Art Appreciation Assignments

     Final Essay Questions Due on Paper  on June 8th

1.      Distinguish the 3 types of Cubism. Compare and contrast them.
2.      What is the origin of the name “Futurism”, and how does the name relate to the type of art it portrays?
3.        Who were the first practitioners of Fauvism and how did they describe their work? What does the word “Fauve” mean in English?
4.        Where and when was the beginning of Minimalism? Name a well-known Minimalist and describe his/her work.
5.       Compare and contrast Expressionism to Impressionism.
6.       What ideas were the Surrealists trying to convey?
7.       What is the difference between Abstract Expressionism and Surrealism?
8.       What distinguishes Conceptualism from other art forms and what makes it significant?

GROUP PRESENTATION
Things to address in your presentations:

 Focus on ideas that will make your presentation engaging and informative- sell the class on the things about the style you’re representing.

 Map out each person’s responsibilities in your group.

 Make sure to tell us pertinent details about the art style and era you’re representing: what was going on in the world politically, in other areas of the arts and in literature?

 Cite your source material.

 Provide written material to the class- the material you present will be used as a study guide for a final exam, which will be a compilation of the major ideas from the groups’ presentations. Some questions will be based on viewing images of artwork that was presented.

Reading for Art Appreciation: Two Types of Observation

From “How to Look at Art” by Susie Hodge

A method preferred by many art historians is actually two loosely structured approaches used together. One approach is quite objective: you concentrate on a work’s visual and physical aspects, pondering how it was made, its lines, shapes, colors, textures, composition and so on. This is called “Formalism” or formal analysis.

The other approach is slightly more subjective. Known as “Contextualism” or contextual analysis, you judge and interpret works of art in terms of the times and places they were made, the experiences and ideas of the artists, and the works’ purposes and meanings. There is no strict or exact formula for these two approaches, but the following lines of questioning will help you to get started.

Formal Questions

As you are aiming to be objective, avoid using emotive, judgmental words like strange or beautiful. What is the work- a painting, sculpture, building or something else? Does it represent the real world or is it abstract? What is being portrayed? Describe the composition or structure. Use words like line, curve, shape, rhythm or scale. Does it seem planned? What materials and tools have been used? Ae they traditional or “found” materials?

Try to understand some of the artist’s techniques or processes. How big is the work? Describe any lines, using adjectives such as soft, firm, broken, heavy, thin, indistinct or irregular, and shapes using words such as small, large, overlapping, triangular or adjacent.

Is the work bright and colorful, or subdued and dull, for instance? Identify colors or pigments if you can. Are these warm or cool- or a mixture? Are there strong tonal contrasts? Has light been shown, either natural or artificial, and where is is coming from?

What about the surface of the work? Are different textures actually present, or are they illusions? How has the artist used space, and are there open and closed-off areas? Has space been distorted or is perspective used accurately? What effect does this have?

Look for negative and positive use of space: positive space appears as objects; negative space fills the areas in between. Is the amount of negative and positive space balanced, or not? IS there a strong foreground or background?

What other elements can you see in this composition? What about movement? Has this been portrayed, or does the work actually move? How have these effects been achieved?

Contextual Questions

Look at the artwork’s label. Note their title and dates, and the artist’s name and dates. When was the work made and where? Who was it made for? What can you find out about the artist? When and where was he or she born? Is the work part of an art movement? If so, which one, and does it correspond with that movements ideals? What do you think the artist was trying to say? What’s the work about? Does it convey a story or a message? Are there symbolic or underlying meanings? How has the artist portrayed this? How does this work relate to traditional art themes such as religion, history, portraiture or landscape? Can you link the work to other parts of the period such as film, fashion, music or literature, for example?

What about contemporary developments in science, philosophy, geography or ecology? How do people view the work today- is this different from the opinion people had of it when it was made? If you lived in that time, in that place, why might you have made this work? What might you have done differently? Does the work evoke a mood or atmosphere? What is this and why has it been portrayed? What evidence supports your interpretation? How original or innovative is the work for the time it was made? How does this work make you feel? Uncomfortable? Uplifted? Happy? Reflective? Do you think the artist was deliberately trying to provoke viewers’ responses and, if so, why and how?