1.4 Fine Arts
lanny.wilson
1.4feedbackfor4.5.docxGood afternoon!
I hope that you are beginning to dig into the reading and assignments. It is always challenging at the beginning, and often the process of thinking about art or music involves learning a few new ways of seeing and listening. Getting into critical writing about art and music is often like learning a new form of language. But I can assure you that, having taught this course many times online and in person, you will be able to master it.
I told you that I was going to check in with you RE the major assignment for the course, the presentation for 4.5 -- so here we go.
(1) Pick a MAJOR figure. The instructions for that assignment have you start with picking a "virtual" art museum or performance to visit. You have links for that, but it is unfortunate that the process is split up between weeks 1 and 2. To me, it really makes no sense to have you select a "place" without making sure that the "person" is included in the process. So as you look at a virtual art museum, make sure it includes artworks by an "acceptable" artist from the course's list. And the same goes for an orchestral performance: be sure to pick a composition by someone who is from our list of famous/influential Western musicians. These lists are linked in the 1.4 instructions, but I've added them here for you, as well.
· File: Artists for Museum Presentation.pdf
· File: Composers for Concert Presentation.pdf
(3) Thorough analysis of the Formal Elements is critical for success. I have posted examples of student presentations (4 for art, and 1 partial PPT for music) in the Course Helps folder. It is there in the "Course Menu" list at the bottom. Look at those PPT examples to see how other students have successfully negotiated the slides on the Formal Elements.
The word "thorough" has to do with both Quality and Quantity. The second is pretty easy to chart: you will see that most Element discussions by these students contain about 4-6 bullet points...for each slide. But the first aspect of "thorough" has to do with the Qualitative. When talking about the Elements, please, please, please make the effort to go beyond simple observations. I can see, for example, that a sky is blue or the grass is green. So what you need to do is offer analysis, interpretation, and comparisons that help the audience understand how that blue or green color, or the contrasting smooth and broken/jagged lines, or the compressed foreground-to-background spacing has an affect on the overall impact of a painting. So work hard to "go deep" for EACH of those elements.
(4) The Formal Elements discussion is a personal "RESPONSE" opportunity, not a "research" or "information" section. In the fourth section of your PPT / virtual presentation, you will be asked to offer your OWN observations, analysis, and interpretations of the single work of art or music that you have selected. In this section I primarily am wanting to experience this: to hear from you . There are earlier sections of the presentation (parts 2 and 3) that are primarily historical and biographical. In those places it is appropriate to have research references or *expert* quotes (all in MLA formatting, of course). But in section 4 you have the task of taking apart your art/music with your own observations. If it is absolutely necessary to quote an expert or web resource for these slides, then do so, but just know that I am more interested in what you see or hear.
(5) USE the student examples in the "Course Helps" folder. These are here to help you succeed. Really. And if you use them as examples of how to proceed, you will be on the right track. Think about how often you are given an assignment without clear instructions--much less some examples--of how to proceed. So I have provided examples that will allow you to proceed, and then (hopefully) succeed.
(6) What if you cannot decide between an Artist and a Composer. I get that not everyone is into the art and music we cover in this class. But I'd imagine that you have opinions about what you like in cinema, clothing design, and your phone's playlist. This means you have aesthetic sense, and I can work with that.
Historically, students have normally opted to work with artists 80% of the time, with composer presentations running about 20%. But these numbers have leveled out over this year of Covid. But what I can say is this: writing on music can be pretty challenging if you lack a musical background. I feel that we use our eyes critically every day, however, and I think that the numbers present a culture that is more *intentionally* visual.
I can also say this: visual Art sits and waits for you, while Music is always moving. And, really, if you think about the difference between Object-based and Performance-based creative works, you can see that writing about art allows you to focus on something that is just there--it isn't changing. But music requires you to replay, fast-forward, turn it up, etc. And don't think I am hating on the visual arts. I'm not: I am an art historian, furniture maker, and watercolor painter. But art is what it IS: an object. And this can be easier to work with for many.
FINA-180: Museum Visit Presentation European & American Artists
Renaissance Raphael Titian Albrecht Durer Lucas Cranach (Elder or Younger)
Baroque Caravaggio Diego Velasquez El Greco Peter Paul Rubens Anthony van Dyck Judith Leyster Rembrandt van Rijn Jacob van Ruisdael Jan Vermeer
Rococo & Neoclassicism Antonio Canaletto Antoine Watteau Francois Boucher Jean Simeon Chardin Elisabeth Vigee-Lebrun Thomas Gainsborough William Hogarth Jacques-Louis David
Romanticism John Constable Joseph Mallord William Turner Eugene Delacroix Theodore Gericault Francisco Goya Thomas Cole Frederic Edwin Church
Realism Gustave Courbet Edouard Manet Jean-Francois Millet Honore Daumier Rosa Bonheur Winslow Homer Thomas Eakins
Impressionism Claude Monet Pierre-Auguste Renoir Edgar Degas Mary Cassatt Berthe Morisot
Post-Impressionism Paul Cezanne Georges Seurat Vincent van Gogh Paul Gauguin Henri Rousseau
Modernism / 20th C. Pablo Picasso Georges Braque Henri Matisse Georgia O’Keefe Frida Kahlo Rene Magritte Salvador Dali Roy Lichtenstein Andy Warhol Albert Bierstadt
Composers approved for your Concert Oral Presentation
• Renaissance: Palestrina, Giovanni Gabrieli, • Baroque: Bach, Handel, Vivaldi, • Classical (Neo-classical): Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven • Romantic: Schubert, Chopin, Brahms, Wagner, Mendelssohn, Rossini, Verdi, Puccini, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Dvorak • Impressionist: Ravel, Debussy • 20th 21st Century Experimental (Atonal): Schoenberg, Stravinsky • 20th 21st Century Traditional (Expanded dissonance retaining tonality): Prokofiev, Gershwin, Copland, Bernstein, and John Williams Alphabetized List for Quick Choice:
Bach, Johann Sebastian Beethoven Bernstein Brahms Chopin Copland, Aaron Debussy Dvorak Gabrieli, Giovanni Gershwin Handel, G.F. Haydn Liszt Mahler Mendelssohn Mozart Palestrina Prokofiev Puccini Ravel Rossini Schoenberg Schubert Stravinsky Tchaikovsky Vivaldi Wagne
