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FACULTY OF FINE ARTS, DEPARTMENT OF VISUAL ART & ART HISTORY FA/ARTH 1130 3.0, Introduction to Art History Formal Analysis Length: 1500 words During your visit to the AGO for the audio tour, choose one artwork that you find particularly engaging and write a concise formal analysis of it. IMPORTANT: DO NOT choose a work that I discussed in lecture or during the AGO audio tour. Due November 3rd This assignment gives you the opportunity to apply the vocabulary and techniques of visual analysis that you have been learning without becoming involved in a discussion of the object’s larger meanings or social significance. A formal analysis is not merely an itemization or description of all the formal aspects of a particular artwork, but an analysis of which aspects of form matter most and how the artist’s formal choices come together to create particular effects. This means that you will be doing what you almost always do in academic writing: building an argument in support of a thesis. Your thesis is, of course, the central claim that you are going to make and provide evidence for in your essay. In a formal analysis this will be your claim about what you think the most important formal aspects of the work add up to. The evidence for your thesis claim will be there in the formal aspects of the artwork itself, but it is up to you to identify what matters most and organize your evidence in support of a coherent argument. A large part of the assignment will be deciding which aspects of form are critical to the point you are making, so that you can focus on what is most relevant. Remember the limitations of the formal analysis however. In this first assignment you are going to avoid interpretation of subject matter and stick to formal questions exclusively. Yes, it can frustrating to distinguish form and content so absolutely, but being obliged to run up against, explore and question that boundary is part of the value of this exercise. In almost all of your writing about art in the future you will need to be able to articulate how the meanings of artworks are carried in or relate to the form of a particular object. Being able to understand and describe an object in rich detail will then be crucial to explaining its significance. Don’t forget that along with summarizing your main argument, your thesis statement should also tell us some basic facts, including which artwork you are looking at, who made it (if known), the date and which gallery it is in. In an essay of this length it should be no more than one short paragraph. TITLE PAGE: Your essay should have a separate title page with the following information on it: The essay title; the course number and title; your name, your student number; your tutorial number; the name of your TA; and the name of the course director. IMPORTANT: All essays should be double-spaced. Your paper should, if possible, include an appendix with images of the work that you are discussing. Colour is preferable, but not necessary. Note that photography is not allowed in the galleries, but many works are reproduced online or in books, exhibition catalogues and pamphlets. Some are also available on postcards or exhibition invitations.

TURNITIN.COM: It is your option to decline to use Turnitin, in which case you must contact the Course Director immediately by email to arrange an alternative form of evaluation. If I do not hear from you by the fourth week of classes, I will assume that you will be submitting using Turnitin. A 20% penalty will be deducted from your essay for failing to inform your Course Director and TA that you will not be using Turnitin by that date. Please note that Turnitin does not make decisions about the originality of your work, only raises questions for further investigation by your professor. For additional information about Turnitin please visit: http://www.yorku.ca/academicintegrity/students/TurnitinStudents.htm Late Penalties: Late essays will be penalized 3% per day. Extensions will only be granted for verifiable medical reasons or genuine emergencies (failure to schedule enough time to complete an assignment does not constitute an emergency). Please do not wait until the day that an assignment is due to request an extension.