The frames don't fail because they're hard. They fail because people use them lazily — and there are two classic ways to be lazy. Spot both now and you'll dodge them for good.
Trap One: Stopping at Just One
The most common mistake is the easiest one: stopping at a single frame, and almost always it's a quick subjective "I like it" or "it's a bit creepy." That's a fine first sentence and a terrible only sentence. One frame is one torch. Switch it off and the rest of the statue stays dark. A response that never leaves the subjective frame tells the marker plenty about your mood and almost nothing about the work. The fix is simple and it's the whole skill: when you've finished one frame, deliberately swing on another one.
Trap Two: Forcing a Frame That Doesn't Fit
The opposite mistake is being a show-off: jamming all four frames onto a work whether they belong or not. Not every portrait is secretly postmodern. If a painting isn't quoting, copying or being ironic, the postmodern frame has nothing true to say about it — and pretending it does just makes you sound like you're reaching. Frames also overlap: a symbol of wealth is both structural (it's a sign) and cultural (it's about class), and that's fine — you don't have to force a wall between them. The skill is choosing the frames that genuinely illuminate this particular work, and letting the others sit quiet.
The Quiet One: Blurring Them into Mush
There's a softer failure too: smearing the frames together so a paragraph is technically "about all of them" but never says anything cleanly from any one of them. Keep the passes distinct in your head even when the final paragraph flows. A reader should be able to feel each frame doing its own job.