final homework

ART 370

Final assignment/final questions

1. What was Judy Chicago hoping to highlight with The Dinner Table? What did she care about? Why did she choose the materials and form of the work that she did?

2. In class we looked at Cindy Sherman’s series, Untitled Film Stills. Why is the title important to this series? What kind of film stills is Sherman referring the viewer to? Why does she want to connect the idea of film stills to her photographs?

3. Describe Martha Rosler’s Semiotics of the Kitchen (1975). Connect her aesthetic choices to her concerns as a feminist artist.

4. In Untitled (Portrait of Ross in LA), 1991, how does Felix Gonzalez Torres interpret the idea of a “portrait”? What are the visual and material elements of the work? How does he relate the work to his audience in a distinctive way, and what is the effect of that? What is another artwork we’ve looked at in this class that seeks to connect directly with viewers?

5. For either Rose B. Simpson or Paula Wilson (whichever artist you chose), describe the key elements of their work that you learned about in the conversation, or found interesting. What motivates them? What topics and aesthetics interest them?

Artist Rose B. Simpson-- whose work encompasses ceramic sculpture, metalwork, fashion, performance, music, custom cars, and writing—will join us from her home studio in Santa Clara Pueblo, New Mexico, for a conversation with Mitra Abbaspour, Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art. https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/video/curatorial-conversation-rose-b-simpson

Get an overview of Simpson's sculpture here and see her custom 1985 Chevy El Camino "Maria" and the performance here. 

Multimedia artist Paula Wilson uses sculpture, collage, painting, installation, and printmaking to create monumental works and installation environments that narrate her experience as a biracial Black woman. Join the artist, along with Mitra Abbaspour, Haskell Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art, for a conversation about Wilson’s process and its relationship to the artist residencies she cofounded in Carrizozo, New Mexico. https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/video/artist-talk-curatorial-conversation-paula-wilson

See Paula Wilson's large scale installation/collage work here; and see an interview with Wilson here. 

6. Open choice question: Imagine you were telling a friend or family member about a particular theme from this course. What theme would you focus on, and what set of artworks would you use to illuminate theme? Use at least three artists/artworks in your answer.

Choose judy Chicago/Kara Walker/andy Warhol

Finally… reflecting on the course as a whole…. what ideas and artworks that most stand out to you? What kinds of art would you like to learn more about in the future? (not graded)

(choose andy Warhol’s marilyn Monroe)

As always, in each question, I am looking for your thoughtful, engaged, and specific response. I want to know that you are thinking about the complex set of factors at play in any work of art that collectively give it meaning: the artist’s choice of materials, its location and audience, the context in which—and from which—›it was made, and the relationship of ideas and aesthetics of between artworks.