The IB Visual Arts IA criteria assess whether you can create a coherent body of resolved artworks, connect concept with form, and control your chosen media. Under the course first assessed in 2027, the IA contributes 40% at both SL and HL. SL is marked out of 32, while HL is marked out of 40 because it includes an additional artistic context criterion.
Your teacher applies the official descriptors, then the IB externally moderates the school's marking. This guide explains the current requirements, what each criterion rewards, and how to make your evidence clear.
Confirm which Visual Arts syllabus applies
The redesigned Visual Arts course is first assessed in 2027. Its IA is called Resolved artworks at SL and Selected resolved artworks at HL. This replaces the Exhibition component used in the previous course.
| Assessment session | Internally assessed component | Main submission |
|---|---|---|
| Final 2026 session | Exhibition | SL submits 4-7 artworks and HL submits 8-11, with exhibition documentation and a curatorial rationale |
| 2027 onward | Resolved artworks or Selected resolved artworks | Both levels submit five resolved artworks, with additional selection and contextual evidence at HL |
The official IB Visual Arts curriculum update confirms that documented physical exhibition is no longer part of the redesigned IA. Schools can still exhibit student art, but assessment now concentrates on five artworks and their conceptual and technical resolution.
This distinction matters because older resources discuss coherent bodies of work, technical competence, conceptual qualities, and curatorial practice as the Exhibition criteria. Students first assessed in 2027 should not use that mark scheme. RevisionDojo's guide to Visual Arts themes and the syllabus transition provides additional clarification.
Current IB Visual Arts IA requirements
The official subject brief for first assessment in 2027 states that both levels submit five resolved artworks. Each is represented by an image or a video lasting no more than three minutes. Students also provide the title, medium, and size, with up to two optional supporting images for details or alternative views.
| Requirement | SL | HL |
|---|---|---|
| IA weighting | 40% | 40% |
| Total marks | 32 | 40 |
| Final artworks | Five | Five selected from at least eight works |
| Rationale | Maximum 700 words, up to two screens | Maximum 700 words, within a PDF of up to eight screens |
| Artwork texts | Not required | Five texts, maximum 1,000 words in total |
| Additional emphasis | Explain intentions and choices creating coherence | Justify selection and situate each work in personal and wider artistic contexts |
A resolved artwork is one whose formal, material, and conceptual decisions have been developed sufficiently to fulfil its artistic intention. It does not need to be realistic, flawless, or conventionally polished. Rough surfaces or unfinished-looking edges can be resolved when they serve a clear purpose rather than showing accidental loss of control.
IB Visual Arts IA criteria at a glance
| Criterion | SL marks | HL marks | Central question |
|---|---|---|---|
| A: Coherence of body of artworks | 8 | 8 | Do the works form an intentionally connected body? |
| B: Conceptual realization | 12 | 12 | Do concept and form work together? |
| C: Technical resolution | 12 | 12 | Are media, processes, and formal qualities used effectively? |
| D: Understanding of artistic context | Not assessed | 8 | Is each work critically situated within personal and wider contexts? |
Criteria B and C provide 24 of 32 SL marks and 24 of 40 HL marks. Supporting writing can clarify evidence, but it cannot compensate for artworks with superficial ideas or unresolved materials.
Criterion A: Coherence of body of artworks
Criterion A is worth 8 marks at both levels. Assessors consider the relationships among the five artworks and how effectively the rationale explains the intentions and relevant conceptual, technical, or stylistic choices.
Coherence does not mean sameness. Works in photography, sculpture, and painting can be coherent if they investigate a shared tension through connected decisions. Conversely, five portraits using identical colours may remain repetitive rather than coherent.
For example, a student investigating unreliable memory might use erased faces in a drawing, degraded family audio in a video, and translucent layers in a sculpture. Each medium communicates disappearance or reconstruction differently, producing a stronger relationship than repeating one obvious symbol.
Higher-mark evidence includes a precise overall intention, meaningful connections among all five works, and justification of relevant choices. At HL, the rationale should also explain why these five artworks were selected from the wider production. Ask what the body would lose if each work were removed; every selection should contribute a distinct development, contrast, or viewpoint.
Criterion B: Conceptual realization
Criterion B is worth 12 marks and examines the synthesis of concept and form. The assessor asks whether the visible, spatial, and material qualities of the artwork communicate the claimed intention.
An artwork about constructing a perfect online identity could simply show a phone and cracked mask. A more developed response might use repeated digital retouching, image-compression artifacts, mirrored surfaces, or restrictive cropping. These choices make self-editing and instability part of how the artwork functions.
Strong conceptual realization depends on purposeful imagery, forms suited to the idea, and development beyond the first interpretation. Test this by showing the work without its title or rationale to someone unfamiliar with it. Their interpretation need not match yours exactly, but it should connect plausibly with the intended tension or concept.
Criterion C: Technical resolution
Criterion C is worth 12 marks. It assesses the effective manipulation of media, materials, processes, and formal qualities, including composition, colour, line, tone, texture, scale, space, rhythm, and contrast.
Technical resolution is not limited to realistic drawing. A video can demonstrate control through editing, pacing, sound, and framing. A ceramic piece might show it through structural stability, firing decisions, surface treatment, and the relationship between scale and handling.
High-level work shows assured control that consistently supports the intention. Check for accidental marks, weak joins, distracting presentation, and areas where refinement is insufficient. Materials should be selected for expressive purpose rather than convenience.
Documentation also matters because assessors can evaluate only what the files reveal. Use supporting images when texture, movement, interior detail, or multiple viewpoints cannot be understood from the main image. Clear photography can reveal achievement, but it cannot turn an unresolved artwork into a resolved one.
Criterion D: Understanding of artistic context at HL
Criterion D applies only to HL and is worth 8 marks. The five artwork texts should critically situate every selected work in relation to the student's developing practice and a wider artistic context.
A wider context could include an artist, movement, cultural practice, historical development, community, exhibition context, or relevant debate. Naming an artist or summarizing their biography is insufficient. Explain how your choices adopt, transform, challenge, or depart from that context.
For example, do not write only that Käthe Kollwitz inspired your work. Explain how her compressed tonal range or emphasis on hands informed your treatment of grief, then analyse how your own digital layering creates a different relationship between memory and reproduced images. This demonstrates critical situating rather than simple influence.
How the marking process works
The IA is internally assessed and externally moderated. Your teacher awards a mark for each criterion using the best-fitting descriptor. The IB reviews sampled submissions to determine whether the school applied the standard accurately and may adjust marks through moderation.
Each criterion is judged separately. A technically accomplished body can score highly in Criterion C but lower in Criterion B if its ideas are conventional or unclear. Assessment is holistic within each criterion, so marks are not awarded through a simple checklist of isolated features.
Common mistakes that reduce marks
- Using the pre-2027 mark scheme: Confirm your assessment session before following Exhibition advice.
- Confusing coherence with repetition: Shared colours or symbols require conceptual significance and development.
- Making claims the artworks cannot support: Intentions must be visible through formal and material decisions.
- Choosing too many unfamiliar media: Assured control is stronger than variety without purpose.
- Describing instead of justifying: Explain why a choice was made and what meaning it creates.
- Selecting work for sentimental reasons: Time spent does not make a piece strong criterion evidence.
- Treating HL context as biography: Analyse relationships among contexts, practices, and your decisions.
- Submitting weak documentation: Use sharp focus, accurate colour, neutral lighting, and useful detail views.
The RevisionDojo Visual Arts course hub and Visual Arts self-study guide can support criterion-based review. Jojo AI can help identify vague explanations or unsupported claims, but your decisions and final writing must remain authentically your own.
A practical final review
Before submitting, review the work criterion by criterion:
- State your overall intention in one precise sentence.
- Identify the unique contribution of every selected artwork.
- Link meaning to visible formal and material choices.
- Photograph details that provide essential technical evidence.
- Check that every rationale claim is supported by the artworks.
- At HL, connect each artwork to your practice and a wider context.
- Verify word limits, screen limits, metadata, file quality, and school deadlines.
Do not imitate the appearance of a high-scoring example. Instead, examine how successful submissions make intentions and evidence legible. RevisionDojo's Visual Arts coursework examples can help you recognize effective criterion evidence.
Conclusion
The current IB Visual Arts IA criteria reward coherence, meaningful synthesis of concept and form, and assured technical resolution. HL additionally assesses critical selection and understanding of artistic context. Strong submissions make their intentions visible rather than expecting supporting writing to rescue unclear art.
Use the correct syllabus, evaluate each criterion independently, and ensure every selected artwork contributes something necessary. RevisionDojo Study Notes, Jojo AI, Coursework Review, and Tutors can support this final review without replacing your artistic voice.
