Assignment
Requirement
Discuss an artist called Jim Dineand the present and write a critical essay on a few selections (3-4 works) of his or her work. Your research and your paper topic will examine the artist's contributions to or participation within a particular style or a movement in art history.All papers will include a Works Consulted (Bibliography) page and cite sources within the paper. This will be a formal paper that includes a bibliography and illustrations on pages separate from the 8 pages of text.
l. Focus on the images. Devote at least 70% of your paper to discussing the photographs and their meaning. The paper will provide in depth analysis about 1, 2 or 3 works of art by the artist you have selected. You will provide detailed visual analysis, you will discuss the style, the subject matter, and interpretations of the art. Your thesis will argue something about the main characteristics of the art and how those main characteristics relate to important historical themes illustrated in primary and secondary sources; will contextualize the material; and will connect diverse artistic and social history to knowledge of political, social and cultural conditions. You will describe the art thoroughly - how it was made, the materials, the subject matter and content, the interpretation. Use your visual analysis skills:
Critical visual analysis skills: Describe the formal elements of visual design (line, color, light, composition, form); use the formal elements as tools to describe the visual field under study. Articulate comparisons of the art with previous art. Debate the means through which stylistic treatment coheres with subject matter. Analyze the emotional and intellectual responses from the work of art. Synthesize historical information that will contribute to understanding the social context for the art work. Question previous historical narratives and the interests that drive them. Organize a thesis - an argument - about the work of art; and write a visual analysis of the art.
2. Contextualize the images. Situate your topic in a historical or biographical context, or in a theoretical framework.
3. Thesis format. State a thesis in your introduction and pull your discussion together in a conclusion.
4. Sources: Make certain there are enough resources (10 references required) available on your topic before you commit to it (2-4 book sources on the artist and/or the art movement are required). Strive to find primary sources, including original prints, correspondence, writing from the period. Use only scholarly website sources (Wikipedia is NOT a scholarly website source as the information might be inaccurate - anyone can edit and add undocumented information to a Wikipedia site). Use the library databases to find peer reviewed, scholarly journal articles.
Using the APA, MLA or CMS format.