Dear students,
Once again, welcome to ART 188 Renaissance to Contemporary. This is your first written assignment for the class: remember that written assignments account for 20% of your total grade and are fundamental in honing your writing capabilities. There will be different types of written assignments, not every week since that would be overwhelming for you and for me. Here, I am giving you two prompts to choose from in this assignment: what I want you to do is choose one of them and write about that. Please do not choose both of them. The total word count is between 300 and 500 words. No more and no less. I will grade down if this criterion is not respected. Make sure you write formally, or since we are in a university context, academically. Please do not write as if you were writing to a family member, partner or friend. You must learn how to craft a formal writing style since that will be paramount in the workforce. You must insert the image of the artwork you selected; this is art history after all and we are specialising in visual culture so I need to know what you are talking about. Not only you must insert the image of the piece you chose, but you must also write the appropriate caption, meaning the description of the artwork. How to write a caption? Name of artist, the title of the artwork (italics!), year of completion, medium (what material was used for the artwork? Stone? Clay? Oil paint?), dimensions (how big or small is it?), which cultural institution has the artefact (if there is one, it can also be a part of a private collection, not viewable to the public) and the provenance, which means how the artwork was acquired by the cultural institution exhibiting it (was it an acquisition? Inheritance? Bequest? Donation?). I am highlighting this and putting it in bold because it is very important that we all properly identify the artwork. Be aware that not all of this information is known; if that is the case you can write for example “artist unknown” or just don’t write anything. It is paramount, however, that you attempt to discover as much information as possible. Here is an example of a correctly written caption:
François Malépart de Beaucourt, Portrait of a Negro Slave, or The Negress (1786), Oil on Canvas, 72.7 x 58.5 cm, McCord Museum, Montreal, Canada, Gift of Mr David Ross McCord.
You do not need to write footnotes, nor identify the sources you use, however, remember that academic dishonesty (for example, plagiarism or copying a classmate’s work) is strictly forbidden and if caught you could get in serious trouble. Please refer to Miami University’s policy on Academic Integrity in the syllabus or on their website. The Turnitin software is installed on the Canvas website and it automatically detects any copy-pasting. You can quote, but keep it to a minimum since you don’t have a high word count. Here are the two prompts from which to choose:
In class this week we talked about artworks considered controversial, and in some cases being “cancelled” or even destroyed. Artworks can cover a variety of different subjects, and some of these subjects can be sensitive topics, these include but are not limited to race, religion, politics, climate change, sexual violence or even the perceived identity of the artist can be considered problematic. I would like you to choose an artwork that caused and still might be causing, a stir and “deconstruct” the pros and cons. Please spend a few sentences describing what it actually is and the context in which it was exhibited and produced so I understand what you are talking about. What I am mainly interested in is that you understand the arguments for and against it. I would like you to see the different facets of the discussion around the piece you chose. Obviously, you can agree or disagree with them, and you can state it if you want (you are not obliged to put your opinion), but I do want to make sure you understand what the issue/s was/were and what were the rebukes to that/them.
The second prompt is a bit more personal: most of us have one or more objects that are important to us. That is because they have a sentimental value more than a monetary one. For example: in my family, back in Italy, we have a painting depicting my late paternal great-grandmother Aline, who was originally Egyptian. It is a portrait of her in which she wears a fur coat (that my mother inherited). In those days, even though photography already existed, it was not as ubiquitous as it is today, therefore painting portraits was popular. I doubt that painting could be sold for much money, however, it has a high sentimental value since it depicts an ancestor of mine and is a treasured artwork for my family. I would like you to pick an object (can be anything!) that has a high sentimental value to you. Please make sure you deconstruct it; therefore, you adequately describe it so I can understand what you are talking about and then try to trace where it comes from and why it is valued so much. Share only what you are comfortable with sharing, it is your call!
