Masterpiece or Novice Work? How to Critique Art
Have you ever sat at a museum (think Pierce Brosnan in The Thomas Crown Affair) and wondered, “Why is this painting great?”
With some art pieces, you can immediately tell. There’s just this …something… a quality that shines through and you just know it’s a masterpiece. The French (aka the world’s artsiest people) call this feeling Je ne sais quoi, literally “I don’t know what.” With other paintings, though, it might be a little bit harder to recognize the genius. But all it takes is a little bit of knowledge and practice to break a painting down and tell whether it was done by an experienced artist or a beginner. Consider these tips, and before you know it you’ll be critiquing paintings like an art collector.
Composition
In an expert painting, every object in the picture is deliberately placed there for a specific reason. The composition is well thought out in order to convey something from the artist to you. Look at the composition of a painting and see where the objects on the canvas are placed and what that tells you about the story the painting is telling.
Are the objects orderly and evenly spread out across the canvas? Are they juxtaposed? Is there an object placed farther away to produce depth? Or maybe the objects are situated in a way that draws your eye to a certain area of the painting. Probably the artist has employed the “rule of thirds,” whereby the composition has been divided into thirds, horizontally or vertically, and the key components are placed along these lines to create a more pleasing balance.
Much like how an author carefully chooses each word of a novel, a painter places each object on the canvas with great deliberation. This expert composition is not easily achieved by a beginner.
Texture and Brushwork
There are various techniques and styles to texturing and brushwork—each of them achieves a specific desired effect. Analyzing texture and brushwork is best done in person instead of through a book so you can closely examine the details of each brush stroke. An expert painter will utilize different stroke patterns to give a desired texture to a specific part of the painting.
Brushwork is how grass can look rough while clouds look soft and wispy. Most beginners are too focused on learning the basics of painting to really hone in on their brushwork and texturing so, if you see a painting where textures are used to enhance the picture, it was likely done by an artist with experience.
Colors and Light
Just because a painting is filled with eye-popping colors or accurately captures realistic hues does not mean it was expertly done. A professional painter chooses each color and blend just as deliberately as their composition. More than just picking colors that are realistic or fun, an expert lets color tell the desired story as much as everything else in the painting.
When you consider the colors of a painting, think to yourself, what is the overall color scheme? Are the colors subdued or muted to convey sadness? Or maybe there is a splash of vibrant pink among all the drab colors to tell a story of life and excitement. Are the colors cohesive and complementary to each other? How does the artist manipulate the light to further get their story across?
The Most Important Test
Professional painting is about using every aspect of the medium to tell a cohesive story or convey a feeling. Regardless of the technical prowess, a good painting has to moveyou and others. A painting can have all the techniques—brushwork, light and color, composition—textbook perfect but, the final test is how it makes you feel.
Can you relate to what the artist was trying to say through the painting? Can you feel their emotion and understand their story? If so, then you really are looking at a masterpiece.