ART HISTORY ESSAY

ARTH 204: Introduction to Modern Art and Visual Culture, 1860-1945

Essay Guidelines:

• Stapled, hard copies required. No late exams.

• You must properly cite all sources using the Chicago Manual of Style. Limit your citations to the assigned course Readings or other academic resources.

• Woodbury University policy clearly states that plagiarism is strictly prohibited.

Turn in your assignment on March 18, 2019 in lecture. Essays should be between 1,200 and 1,400 words. Please choose one of the following questions to answer.

You are encouraged to include images in your essay. Whenever you describe a work of art at any length, as you begin, ideally your reader should be able to see a reproduction of it (you choose the size) on the same page as your description (do this just once; no need to reiterate). Place a caption (in 12-point font) below the image stating the artist’s surname (only), the title of the work (in italics), and its date.

Paul Gauguin, The Vision after the Sermon, 1888

In general, your writing should follow these three principles:

(i) Place each work firmly within its social and historical context.

(ii) Drawing on your own observations, describe the way each image is constructed.

(iii) Relate your discussion to the relevant Readings and/or Lecture presentations. When you refer to a particular Reading, in a footnote write out the author’s name, the title of their chapter or article, and publication details (see the bottom of this page) – and to indicate your familiarity with the text, in the same footnote briefly summarize their argument.[footnoteRef:1] [1: See Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), 108. Grigsby’s account emphasizes the prevalnece of homophobia among the troops occupying Egypt.]

Essay Questions

2.

The late nineteenth century was a time of rapid transformation for Western Europe. Urbanization swelled cities like Paris or Berlin into booming metropolises while the countryside became an almost mythical retreat for Nature, or what people imagined Nature to be. In the cities, technological progress improved people’s lives while often alienating them from their work or from each other.

Analyze the reaction to ‘modern’ life as seen in two different painters of the period. Look at how their work reflects upon those developments while paying close attention to their style and how it may serve to embrace, reject, problematize or glorify modernity and its features. Contrast each painter’s reaction and use this juxtaposition as a springboard for a discussion of the larger context of society and politics at the time, as well as their own biography.

Please choose your own way to discuss the issue of critical negation in relation to the formation of modern art. Develop your own argument, providing a thorough visual analysis of three to five artworks. Engage critically with relevant course themes, and engage in some detail with at least three of the course Readings.

Midterm Paper Formatting Guidelines – Chicago Manual of Style

1. Heading: The heading goes in the upper right corner of the first page of your exam and should look like this:

Your Name

ARTH 204 – Midterm Exam

Spring 2019

Date

2. Formatting:

12-point font for the main text, footnotes and illustration captions

Times New Roman

1” page margins

Insert page number at the top right corner of each page

Heading is single-spaced, the entire body is DOUBLE SPACED

Need help?

Chicago Manual Style: http://www.docstyles.com/ctslite.htm

3.  When you cite a book or article in your essay…

You must always specify your exact source by means of a footnote placed at the bottom of the page. The footnote should be formatted like the example below & at the bottom of this page.

Example: Part of the difficulty in representing Mameluke figures in painting was that Mameluke society was ethnically so diverse. As Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby has pointed out, “Mamelukes came from throughout Eurasia and Africa and spoke many languages, among them, Arabic, Armenian, Greek, Turkish, Flemish, Italian, German, and French.”[footnoteRef:2] [2: Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), 108.]

Footnote (at the bottom of the page, 12-pt font):

Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby, Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002), 108.

4. When you cite a work of art in your essay….

You must always specify exactly which work you are referring to by means of a footnote placed at the bottom of the page. In art history, referencing particular works of art normally includes the artist’s full name, the title of the work, the date, the medium and the location –

Jacques-Louis David, The Oath of the Horatii, 1785, oil on canvas, Paris, Louvre

5. Bibliography: You are not required to supplement your essay with a Bibliography.