Assignment -
The objective of this assignment is to research and critically reflect upon a contemporary artist (i.e., a living artist) of your choosing in order to establish critical connections between the chosen artist's work and the art historical past. When choosing an artist, consider an artist that you feel connects in meaningful ways to your own interests and practice as an artist. By so doing, your paper will help you to develop a deeper understanding of the ways your own work fits into the critical discourse of both contemporary art and art history.
For the final paper, you will write 4-5 pages (double spaced, 12 point font) combining scholarly research with your own original analysis and interpretation of the artist's work. The paper should include the following:
A brief biographical background on the artist you chose to research and an overview of their work;
Using scholarly research in combination with your own insights and observations into the artist's work, describe connections between your chosen artist and the art history. Are there specific artists or movements that directly influenced your artist? Are there aspects of your artist's work that remind you of artists or concepts from art history that we have discussed or read about in class? Describe the nature of this relationship between past and present. How has your artist been influenced by past art, and how has this influence been transformed into something innovative and contemporary? How has the artist reinvented or transformed ideas from the past in response to the contemporary context?
Provide a detailed description and analysis of at least 2 artworks produced by the artist, and compare these works to at least 1 artwork from the past.