The FramesSubjective, Structural, Cultural & Postmodern

The SUBJECTIVE FRAME

EMOTIONS

COMMUNICATION THROUGH THE

FIVE SENSES

Sight

Sound Smell

Taste

The Audience

You

The Artist

Touch

What?

How?

Response?

Response?

The STRUCTURAL FRAME

Signs & Symbols

Principals of DesignElements of Art

Expressive Form

Colour

Line

TextureShape

Tone

Installation

Drawing

Painting

Printmaking

Photography Performance

Video

Sculpture

Composition

Focal Point Balance

HarmonyMovement

Contrast

Perspective

The CULTURAL FRAME

When, Where, Why?

Social & Cultural Influences

Art Movements

Social & Cultural Environment of

the Artist

When was the artwork

made?

Where was the artwork

made?

Why was the artwork made? What were the artist’s intentions?

What movements were around at the time?

Does this artwork challenge or embrace a

movement?

What was society like

at the time?

What was happening

in the world at the time?

Religion

Politics

Mass Media

Gender

EconomicsEthnic Background

Science

The POSTMODERN FRAME

Challenging

Appropriation

Role of the Audience

How has the artist challenged conventions?

Use of unconventional materials?

How does the artwork question conventions?

Parody? Irony?

Humour?

Borrowed from other artworks?

Does the artist/artwork

make demands of the

audience?

Has the audience been

pushed to rethink

something?

Borrowed from other

artists?

FRAMES SUMMARY

This frame relates to the way an artist structures the art elements (tone, colour, shape, perspective, pictorial depth, texture, line etc.,) to create their artwork. It also relates to the signs, symbols and codes that are used by the artist to create visual meaning.

When you discuss an artwork using this frame, you describe your personal response to the work. You also consider how other people, such as the artist and the audience feel about the work and what the artist was trying to express when they created the work.

This frame considers an artist’s social and cultural environment and the way it affects their artworks.The artist’s social and cultural environment can include religion, politics, ethnic background, gender, science, technology, economics and the mass media.

When you use this frame to discuss an artwork, you describe how/if the work questions the accepted long-held beliefs about art and artists. You also consider if the artist has borrowed the work of other artists and whether they have used irony or parody to challenge or mock the status quo.