Evaluating Visual Art

[toonia]

How would you evaluate the following image. This first one is stolen from a thread on another site, but it seemed an interesting activity to try out here. Identify which image you are responding to and describe your thought processes.

Image 1.
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Image 2.
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Image 3.
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Feel free to introduce other images for analysis.





toonia added to this post, 5 minutes and 12 seconds later...

Image 1.
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It looks like a study in line and intersection: curved vs. straight, closed vs. open, deconstruction vs. assemblage. Circular forms dominate the left, while angular forms dominate the right. The circles submit to background layers on the right, while predominating on the left. The two central triangles form the visual foundation of the work. The concept of pairs seems to dominate as well which would make the two central forms, each comprised of two angled lines, a rather apt central figure. It deconstructs images into these underlying principles and freely reconstructs and reassociates them into an image whose complexity is derived from and overall sense of visual balance, but with a certain amount of free association as well.

[logos]

responding to #1. It looks like exactly like colorized versions of doodles i used to put in my books in high school when I couldn't sleep, which had no meaning at all.

#2 seems equally meaningless but looks like artist put a great deal of effort into making it appear random and less contrived.

#3 looks like it was made by someone with a lot of skill (or generated on a computer) and I think the patterns/colors look nice. It would make a good background image. If it has any meaning, it escapes me.

[Pinkie]

I thought about them all in terms of music, oddly enough. The first one made me think of manuscript, because of the sets of parallel lines in the top right hand corner, and then the image seemed a bit playful, like the bit of Peter and the Wolf that everyone knows. The second made me think of a piece of modern music by Thomas Newman which is kind of minimalistic and a bit bleak. The third made me think of a huge chord, like the bit in The Dream of Gerontius where he sees God.

[Santana28]

the first one, i absolutely thoroughly DESPISE. i cant stand even looking at it. it reminds me of bad "futuristic" art from the 80's/90's... you know... the meaningless shapes, the black lacquered EVERYTHING with brass, the green smoky glass... to me, it represents pretense to the extreme. like the work of Peter Keating in The Fountainhead. it glorifies worthlessness, but thinks it required skill to talent to produce. It seems like its striving to demonstrate perfection in the mundane... it makes no sense, but it is orderly while also remaining chaotic, if that makes any sense. the colors even are vague and obnoxious. i hate it.

#2, i'm more fond of... quite a bit more. the first thing that speaks to me is a sense of desperation. of an aimless need. there's really no purpose displayed there other than the need to express something undefined. its very simply - yet every squiggle and every color is deliberate and provides depth. this one frustrates me because i could see myself painting something similar... and looking at it you see the potential, but there it is. all boxed in.

the last one is my favorite from a purely visual perspective. i like this image a great deal. when i look at it i instantly see an entire story taking place. i see a person falling to the ground having just been shot - the red swirling around is the movement of the blood spurting out in the cloudy peripheral vision of the last sight on earth this person will ever see. i see the hazy sky in the background, and the glaring sun. i see a cityscape in the background, standing watch. i see a menacing figure standing over this person... i see the pain this person feels when their head smacks the pavement... there must be pavement, since it is a city....

so overall, i hate #1. #2 is my favorite if you judge them by the emotions they evoke and the thought processes they take you through. #3 is the most entertaining and provocative.

anyways.... thats my thought processes on these ones. <~~~ visual artist here.