Art Essay Examples and Topics

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2,025 samples

If you are studying art, chances are that you will have to write a lot of essays during your time in school or college. To receive an excellent grade on them, it is essential that you learn how to write an art essay. Here are the top tips for writing essays on art:

Choose a subject that is interesting to you. For example, if you are interested in graphic art, focus on it in your essay. If you are not sure of what to write about, try searching art essay topics online and choose the one you like most.

Look for sample papers on the topic. If you want to write about a particular movie, look for a film analysis example featuring it. Using this tip, you will be able to get some ideas and add more depth to your writing.

Find relevant scholarly sources. You can search Google Scholar or your school’s library for high-quality articles and books on the subject. Instead of merely citing the information from sources, try to offer some critique. Are the views shared by the author supported by other scholars? Do you agree with their evaluation and why?

Include a personal response. Many forms of art are subject to personal interpretation, and some tutors want their students’ essays to be expressive. This means that you should share your views on the topic and explain why you think the way you do. Doing so will help you to show your understanding of the topic and earn you some extra marks.

Hopefully, these tips will help you to earn an A on your art and design essays! You can explore our site for free essay samples and topics.

2025 Best Essay Examples on Art

The History of Elizabethan Drama Era

The early Elizabethan dramas were not performed in permanent theaters. In most cases, traveling troupes performed these plays in the courtyards.
  • 4
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1009

Mona Lisa’s Elements and Principles of Art

The image involves a half-body portrait of a woman, and the enigmatic smile of the lady reflects the artist's idea of the connection between nature and humanity.
  • 1
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 590

Greek and Roman Theatre Differences

The design was further involved in the seat arrangement that ensured that the actors were clearly heard by the people on the uppermost semicircular bench of the theater.
  • 1.8
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1124

Why Was the Globe Theatre Important to Shakespeare?

The role of the Globe Theatre in Shakespeare's life is significant because the possibility to participate in the theatre's The Lord Chamberlain's Men Group and to write plays for the theatre's performances contributed to the [...]
  • 3.8
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1089

Mona Lisa and the Last Supper Paintings

The naming of Mona Lisa and the Last Supper paintings is based on the themes represented in the paintings and situations at the time.
  • 4.2
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1674

Arguments for Graffiti as Art

Given the comprehensive nature of art and the time and care necessary to produce a piece of graffiti, it should be considered a form of art.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 850

The Renaissance Time During Romeo and Juliet

Men and women performed different roles in the household; the man was responsible for farming while the woman took care of the poultry and dairy. In the upper-class, marriages were arranged and the parents chose [...]
  • Subjects: Art Movement
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 600

Nudity vs. Pornography When Used in Artwork

Nude art forms date back to the ancient Greeks who had the utmost respect for the sanctity that is the human body even though the same cannot be said in the present day where artists [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 752

Monet’s and van Gogh’s Paintings Comparison

Impressionists showed the development of the urban environment at the end of the 19th century. Monet was the representative of impressionism, whereas van Gogh represented post-impressionism.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 896

Pathos, Ethos, and Logos in Photography

The audience's personal experiences affects its interpretation of what the picture depicts, it might be close to the communication the photographer had wished to convey or a totally different perspective.
  • 5
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1180

The “Kisses from Berlin” Photo by Regis Bossu

The image was portrayed on the Berlin Wall as the symbol of protest and the end of the Cold War. Regarding the context of the photo, the fraternal kiss was a form of greeting between [...]
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 944

Difference Between Art and Useful Objects

On the other hand, art is mainly defined by the expression and application of creativity and imagination. The goal of making a piece of art is to create something beautiful to look at, to represent [...]
  • Subjects: History of Art
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 286

The Sculpture “David” by Michelangelo

In many respects, Michelangelo's David may serve as a metaphor for humanism in the Renaissance. Michelangelo's magnificent work may represent the force and beauty of humanism, but it is a distinctively Christian humanism within the [...]
  • Subjects: Sculpture
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 433

The Basic Principles of Western Theater

Third, the importance of the audience in the concept of a theater play is discussed. However, they lack the unique characteristic of a theater, which is the unparalleled connection between the audience and the performers.
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 596

Visual Narrative of Art Spiegelman’s “Maus”

Secondly, as mentioned above, there are two timelines in the novel, the first of which takes place in the present relative to the author of the time, and the second is the memories of one [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1228

Art in “Who the Fuck Is Jackson Pollock?” Documentary

Simultaneously, the works of renowned artists increasingly became a property of the art elites, a group of individuals who decide the worthiness of a piece of artwork based on their knowledge and recognition of the [...]
  • Subjects: History of Art
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 638

Michelangelo’s Madonna of the Stairs

The sculpture is important from a historical perspective because it helps the beholder to grasp the enormity of Michelangelo's genius as well as his unique approach to the canons of Christian iconography.
  • 4
  • Subjects: Sculpture
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1728

Daguerreotype and Cyanotype Process

The history of photography cannot be complete without the analysis of the efforts of Daguerre and Herschel, the men behind the processes that revolutionized photography in the mid 19th century.
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2092

Liberal Arts. L’Absinthe Painting by Edgar Degas

The word painting will also make us wonder whether the painting was done during the Renaissance period, the Middle Ages, or another period. Edgar Degas' was influenced by the painting of famous painters.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1150

Chapters 7-9 in “Understanding Comics” by McCloud

Despite the strict logical organization of the stages from the basic understanding of purpose to sharpening the specific skills related to the form of art, the author claims that many artists tend to learn these [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 877

The Theories of Theatre’s Origins

The play's inspiration was the Greek mythology a part of the Greek religion. The governing body of the city convened and decided whether to allow the staging of a Corpus Christi play.
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1131

“The Two Fridas” painting analysis

The mirror-reflexion of the two Fridas constitutes the foreground of the painting. The two figures on the picture are being either linked in the inner world, which is being illustrated by the unity of the [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1099

Jackson Pollock`s Action Painting “Number 1, 1949“

His tutor Benton taught him how to analyze paintings as well as the fundamentals of drawing and composition and the teacher's influence was clearly visible in Pollock's early paintings of the realistic portrayal of life [...]
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1668

Cultural Forces That Influenced Damien Hirst

The trend, which dominates the globe, is its demonstration of orderliness and maintenance, which display their external mark and at the same time symbolize the inflexible geometry of the cities of the world.
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1282

The Shaka Triad Sculpture

The sculpture of the Shaka triad has a mandorla, which has an inscription providing a piece of essential information about the date, the author, donors, and the circumstances in which the statue was created.
  • Subjects: Sculpture
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 530

Cezanne’s Sense of Color

The purpose of this paper is to analyze some of Cezanne's paintings with an aim of describing his sense of color in painting.
  • 4
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2053

Van Gogh’s Use of Color

The use of complementary colors, which became the signature of Van Gogh's style, helped to intensify the mutual effect of the color scheme in the paintings.
  • 5
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1412

Modern, Modernism, and Modernization

Modern, modernism, and modernization are the notions which may be easily defined in human mind, it means that one can understand what modern, modernism, and modernization mean, however, when it comes to formulation of the [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 565

Art Appreciation

The works of Art in the Ancient culture were of various forms which included architecture, sculpture, and graphic arts. Architecture and sculpture are the oldest forms of art that existed and still exist in the [...]
  • 4.3
  • Subjects: History of Art
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 676

Picture Observations and Their Meaning

The picture shows the sun shining on the grass at an angle while the sky is clear, indicating that the photographer took the picture in the morning.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1105

The Save Water, Save Life Picture Analysis

After the water in the aquarium runs out, the fish will die due to a lack of water. Consequently, human innovations and innovations cause the disappearance of water, which is a misfortune.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 339

Analysis of Picasso’s “Guernica”

Ultimately, Guernica by Pablo Picasso is one of the most significant art pieces in Cubism that takes inspiration from historical and stylistic influences.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 636

Gheorghe Virtosu and Abstract Art Movement

Virtosu's contribution to painting art has received significant recognition, given his unique approach to the application of abstract art as a form of expression. Secondly, the "Connections of civilization" painting reveals Virtosu's consistency in the [...]
  • Subjects: Art Movement
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 610

Invention of Photography and Its Social Impact

Although photography was invented in its full form only in 1835, an understanding of the social impact that was a result of the invention of photography is rightly portrayed by Azoulay in his article "The [...]
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1916

“Understanding Art” by Lois Fichner-Rathus

Though the two works differ in the color gamut used and in the forms and directions of the lines resorted to, in both cases the viewer is encouraged to answer various questions that one can [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 602

Gillian Pears, Tommy Reynolds and Ryan Widger

This very paper is a response to the three pieces of art of photography, the response to them will include the techniques used by the artists and the major topics they display as well as [...]
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 707

Ray Beldner Artistic Works

This reproduction is the allusion of the painting by Rene Magritte This is not a Pipe, which is the typical example of the representative art.
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 636

Magical Realism as a Literary Genre

The concept of loreal Maravillas was introduced in 1949 to the Americans where the foundations of magical realism were traced from the art world.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1098

Drama Oedipus the King by Sophocles

The key aspects of Sophocles' play capture the learners' interest in the purpose of comedy and twist of fate. The theme of tragedy is illustrated in the play, Oedipus the King.
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1104

Merran Esson’s Exhibition

Esson's translation of ceramics to reflect the reality of the moment eventually casts a form that is potent in her ceramics.
  • Subjects: Art Exhibitions
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 863

Pottery and its Role in the Lives of People

Pottery could have even developed from the process of wrapping foods in a skin of clay and placing them in the embers of a fire or on heated rocks to cook.
  • Subjects: Pottery
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2711

Post Modern Art

Numerous happenings in the fields of art, philosophy, science, music, and critical theory explain the meaning of post-modernism. Post-modernism is the same as modern art due to the production of new pieces.
  • 5
  • Subjects: Art Movement
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1145

The Black Madonna of Breznichar

The prominence of the Black Madonna is majorly due to the miraculous character it poses to the pilgrims. Since the black Madonna is a representation of the Virgin Mary, there are people of Catholic denomination [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 863

Printmaking in Art: Characteristics and Examples

Printmaking has given artists a distinctive and adaptable method to create images on a variety of surfaces, from woodcuts and etchings to screen printing and lithography.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 449

Is Photography an Art and Why?

In brief, photography is an art since it uses a variety of human actions to create aural, visual, or performative artifacts that show the author's creativity or technical proficiency and are intended to be admired [...]
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 561

“Hope II” by Gustav Klimt: Formal Analysis

The painting is called Hope II, which indicates that the artist wanted to emphasize not the doom and sadness of the death of a child but the hope of the women depicted in the painting.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 462

Contemporary Art Practices Essay

Speaking about contemporary art, people usually mean the objects of art and artistic techniques that began to be used in the middle of the twentieth century.
  • 5
  • Subjects: Art Movement
  • Pages: 11
  • Words: 2962

“Past and Present, No 1” by Augusts Leopold Egg

The artist: Augusts Leopold Egg Nationality: English Title: Past and Present, No 1 Date: 1858 Genre: Realistic Group figure Medium: Oil paint on canvas Dimensions: Support: 635 x 762 mm Frame: 801 x 925 [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 622

The Silk Road’s Impact on Chinese Art

Nevertheless, the most important impact of the Silk Road system experienced in China is the art culture. Arguably, the Chinese art and architecture borrow a lot from the other cultures involved in the Silk Road [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1069

Modern Ceramic Art: Beatrice Wood and Bernard Leach

She was widely exposed to art and yearned to run away to France which charted the direction of her life as she thwarted her mother plans for "coming out" into the society and leading a [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 20
  • Words: 5327

“Notes on Camp” by Susan Sontag

Also, Sontag had proven herself analytical enough to realize that the very concept of Camp is nothing but the modern equivalent of the concept of dandyism, originated in late 19th century: "Camp is the answer [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1669

Discussion: Old Comedy and New Comedy

One of the most famous representatives of New Comedy was the playwright Menander, whose plays, such as "The Twin Brothers" and "The Girl from Samos," are known for their focus on everyday life and their [...]
  • Subjects: History of Art
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 609

Albert Namatjira: Teaching Activities and Methods

Nearby was the Lutheran mission of Hermannsburg, where the tribespeople of Namatjira often visited to earn extra money and, at the same time, listen to the priests' sermons.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2037

Takashi Murakami’s Biography and Artistic Work

In a show of the same title, Murakami first introduced the concept of "Superflat" in the year 2000. Murakami's most significant declaration of his early scorn for the art establishment is "A Philosophy of Super [...]
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 1744

Carlos Schwabe’s “The Death of the Gravedigger”

He also drew the image of "Death" in his masterpiece painting The Death of the Grave-Digger from her. The figures of the woman angel and the old man standing inside the grave are in the [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1214

Masaccio’s Holy Trinity: Analysis of Visual Rhetoric

It is necessary to outline that his work presents a great interest due to the number of reasons: it was one of the first frescos to contain features of realism and humanism, the work poses [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1143

Photograph Description: Nature

The photograph reflects a marvelous landscape combining the elements of human interference in the form of buildings; it is necessary to underline the fact that the picture is to be referred to as representational [...]
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 465

Tracey Moffatt: Australian Artist

Her photography masterpieces are permanently included in the collections of the Tate Gallery in London and the Museum of Modern Art in New York.
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 9
  • Words: 2386

Inas El Degheidi’s Life History and Impact on Art

This paper makes a retrospective study on the life, background, and lifestyle of this filmmaker as well as her contributions to the advancements of performance arts and to the fight against gender discrimination and sexual [...]
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 7
  • Words: 2043

Naji al-Ali, a Palestinian Cartoonist and His Art

The open and fearless criticism of the political affairs of the particular state is always a risk for the author. Naji Al-Ali was a prominent Palestinian cartoonist famous for his criticism of the political situation [...]
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 12
  • Words: 3010

Painting: “The Great Wave off Kanagawa”

In the far distant center of the painting, is a mountain, still and motionless, in contrast to the dynamic furious sea wave. The shape and size of the wave create the imagery of force in [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 841

“The Tragedy” by Pablo Picasso

An impression of three people at a beach on the sea creates an open form, and the artist used blue colour to indicate the beach and the sea. Contour lines bring out the shape of [...]
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 613

History of Art and Design

Styles such as still life painting advanced from the use of pencils in the past to the use of colors in the present.
  • Subjects: History of Art
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1272

The Starry Night by Van Gogh

Different colors represent different emotions and feelings in a work of art such as a painting; perhaps one of the most important facts in the use of color is the ability to actively involve the [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1166
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