How can we criticize this painting?

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[Although a popular misconception about art criticism is that it is primarily judgmental and negative in tone, in actuality, most of the words written by critics are descriptive and interpretive rather than judgmental, and positive in tone. Critics seek to provide readers with information about artworks, and describing these artworks, many of which will not be seen by their readers. is one of their major activities. Describing is a kind of verbal pointing a critic does so that features of a work of art will be noticed and appreciated. It is also a data-gathering process. Based on, his or her descriptions. the critic ‘will form interpretations and judgments. If the critic’s description is inaccurate,, certainly, any following interpretation or judgment is suspect. With careful observation. descriptive information“ can be gathered from within the work--“internal information.” For teaching purposes. internal descriptive information is sometimes grouped under three topics: subject matter. medium, and form. These are defined with examples in the following sections.

Critics also provide descriptive information about aspects not visible in the work--that is, contextual, information such as facts about the artist or the times in which the art was made. This is “external information” and examples of this are given as well.

Critics rarely describe artworks without also interpreting and evaluating them, and at the end of the chapter the overlaps among these activities are examined.]