Analysis of Form and Content

Feminist and Gender Studies Analysis and Critique

Feminist interpretations consider the role of women in an artwork as its subjects, creators, patrons, and viewers. Gender studies analysis explores ways in which the work reflects expereince based on a person's gender. Both approaches can reflect the intentions of an artist, the perspective of the viewer, the interpretation of a critic, or a combination of them.

Contextual Analysis

Contextual analysis looks at the making and viewing of the work in its context: it studies the atmosphere and ideas often from a particular time or culture, which the artwork itself includes and reflects. Various aspects of context can be considered; for example, religious, historical, and biographical analysis are all types of contextual analysis.

Critical Race Analysis and Critique

Critical race analysis critically examines society and culture as it intersects with race, power, and institutional practices. It can reflect the intentions of an artist, the perspective of the viewer, the interpretation of a critic, or a combination of them.

Formal Analysis

Formal analysis involves looking closely and in detail at the work in order to consider how the formal elements and principals of art are used to create it and to convey meaning, and then carefully to describe the formal qualities.

Iconographic Analysis

Iconography examins the visual images and symbols used in a work of art and leads to an interpretation of the work's meaning. Iconographic analysis identifies objects and figures in an artwork as signs or symbols that can reflect religious or historical contexts, and the meaning of which was often more directly understood at a particular time by a specific culture, but may now be less apparent to us.

Psychological Analysis

Psychological analysis investigates an artwork through consideration of the state of the artist's mind. Sometimes such interpretations make use of important psychological studies such as those of Sigmund Freud or Carl Jung.

Stylistic Analysis

Style in art is the particular combination of characteristics that make a work (or works) of art distinctive. Stylistic analysis forcuses on these characteristics in a way that clearly identifies how they typify the work of an idividual, are shared by a group of artists to create a movement, or are concentrated in a particular place or time period.