Assignment: "Virtual Museum Visit"

Introduction to Modern Art

Virtual Museum Visit

This week, answer all three of the questions below. You should reference your book as well as online materials for the answers to these questions (remember to cite outside resources). Your answers should be in essay format, be a minimum of three-five sentences each, and include at least three glossary terms per question.

1. Visit the Google Art Project: http://www.museothyssen.org/en/thyssen/zoom_obra/1062. Look at Hotel Room, a painting by Edward Hopper in the Museo Thyssen-Bornemisza.

o Describe in formal terms how the strong verticals and horizontals securely hold the parts of the painting together. What does the diagonal of the bed provide? Now move close and examine the paint work. How do the near-architectural elements fit with the lush paint?

2. Re-Read the article in this week chapter Art and Society, "Degenerate Art," AND go online and watch the video "Art in Nazi Germany," at SmartHistory

(LINK:http://smarthistory.khanacademy.org/national-socialist-nazi-art.html?searched=degenerate&highlight=ajaxSearch_highlight+ajaxSearch_highlight1)

After reading the article in the book and watching the online video, and based on your understanding of the threat that ideas generated by the arts can have to repressive governments, what are your thoughts on something like this happening in the United States? Do you think in our current information-saturated culture that the arts still have the ability to sway popular opinion?

3. Identify and Detail:

• Who is the artist?
• Which movement does this represent and why?
• What is the subject of this work?