Assignment Topic:
Art is everywhere!! This assignment will allow you to discover local art and investigate how current art can relate to works from the past. First find an original piece of art in your area and then compare/contrast it to an ancient work from your text.
Please note: (If a museum is not available, try your public library, local community college, or an art gallery for sculptures, parks for statues, or government buildings for paintings. Also, don't forget that architecture is an art form. Look around for a church or an interesting building.)
This paper will be completed based on skills you have gained in this course such as looking at how art can record history, illustrate a culture's beliefs, demonstrate political power, and depict a society's lifestyle. Also use information from the Introduction chapter of our text to help
Find ways of describing the artworks.
Address the following in your paper:
1) Identification - Provide Identifying details for each work (10 points = 5 points for each work):
-Artist: Who was the artist? If there is no artist, who is (are) the patron(s)?
-Title of the work: What is the title of the work?
-Date: When was the work created? What time period?
-Media: What was the process or material that was used to create the work?
-Location: Where is the work from your area displayed? For the work from your text, tell where it is exhibited/stored.
2) Description - What does each work look like? (100 points = 50 points for each work):
-Provide a description and the subject matter of each work, in detail. (Describe as though you are telling someone who will not be able to see the work so that they can visualize it.)
-Using the "How Do We Talk About Art?" section of the Introduction chapter of our text, identify and discuss 5 formal elements of art that are important to the work or will help to describe the artwork. For instance, don't just tell me there were lines in the work, tell me what kind (straight, curved, horizontal, diagonal, thick, thin, implied, etc.) and tell me how they affect the composition.
-Avoid qualitative words like beautiful, pretty, amazing, terrific, ugly as a method of describing. What is pretty to one person is not pretty to another. Example:If I said I got a pretty flower that smells amazing... would you be able to figure what kind of flower I have?
3) Compare and Contrast the two works (50 points):
Demonstrate ways the local art and the ancient artwork are similar and different. This is where you want to explain how these works of art across time can be connected both contextually and visually, with their own unique exceptions.
A few ideas on what to compare: Illustrate how the subject matter relates to each work. Do they share a similar or different message and purpose (aesthetic, religious, social commentary, propaganda, etc.) Is there an interesting tie between the historical context (historical aspects) between the works? Is there any interesting comparison between who and how the works were created? You can also comment on similarities and differences in the visual aspects (i.e. color palette, medium, technique, and size of works) and how those create the effectiveness in the works.