Write an 1000-1500 words on ONE of the following two questions:
- To what degree does the “spiritual” manifest in both the visual arts and poetry, and in what sense, or senses, does it evidence in different ways in the two media? In formulating your answer, make sure you make reference not only to various class materials and presentations, but the specific writing of Kandinsky on the “spiritual in art” and also Wallace Stevens, when appropriate.
- Choose either the modern visual arts (including the movies watched) or the poetry we have studied (including in class), and answer the following question: how do the different materials and structural components (e.g., in painting line and color or in poetry rhythm, word selection, sound, and meter) function to create certain effects that communicate powerfully with the viewer/listener? Do not generalize, but analyze certain key painters/poet carefully and discuss their style or methods in such a way as to communicate what these “effects” are, and how they are produced.