognition, and “the potentialities of ordinary experience” Jacobs and Hanrahan (2005).

Democratization in Diversity

In the context of American idea systems, Peterson’s innovations and the efforts of others associated with the production of culture school are likely to continue to drive research. This approach prepares the way for scholars to enlarge their repertoire of questions and take into account the impact on creation and reception of the arts in light of the enormous changes in the ethnic make up of the American population since the end of World War II. Sources of immigration have been changed decisively by new laws and population movements: Hispanic, Chinese, Indian/Pakistani, Middle Eastern, Russian, peoples of a broad range of educational levels and aspirations. They provide an unprecedented opportunity to investigate the interactions with the varied Anglo-centric cultural choices that have until now been the focus of most studies. Demands for access to elite culture now include not merely “visitors” from modest economic backgrounds, whose entry is far from being attained either in North America or in Europe (Circle 1993:96, 103, 129), but crosscutting socioeconomic distinctions, differences of gender, ethnicity, and race or religion. Each of these may have aesthetic implications that the conflict, as usually expressed— quantity versus quality—does not encompass.

The extraordinary transformation of the international arena in recent years requires that scholarship move more explicitly outside of the American scholarly world and into the wider international realm. This is essential in a world that brings together what had been largely national concerns. As is true of other intellectual fields, the arts are no longer understandable in terms of one society alone since few societies are either homogeneous or sealed off from other geographic, national, or societal units. Thus, whereas it may still be possible to study such issues as arts censorship in the context of a single society, it is more likely that political transformations open the door to new conflicts as global phenomena.

Related to globalization, technological innovations in cyberspace and computer technology militate even more poignantly against retaining the single society as the primary unit of analyses. They not only permit new forms of artistic expression but also enhance attempts to evade control over art content. Providing new avenues for artistic dissemination, they also substitute for direct contact with the storehouses of art, the museum. This suggests that this contextual metamorphosis will set the parameters of the next phase of studies in the sociology of the arts. Cultural sociologists have through theory, example, and practice contributed to the vital and potentially dangerous debates that pervade questions of “identity,” including ethnicity, gender, race, or religion, with strongly political loadings. Pursuing questions of meaning, identity, and value in terms of American society alone is clearly insufficient to understanding social processes and emergent structures. As American sociologists burst the bonds of narrow parochialism and enter the adventurous terrain of global processes, they foster a cosmopolitanism that challenges existing approaches and conceptualizations of the social sciences.

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Geertz, Clifford. 1973. “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture.” Pp. 3–32 in The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.
Goldfarb, Jeffrey C. 1982. On Cultural Freedom: An Exploration of Public Life in Poland and America. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Griswold, Wendy. 2000. Bearing Witness: Readers, Writers, and the Novel in Nigeria. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.
Guilbaut, Serge. 1983. How New York Stole the Idea of Modern Art: Abstract Expressionism, Freedom, and the Cold War. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Hall, Stuart. 1980. “Cultural Studies and the Centre: Some Problematics and Problems.” Pp.15–47 in Culture, Media, Language: Working Papers in Cultural Studies, 1972–79, edited by S. Hall. London, England: Hutchinson.
Halle, David. 1993. Inside Culture: Art and Class in the Modern American Home. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
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Hauser, Arnold. 1982. The Sociology of Art. Translated by K. J. Northcott. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
Jacobs, Mark D. and Nancy Weiss Hanrahan. 2005. The Blackwell Companion to the Sociology of Culture. Oxford, England: Blackwell.
Lang, Gladys Engel and Kurt Lang. 1990. Etched in Memory: The Building and Survival of Artistic Reputations. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.
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Peterson, Richard A. and Albert Simkus. 1993. “How Musical Tastes Mark Occupational Status Groups.” Pp. 152–68 in Cultivating Differences: Symbolic Boundaries and the Making of Inequality, edited by M. Lamont and M. Fournier. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
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150+ Captivating Art Research Paper Topics Ideas

Updated 14 Jun 2024

Choosing the right topic for an art research paper is crucial for your academic success. If you pick one you’re passionate about, you can showcase your knowledge, creativity, and critical thinking and provide a unique perspective on the subject matter. You can engage and entice the reader and ensure your research stays viable in the future.

People have been creating art for centuries, so there are countless art research paper topics to choose from. To pick the right one, you should:

Choose an art branch - There are literature, music, film, performing (e.g., theater and dance) and visual arts (e.g., painting, drawing, sculpture, architecture, etc.), other branches to choose from.
Select a specific aspect - You can opt for an artistic movement, a specific period, a particular artist, or decide to analyze a specific work of art.
Come up with several ideas - Brainstorm different ideas you’re interested in analyzing and conduct research to find relevant information on each. That way, you’ll discover numerous art research topics to use as inspiration. Make sure there are enough credible sources to support your research.
Narrow down your topic - Lock in on one or two ideas that will help you write a detailed, thought-provoking, and engaging research paper.

To help you narrow down the list, we’ve rounded up some of the most interesting art topics for research papers. Read on to get some inspiration for your writing assignment.

Riveting Modern Art Research Paper Topics

Modern art brings innovation in movements, forms, and styles, replacing conservative values in the spirit of experimenting with shapes, lines, and colors. Check out some of the most enticing topic ideas.

Breaking Away from Conventions: The Unique Style of Modern Art
Impressionism vs. Cubism: The Elements of Time and Light
The Rise of Digital Arts
Graffiti: Vandalism or Art?
Urban Street Art: The Mystery of Banksy
The Eclectic Style of “The Kiss” by Gustav Klimt
The Influence of Modern European Art on American Artists
The Impact on Japanese Art on Van Gogh’s Paintings
Art and Feminism: Contemporary Themes Driving the Movement
Printmaking in the 21st century
The Evolution of Abstract Expressionism in Contemporary Art
The Role of Feminism in Shaping Modern Art Movements
The Intersection of Art and Artificial Intelligence: Creative Collaborations
Political Activism Through Modern Art: Case Studies and Analysis
Minimalism in Modern Art: Philosophical Underpinnings and Aesthetic Principles

Most Interesting Art History Research Paper Topics

Art history teaches you to analyze the visual and textual evidence in various artworks to understand how different artists saw the world and expressed their emotions. Here are some of the most exciting topics.

Artistic Freedom vs. Censorship: Art in Nazi Germany
From Canvas to Camera: Photography as Art
Gothic Art in Medieval England
The Death of the Author: Barthes’s Theory Debunked
The History of Abstract Expressionism
Art and Culture: An Intellectual History
Expressionism in Western Europe
Hidden Messages in Famous Works of Art
Art as Propaganda in France and America
Wartime Art: A Visual History of Warfare
A History of Neoclassical Art
Victorian Beauty Standards in Art
Constructivism: The Birth of the Russian Avant-Garde
Gothic Culture: History, Literature, and Visual Arts
The Rise of Sequential Art: The History of Comics and Graphic Novels

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Art Topics on Ancient Civilizations

Artworks dating back millennia reveal a lot about different ancient civilizations. Their artistic contributions are still significant today, especially in modern architecture. If you want to analyze their artwork, here are some of the best art research topics you can use.

Symbolism in Ancient Egyptian Art
The Art History of Ancient Rome
Ancient Greek Sculpture: The Art of Classical Greece
Primeval Musical Instruments in Mesopotamia and Ancient Egypt
Ancient Roman vs. Classical Greek Art
The Impact of the Mayan Civilization on Ancient Art and Culture
The Influence of Mayan Culture in Modern Architecture
Egyptian Pyramids vs. Mayan Pyramids: Is There a Hidden Connection?
Ancient Art History: The Origins and Purpose of Writing
The Impact of Ancient Civilizations on Art History
The Incas and Their Influence on Modern Art
The Role of Religion and Culture in Aztec Art
Ancient Chinese Art: The Role of Chinese Philosophy and Religion
Chinese Ritual Bronzes: Understanding the Ancient Ritual Vessels
Mythology in the Artworks of Ancient Civilizations

Engrossing Art Research Paper Topics on Artist Biography

Analyzing the life and work of a particular artist can help you understand them better and uncover the symbolism and hidden meanings in their work. Let’s go over some engaging art topics for research papers, covering some of the most influential artists in history.

18th century:

William Blake: A Misunderstood Artist, Poet, and Visionary
Francisco de Goya: Changing the World Through Art
Eugène Delacroix and the Rise of Modern Art
Madame Tussaud and Her Lasting Impact on Art
The Life and Career of William Turner
Ludwig van Beethoven: The Mystic Principles in Romantic Art, Literature, and Music
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: The Life and Work of the Musical Genius
The Artistic Journey of Jean-Honoré Fragonard
The Influence of Neoclassicism on Jacques-Louis David's Works
The Portraiture Legacy of Thomas Gainsborough

19th century:

Vincent Van Gogh: The Misunderstood Genius Ahead of His Time
Pierre-Auguste Renoir: Innovative Elements and Principles of Art
Gustav Klimt: The Master of Symbolism
Claude Monet and His Vision of Light and Color
Edgar Degas: A Storyteller of Modern Parisian Life
Paul Cézanne: The Father of Modern Art
The Romantic Imagination of William Blake
The Innovations of Eugène Delacroix in Color and Form
Gustave Courbet: Realism and Rebellion in 19th Century Art
The Mystical Landscapes of John Constable

20th century:

Pablo Picasso: The Father of Cubism
Frida Kahlo: Surrealism Through Magical Realism
The Surreal World of Salvador Dalí
Andy Warhol: The American Pop Art King
Jackson Pollock: The Face of Abstract Expressionism
Georgia O’Keeffe: The Mother of American Modernism
Louise Bourgeois: A Revolutionary in Abstract Sculpture and Installation Art
The Evolution of Pablo Picasso's Artistic Style
The Role of Surrealism in Salvador Dalí's Career
The Abstract Expressions of Jackson Pollock

Thought-Provoking Art Research Topics on Different Epochs

Every creative epoch brought something new to the art world. If you focus on a specific creative epoch in art history, you can explore a whole world of unique artistic and literary styles, techniques, themes, and all the influential artists that used them. Here are some of the epochs and related topics to choose from.

The Dramatic Use of Light and Shadow in Caravaggio's Paintings
The Influence of the Counter-Reformation on Baroque Art
The Architectural Innovations of Gian Lorenzo Bernini
The Emotional Expression in Peter Paul Rubens' Works
The Role of Allegory in Baroque Sculpture

Romanticism

The Depiction of Nature in the Works of Caspar David Friedrich
The Romantic Hero in the Paintings of Eugène Delacroix
The Influence of Literature on Romantic Art
The Exploration of the Sublime in J.M.W. Turner's Landscapes
The Representation of National Identity in Francisco Goya's Art

Impressionism

The Influence of Japanese Woodblock Prints on Impressionist Artists
The Role of Urbanization in the Works of Edgar Degas
The Use of Light and Color in Claude Monet's Paintings
The Everyday Life in the Art of Pierre-Auguste Renoir
The Evolution of Outdoor Painting in the Impressionist Movement

Post-impressionism

The Symbolic Use of Color in Vincent van Gogh's Works
The Exploration of Pointillism by Georges Seurat
The Influence of Primitivism on Paul Gauguin's Art
The Structural Innovations in Paul Cézanne's Paintings
The Emotional Depth in the Art of Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec
The Analytical Cubism of Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque
The Influence of African Art on Cubist Works
The Evolution of Synthetic Cubism
The Impact of Cubism on Modern Sculpture
The Role of Fragmentation in Cubist Art
The Exploration of the Unconscious in Salvador Dalí's Art
The Influence of Freud's Theories on Surrealist Artists
The Role of Automatism in Surrealist Painting
The Use of Symbolism in René Magritte's Works
The Intersection of Surrealism and Literature in the Works of Max Ernst

Compelling Renaissance Essay Topics

Marking the transition from the Middle Ages to the modern world, the Renaissance was a period of cultural and artistic rebirth. If you’re looking for compelling art essay topics on this fervent era, here are some ideas for inspiration.

Humanism and Naturalism in Renaissance Art
Religious Symbolism in Renaissance Art
Leonardo da Vinci and His Influence on Renaissance Art
Michelangelo’s David: An Icon of the Italian Renaissance
The Sistine Chapel: Michelangelo’s Immortal Masterpiece
The Transcendent Influence of Raphael’s Paintings
“The Birth of Venus” by Botticelli: Mythology and Realism
The Influence of Science on Renaissance Art and Culture
The Harlem Renaissance: Driving Social Change Through Art
The Unity of Art and Music in the Renaissance Era
The Role of Patronage in the Development of Renaissance Art
The Influence of Classical Antiquity on Renaissance Humanism
The Architectural Innovations of Filippo Brunelleschi
The Impact of the Printing Press on Renaissance Literature and Art
The Evolution of Portraiture in the Italian Renaissance

Fascinating Photography Topics Ideas

As a type of visual art, photography has the power to evoke emotions, change perspectives, and transform the viewer’s knowledge and perception of art. If you want to dig deeper into photography, here are some cool art essay topics to start with.

The History of Photography
Camera Obscura: The Ancestor of the Modern Photography
The Significance and Social Impact of War Photography
The Mystery of Vivian Maier and Her Secret Street Photography
The Role of Ansel Adams on Establishing Photography Among the Fine Arts
Architectural Photography in the Modern Age
The Role of Photography in the Film Industry
How Digital Technology Has Changed Photography
Self-Portrait Photography: The Art of Selfies
The Psychological Impact of Photography
The Evolution of Documentary Photography in the 20th Century
The Role of Photography in Social Justice Movements
The Influence of Digital Technology on Contemporary Photography
Exploring the Ethics of Photojournalism
The Intersection of Fine Art and Commercial Photography

Best Architecture Research Paper Topics

Architecture is an ever-evolving art form that shapes the world and allows for both practical and expressive designs. Check out some of the best art topics for research papers on architecture.

The Influence of Roman Architecture on Modern Design
Gothic Architecture: Key Elements of the Iconic Style
Art Nouveau vs. Art Deco: A Comparison of the Modern Art Movements
Rococo Architecture: The Characteristics of Late Baroque
Constructivism in Art and Architecture
Sustainability in African Architecture
The Influence of Eastern Art on Western Architecture
The Egyptian Pyramids: The Mystery Behind the Construction
The Influence of Art and Literature on Design and Architecture
The Marriage of Art and Architecture in Contemporary Design
Urban Architecture: The Internet of Things and Smart City Design
Architectural Wonders: Famous Architects and Their Masterpieces
The Relationship Between Ancient and Modern Architecture
Innovative Design Styles Shaping the Future of Architecture
Islamic Architecture and Its Influence on Western Art

Theater Research Paper Topics

Theater helps us see different perspectives, understand different cultures, and dig deeper into our humanity. Thanks to actors’ dramatic performances that make the characters come alive before our eyes, we can experience stories in an attention-grabbing way. Find inspiration for your story in the following topics.

The History of Greek Theater
The Influence of Ancient Greek Theater on Modern Theater
Samuel Beckett and the Theater of the Absurd
The Cultural Evolution of Theater
Theater as Art: A Force for Social and Cultural Change
William Shakespeare and His Contribution to English Drama and Theater
Elizabethan Theater vs. Modern Theater
The History of Broadway
The Role of Music in Theater
Improvisation and Expression in Contemporary Theater
The Evolution of Tragedy from Ancient Greece to Modern Theater
The Role of Women in Shakespearean Plays
The Influence of Bertolt Brecht's Epic Theater on Contemporary Performance
The Impact of Technology on Modern Theater Productions
The Significance of Ritual and Tradition in Indigenous Theatrical Practices

Intriguing Art Research Topics on Different Cultures

Every culture is unique, being an ensemble of different social norms, values, beliefs, and material traits. As such, it influences unique art forms that represent people’s emotions, experiences, and worldviews. If you want to analyze how different cultures influence art, check out these interesting topics.

The Role of Cultural Identity in the Creation of Art
The Pop Art Movement and Its Influence on American Culture
Hollywood vs. Bollywood: Similarities and Differences
Japanese Calligraphy: The Fine Art of Writing
Traditional Dance Forms: Understanding Different Cultures Through Dance
The Influence of Chinese Traditional Clothing on Japanese Culture
Ancient Egyptian Culture: Art Principles and Traditions
Poetic Realism in the Iranian Cinema
French vs. American Artists: Cultural Differences Impacting Their Work
Asian and African Tribal Art and Their Effects on Modern Art Movements
The Symbolism in Traditional African Masks and Sculptures
The Role of Calligraphy in Islamic Art
The Influence of Native American Art on Contemporary Design
The Evolution of Ukiyo-e and its Impact on Western Art
The Significance of Color and Patterns in Indian Textile Art

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125 of the best art research paper topics of 2023.

When you need original art research paper topics that you know will impress your professor, you just need to visit this page. Our experienced academic writers are striving to update the list of topics as frequently as possible. This means that you should always be able to find a unique topic to write about in your next art research paper. And keep in mind that our list of topics is entirely free. You can use any topic you see here for free – and even reword it to suit your needs. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with our experts if you need more ideas or a list of topics tailored to your specific needs.

Don’t Know Which Art Topics to Write About?

Don’t worry too much if you don’t know which art topics to write about. We have organized our list of topics into several categories so you should have no problem finding the perfect topic in just a couple of minutes. So, why would you want to waste your time searching for topics when we have so many ideas that you can use right now? Check out our list and pick the best one for your academic paper.

Easy Art Research Topics

The best way to save some time is to simply choose some easy art research topics. Check out our ideas and pick the one you like the most:

Ancient Roman art
Talk about carnival masks in Venice
Talk about human sacrifices in art
The history of art in Ancient Greece
Talk about Ancient Greece sculptures
Talk about early musical instruments
Primeval art forms
Mesoamerican pyramid art

Art History Research Paper Topics

Are you interested in writing about the history of art? There are plenty of things to talk about, that’s for sure. Check out these unique art history research paper topics:

The history of art in Eastern Europe
Russian art: the beginning
An in-depth look at Mayan art
The first works of art in the world
Discuss art in the Greek theater
The inception of Renaissance art
Compare and contrast Art Nouveau and Art Deco
The effects of art on the world

Difficult Art Research Paper Topics

If you want to impress your classmates and your professor, you should definitely choose one of our difficult art research paper topics:

The concept of fashion in ancient Asian tribes
Egyptian art inside the pyramids
Analyze stained glass in Western Europe
Art in ancient Babylon
Discuss movement and rhythm in art

Art Topics Ideas for College Students

College students should, of course, try to look for more complex topics to write their papers about. Here are some great art topics ideas for college students:

Who was Frida Kahlo?
Talk about the life and works of Francisco Goya
The importance of Georgia O’Keeffe’s art
Balance as a main principle of art
Discuss the history of printmaking
Talk about Medieval art

Most Interesting Art Topics to Write About

In this list, we will add our most recent and most interesting art topics to write about. Select the topic you like and start writing your paper right away:

The woman and child theme in African art
Spirituality and art
An in-depth analysis of Kuba art
How can we decode abstract art?

Art Debate Paper Topics

Did your teacher ask you to write an art debate paper? You will certainly find this list of art debate paper topics very useful in this case:

Leonardo Da Vinci and religious art
Renaissance art peculiarities
Differences between Persian and Asian art
What makes Claude Monet stand out?
Unity and variety in modern art

Controversial Art Topics

Don’t be afraid to write a research paper on a controversial topic. You can get some very nice bonus points. Check out these awesome controversial art topics:

Discuss Chris Ofili’s “The Holy Virgin Mary”
The controversial “Origin of the World” by Gustave Courbet
Talk about Marcel Duchamp as a controversial artist
What makes Yoko Ono a controversial artist?
The savage art of Gauguin

Modern Art Research Paper Topics

We know, discussing modern art in a research paper is not easy. However, the topic can make a huge difference. Here are some easy modern art research paper topics for you:

Artistic performances in modern art
The peculiarities of the Cubism movement
What is surrealism?
What is still life art?
What is Fantasy art?
Technology in modern art
Analyze a political cartoon
Discuss Cubism

Artist Biography Ideas

Writing an artist biography can get you a top grade very quickly. Researching a lesser known artist will also get you bonus points. Here are our best artist biography ideas:

Talk about the life and works of Frank Lloyd Wright
An in-depth look at the work of Andy Warhol
Talk about the life and works of Marcel Duchamp
Discuss the works of Jackson Pollock
The contribution of Salvador Dalí to art
Talk about the life and works of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Talk about the life and works of Grandma Moses
Talk about the life and works of Henri-Émile-Benoît Matisse

Art Therapy Research Paper Topics

Why not write your next paper on the subject or art therapy? This will certainly get the attention of your professor. Here are some of our best art therapy research paper topics ever:

Benefits of art therapy for autistic children
Best techniques for art therapy
Art therapy in UK hospitals
Discuss the effects of this type of therapy
How does art therapy work?
Interesting activities that can be used as art therapy
Art therapy in modern United States hospitals
Latest advancements in art therapy
Effects of art therapy on abused children
How effective is art therapy?

African Art Ideas

We can guarantee that your professor will award you some bonus points if you manage to find a great topic. Here are the most interesting African art ideas possible:

Discuss art in the Yaka and Suku tribes
Discuss art in Burkina Faso
Couples in African art
Analyze the Nubian Pyramids at Meroe
The importance of art for ritual life in Africa
Analyze modern art in Zimbabwe
Art and socio-politics in Africa
Strangers in African art
Discuss Islamic arts in ancient Africa
Analyze art in Tanzania

Writing a paper about art epochs shouldn’t be too difficult. Also, you can find plenty of information about any epoch online. Here are some ideas for an essay about art epochs:

Talk about art in the Prehistoric epoch
Discuss ancient art
Art during the Hellenistic period
Talk about art in the Baroque epoch
Talk about prehistoric art in Europe
Art during the Mannerism period
Talk about art in the Renaissance epoch
Art during the Rococo epoch
Talk about art in the Neoclassicism epoch
Art during the Mesopotamian age
Talk about art in the Medieval epoch
Discuss art during the Byzantine period

Renaissance Art Research Paper Topics

Yes, Renaissance art is not an easy subject. However, if you are a college or university student, you should give our renaissance art research paper topics a try:

Talk about peculiar altarpieces in the Renaissance period
What are Fresco cycles?
Talk about the secularism theme
The anatomy of the human being in art
An in-depth analysis of the linear perspective
Discuss realism in the Renaissance period
Uses of light in art
Landscape in Renaissance-era art works
Discuss the humanism theme
And in-depth look at rationalism in the Renaissance era

Contemporary Art Research Paper Topics

We’ve discovered that professors really appreciate contemporary art (and papers written about it). So don’t hesitate to pick one of our exceptional contemporary art research paper topics:

Talk about pop art
Modern sculptures
Talk about an important work of modern art
Talk about architecture as a form of art
Discuss film as a form of art
Figurative art vs. geometric art
Discuss the concept of minimalist art

High School Art Research Paper Topics

Did you know that your teacher will be more likely to give you a top grade if you manage to find an interesting topic? Check out these awesome high school art research paper topics and pick the best one for you:

Discuss the Surrealist movement
What makes a work of art abstract?
Signs of globalization in art
Compare and contrast the Gothic and Neo-Gothic movements
What is Abstract Expressionism?
Talk about the Bauhaus movement
Compare Russian art and American art during the Cold War

Photography As Art Ideas

Yes, photography is art. Also, you will almost definitely be the only one writing about this subject in your class. Here are our best photography as art ideas:

Using lighting effectively for photography
Artistic expressions of renowned photographers
Discuss 3 of the most famous photographs
Capturing the vision of the artist on film
The effects of lenses on the image
How photography changed the face of art
Framing and timing techniques
Are photographs a form of art?
The many sues of lighting in a photography studio
Is war photography a form of art?
Expressing feelings with photos
The life and work of Alfred Stieglitz

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COMMENTS

Guidelines for Writing Art History Research Papers
The following are basic guidelines that you must use when documenting research papers for any art history class at UA Little Rock. Solid, thoughtful research and correct documentation of the sources used in this research (i.e., footnotes/endnotes, bibliography, and illustrations**) are essential. Additionally, these guidelines remind students ...
Guidelines for Analysis of Art
MLA style is not acceptable for papers in art history. Allow time to proofread your paper. Read it out loud and see if it makes sense. ... Some of these sources also give information about writing a research paper in art history - a paper more ambitious in scope than a formal analysis. M. Getlein, Gilbert's Living with Art (10th edition, ...
LibGuides: Art and Art History: How to Write About Art
A resource for help with your writing. The Writing Center includes one on one consultations as well as classes. The OWL Purdue is a great resource for writing and citation help. Chicago Style is the preferred citation format for art history. The OWL also includes citation help for other styles include APA and MLA.
Art History Research at Yale: How to Research Art
When you turn in your paper or presentation, you will need to provide citations in keeping with the preferred citation style. Keeping on top of your citations as you work through your research will save time and stress when you are finishing your project.
art history guide final
Guide for Writing in Art History. Art history courses cultivate critically analyze images, objects, and architectural spaces as well as academic discourse, scholarship, and historical sources. Art history is a humanistic discipline that brings together research to explore historical contexts while engaging in ways of looking at, describing, and ...
FIU Libraries: Art Research Guide: Citation & Formatting
The Purdue OWL: APA Style. These OWL resources will help you learn how to use the American Psychological Association (APA) citation and format style. This section contains resources on in-text citation and the References page, as well as APA sample papers, slide presentations, and the APA classroom poster. Researching in the Social Sciences.
writing about art
Geared toward undergraduate students, this work explains in very clear detail exactly how to research and write an art history term paper. A Short Guide to Writing about Art by Sylvan Barnet. Call Number: Fine Arts Library N 7476 .B37. One of the field's classic texts on writing about art.
FIU Libraries: Art Research Guide: APA Art Citations
The APA has determined specifications for the size of figures and the fonts used in them. Figures of one column must be between 2 and 3.25 inches wide (5 to 8.45 cm). Two-column figures must be between 4.25 and 6.875 inches wide (10.6 to 17.5 cm). The height of figures should not exceed the top and bottom margins.
Writing about art
Art History Analysis - Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis. Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis.. A formal analysis is just what it sounds like - you need to analyze the form of the artwork.This includes the individual design elements - composition, color, line, texture, scale ...
PDF RESEARCH PAPER STYLE SHEET
RESEARCH PAPER STYLE SHEET for Art, Craft, Science Prof. Heather Paxson Your final papers, while based in outside research, should present your own thoughts and arguments on your topic. Be sure to support your arguments with specific reference to material evidence — the published work of others, interviews you have conducted, and/or your own
5e. Chicago Formatting
Always make sure to double check the assignment instructions before choosing a citation style. Please contact Dunyau Maqsoudi-Moreno, the Art History subject librarian, if you have any questions. Chicago Style Citation Quick Guide; CiteSource Guide to the Chicago Manual of Style (Trinity College) Note: Students only have access to the PDFs on ...
Art History Essays
Art History Analysis - Formal Analysis and Stylistic Analysis. Typically in an art history class the main essay students will need to write for a final paper or for an exam is a formal or stylistic analysis. A formal analysis is just what it sounds like - you need to analyze the form of the artwork. This includes the individual design ...
Full article: "The Art(ist) is present": Arts-based research
The methodological approach that emerges uses the potential of Art in order to reach a deep understanding of phenomena. ABR can be defined as an effort to go beyond restrictions that limit communication in order to express meanings that otherwise could be unintelligible (Barone & Eisner, Citation 2012).From a methodological perspective, ABR could be understood as a systematic use of processes ...
Art History Research at Yale: How to Cite Your Sources
MLA Style consists of in-text parenthetical citations and a Works Cited or bibliography section at the end of the paper. Sources are cited in parentheses immediately following the sentence or idea cited within the paper. A Works Cited or bibliography should be at the end of the paper referencing each source used, following these parameters:
LibGuides: Art Research Guide: Writing about & citing Art
Art Bulletin guidelines (Chicago Manual of Style) Listed below are a few good online citation style guides, as well as print style guides which are located at the library service desk. Chicago Manual of Style Online. Citation Builder (UNC-CH) Chicago Manual of Style 17th edition. From Purdue University; includes examples of many different formats.
MLA Style
Include a Works Cited page at the end of your research paper. It should contain a full citation for each source referenced within your paper. The full citation should include the specific publication information required by the MLA rules. This allows your reader to find the sources, if desired. Step 2: Use in-text citations throughout your paper
MLA Style
MLA General Image Rules. For photographic reproductions of artwork (e.g. images of artwork in a book), treat the book or website as a container. Remember that for a second container, the title is listed first, before the contributors. Cite the bibliographic information as above followed by the information for the source in which the photograph ...
Artistic Research
Here are some common methods of data collection used in artistic research: Artistic production: One of the most common methods of data collection in artistic research is the creation of new artistic works. This involves using the artistic practice itself as a method of data collection. Artists may create new works of art, performances, or ...
Artistic Practice and Research: an Artist-scholar Perspective
Deliberate archaic style to separate change . from the imagined past and present within the . ﬁlm (Figure 4) ... Art Research Papers 1, no. 1 (1994/1993): 1-5. Furniss, Maureen.
JSTOR: Viewing Subject: Art & Art History
Art on Paper 1998 - 2009 On Paper 1996 - 1998 The Print Collector's Newsletter ... Getty Research Journal 2009 - 2023 Grey Room 2000 - 2018 Harvard Art Museum Annual Report ... Congo Style: From Belgian Art Nouveau to African Independence. OPEN ACCESS 2023 Congresos de amor: Entrevistas sobre los italianos y el sexo, 1963 ...
Art Research Paper
Art Research Paper. Art Research Paper. This sample art research paper features: 6600 words (approx. 22 pages) and a bibliography with 52 sources. Browse other research paper examples for more inspiration. If you need a thorough research paper written according to all the academic standards, you can always turn to our experienced writers for help.
150+ Most Interesting Art Research Paper Topics
Riveting Modern Art Research Paper Topics Modern art brings innovation in movements, forms, and styles, replacing conservative values in the spirit of experimenting with shapes, lines, and colors. Check out some of the most enticing topic ideas. Breaking Away from Conventions: The Unique Style of Modern Art
The Best 125 Art Research Paper Topics for 2023
Check out these unique art history research paper topics: The history of art in Eastern Europe. Russian art: the beginning. An in-depth look at Mayan art. The first works of art in the world. Discuss art in the Greek theater. The inception of Renaissance art. Compare and contrast Art Nouveau and Art Deco. The effects of art on the world.