Van Gogh

                                       Van Gogh

Imitationalism and literal qualities

This painting is very authentic because Van Gogh made this self-portrait in 1887. In my opinion Van Gogh specialized in realism because almost all or all of his paintings were realistic (made to look Real), for example Van Gogh made a composition called “Crows over Cornfield” and it looks exactly like real crows flying over real cornfields, just like Van Gogh’s Self-portrait with his straw hat looks just like him which makes it very representational. I think this piece of art has literal quality because the message in this painting could be saying or showing that he is depressed, or lonely. This picture has precise design because it captures every small detail like the colour in his hair or his eyes because Van Gogh made it look like he really focused on the colour in his eyes and showed the true features of his beard and the brush strokes adds that exact bit of detail it needs. I would say it is very life like because it looks just like him. This painting looks so real its almost as if he is sitting right in front of me.

Formalism and Design

This piece of art successfully shows formalism and design. The elements I see that were included here were Value, Texture, Line, Colour, Shape, Form, Unity, Balance, Contrast, and Pattern.

The different colour of paint in certain colours creates some value, the brush strokes make it look bumpy and slightly rough, you can see the lines from the brush, which was on purpose because that is Van Gogh’s style, there is multiple colours through out this painting such as orang, yellow, black, green, brown, white, etc., there is shape because his hat is a shape his eyes are circles etc., there is positive and negative space, the positive space is Van Gogh and the negative is the background, I would say there is form because this painting is 2D but it looks like a 3D picture, I think it is balanced because the brush strokes complement the colours, I think there is contrast because in some areas the colour really stands out, I think the little lines create a pattern amongst this painting. 

Emotionalism and Expressive Qualities

I think this piece would fail in Emotionalism because you cant exactly get a feeling from this artwork, in my opinion its just a plane Jane piece of art work (the phrase “Plane Jane” just means its boring) who wants to say that about a piece or work? Certainly NOT me!

Written by Madison