Course Resources
Syllabus
Scheduling time in the lab
Writing About an Exhibition (See below)
Organization You Should Join NYC SIGGRAPH CHAPTER
Artists You Should Know
Rebecca Allen
Alma Alloro
J. Stuart Blackton
Mary Ellen Bute
Sonya Carey
Jose Carlos Casado
Paul Chan
U-Ram Choe
Émile Cohl
Jeremy Couillard
Jules Engel
Vita Eruhimovitz
Tomer Eshed
Oskar Fischinger
Max Fleischer
Yoram Gross
Ian Jones-Quartey
Larry Jordan
William Kentridge
Satoshi Kon
Robert Lazzarini
Ryan Larkin
Winsor McCay
Georges Méliès
Joshua Mosley
Pilar Newton
Floyd Norman
Nazlı Eda Noyan
Nina Paley
Bill Plympton
Brothers Quay
Peter Ramsey
Lotte Reiniger
Lincoln Schatz
Taylor K. Shaw
Bruce W Smith
Jennifer Steinkamp
Jan Svankmajer
LeSean Thomas
Purpose:
In this assignment, students will demonstrate their ability “to apply formal concepts and use critical methodology to critique visual experience in a variety of disciplines.” This learning outcome was introduced in the lower level studio core classes, and practiced in all your art history requirements and mastered in your upper level ARTS electives. Being able to articulately critique any type of artwork, regardless of one’s particular discipline, is an important learning goal for all Visual Arts majors.
Assignment:
Write a 750 word essay about ____________currently on view in___________________. Your essay should include:
- an illuminating description of the work that gives both an overall impression and important details about one or two specific pieces. Use terminology from art classes to describe the visual experiences of the works. Include any other sensory experiences controlled by the artist, such as sounds, space, etc.
- a conceptual analysis of the work. What is it about? What is the artist’s reason for making the work? Spend time looking and thinking about what is most compelling.
- your interpretation of the work. Using the information above, provide a critique that supports your opinion of the exhibition.
- How the experience influences your idea of artists and practice. Did the experience give you a different understanding of your own practice?
Process:
1. Give yourself plenty of time to look at the exhibition. Bring your sketchbook and write down both your overall impression of the exhibit and specific details. What formal choices does the artist make? What do you see? Hear? Feel? What materials does the artist use? What scale? Color? What do you notice first? Make careful notes about titles, materials, etc that you can reference later.
2. If the gallery provides any literature about the art, read it during your visit. If possible, take a copy home. Sometimes the work can only be fully understood with the supporting literature. Consider the importance of the title of the exhibition, especially thinking about the definitions of the words used.
3. Good art, like good music, is not absorbed instantly. Ruminate. Go see the show again. Spend time, and it will unlock for you.
4. Take some time figuring out your interpretation of the work. This will become the thesis of your essay and will guide your writing. As with any essay, you will need to support your thesis with concrete examples. Include small images of the work if possible. Assume you will need to write two drafts before your final copy.
Writing about art is difficult but ultimately rewarding. In analyzing another person’s work, your own values become increasingly clear.
Artist Presentation Guidelines
The presentation must be researched. You should have at least 3 published sources. Not counting the artist's own website. Use the artist's website or even wikipedia to get information on the names of articles written about the artist, the names of artworks, and the names and venues of exhibition. This will help you find actual published sources, even if you use the web to locate them.
-Please include your MLA formatted bibliography as the last page of your presentation
-If you include a source, I will assume you have not only read it, but understand it and I may ask you questions during your presentation so be prepared.
-Do not include phrases or words in your presentation that you do not understand.
-Do not include detailed information about where and when the artist was born, where she went to school, etc. unless it is important to helping your audience understand the work.
-Instead, your presentation should answer specific questions listed below.
-Once you have the answers it is up to you to arrange them in a format that includes an introduction, a body of related information, and an ending statement.
You may choose one of two types of closing statement. Either explain how this artist relates to other contemporary artists in this same genre, *or* explain how this artist's work relates to your own creative work.
1) What is the artist's Genre?
1a) What are the aspects of the artist's work that qualify it as such?
1b) Does this artist also fit into other genres? If so, please describe.
2) What tools and mediums does your artist use?
2a) Give examples of how he uses them.
2b) Describe the artist's process. What is your artist's method for creating the artwork. This could be a technical process or a thought process (conceptual).
2c) Has it changed for different bodies of work over the years?
3) Is there a belief or philosophy that drives your artist's work? Perhaps an over-archring theme?
3a) Please describe, using specific examples of artwork.
4) Choose at lest one piece of the artist's work to decode for us.
4a) Explain what it means in as much detail as possible using visual descriptions of the work.
4b) Are there metaphors in the work?
4c) Why is this piece of work important?
4d) How does it fit in with the artist's overall body of work?
The format can be powerpoint, keynote, PDF, Pinterest, tumblr or whatever works for you. For your presentation style you may choose to read all or parts of your presentation while showing us slides. Or you may include the following information as text in, or in-between, the images and/or videos you show us.
-Keep your presentation short and informative. Edit yourself. Practice. 5 minutes, 10 minutes tops.
You will be graded on the following:
Notes About Your Research process:
Research and presentation creation cannot happen at the same time. Avoid cut and paste plagiarism. (cutting and pasting phrases is plagiarism!) Research and writing should not even happen on the same day.
As you research, take notes, then reflect on those notes. Later, start your presentation from MEMORY. Trust yourself. When it's time to refer to a very specific piece of supporting DATA, then you may refer to your notes or even the original source with a citation.
Typing the artists name into a google search bar and reviewing only the first page of results is BAD RESEARCH. Use articles from JOURNALS in the LIBRARY. Google scholar is an interesting idea, but it still won't let you view the paid journals which we have access to through the library.
If you are using search terms, use good ones. Be more creative than just using the artist's name. Find out what publications have written about them and then find those. If you get stuck, find a real live LIBRARIAN. This is part of the expertise of research librarians.
