Arts 1301

ARTS1301 – Art Appreciation – Richland College

Online Virtual Museum Assignment Overview

Assignment Description:

The online virtual museum assignment forms a major component of this Art Appreciation course. In this assignment you will visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art website and select 1 (one) work of art from the collection. Based on that selection, you will complete the Art Inquiry worksheet which will help form the basis of your short-written summary of that work. You will receive a total of four grades, three assignment and the final is a project grade:

· Completed Art Criticism worksheet

· Image / Photo of work of art

· Oxford Art Online research article

· Final typed paper

Step 1 – Search for a work of art

Follow the below steps to locate your work of art.

Start by going to: Metropolitan Museum of Art Collections [https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection]

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, founded 1870 is one of the oldest art museums in America and contains 2.2 million works of art exhibited over 2 million square feet of gallery space in New York City. From the search box you can enter a name of an artist, keyword, subject or even keywords. For this example, let’s search for Pablo Picasso by entering the artist name and clicking the search button.

Example Searches:

Artist Names: Pablo Picasso, Vincent Van Gogh, Mary Cassatt

Keywords: dogs, beauty, families, still life, portrait, war, love

Medium/Materials: oil on canvas, ceramic, wood, glass, watercolor

Movement: Impressionism, Modernism, Pop Art

Time Period/Regions: Ancient, Modern, Eastern Art, Western Art

This search shows 676 works of art by the artist Pablo Picasso. From here you can scroll through the works of art and even use the additional filters to narrow your search further. Picasso’s painting The Actor was thus painted in 1904-05. Try clicking on individual works of art to view additional object information.

On the left you will find the name of the artwork, the year it was created and in some cases a short descriptive text about the selected work. If the work is currently on view in the museum you will see a link to a map below. On the right, high quality digital images of the artwork can be found.

Whether you’re visiting a museum online or in person, you will want to familiarize yourself with the “Object Details” – which looks similar to a food nutritional label. Use this information to fill out section one of the Art Inquiry worksheet. Click on the + sign to expand the data.

Step 2 – Select a work of art

Select a work of art that reflects an interest of yours (a hobby, animals, religion, sport, etc.) or a favorite artist, or an artist who appears in your textbook. You might consider selecting a work of art created by an artist who also appears in your textbook. Your instructor can guide and assist you in the selection of a work art.

Step 3 – Download photo of work of art

Once you have chosen your work of art make sure you download a .jpeg image of that work. You will submit the photograph in eCampus (worth 100 points). Some students insert or include the image in the final paper.

Step 4 – Search Oxford Art Online

In this step you will locate a biographical sketch of your artist in the Oxford Art Online database. For specific step by step instructions on this component, please refer to the Oxford Art Online assignment posted in the handouts section.

Step 5 – Completed Art Analysis/Inquiry Worksheets

To obtain copies of these worksheets, please refer to the handout section in the Virtual Museum Assignment folder in eCampus. You will use the guided questions to help you analyze and write about the work of art you selected

Step 6 – Final Essay Paper

The final typed paper should be a minimum of 2 to 3 pages in length. This is an essay so it should be constructed in the following manner:

1. Introduce your artwork and the artist. Summarize the biographical information you gathered in your Oxford Art Online search or your Living with Art eBook.

2. Use the completed Art Inquiry worksheet to construct at least one paragraph for each section of the four steps of art criticism: (description, interpretation, analysis and judgment). Summarize the information you gathered on the Art Analysis/Inquiry Worksheet in complete sentences (DO NOT LIST THE ITEMS – Summarize!)

3. Finalize your essay with a summary of what you discovered in your research. Consider the following points:

· Were you familiar with this artist or not?

· How did the Oxford Art search inform and enhance your understanding of the artist – what was the most interesting thing(s) you discovered about this artist?

· How did employing the methodology of the art inquiry process inform and enhance your understanding of the formal issues of the art work?

· Was the initial interest in the subject matter or artist enhanced by this process of inquiry giving you a better understanding of the creative process, compositional elements, and historical context – this could be a yes or no - and explain why.

· Include a works cited page, with a correct citation formatting, to cite your reference sources.

Resources

How to cite an artwork [http://www.citethisforme.com/guides/mla/how-to-cite-a-artwork]

How to cite an online image or video [ http://www.citethisforme.com/guides/mla/how-to-cite-a-online-image-or-video]

How to cite a website [http://www.citethisforme.com/guides/mla/how-to-cite-a-website]

The final document must be a Microsoft Word .docx file format using MLA format. If you do not have Microsoft Word you can download it for free – on the log in page of Blackboard on the right-hand side are instructions for obtaining a free download. No other file formats will be accepted. You should properly cite the Oxford Art Online article and any other material that you reference. Refer to the How to cite a work of art above.

Virtual Art Museum Project Page 1