Day: October 25, 2020

Theme: The essay is to be thematic; comparing, based on the themes presented in the textbook exploring such topics as the impact of colonialism, indigenous histories, race, gender, labor, identity politics and so forth. Your essay should not be artists biographies. The artworks do not have to be from the same time period or in the same medium.
Artworks: Select at least five artworks or pieces of architecture to research and write about that further your thesis. Go beyond the textbook. Do NOT select the specific artworks discussed in the textbook or previous assignments. These artworks must have a body of academic published material (books, articles and academic Internet sources) to base your research on. You may write about a work by an anonymous (unknown) artist. If you cant find enough information on the specific art object, you can draw upon information about similar objects from the same culture and time period. Picking your topic is part of research; for assistance in evaluating your research materials see the short animated video Picking Your Topic IS Research! and others from NC State University Libraries: https://www.lib.ncsu.edu/tutorials (Links to an external site.)
Museums online: Look on the museum websites as a resource to explore and choose artworks. You can look at the websites of local museums or you can virtually travel globally.
Essay: The essay should be primarily in your own words describing and analyzing the works of art in relation to the theme. Include your reaction and feelings about the artwork in addition to your research on the artist and/or artwork. Comment why you were drawn to the artworks or architecture, either by attraction or dislike. Incorporate supplemental material from additional sources, with an additional page listing the bibliographic references.
Descriptions of the artworks: Describe each artwork in as much detail as you possibly can, as if no photograph exists of the artwork.  By this process you will be able to further analyze the work in greater depth.  Include the following: the title, the style. Discuss the composition: including the figures or objects and their relationship to each other and the setting or background. When analyzing the artwork note the media (i.e. stone, bronze, oils, tempera, et cetera).
Research the artworks: Research and cite at least three (do not include the textbook) academic sources from books and/ or the Internet for each artwork. This can include researching similar artworks or architecture. The research material should be woven in with your own observations, but it should be clear when you are quoting (with quotation marks) or paraphrasing (which should be explicitly noted) facts or other notes from your research. Discuss the intentions of the artist, if known, and what the artist/artwork might be trying to convey. Was this artwork created for a particular purpose, such as religious, spiritual, political, portraiture, decorative or all of these? Who was the intended audience? Who was the patron who financed the artwork? Was the artwork created for display in a home, public space or was the art created to be part of a religious or ritual ceremony, a dance or a performance and originally not intended to be separated from that context to be in a museum? How did the culture and time period affect how the artwork was created?  How and what other art and artists influenced the artist and artwork? Unless relevant, exclude the name of the donors (the persons who gave the artwork to the museum).  Do NOT write a biography of an artist. Discuss the artists life only in relationship to the specific artwork in question.
The textbook mentioned: Framing America: A Social History of American Art: Volume 1 and 2 ( fourth edition)

Background:  This assignment reinforces the concepts from Discussion #1 to build on a more comprehensive approach to understanding the definitions of art. This is an important activity that enables you to research a written concept (the definitions of art), visualize this concept (find an artwork), and then present your findings in a professional manner (written paper).

Task:

Read sections 1.3.1 Historic Development of the Idea of Art and 1.8 Key Concepts from Unit 1 and reference these when describing images.
Draft a paper in MLA format with a minimum of 500 words and 5 inserted images.
In your paper, briefly describe each of the five definitions of art from Unit 1 (Mimesis, Communication, Significant Form, Artworld/Institutional, Mind into the World).  Indicate a strength and a weakness of each definition.
Using the Definitions of Art: Definitions and Examples page as a starting point, research other artists and artworks to use for your visual examples.  You may use artists from the page suggested, but don’t use the specific artworks mentioned as your examples.
Give a brief biography of each artist and a description (title, date, medium) of the artwork you present, as well as an explanation of how the artwork meets the criteria for each definition of art.
Cite your sources and include a Works Cited/Bibliography page in MLA format.
Save your paper as a PDF and submit it to the assignment folder by the deadline.
Use the Purdue Owl site and this Sample MLA paper to assist you with formatting.  Also reference this link for guidance in how to insert images in MLA formatting.

Wikipedia, Dictionaries, and Encyclopedias are considered open source or collective edited sources and should NOT be used in your paper.  Use signed sources from named authors. Proofread your paper carefully at least twice before you submit, correcting any errors in spelling, grammar or syntax and revising where your writing is unclear or needs further explanation.