Manet 3 composition

Diagram: composition, grouping, proximity. The written critique of the painting "On the Beach, Boulogne-sur-Mer" by Edouard Manet is integrated with diagrams overlaid on a reproduction of the painting. Student: Laura Mitchell.

Manet 4 separate

Diagram: characters, separation.

Manet 1 accents

Diagram: flat shapes, accents.

Manet 2 aerial

Diagram: aerial perspective, distance, light.

Manet Boulogne

"On the Beach, Boulogne-sur-Mer" by Edouard Manet. Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia.

 

Manet

Criticism in Visual Communication. Graduate Seminar. VCU

Designers need to know how to articulate their ideas verbally. They need to be able to support their designs with words as well as with images. In this class I presented the students with a simple statement put forward by a philosopher and paraphrased here: "To know something is to know how to explain it. If you don't know how to explain it, then you don't know it." I included three main projects in the class. An individual critique of a painting examined during multiple visits to the Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia, the development of models of criticism, and a final paper on criticism that had to include a critique of the work done in the class. Sample painting critique by Laura Mitchell. The paper on the Manet painting is included below in its entirety.

1990


Documents
Criticism Syllabus (149 KB) application/pdf
Manet Mitchell Critique (883 KB) application/pdf