Art analysis

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The Basket of ApplesOver time, art has proved to be the best tool for the preservation of human culture over decades. Critical analysis of sculpture and portraits has revealed so much about various human epochs and eras. The analysis of artistic materials is therefore as important as the art itself. Various paintings, sculptures and other art materials have been studied over time and immense information has been obtained from them. Some paintings have been hailed while others were just there, just paintings. Art is, however, interesting. It is food for the human eye and only through critical analysis can one end up loving and appreciating art. Studying art has helped me improve my observation skills. There are seven critical and very vital steps to be taken when studying a particular piece of art. You do not just look at the piece and make certain rash conclusions, claiming you have already studied that piece.
The Painting, ‘The Basket of Apples’ is one great piece of art. It is a painting done by Paul Cezanne. It is a simple yet attractive painting that was done in the year 1895.It is oil on canvas painting, measuring sixty-eight by eighty centimetres. It is located at the Institute of Art in Chicago (Sayre 58). The painting has an element of disjointedness. It is described of being made of different part joined to form one painting. The painting shows a bit of a table onto which a bottle, a basket of apple and a plate of probably cookies have been placed.

The bottle is tipped. The table is not entirely flat but tipped too on the left. This tipping has made some of the apples to roll out of the basket to the white piece of clothing. In the thirty or so apples, each fruit has a different painting. Cezanne seems to have used robust autumn-like colour in the painting, possibly with the intention of reminding us the harvest period. The luminosity of the white clothing makes it stand out. It seems that for Paul, the smaller the object, the more intense the colour becomes, making it stand out too. The bottle has a certain texture that gives the feeling of a glass bottle. The odd tilting of the bottle may have been created to create a total balance among many other things that are unbalanced in the painting thus bring up an entirely balanced painting. It, therefore, seems, to Paul, that the sum is more important than the parts of the painting. The table itself seems to be fragmented; a slight tip on the right side than to its left.
In David’s neoclassical era, still art was entirely disregarded. Almost all the painters considered it not important. Very few artists concentrated on this aspect that was ranked as the least important subject of a painting. Ranking by importance was done on paintings. Atop, there was the painting of historical and religious themes that were very large, followed by important portraiture, then landscape and genre paintings and finally the still life. The Basket of Apples is an example of a still life painting. We have to ask ourselves one question, ‘Why would Paul Cezanne choose to paint a still life yet he knew this was the least important painting?’ It seems that the fact that the still life was a neglected form of painting is the reason as to why Paul was attracted to it. Paul seemed to have borrowed most of his painting tips from Edouard Manet.
One thing that is evident in the painting is the apparent destruction by Paul. He seems to have distorted some aspects of the painting intentionally. The painting is quite simple, a bottle of wine, a basket full of fruits tipped with some spilling on the table, cookies in a white plate, and a white tablecloth with what looks like apples and peach. Nothing is remarkable at first look. However, a closer inspection makes one begin to see some odd errors in the painting. For instance, a closer look at the close and far edge of the table. There is an odd stepping off of a line that in real life should be straight. The table, on the other hand, seems to be steeply tipped to the left, to the extent that the fruits are on the verge of falling off from the basket. The cookies stacked at the bottom layers seems to be viewed from the side. Those at the top layer, however, seem to pop upward, thus giving the impression that they are being looked at from above. All this may have been done by Paul to bring out the difference between the camera capture and the human capture. The humans see through space and time, we see on the move. Maybe this is what Paul Cezanne was trying to imply.
Art study should, therefore, be embraced by all. Through artistic interpretation, as seen above, one can advance sound arguments and end up extracting so much information from a particular painting or sculpture, whatever that piece of art may be.
Works Cited
BIBLIOGRAPHY Sayre, Henry M. A World of Art. New Jersey: Pearson Education Inc., 2013. Print.