VISUAL CULTURE Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 4000 words

VISUAL CULTURE - Essay Example The author strongly argues the value of the paintings, sold in millions is created by auction houses and dealers rather than the critics and curios. Is Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette a brand painting which has acquired created value by the dealers or is it truly a masterpiece on canvas? To know this we should explore and analyze every minute visual aspect of the painting through our brain and heart. This essay aims conducting a thorough analysis on the visual structure and the meaning Dance at Le Moulin de La Galette tries to communicate. Richard Howells (2012) suggests examining a painting contains five key features. We have to analyze what kind of painting it is, what does it show, the location of the painting, the time or era it was drawn, what is shown and what is left out in it for us to make out. In technical terms we have to concentrate on the usage of key elements like the usage of line, brush strokes, light usage, the forms present in the painting, the color and texture to conduct a good analysis. Any person can do this analysis devoid of their art or historical background. But, determining a painting’s true value requires viewing it through the heart and mixing a bit of philosophy with the technicality to note the ‘absence’. We can interpret it in simple terms as reading between the lines or rather as reading between the brushstrokes (Kenny n.d.). Each painting has something absent, which we do not realize until we view the painting. Then we start to reflect about the absence and its loss (Berger 2009). Again as Howells (2009) mentioned, just reading the content of the painting alone is not important. Understanding its form and the interpreting the inner meaning identifying the absence is the key point of good visual analysis. Drawn by Renoir at 1876 in Paris, this painting has achieved its iconic status owing to its masterful brushstrokes (a major reason for