Art Essay Examples and Topics

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2,027 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.

2026 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

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

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

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

3D Animation: Main Inspirations and Personal Experience

I have read that an understanding of the underlying story and a keen interest in storytelling is essential to build a good animation. This I have found that a number of institutes in the country [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 680

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

Comparison and Contrast of Art History

Daniel Strobel, Jr.and Her Son, George is one from the pair of neoclassical portraits of the Strobel family Daniel Strobel, the American Diplomat in France, and his wife, Anna Church, the daughter of the first [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1401

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Sports Photography and Its Evolution

The death of Niepce was announced in 1833, but the experiment was still been performed by Daguerre and he succeeded in the development of the daguerreotype finally in 1837.
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2319

Emblazoned on History: The Fleur de Lis

The Fleur de Lis is most recognized as the symbol for French Royalty or as a part of a coat of arms, used in many European countries, including England and Scotland.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 8
  • Words: 2269

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

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

Biographical Profile of Jamaal Barber

Notably, he won the JOSA Award of Excellence in Drawing in 2002 and got first place in the graphic design competition of the Rebel Magazine.
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1702

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

“Starry Night” by Vincent van Gogh

The cultural influence on the theme and manner of the work The Starry Night presented by the author can be evaluated through the complicated world look of its nature. The exaggeration of the drawing lines [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1555

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

Crafts and Fine Arts.

Moreover, to explain the vaguely difference between them, one may give the example of the art work that may be assigned to the both categories: either to the crafts or to the fine art.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 598

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

“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 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

Bruegel’s “Children’s Games”

Bruegel's paintings portrayed the life of peasants during that time.'The Children's Games' and 'Winter Landscape with Skaters and a Bird Trap' are some of the most famous paintings of the artist.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 10
  • Words: 2854

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

Trodden Weed

The lighting of the painting, which appears to have been well thought-out, indicates that the walk was happening in the afternoon.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 834

Nudity in the Paintings of the Renaissance

One of the most famous female nudes in the history of art was the Spanish painting called 'The Nude Maja' done by Francisco Goya. Thus, the artists of the Renaissance brought about the rise of [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1355

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

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

“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

The Niobid Krater Art Peculiarities

Besides that, the contrasting colors of the krater with the stark black background and the orange-gold hues of the figures. Because there are different scenes depicted on the krater, such as the death of children [...]
  • Subjects: Pottery
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 232

Photography Comparison and Contrast

The focus on the naked parts of the body, like dirty and scratched hands, necks, and faces, allows for learning about the terror and horror of that period. In my photo, the style differs due [...]
  • Subjects: Photography
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1202

Chapter 2 in “Understanding Comics” by Scott McCloud

The second chapter of Scott McCloud's book "Understanding Comics" is devoted to the vocabulary of comics and all that the reader perceives when looking at the inscriptions in illustrated publications and what he concludes.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 1
  • Words: 316

Should the Government Fund the Arts?

Since the arts play a big role in the society the government has a moral responsibility to fund the arts as they are primarily unsustainable when exposed to open market forces, art is a necessity [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: Art Movement
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 1149

“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

The Agony in the Garden by El Greco

His important works include: The Disrobing of Christ; The Burial of Count Orgaz; The Agony in the Garden; View of Toledo and Laocoon.
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1672

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

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

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

Marcel Duchamp and His Conceptual Art

Through the baffling ideals presented by Duchamp as a result of the different aspects of the environment he was operating in, art and design were upgraded from the physical to the intellectual realm.
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 4
  • Words: 1170

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

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

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

Botticelli’s and Doré’s Illustrations to Dante’s Inferno

Though both artists are exceptionally talented and their works are among the most praised, Dante would probably prefer Dore's illustration of the literary masterpiece. The works have certain sharpness, the play of light, and emotion, [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 310

The Rent Broadway Musical’s Analysis

This is a musical, and the type of performance is an ensemble since the majority of songs are performed by a group of actors, although there are several solo performances as well.
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 562

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

Art and Printmaking. Contemporary Art

These types of printmaking have differences relative to the nature of the surface, which creates or forms the print that is to be transferred onto a fabric or paper.
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 968

The Realism in Art Movement

The paintings of authors representing the movement of realism are extremely vivid and are likely to create an impression of presence in the painting while observing it.
  • Subjects: Art Movement
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 844

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

Alice Gerstenberg’s Overtones Review

This new technique along with the publications of Sigmund Freud who was on a trip to New York at the time of the productions spread interest in the use of the unconscious mind. She is [...]
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 5
  • Words: 1485

Artworks Comparison: Les Demoiselles d’Avignon and Tribute Money

Though the Les Demoiselles d'Avignon, a fresco created by Picasso, was created in an entirely different epoch than Masaccio's Tribute Money was, the two artworks still share a range of stylistic, compositional and conceptual similarities, [...]
  • Subjects: Paintings
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 878

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

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: Staging “Trifles” by Susan Glaspell

In its turn, this explains why in Glaspell's play, the characters strive to act in the manner fully consistent with what used to be assumed accounts for the social roles of the representatives of each [...]
  • 5
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 6
  • Words: 1700

Art and Design Analysis

The drawings are purely handmade and they show that the artist spent a lot of time to come up with these drawings. There is a clear evidence of thinking in the mind of the art [...]
  • Subjects: Visual Arts
  • Pages: 2
  • Words: 606

The Play “Fifth of July” by Lanford Wilson

The rebirth can be connected to the launch of new events in the lives of the characters. Shirley, being the youngest in the Talley's in the play, is seen the progression factor of the Talley's [...]
  • Subjects: Theater
  • Pages: 3
  • Words: 925

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

“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

Giotto as the First Renaissance Painter

Behind Italian Renaissance was a great painter and architect, Giotto di Bondone, who existed in the 13th and 14th century."The Renaissance was a period of artistic and cultural achievement in Europe from the fourteenth to [...]
  • Subjects: Artists
  • Pages: 11
  • Words: 2741
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