MUSEUM OBJECT WRITING ASSIGNMENT  

Please consult the website for directions to the High Museum and information about their hours of operation, parking, etc. http://www.high.org/

The purpose of this assignment is to closely examine and analyze a number of works of art, at least one of which must be seen on the trip to France or  in the High Museum of Art or elsewhere in Atlanta, and to analyze and discuss them in terms of the phased writing assignment, following these guidelines:

1) CHOOSE THE WORK OF ART FROM AMONG THE LISTED CHOICES/CATEGORIES in the Writing Guidelines

Provide an image of the work, properly captioned, as part of your submission,

2) PROCEDURES TO WRITE YOUR PAPER

A) Select your works and begin gathering thoughts and information about them by browsing through the works you find online and identify with one of the France sites or Atlanta sites. You have an very wide range of choices.  Pick something you like or that interests you in some way.  The works you select will become the backbone of your Term Project, so they must all be related to one another, to the theme of your project.  Note that some of the websites are in French, so if you do not read the language, be careful to select things for which you will be able to gather research materials.

For the work that must be done in the Museum/onsite, select several alternative choices, so that you can be sure that there is a work to analyze that is on display in the museum at the time of your visit.  You need to stay flexible, as the museum may make changes at any time.

B) for the preliminary works, before the France trip, you should work from whatever images you can find, but make sure they are adequate views and complete, not cropped or distorted.  They should have have complete caption and description information, including location, and source of your image. If the works are 3-dimensional, get as many views as necessary to have as complete a comprehension as possible.

For the actual object, that you will see while you area at the Museum, in front of the object, write about it in response to Parts I and II of the Museum Object Writing Assignment.   Be very thorough and very careful to distinguish among the separate phases of the analysis.

             LABEL EACH OF THE PHASES AS THEY ARE LABELED BELOW

I. DESCRIPTION: Give a general, overall description first, then address the particulars in a systematic, organized fashion. "What do I see?" (Relate to the idea of "pure seeing," the simple physical act of taking in visual sensations.  While it is, of course, impossible to divorce the act of seeing from cognition processes, you should suspend judgment and other thought processes as much as possible. Seek to divorce the mental and emotional responses from physical recognition, for a time.) Try to describe the work as though you were trying to convey a visual image of it to potential viewers who could not see it themselves.

  • A. Make an objective list of what you see in the work and only what you see -- no interpretation of what it means. Give only facts, and make no suppositions or guesses. Once you have organized and prioritized your list, write in essay format.
  • B. Note or guess the size of the work, the medium (media) in which it was created. (Height, width, depth (if applicable) in inches, feet, centimeters.)

    • II. ANALYSIS: "How is the work organized and achieved?"

  • A. How has the artist used the formal elements at his disposal? Use the vocabulary/terminology that we covered in the introductory part of our course, from text, website material, PPT videos.  What has been done with line, color, shape/form, value? Has the artist created an illusion of space? How? Is there an emphasis on texture? Is it implied or actual? Etc., etc., etc. (You might review the guide for this at http://www.westga.edu/~rtekippe/2201/form%20vocab1.htm )
  • B. How are the elements of design used? How is the composition laid out? Is there a sense of rhythm or movement? Balance? Proportion? Variety or unity? Emphasis or focus? How were these effects achieved, in specific terms.
  • Consider what role the media and materials play in the work.
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    III. INTERPRETATION:  What did the artist mean to convey? "What was the artist trying to say here?" "What is happening in this work of art?"

  • A. Try to explain what the artist seems to have meant to say in the work. Is it narrative – telling a story? Does there seem to be a viewpoint taken? Does the artist seem to endorse the activity or make a statement in opposition? If it is non-narrative, is the work about observation of the material world or perhaps about the formal elements of art? Obviously, you must make some guesses here. Does the title influence your assessment? Is there a wall card which explains any part of it? If so, be sure to give credit to that.
  • B. Do not be afraid to make an interpretation which might differ from that of someone else. Your response can only come from you. Your interpretation will be affected by what you have seen and done and thought and learned in your life. However, you should be sure that your interpretation is based on facts and clues you gathered in the first two steps of the exercise. Back up your statement with what you have gleaned from careful observation. This helps you to learn what particular aspects of the work led to your own responses and feelings about the work.
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    IV. JUDGMENT: "What do I think of the work?" "How do I respond to it, personally?"

  • A. To formulate a credible judgment, you will need to be honest with yourself, and to critically evaluate your own feelings and the reasons why they emerge in response to the work of art. For example, if the work is of the Nativity of Christ, whether or not you endorse Christianity will color your response.
  • B. Evaluate (only if appropriate to your choice of work) these three theories for judgment which are used by art critics:
  • 1. Imitationalism: It may be important that the work of art imitates what we see in real life, in some manner. This is not necessarily a slavish copying of an exterior visual appearance, but may, rather, include the responses which one might have to a given visual experience. For example, the reddish glow of a sunset cast over a landscape may not seem entirely naturalistic, but may have a strong emotional appeal to you, or not.
  • 2. Formalism: The work might seem successful because of careful or innovative use of formal elements or design principles – in ways which elicit your strong response. Such treatment by the artist may or may not be made in relationship to a narrative basis for the work. For example, the exaggeration and change of compositional emphasis which Giotto used in the rendition of The Lamentation.
  • 3. Emotionalism: The work may derive its impact primarily from the visceral, emotional, reaction of the viewer, in what may be a communication of narrative content, or may rely entirely upon the effects of more or less pure formal elements. See  The Crucifixion, by Matthias Grünewald versus Current by Bridget Riley.
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  • C. You might apply one or two of these theories of judgment to a greater extent than the others, but it is necessary to consider the work in light of all three, even though you do not necessarily respond in writing to all three. Then you will be able to discover the most possible information about the work and your responses to it.
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    Format: 3 minimum-5 maximum pages (1250 -2000 words). Your essay must be typed, double-spaced , 11-12 point type, standard font (not all script). Test should be aligned flush left, NOT justified.  Put your name at the top of each page and supply page numbers.

    Grading: Your essay will be evaluated for the use of terms and concepts that are part of the course, your attention to relevance, detail  and completeness in your description, and your synthesis of the description, analysis, and significance as they relate to one another in the work.  Please be concise.  You will also be evaluated for the quality of your writing and your attention to details of grammar, syntax, spelling, and overall organization of the essay.   Make sure that you edit and proofread your essay before you turn it in -- do not give me your first draft, rather, you should submit the most polished work you can. 

    For citation issues, please consult this link on the UWG Library website: http://libguides.westga.edu/content.php?pid=10699&sid=71596.  There is a pretty-good guide to grammar usage at http://grammar.ccc.commnet.edu/grammar/index2.htm , although I have a couple of differences of opinion with it, but it will be useful to for most grammar questions.  

     
    Directions for submitting your work as an attachment through CourseDen:   If you have technical difficulties with the submission process, call CourseDen Helpdesk at 678-839-6248. Prepare the document in your word processing program (MSWord ONLY), then import it into the CourseDen assignment submission site. At the CourseDenVista assignment submission site, find the ADD ATTACHMENTS button and click on it. Then click on UPLOAD FILE, then BROWSE; This will take you to your computer, where you will need to locate the file you saved there. When you find the file on your computer, select it, and click on SAVE. Its title should appear in the Window, with a checkbox next to it. Click on the checkbox, then click on ADD SELECTED and then click SUBMIT. (Make sure you click on both ADD SELECTED and SUBMIT). You will see the title of your file there as a confirmation that you have submitted it.