Throughout our study of Modern Art in the first half of the 20th century, several themes seem to repeatedly arise. These themes are: 1) Use of primitivism in various art movements; 2) Exploration of Freud's psychoanalytic theories; 3) The changing role of art and the influence of mass culture (i.e., art as commodity, links to commodity culture or mass production of art products) and 4) A new form of realism in response to political and social events occurring in the early 20th century (i.e. new ways of expressing real experiences, different from Courbet's realism). ?For your final project you will be reexamining these four themes and searching for images that reflect each of them. Choose two images for each theme and construct a portfolio (written and visual) that explains their importance and determines their impact on 20th century art. ?Since this is an online course utilize web sources, such as museum websites as well as your own research. You will want to choose works of art other than those from FADIS and different from those you have used in previous assignments.
Your portfolio should consist of images and a written assessment done in outline form (as opposed to formal essay). Instructions for this portfolio are as follows: ?Portfolio instructions
• Consider each chosen theme individually, but if you can find commonalities between themes, include information to this end.
• Choose two artistic examples for each theme. Assess these examples based on the following criteria and include the information specified:
1. Name of artwork, artist, year, style or movement.
2. Short assessment of the work: describe the work in terms of its style and subject (for example, if it is a surrealist work, describe the composition and its subject and what make it Surreal - 1-2 sentences).
3. Analysis of the work in terms of the theme to which is corresponds. For this section, answer the question: How does this work of art reflect the theme to which it corresponds (for example: if it is a work with Primitivist tendencies, how is this shown in the composition and/or the subject?)? Your assessment of these examples should be detailed enough to substantiate your analysis (1-2 paragraphs).
4. Conclude your portfolio with an evaluation of the impact of these themes on the art of the latter half the 20th century and into the 21st. This is your opinion, based on your newly acquired knowledge of Modern art. While an essential part of your portfolio this section should be a short essay (one or two paragraphs, final page of portfolio).