In this essay i will be defining the art historical perspectives of the methods formalism, iconography and social history of art and their aims. I will be discussing if art can just be aesthetically pleasing or must there always be a political and social meaning/inspiration behind it. I will be doing a detailed analysis of The Large Blue Horse(1911) by Franz Marc using the method formalism to show that not all artwork needs to be observed using various methods since not all art works have social/political meaning/inspiration. I will be detailing how The Large Blue Horses(1911) is just aesthetically pleasing and only needs the method formalism to understand it. I selected The Large Blue Horses(1911) by Franz Marc because the the way he used bright colours, curved line and his subject matter is horses not humans, it has no reference to world war 1 which was a few years away from when he finished his painting and tension was already being felt and other artists were reacting to it through their art.
Formalism 's method throughout art history has been looking at a piece of artwork at its aesthetics value and form and how appealing it is to the viewer and describing the work in detail. Formalism belief that everything you need to know about this painting you are able to get from just looking at the painting. Formalism was dominant in 19th century and early 20th century in art history. Formalism is the theory of art and looking at an art pieces contents form without looking for