A. Formal Qualities
6 marks
What is the assessment criteria looking for?
An effective identification and analysis of the formal qualities of the selected artworks, objects and artifacts.
At the highest level of achievement, the work identifies and analyses the formal qualities of the selected pieces from at least two cultural origins and the analysis of these formal qualities is consistently informed by reliable sources and effective.
What does that mean?
This means that at first we must unpick what we can see. What information has the artist given us in this image? We need to look first at what we can see and then move on to "informing" ourselves on why.
What CAN I SEE?
How can I do that?
You need to observe the elements of art and the principles of design that are used to construct this image. You will also need to identify what objects have been used to make the image
For some famous work you can use Google Arts and Culture page to ZOOOOOOOOOM into the brush strokes to really get to know what artists work looks like if you can not see it in person.
notes from the examiner.
"There were excellent examples of focused written analysis. The combination of text with clear graphics to explore key formal aspects was also effective. However, the descriptive outline of art works is common (brief accounts or summaries) rather than the analysis of art works (breaking down the formal qualities in order to bring out the essential elements or structure). A framework of formal terms using subject-specific language helped many candidates. However, this can be formulaic with little consideration of the relevance of terms to the chosen work. Some candidates do not understand that the identification and analysis of formal qualities (criterion A) is a different task from analysis and understanding of function and meaning (criterion B)"
