Global Visual and Material Culture to 1800.
Global Visual and Material Culture to 1800
The objective of this assignment is to construct and complete a research paper on a specific work of art or design of your choosing that relates to the overarching theme of POWER. You are to select an object or artifact in response to one of the three questions below, each of which highlights a particular facet of how objects have related to narrative throughout history. You are to analyze your object by researching its art-historical context. The finished paper will provide a rich, well-researched, and thoughtful discussion of your object. Question 1 How is power represented or made manifest through your selected object, and why might it be important to the particular culture in which it was made? Question 2 What purpose does the power depicted in your selected object serve, and for what purpose/audience/context was it originally intended? Why is this important? Question 3 Is the idea of power in your selected object intended for a specific audience? For private viewing or public display? For a small group of people or specific individuals or for a general audience? Why is this significant and/or how can it be read in the object itself? HOW TO PROCEED 1) Choose an object in relation to one of the above questions. Choose an object in the Royal Ontario Museum, Art Gallery of Ontario, Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Textile Museum of Canada, or the Aga Khan Museum in relation to one of the above questions. Your chosen work of must fit the chronological scope of this course (that is, you must select an object from any art-historical period or cultural context manufactured prior to the year 1800 CE). The object can be part of the museum’s permanent collection or part of a temporary exhibition, but the object MUST BE ON DISPLAY—you must study the work of art in person and not simply online. The object cannot be a reproduction or model (n.b. the reproduction of the Palette of Narmer in the Royal Ontario Museum is not permissible.) Keep your admission ticket to submit with your paper. * (see note at the end of the document about admission to these institutions.) 2 2) Research the historical and/or critical context of your chosen work of art. You must use a minimum of three academic sources (i.e. peer-reviewed scholarly journal articles, books, or exhibition catalogues). You may consult your textbook, but for the purpose of this essay, it will not count as one of your academic sources. Academic research databases subscribed to by OCAD University such as JSTOR, and others listed on the Dorothy H. Hoover library website, may be used freely to find scholarly articles, such as the Grove Dictionary of Art available through Oxford Art Online. No other websites are allowed. Wikipedia is not an appropriate academic source. If you find information that is helpful but located in a potentially untrustworthy source it is your task to track down a better source. Regardless, you must honestly report or cite any source from which you have borrowed information or ideas, including Wikipedia. Furthermore, you may only consult the museum website to verify the artist’s name, title, medium, dimensions, date and/or place of production of your object, and to find an image of the object to include with your paper.
It will not count as one of your three academic sources. 3) Write an essay that responds to this question. You are asked to situate your chosen work within its art-historical context. Information about the object’s specific historical context (its immediate social/cultural/political/religious context, etc.) may also be helpful. However, please remember that your work of art or artifact is the focus of your essay. It is highly possible that you will not find scholarship addressing the exact piece you have selected—that’s fine. The piece you have chosen is likely representative of/related to a category of objects, or part of an artist’s body of work, on which you can find scholarship. FORMAT 1) Your essay must be 5 to 6 pages (about 1250–1500 words) in length. It should be doublespaced, with 1” margins, using a 12-pt font in Times New Roman on 8 ½ x 11” pages. Images DO NOT count toward your overall page count and should be included only at the end of your essay