15 Jan For your first journal

ART105 Introduction to Visual Art

Journal: “What Qualities Make For A Good Work Of Art?”

Journal assignments are designed to facilitate critical thinking about issues related to art.

1. Carefully consider your own, personal definition of “good” art. Then, locate a work of art that you believe constitutes “good” visual art and illustrates your ideas. There are no limitations regarding what type of visual art you can select–for example, you may use an advertising image, a work of fine art, an album cover, etc. The image may be the work of either a known or an unknown artist. Any visual medium (painting, sculpture, photography, architecture, fashion design, etc.) is acceptable.

2. Write a one page journal response addressing the following: What qualities make for a good work of art? What makes your chosen artwork “good?” Bear in mind that explaining “what is good” is not the same thing as explaining “what I like,” and your answers need to contain a deeper level of reflection. Avoid responses such as “Good art is a matter of opinion and is in the eye of the beholder.”

Grades will be determined based on the depth and thoughtfulness of your response.

Requirements: Your journal entry should be a minimum of 300 words long. Include your image in digital format in your journal response. Your writing must be proofread for errors and spell checked. Students who have obviously not proofread and/or spell checked their entries or have not followed the above instructions will lose points.

How to hand-in your work:

Click the “Journal Response: What Qualities Make For A Good Work Of Art?” link above. Type your name in the “Comments” field and attach your work as a Word document file. (Be sure the file name contains your last name as part of it.) If you do not have Microsoft Word, you may copy and paste your work into the “Comments” box. Click “Submit” to hand in your work.

ART105 Introduction to Visual Art

Journal: Mini Compare/Contrast Formal Analysis

A Formal Analysis (also called a visual or stylistic analysis) is a description of a work of art’s visual elements and an analysis of how they convey meaning to the viewer. Reread the Compare + Contrast example on p. 15 of your text (Chapter 1) for an example of a short compare/contrast formal analysis.

Next, compare and contrast Jacob Lawrence’s Harriet Tubman Series no. 4 with Vincent Van Gogh’s Sunflowers . In both works, color, whether clashes of red and yellow or blends of blues and violets, is central in communicating ambience. What feelings or messages are conveyed by the choice of color palette? For example, do you find one painting soothing and the other irritating? What do the palette choices suggest about the moods conveyed in the paintings? How do the artists also use texture, shape, space, and other visual elements to underscore the effects of color on the viewer?

Requirements: Your journal entry should be a minimum of 300 words long. Journal responses must be proofread for errors and spell checked. Students who have obviously not proofread and/or spell checked their entries or have not followed the above instructions will lose points.

How to hand in your work: When saving your work, be sure to incorporate your last name into the file name. Next, click the “Journal: Compare/Contrast Formal Analysis” link above. Type in your name in the “Comments” text box and attach your work as a Word document file. If you do not have Microsoft Word, copy and paste your work into the “Comments” box. Click “Submit” to hand in your work.

ART105 Introduction to Visual Art

Journal: Comparing and Contrasting Woodcuts

Albrecht Dürer, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1498 Emil Nolde, Prophet, 1912

Compare and contrast Albrecht Dürer, The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, 1498, with Emil Nolde, Prophet, 1912. Both images are woodcuts, and both images are famous and powerful prints, but they “work” for entirely different reasons.

1. First, explain how the woodcut process works—in your own words.

2. Second, compare and contrast the two prints. What feelings or emotions are conveyed by the two images? How do the artists’ choices in technique, style, and composition affect the impact on the viewer?

Requirements: Your journal entry should be a minimum of 300 words long. Journal responses must be proofread for errors and spell checked. Students who have obviously not proofread and/or spell checked their entries or have not followed the above instructions will lose points.

How to hand in your work:

Click the ” Assignment: Journal: Comparing and Contrasting Woodcuts” link above. Type your name in the “Comments” text box and attach your work as a Word document file. If you do not have Microsoft Word, copy and paste your work into the “Comments” box. Click “Submit” to hand in your work.

ART105 Introduction to Visual Art

Journal: Shirin Neshat — Photographer, Video Artist, Filmmaker

First, use the index to look up and read the passages on Shirin Neshat in your textbook (pg. 161-2) Then watch the documentary video Shirin Neshat: Expressing the Inexpressible. Keep the following questions in mind as you take notes on the film: What concepts does Shirin Neshat deal with in her work? What benefits does working in video, film, and non-traditional photography (i.e. painting on photographs) give her as an artist? How do these media allow her to express her ideas in a way that traditional mediums like drawing, painting, printmaking, or sculpture would not? Finally, how would the experience of viewing Shirin Neshat’s video and film installations in a museum context be fundamentally different than viewing her work in this video?

To view the video, click on the link below these instructions.

Requirements: Your journal entry should be a minimum of 300 words long. Journal responses must be proofread for errors and spell checked. Students who have obviously not proofread and/or spell checked their entries or have not followed the above instructions will lose points

How to hand in your work:

Be sure you have saved your work with a file name that includes your last name. Then, click the ” Assignment: Journal: Shirin Neshat — Photographer, Video Artist, Filmmaker” link above. Type in your name in the “Comments” text box and attach your work as a Word document file. If you do not have Microsoft Word, you may copy and paste your work into the “Comments” box. Click “Submit” to hand in your work.

ART105 Introduction to Visual Art

Journal: Site-Specific Art Proposal

According to your textbook (pg. 193), four different types of site-specific art are: land art, ephemeral art, public art, and monuments or memorials. However, these terms are by no means mutually exclusive. A single artwork can fit more than one of these categories simultaneously.

Instructions: Create a proposal for your own site-specific artwork that fits a minimum of three of the four site-specific categories listed above. You do not need to draw or build your project, so dream big. What you do need to do is explain your piece in detail (in both form and meaning), title your piece, and explain how your piece is site specific and fits three of the four categories.

As always, your journal entry should be a minimum of 300 words long. Journal responses must be proofread for errors and spell checked. Students who have obviously not proofread and/or spell checked their entries or have not followed the above instructions will lose points.

Example: Take as an example Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, 1969-70 (pictured in page 194 of your textbook), which can be seen to fit all four categories. (Remember, however, that you will be inventing your own piece, not finding one in the textbook!)

Smithson was inspired to create Spiral Jetty as he was scouting out the Great Salt Lake in Utah for possible land art locations. He discovered a site littered with abandoned equipment left behind by a mining company. Apparently, the mining company had tried to extract tar and oil from the site, but had left their equipment behind when the attempt failed. Smithson saw the site as evidence of nature’s enduring power; he believed that despite whatever harm humans may inflict upon nature, nature will reclaim itself in the end, outliving humankind. Thus, Spiral Jetty was meant to be a monument to nature.

Smithson wanted Spiral Jetty to relate to its site in both its form and its function. Therefore, he researched the site before determining the shape the jetty would take. He learned of a local Native American legend stating that an underground tunnel or vent ran from the Great Salt Lake to the Pacific Ocean, creating a whirlpool in the middle of the lake. He also wanted to relate the high salt concentration in the Great Salt Like to the concept that salt molecules are spiral-like in nature. Thus, the shape of the jetty was determined the characteristics of the site itself, reinforcing its site-specificity. Clearly, a spiral jetty would not work anywhere else but in the Great Salt Lake.

Spiral Jetty was constructed out of local dirt and rocks moved into position via bulldozers and earthmoving equipment. Since its original inception, its mediums have expanded to include pink bacterial forms growing on the jetty and the accumulation of white salt crystals. Because it is made out of the natural environment, it is clearly distinguished as a work of land art.

When Spiral Jetty was created, Utah was in the midst of a drought. Subsequently, when rain levels rose to normal several years later, Spiral Jetty was completely submerged. Much of the time, Spiral Jetty is now completely under water, but during drought conditions, the jetty returns to view. Eventually, however, Spiral Jetty will completely erode, and thus is temporary or ephemeral in nature (although much ephemeral art is meant to have a much shorter lifespan than Spiral Jetty). This is apt, as the piece is meant to speak to nature’s power to reclaim itself despite human intervention in the landscape.

Finally, although the piece is in a remote location “maintained” by the Dia Art Foundation, it is meant to be visited by all those who wish to make the pilgrimage. It is not in the collection of a single collector, museum, or gallery, but is mean to be owned by “the public.” The piece is thus also a work of public art.

How to hand in your work:

Click the ” Journal: Site-Specific Art Proposal” link above. Type your name in the “Comments” text box and attach your work as a Word document file. (Remember to save your work with your last name in the file name.) If you do not have Microsoft Word, copy and paste your work into the “Comments” box. Click “Submit” to hand in your journal assignment.

ART105 Introduction to Visual Art

Journal: Good Art Revisited

Journal assignments are designed to facilitate critical thinking about issues related to art.

For your first journal assignment at the beginning of the semester (Module 2), you were asked to consider the following question:

What qualities make for a good work of art?

For your final journal assignment, revisit your original answer. Have any of your ideas changed as a result of this course? Have your definitions of “good” art narrowed or expanded? If so, in what ways? Refer to specific artworks you have learned about this semester in your answer.

Requirements: Your journal entry should be a minimum of 300 words long. Include your image in digital format in your journal response. Your writing must be proofread for errors and spell checked. Students who have obviously not proofread and/or spell checked their entries or have not followed the above instructions will lose points.

How to hand-in your work: Click the “Good Art Revisited” link above. Type your name in the “Comments” field and attach your work as a Word document file. (Be sure the file name contains your last name as part of it.) If you do not have Microsoft Word, you may copy and paste your work into the “Comments” box. Click “Submit” to hand in your work.