PAPER #1: VISUAL AND CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS OF
WORK OF ART 200points
This paper gives you an opportunity to explore the museums of the New York
area included in this handout is a list of museums that you might explore for
this project. I hope that you have a chance to do that! However, if it is not
possible for you to actually go to the museum in person, you can go virtually by
looking at the website for each museum. The web address for each site is
included in the list.
On the front page of your paper, please record the following information:
1. Your name
2. Name of artist
3. Name of piece
4. Date/period
5. Present location (where you saw it either physical location or web
and PLEASE UPLOAD THE IMAGE AND GIVE US AN ACTIVE LINK )
6. Country or place of origin (where did it originally come from?)
7. Size of the work of art
8. Medium/media i. e. the materials out of which the work is made
9. Condition Ask yourself: In what condition has the work survived? Is it
exactly how the artist intended it to be seen? Or has it been damaged or
repaired, or altered? What is the evidence of change that I see?
(Obviously, this will only be a lengthy analysis if the work is old. If the
work is contemporary, simply note that fact.)
PAPER SHOULD BE ABOUT 4PAGESLONG, TYPED,
DOUBLE-SPACED WITH FRONT COVER (LIKE THIS ONE)
Please post your paper in the discussion thread that I will set up at the time of
the due date. Please upload your paper and include an image and a link to the
site where you saw it. No external research is needed for this project, however, if
you use any materials at all that come from outside sources, including the website
for the museum of your choice, you must cite it correctly using MLA format. This
is a link to the website in our school library that shows you how to format using
MLA (Modern Language Association) format.
Please upload your papers to Turnitin the link is in this module!
Hope that you guys have fun!!!
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Procedure
Visitthemuseumorgalleryofyourchoice.Ifthereisamuseumyouwishtogoto
thatisnotlistedjust ask firsttomake sure itwillbe suitable. To find out specific
information about exhibition schedules etc. look at the websites.
The Brooklyn Museum of Art: www.brooklymuseum.org
Eastern Parkway, Brooklyn
Closed Mondays and Tuesdays, open until 11 pm the first Saturday of each
month
$3 for students with valid ID
The Guggenheim: http://www.guggenheim.org/new_york_index.shtml
Fifth Avenue at 89th Street, Manhattan
Closed Thursdays
$10 for students with valid ID
The International Center of Photography (ICP): http://www.icp.org
1133 Avenue of the Americas (Sixth Av) at 43rd Street, Manhattan
Closed Mondays
$7 for students with valid ID
Metropolitan Museum of Art (MMA): www.metmuseum.org
Fifth Avenue at 82nd Street, Manhattan
Closed Mondays (except holidays)
Price is suggested, so giving at least one dollar is fine.
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA): www.moma.org
11 West 53rd Street (between Fifth and Sixth Avenues)
Closed Tuesdays
$12.00 for students with valid ID
Free with valid SUNY student ID/Free Friday evenings 6-9 pm
Neue Galerie: http://www.neuegalerie.org/
1048 Fifth Avenue (at 86th Street)
Closed Tuesday and Wednesday
$10 for students with valid ID
The Whitney Museum of American Art: www.whitney.org
Madison Avenue at 75th Street, Manhattan
Closed Monday and Tuesday/Friday 6-9 pm, pay whatever you want
$9.50 for students with valid ID (NYC public school/college free)
Rubin Museum of Art: www.rmanyc.org/
150 W. 17 St., NYC 10011
Closed Tuesdays
$5.00 for students with valid ID/Free Fridays 6:00-10:00 pm
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Paper writing procedure
Visual analysis guide to prompt responses while at the museum
When you go to the museum/or visit online have a notebook in which to
record your observations.
Give yourself plenty of time to look all over the museum and then choose an
object to study in detail.
Look at the piece carefully and take notes on it in such a manner that nothing
escapes your attention.
After having answered these questions you will want to carefully edit and
restructure those comments to make your paper as clear and coherent a
description of the work of art as possible.
Please make sure that everything that you write is in your own words. I am
interested in your description and discussion.
Objectives:
I. Description of your emotional response to the work of art (About 1/2
page)
II. Demonstration of your ability to describe the subject matter of a work of
art found in a local collection. (About -1 page)
III. Demonstration of your ability to make a visual analysis of a work of art
in a local collection. (About 1-1/2-3 pages)
IV. Concluding statement to show how the manipulation of the subject and
form evoked your initial emotional response. (About -1-1/2 pages)
Attached to this handout is a guide to prompt responses while looking at your
work of art. After having answered these questions you will want to carefully edit
and restructure those comments to make your paper as clear and coherent a
description of the work of art as possible. Please make sure that everything
that you write is in your own words. I am interested in your description and
discussion.
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The following questions can be used as prompts to assist you to set down your
observations.
I. Description of your emotional response to the
work of art.
What is your first response to the work of art? How does it make you feel? What
are your initial reactions?
II. Discussion of Subject matter
Subject matter is the theme, the objects or the environment that you see in the
image
(Remember that not all of these questions will be relevant to your chosen
piece, just pick the questions that help to lead you through your description)
I. What kinds of objects/things/people do you see in the work that you are
analyzing?
Who or what are they?
Are these characters from a story, myth, legend or religious tale?
Do they refer to an historical event?
2. Is it a still life (a group of inanimate objects) or a landscape?
3. Is the landscape of a real place or is it imaginary?
4. Is it nonrepresentational?
Is it hard to make out any references to the visual world?
Is the work made up primarily of shapes, colors and other elements of form that
appear to have little or no reference to any thing outside themselves?
III. Formal/Visual analysis
In describing a work of art there are several kinds of properties that it is useful to
observe and analyze. Using visual elements of line, shape, color, light, texture,
mass you will now describe what you see.
(Remember that not all of these questions will be relevant to your chosen
piece, just pick the questions that help to lead you through your description,
and then rank them, describe the most important element first. It is perfectly
appropriate to spend more time on some of the elements than others. Some
elements are simply not as important.)
Line
Line is the visible mark left by a moving point. It is the dynamic trace left on the surface which
records movement.
How would you describe the kinds of lines do you see in your chosen image?
Thick or thin? Even or irregular?
How would you describe the function of these lines — what do they do? (For
example do they define shapes, make patterns, create the illusion of mass etc.)
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Shape
A flat, two-dimensional form which exists only in height and width
How would you describe the kinds of shapes do you see in your chosen image?
Are they primarily organic or geometric?
Light
Light illuminates our world. Light is an important component in the expressive potential of a workof
art. Sometimes light works upon the surface of a work of art, throwing shadows or highlightingform.
This effect is most common in a work that is three dimensional, like a piece of sculpture. In painting
and the illusionist arts the effect of light is also important. Light can be used to create the illusionof
mass, or texture. It can also be used to enhance drama by manipulation of the light source.
Consider how light is used in your chosen work of art.
Is it actual light falling over a solid object?
Is it used to create an illusionistic mass?
Is it used to create an effect of natural light?
Is it used as a spotlight to create an effect of enhanced drama?
Color
What kinds of uses and arrangements of colors do you see?
Warm Colors? (Reds, oranges)
Cool Colors? (blues, greens)
Neutral or achromatic Colors? (blacks, greys, whites)
Are the colors arranged as opposites (Complimentary colors)
blue/orange red/green yellow/purple
Is the color scheme composed primarily of local (i.e. colors as they are observed
in nature with no alteration) colors?
Is the color scheme composed primarily of expressive colors? (i.e. colors that
have been altered from their natural appearance to enhance an emotional or
expressive effect)
Space
Questions to ask if you are looking at a sculpture
Does the object interact with a real space? If it does, how does it? Do
elements project out from the center?
Does it seem to be self-contained with little intrusion into surrounding space?
Questions to ask if you are looking at a painting, print, collage or any other
two dimensional work of art
Does the object suggest an illusion of space? Does the illusionistic space
seem deep or shallow? How has this illusion of space been created? Is
the illusion of space created by overlapping or diminishment of size? an
atmosphere or by use of color? By use of a geometrical system?
Does the image appear to be flat?
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Texture
This refers to the tactile properties of the surface, i.e. what you could actually feel if you were totouch
the object
Describe the kinds of textures that you see. Are they actual textures, or are they
illusionistic textures?
If the work you are analyzing is a painting, what kinds of textures did the artist
create on the surface with the brush?
Mass
Mass is three dimensional. i.e. height, width and depth.
Questions to ask if you are looking at a sculpture
Is it an open form, extending out from the center into space?
Or is it a closed form, seeming to be self-contained with little or no intrusion into
the space surrounding it?
Questions to ask if you are looking at a painting, print, collage or any other two
dimensional work of art
Is an illusion of mass achieved by illusionistic means? How is mass used in your
work of art? Remember that in painting and the two-dimensional arts it is possible to
create the illusion of mass on a flat surface by juxtaposing areas of light and dark
and creating a range between them to create an illusion of light and shade, thus
creating the impression of solid mass. To manipulate areas from light to dark or
from black to white is called modeling. The technique of modeling from light to dark
to create the illusion of mass is called by the Italian word chiaroscuro
IV. Concluding statement to show how the
manipulation of the subject and form evoked your
initial emotional response. (About -1 page)
After having examined your emotional response to the work, and after having
described the subject matter and the form, you are now ready to move onto the last
phase of your project.
Now you have the opportunity to investigate how the artists manipulation of subject
matter and form has evoked the emotional response that you described in the
very first paragraph. (For example: The use of the dramatic contrast of colors
created a feeling of intense emotion or The use of the repetition of the undulating
line created a mood of relaxation or The importance of the Buddha was
emphasized by making him so large in relationship to his disciples)
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GRADING CRITERIA FOR WRITTEN ASSIGNMENTS:
100-96
Understood the ideas and requirements of the paper
Understood concepts of art and addressed all components relevant to the work.
Used proper adjectives and displayed an excellent grasp of writing about art.
No grammatical errors, excellent sentence flow and structure
95-90
Structured well and addressed all points relevant to the paper
Differs from the 96-100 papers in the writing style (96-100 papers have a definite
grasp of writing on art)
Citation problems (either lacks citations or cites improperly)
Very few grammatical errors
89-85
Understood the main point of the paper but needed some minor elaboration on
one or two elements.
Some grammatical errors/errors in sentence structure/punctuation
84-80
Could have benefited from a rough-draft revision
Grammatical errors/sentence structure/punctuation
Presented ideas and concepts but needed definite elaboration on more than one
element of the discussion.
Overall, presents great potential to be a better paper with proper revision
Student clearly understands the requirements.
79-70
Needs revision, several grammatical errors/punctuation/structure
Paper does not flow well between one or more paragraphs
Ideas presented are in need of much elaboration
Very few descriptive words
Student does not understand art terms or uses them improperly
Paper seemed to lack full effort
Student does not meet all requirements of the paper or neglects to use them
properly
60-70
Paper is poorly structured (grammar/punctuation), lack of revision.
Student does not seem to understand/follow paper requirements
Lack of coherent ideas relevant to the chosen topic
Below60-LL.
Plagiarism: When you are writing for any of your classes and, of course,
for this one, PLEASE REMEMBER THAT YOUR TEACHERS WANT TO HEAR
YOUR VOICE!!!!! This class is for you, for your development. Unless your
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teacher can hear your voice in your papers as well as in class or in office hours,
it will not be possible for them to guide you to reach your full potential, and
helping you to reach that full potential is what this class is about. So, although
there is a lot of valuable information available in the library and online it is vital
that you read it and then rethink it, put it into your own words, and always credit
the authors whose work you read for their ideas. If you copy the work, you not
only cheat the author and yourself, but YOU ARE DOING SOMETHING
DISHONEST. To present someone elses work as your own is plagiarism, and it
is a serious issue. When you take someone elses ideas it is stealing from them
and it is shortchanging yourself. For your own growth you need to think these
things out for yourself, in your own good head, using your own good thoughts
and judgment. So, from the start, we will get this straight, YOUR IDEAS ARE
WELCOME, YOUR SUMMARIZING AND COMMENTING UPON THE IDEAS
OF AUTHORS WHOSE WORK YOU ACKNOWLEDGE IS WELCOME, BUT
PLAGIARISM IS NOT WELCOME and will be viewed very seriously. It can result
not only in getting an “F” but can also result in disciplinary action by the college.
Plagiarism is against college rules and is a serious breach of academic ethics.
We will discuss how you should cite (acknowledge) other peoples work in your
papers both in class and also in our library visit. Always ask if you are not sure,
we are all here to help you to think and write for yourself.
