Art Review Examples

Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer

June 10th, 2013

Johannes Vermeer was a Dutch painter renowned for his painting the “Girl with a Pearl Earring” as one of his major masterpieces. The reflective earring is the dominant point of the painting. Initially, the painting had been named as the “Girl with a Turban” but during the second part of the twentieth century, it was renamed to what it is referred to as now. Some of Johannes Vermeer admirers think that the interaction between the girl’s eyes and the viewer…

The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

May 21st, 2013

What Does The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci Depict? ‘The Last Supper’ of Leonardo da Vinci is considered to be undoubtedly a masterpiece. Debates have ensued, though, concerning the interpretation of this piece of art. Some even claim that Leonardo da Vinci tried to transfer a secret message to us through it. What is portrayed in this painting that has attracted and enchanted such a great amount of viewers? The painting depicts a supper of twelve disciples of Jesus…

The Starry Night by Vincent Van Gogh

May 21st, 2013

The Originality of The Starry Night By Vincent Van Gogh, 1889 The Starry Night is a painting done by the Dutch Post-Impressionist Vincent van Gogh. In this painting, Gogh portrays the night view outside his sanitarium room in Saint-Remy-De-Provence (Costache, 2012). This painting rose to the peak of his achievements and is considered to be one of the most-known paintings in modern culture with the most replicated and sought-after prints. This is one of the most-detailed paintings that almost everyone…

The Card Players by Paul Cézanne

May 18th, 2013

Why the Series The Card Players by Paul Cézanne Is Remarkable The Card Players by the renowned French post-impressionist artist of the first half of the 18th and early 19th centuries, Paul Cézanne, is a series of five oil paintings. Cézanne painted them in the early 1890s during his final period as an artist. The versions vary in size and number of card players portrayed. Relying on new research, Karen Rosenberg asserts that at first Cézanne depicted four-to-five player-groupings, but…

Art Review Example – A Good Gift to Deal With Your Own Paper

There is nothing more boring than a poor art review example. An art article written on the artist’s work with the sole purpose of telling about his or her merits is a sure way to scare off the reader. Such gifted writers have proper language skills, but alas, it is impossible to stay interested in reading their works.

No less evil are the articles imbued with caustic criticism, expressing the author’s subjective opinion about the picture, which is presented like professional and scientific opinion, but in fact reflects the weakness of the critic – for example, the critic admits nothing but realism in a painting. It is useful to remind these authors who write about artists’ works: “I see the picture and I think I understand the idea, but I can not say anything intelligible in an understandable form.” For this case, we present different types of reviews – as an example, an art exhibition review example. We very much hope that by taking them into consideration, you will be able to write your articles without further difficulty, and they will be useful, objective, and interesting.

How to Write an Art Review

  • Never find fault with work. That is, do not build your article on the hooks which a picture gives you, or even worse – the name of the picture. One bonds, for example, to the word “thunderstorm,” so the whole article is not about painting, but about weather phenomena. Or, there is a picture where the artist depicted a herd of rams in the form of a dollar sign. What a great idea! And all commentators immediately begin to develop the theme of modern business – there is something to find fault with in this world! However, the idea is good for the artist, but not for the critic who decides to write about this picture. Do not get attached to his or her idea – you must find your own! Do not start the article until you have your own idea about which you would like to tell the world, but leave also something for the work of the artist. As soon as you put aside possible clues, you will make a real discovery. This is the most powerful critical method – to press away the nagging clues. You can see this method if you read though any of our art gallery review examples.
  • Hooks are different. For example, you want to talk about your life experience in connection with what you saw in the picture, or you want to link some logical scheme or philosophy with the picture. Very often there are clues when a critic wants to correct something in the picture itself, and they would say: “Not red, but a green color would suit here,” and so on. There are also lovers of certain artists, and they are building their article on the fact that they put this artist next to, for example, Salvador Dali, and they say, “he had giraffes, but this one had rams.” The depth of such criticism deserves a “superficial” characterization. And there are reviewers who immediately fall in love with the picture and cling to their emotions, and begin to tell how they anticipate the onset of a thunderstorm. These include people who constantly seem to say their favorite phrase: “It seems to me that the artist wanted to show …” And some allow themselves to get carried away: they saw a ram in the picture, and now all of their thoughts are about goats and rams. A variety of clues attack the author’s consciousness, but you have to learn how to beat them. Do not cling! Do not embroider your mental patterns into the picture, which will act as a red thread through the entire text of the article. The thoughts of the critic must not cling to anything – it must be independent and build a story, using the picture as an illustrative material. You can learn how to do it if you read through any example of a good art review presented on our site.
  • Always remember the form. When you write on a picture, you should use the form of a review, that is, your article should consist of five paragraphs. The first point is to give an actual description of the picture, in a nutshell, to repeat what is really depicted on it, with a special emphasis on those points that particularly attracted your attention. For example: “A clear green triangle in the foreground of the picture is the first thing I saw.” The second point is to sort through all the thoughts and associations that can come to mind in connection with the picture. For example: “A herd of sheep in the form of a dollar, apparently, hints at the dullness of modern business.” The third point is to give voice to all the feelings that the picture causes or can cause. “Here’s a picture I would hang on my wall! It’s really a good one!” The fourth point is to develop your own idea, which emerged after you thoroughly experienced the picture and did points one to three. Moreover, you can shorten descriptions on the three points, but in any case they need to be done mentally, and then the idea, which you did not have in the beginning, comes as if by magic, and the article changes and ceases to be strained. In the fourth paragraph, you can fully develop your intellectual potential. It is also possible to advertise your own creativity, project, ideological trend, or enterprise. The fifth point is to evaluate the artist’s work or his or her piece of work. For example, you can put at the end of the article such a lengthy phrase: “I’m sincerely glad that in the modern painting such amazing works began to appear that overcame the one-sided expressiveness of postmodernism and brought us back to the world of reality.” A pair of art history terms will not hurt. If you don’t know how to use these terms correctly, you can read our samples – for example, an art show review example.
  • In the article, use the images presented in the picture. The imagery of the language is an actual requirement for all articles on the internet, from which they greatly benefit against the background of universal linguistic stinginess. The image helps to get used to the material, and as for the articles on works of art, they should be doubly imaginative. The first visual image in your article should demonstrate the work of art in the form of a picture, and then try to use in the text those figurative expressions that support the first image. Use more often adjectives like “red,” “black,” “white,” and “blue” if these colors occur in the picture. Operate with the objects depicted in the picture. For example, you can use these words: “… an endless desert, thickening darkness, a thick layer of clouds, and feathered grass and weeds.” What gives you this right? Of course, if there was not a picture that prompts comparisons, then all of them would be superfluous, inconclusive, and weak. But since there is such a talented and eloquent picture, the text under it will be superfluous, unconvincing, and weak if I do not use them. Take this into account. Also, you need to take into account using any art review example on our site that can help you to write your own review.
  • Be positive. Look for essential, worthy, cognitive things in each work. Many people pass by the paintings in museums and exhibitions, not noticing anything significant in them, and they treat the works of contemporary painting as if in them there could be nothing valuable and positive at all. How can you see these valuable and positive things in a work of art and tell about it in the article? It is necessary to perceive a work regardless of whether it is recognized or not and whoever created it: a great artist or a beginner. There is one way to see what others do not see. Imagine that the picture which you are reviewing is given to you for self-knowledge, so that you personally have learned something from it. Refrain from all the negative and confusing moments and try to behold the precious and vital impression that you have experienced through this picture. And now tell everyone what you have learned – let others see it. That is, write in your article not about the old knowledge gained at the university, but about what the chosen picture has now taught you. And then it will be a vivid positive knowledge, like in our samples. For example, you can read an art exhibition review example to learn how to write vividly.
  • Be informative. Your expert knowledge of the painting in any case should not be wasted. But do not paste too much factual data into the text. For example, speaking of the artist’s productivity, mention that the Norwegian artist Edward Munch had 20,000 works. However, remember that the actual information, such as where the artist was born, can not constitute the subject of the article; it only gives it an informative journalistic character.

Art Masterpieces for Your Art Review Example

It is impossible to imagine the present world without art. It is not just a simple decoration, but a significant source of inspiration, realization of our spiritual experiences, and creative ideas. Each of us has our own preferences and tastes in art. That is why, if your task is to assess a piece of art, for example a painting, you should follow your intuition and select the one that will speak directly to your heart. You do not need to hurry with your choice. You have to spend some time attending art galleries and museums. The success of your research will depend on your decision. To help you with this task, we have prepared a list of possible topics that you may use for your research. It covers both the art masterpieces of historic times and relatively new paintings. We hope that you will make the right choice and succeed with your paper.

  • Starry Night by Vincent van Gogh
  • The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
  • The Ninth Wave by Ivan Aivazovsky
  • The Birth of Venus by Sandro Botticelli
  • The Tower of Babel by Pieter Brueghel the Elder
  • Boy Bitten by a Lizard by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
  • Self-Portrait by Albrecht Dürer
  • Woman with a Parasol by Claude Monet
  • Lady Lilith by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
  • Girl with a Pearl Earring by Jan Vermeer
  • Luncheon of the Boating Party by Pierre Auguste Renoir
  • The Creation of Adam by Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni
  • The Dream by Pablo Picasso
  • The Scream by Edward Munich
  • Vitruvian Man by Leonardo da Vinci
  • Young Hare by Albrecht Dürer
  • The Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch
  • The Triumph of Death by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
  • St. George and the Dragon by Paolo Uccello
  • Guernica by Pablo Picasso
  • The Persistence of Memory by Salvador Dali
  • A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte by Georges Seurat
  • Arrangement in Grey and Black: The Artist’s Mother by James McNeill Whistler
  • Portrait de L’artiste Sans Barbe by Vincent van Gogh
  • The Night Watch by Rembrandt
  • The Kiss by Gustav Klimt
  • Water Lilies by Claude Monet
  • The Flower Carrier by Diego Rivera
  • American Gothic by Grant Wood
  • The Son of Man by Rene Magritte
  • No. 5, 1948 by Jackson Pollock
  • The Arnolfini Wedding by Jan van Eyck
  • Composition 8 by Vasily Kandinsky
  • The Third of May 1808 by Francisco Goya
  • Campbell’s Soup Cans by Andy Warhol
  • A Day In The Forest by Igal Fedida
  • Painted Forest by Theo Ramone
  • Coming Home by David Hatton
  • The City by Mark W Stevens
  • Temporal by Miya Ando
  • Meteora by Elly Potamianos
  • The Hague by Monica Hulsing
  • Reflective Mood by Cassandra Allsworth
  • La Luna and Poppies by Laurie Maves
  • A Lamp by Shea Holliman
  • Even Silence Speaks by Susan Elliot
  • Eight Elvises by Andy Warhol
  • Massacre of the Innocents by Peter Paul Rubens
  • Triptych, 1976 by Francis Bacon
  • Portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer II by Gustav Klimt

How an Art Review Example Can Help You

Do not miss the opportunity to use our samples if you want to learn how to write an art review perfectly. Our writers have knowledge in art, and they show how you can use sources properly while writing a review. Our samples can help you to write a good review so that it attracts readers and lets you get a high grade. Make sure that you know how to write your paper; in any case, samples presented on our site can help you.

As you can see, our writers don’t overload the reviews with frequent repetitions. The reviews are rather informative, but are not overloaded with informativeness. Works of art which are reviewed in our samples are popular and significant. Most students find them similar to their assignment topics.

Sometimes it can be difficult to write an art review, as it requires knowledge and writing skills. If you are interested in getting appreciation and a high grade from your teacher, you need to know how a review should be written. This is greatly helped by a review of art done by a professional writer.

What does the review look like? If you want to leave your feedback on the picture, read though our samples, but don’t resort to copying the opinions of other people. In the beginning, it would be right to read through samples on a similar topic and then state your point of view on the question you got. You can see in our samples that writers specifically note those moments that left an indelible impression on them and caught their attention.

Our writers use different vivid words to describe works of art, for example, “portrayed,” “attracts attention,” “a subtle feeling,” “striking,” “symbolic imagery,” etc. Also, you can see that our writers describe the associations that occurred during the viewing of works of art, and share their thoughts that arose in the process of thinking about what they saw.

Any review that you can find on our site is not too formal or boring. Our writers are not shy about epithets and sincerely express their thoughts, as they know that this kind of paper should be written in this manner. You can see in our samples that it will be great to see such words as “amazing,” “wonderful,” “simply delightful,” “I have long dreamed of such a picture” – they will add to the description the connotation of the spoken genre.

If you read though our samples, you will see that your own view of what you see can be translated into an idea you have. The samples you find on our site are presented only for viewing, but it’s up to you whether to use it as a guideline or not.

Thanks to our samples, your review writing will be much easier. Read though our samples to understand how to deal with this type of paper!