ASSIGNMENT INSTRUCTION : ACT LIKE YOU VISITED AN MUSEUM OF YOUR CHOICE , CHOOSE AN ART WORK THAT IS FEATURED IN THE MUSEUM AND USE THAT FOR PART 2 of the assignment.
Part One: Museum or Gallery Analysis
One of the primary skills that will help you enjoy viewing art is the ability to successfully find worthwhile materials to help navigate the museum experience. There is a huge difference between the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York and the Washington County Historical Society in Stillwater, Minnesota, but most places that present art for public view have similarities. By analyzing the experience of your visit, you will learn skills applicable in many settings.
Your museum or gallery analysis should include the following:
Basics: Identify the facility you visited by name and address, including other pertinent details if necessary.
Environment: Describe the physical environment.
Content: Describe the facility’s contents in general terms. Is this a museum with a comprehensive collection, displaying materials from all times and cultures, or is this a gallery specializing, for example, in paintings by contemporary Native American artists?
Object selection: Select the object you will analyze for the second part of this project. Describe how the object is displayed. Are there didactic materials, like title cards, with information to help you learn about the object? If so, what kind of information is provided?
Significant displays: Curators and exhibit designers will often use various tools and devices to guide visitors to look at particular things. If $8 million was spent on a statue, the curators and designers will locate the statue and display it so they are sure visitors will see their treasure. Knowing this, please identify specific exhibitor pieces of art you think this gallery or museum values most. How can you tell? What things have been done to focus your attention on the most significant point?
Facility Web site: Does this gallery or museum have a Web site? Was it a helpful previsit tool? After you have visited, do you find that the Web site provides true and reasonable information about the physical location, the collection, and the experience?
Overall experience: Finally, describe the overall experience. How does a thoughtful, deliberate, and planned visiting experience assist you in seeing what you are supposed to see? How do you imagine using these skills and insights in the next six months?
Part Two: Object Analysis
Books, pictures, and on-screen images are wonderful tools to learn about art, but there is nothing quite like the experience of seeing and studying real art firsthand. It is not only a wonderful opportunity to be able to apply your new skills and knowledge about art and art criticism, but also seeing real works allows you to make more sense out of the material you study in class. Engagement with art is essential in an art history course.
Your object analysis should include the following:
Introduction: Introduce the work and the artist.
Describe the work: It is a good idea to make a list of all the things you observe in the work without making any kind of judgment. This step is a basic description of what you see.
Analyze the work: Pay close attention to the design principles that have been used. How is the composition organized using elements and principles of art? The principles of design or of art are the ways that an artist uses elements of art in his or her work. Artists use such principles as balance, emphasis (or dominance), harmony, movement, pattern, proportion, rhythm, unity, and variety to design their artworks.
Interpret the work: Explain the meaning or mood of the work. What is your personal reaction? How does it make you feel? What did you learn? Base your interpretation on your observations.
Conclusion: Conclude with your judgment of the work. Did the work fulfill its goals? How is it successful? How could it be improved?
PART TWO DISCUSSIONS : ( see attached image for discussion response)
Art Reaction Journal
Discussion Introduction
Chapter 4 in our An Introduction to Art Criticism textbook introduced us to judgment and evaluation. For this discussion, apply what you read to critically analyze a work of art from the medieval world, using some of the language of art analysis.
Here is a review of the four-step process:
Name and describe the facts. Simply identify the objects in the artwork by describing what you see.
Analyze the facts. Using the language of art, describe what elements of the artwork catch your attention. These could be elements such as shapes, lines, colors, or textures.
Interpret the evidence. Based upon what you learned in steps 1 and 2, what do you think the artwork is about? What ideas, moods, emotions, messages, or stories do you think the artwork communicates?
Judge the work of art. Do the objects, elements, and meaning of the artwork achieve the desired result, in comparison with other works of art?