INSTRUCTIONS
Visit the museum and observe the artwork in person. Take a selfie with the work of art. Be sure to take notes on your work of art. You will need to know the name of the work, the name of the artist, the date created, the medium and the dimensions. In addition, you should note your personal observations about the work. You should make notes about color, composition, line, texture, content, iconography, the movement the work is a part of (Etruscan, Gothic, etc.) and anything else you may deem interesting or important. ***(feel free to make your own observations)
WRITE YOUR PAPER
Once you’ve observed your artwork in person and taken notes on your observations, you will write your paper. It must be a minimum of 3 pages. This is a research paper. Your research and observations should be illuminated by the class lectures and readings as well as outside sources (Internet sites, scholarly journals, books, etc.) Remember to properly credit your sources.
A typical paper will spend the first part giving background about the artist and the style/movement to which your selected artwork belongs (ie. Islamic art). In the next part of your paper you will describe your artwork from the museum in detail using at least 5 vocabulary terms learned in class (ie. sculpture in the round, complementary colors, etc.). You will first describe the form and then address the content (iconography, narrative, etc.). You may also want to talk about the artwork’s significance – how it may be a political statement or shows an innovative style, for example.
In the rest of the paper you will compare/contrast the artwork to an artwork that has been discussed in our class (either in my Lectures or in the textbook). You should select a work of art that is more similar than different (in terms of similar time period and/or similar iconography). You will discuss how the works are similar and then how they are different, mentioning at least 3 ways they are the same and 3 ways they are different. You should write at least one page for this comparison (five paragraphs). Remember, the best comparisons have more similarities than differences.