This study will include a
virtual
visit to a museum. Some ideas for museum websites to peruse are listed below.
On your
virtual
museum visit, you may select any object that intrigues you. You may work on your own or in groups of two to three students.
Requirements:
- 3-5 typed, double-spaced pages (approximately 800-1300 words for one student, approximately 1700 words for groups of two students, approximately 2000 words for groups of three students)
- proper grammar, spelling, and punctuation
- a visual image of the art work – an image from the internet or your own sketch
- an introduction, body, and conclusion, if you are writing a standard essay (not required for a creative response)
- all titles of buildings and artwork should beunderlinedor initalics
- a bibliography/works cited page with at least three sources (Wikipedia, answers.com, and similar sources may be used, but they cannot be counted as one of the three sources)
- MLA format should be used for all bibliographic entries
- Sources in Bibliography/Works Cited page should be inalphabetical order
- footnotes, endnotes, or parenthetical notes if citations are required (see examples below)
- responses to, and intellectual analysis using the questions below
- Please title your paper with the subject about which you are writing
Items to avoid:
- no plagiarizing – trust your own eyes and your own words!
- regurgitation of information found in sources
- incorrect use of its/it’s, their/there/they’re
- Wikipedia: While this source can be helpful, it should only be utilized as a basic introduction to your subject. I expect you to consult more scholarly and reliable information for this college-level paper.
- no late papers!
Some of the questions listed below will require you to do research. You must acknowledge any quotes, indirect quotes, or ideas other than your own in notes. These notes may be included in the text of your paper, or in the form of end notes, parenthetical notes, or footnotes. Despite the notes you chose to use, they must all include the author's name, the title of the book (or article), and the pertinent page numbers. In addition to notes, a bibliography is required of any sources used, which does include your textbook.
Please use the formats below:
Sample Bibliography entry:
Kleiner, Fred S., Christin J. Mamiya, and Richard G. Tansey.Gardner's Art Through the Ages:The Western Perspective, volume I, twelfth edition. Belmont: Wadsworth/Thomson Learning, 2003.
Sample footnote:
Fred S. Kleiner, Christin J. Mamiya, and Richard G. Tansey,Gardner's Art Through the Ages(Fort Worth: Harcourt College Publishers, 2001), p. 111.
Sample website:
National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, D.C. “Angelica
Kauffmann.”Mod.23Jul1997.http://www.nmwa.org/legacy/gallery/g1700s1.html(Links to an external site.)(6June 2000).
Easybib.com is a good source to assist you with the compilation of your Bibliography.
You will be asked to express some of your own opinions in the process of analyzing the work. You may never have written a paper of this sort before, and you thus may feel that your opinions or words do not sound as profound as those of the author's of your book, or of any other books you should choose to utilize. Trust your own eyes and your own words.
The following questions should be taken into consideration when analyzing the work, and they should be used as a guideline when you are writing your paper.
1) Identify the work. Who is the artist? The title? The date? Do you know the medium (material) that was used? For example, oil on canvas, or bronze, or wool tapestry…
2) If the artist is known, are we aware of anything about his or her life or personality that may have effected his/her creation of the work?
3) What is the subject depicted? Is the subject recognizable to you? Do you think it would have been recognizable to the people during the time in which it was created? Are there any symbols apparent? If so, what are they? Are they symbols which are understandable to you, or to the people in the society in which the piece was made?
4) What are the formal elements of the piece? Are there any lines, shapes, colors, lights, or shadows that are particularly important in an analysis? How about space and texture? Are any of these features utilized by the artist? If so, describe how.
5) Do you feel that unity was important to the artist? In other words, is there variety, balance, scale, proportion, and rhythm in the work? Is there a particular focal point that catches your eye? What is it, and how did the artist emphasize it as a focal point?
*6) During what time period and where was the work created? Discuss what was going on in the cultural, political, economic, or social spheres at the time it was produced which may, or may not have effected its production.
7) Choose one other painting/sculpture in the museum or in your textbook, or from class, or online, and compare and contrast them in terms of the time period in which they were painted, the medium, the subject, and the significance they hold in the history of art. How does the piece fit into the history of art? Compare the two pieces by discussing how they are similar, different, typical, or uncharacteristic of the periods in which they were produced. Note: both works should have elements in common and elements about them that are different. To compare two works means to discuss their similarities, and to contrast two works means to analyze the differences. For example, if you were studying the medium, both may have been painted in oil paint, but how does each artist handle the paint? How is it applied to the canvas? Is it smooth? Rough? Does the artist attempt to achieve textural effects, or the effect of weather, or a mood through the use of the paint?
You may complete the paper in a traditional essay format, with an introduction, a body, and a conclusion, or you may select a more creative approach. What follows is a brief list of ideas. Feel free to use one of these, or innovate a creative idea of your own. I would strongly recommend advance clearance if you opt to utilize your own idea, simply to make sure you are on the proper track.
- You could take on the persona of a journalist reporting on an art heist, or of an art thief, planning an art heist. Or, perhaps you could write your paper in the form of a covert CIA agent, attempting to solve an art mystery.
- You may write a short play involving the artists and the specific works. You can either play the roles of the artists partaking in a conversation (either friendly or animus), or you can even take on the personalities of the art works themselves. For example, you could play the role of Michelangelo and Leonardo, and converse about the Renaissance and your artistic, scientific and mathematical innovations, or you could be David by Michelangelo, having a conversation with Mona Lisa (neither of which are located at any of the three museums for this assignment!)
Be creative and have fun. Please note, however, that creative options should still include all of the pertinent information outlined in the seven questions above.
Museums
Some ideas for local Bay Area museums:
-The California Palace of the Legion of Honor
-The de Young Museum
-The Asian Art Museum
-SFMOMA
-The Museum of the African Diaspora
-The Cantor Arts Center and Rodin Garden
-The Anderson Collection at Stanford University
Museums outside the Bay Area:
-The LA County Museum
-The Getty Center (either the Getty Museum or the Getty Villa)
-The Metropolitan Museum in New York City
-The Guggenheim Museum in New York City
-The MOMA in New York City
-The Chicago Art Institute
-The Louvre Museum
-The Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam
-Musée d’Orsay in Paris
-The Vatican
-The British Museum in London