Virtual Exhibit Project
Description
Imagine you are the special guest curator for the newest gallery in town. You will research, identify, and provide label information (wall text) for artwork to be included in the next exhibition.
Your assignment is to create an exhibit of at least five (5) works of art and write an essay or slide text (1200 words in length) about how the artworks are thematically related. This project will be created in either Microsoft PowerPoint or Microsoft Word.
Theme & Artwork Selection
First, identify a thoughtful theme for your exhibit. Theme possibilities are limitless. Use your own interests to find a theme.
A theme is not a subject. Themes are ideas, concepts, or issues. A subject is person, place, or thing. A subject is what is denoted in the artwork, while the theme is the reason why it was made or the works connotation.
For example, consider a painting depicting the crucifixion of Jesus. Jesus, a person, is the subject, and the crucifixion is an event or act. What core idea is embodied in this act? Perhaps sacrifice? Is the idea of sacrifice central to religions other than Christianity? Is it conveyed through their art as well? Other examples are: War is a subject. Independence is a theme. Self-portraits are subjects. Self-loathing is a theme. You are not limited to these examples. They are simply provided to get you started down the path of finding an idea, concept, or issue that is important to you and discovering how artists have grappled with this same theme.
Seek out universal themes. Find artwork across time and/or culture to see how different people address the same idea.
To aid your theme search, review chapters 5 & 6 in Introduction to Art: Design, Context, and Meaning.
Once you have selected a specific theme, research and identify at least five (5) works of art for your exhibit.
Your exhibit must include artwork by at least three (3) different artists and work created in two (2) different media.
Determine the order in which the artworks will be displayed. Should the work be displayed based on chronology, geography, or narrative?
Use only instructor recommended websites, your textbooks, and/or books/periodicals found in the library or on a library database to find and research artworks. Do not use a Google image search to find artworks for your theme. Always use scholarly sources. Never use Wikipedia.
No more than one (1) artwork can come from your textbooks. The five (5) artworks do not have to be artworks that you have seen in person.
Research & Writing
You will write an essay or slide text that illustrates the thematic connection between five (5) artworks. What idea binds these works together?
You must investigate how style explains why this theme is relevant to people across time and/or culture.
Focus your analysis on the connection between the theme and the artworks stylistic attributes. The three attributes of style are form, context, and content. Form comprises of the artworks subject, design, and the media/processes used. Context addresses the historical, social, political, technological, scientific, and/or personal events surrounding the artworks creation. Content is the meaning communicated through the artwork. Your primary focus for this project will be researching context and content. Which artistic period/school/movements are the artists associated? How and why did the artwork come into existence? How is the artworks design reflective of the time and place it was made and the meaning conveyed?
Avoid describing what you see in the artwork, such as the subject and elements/principles of design. Also, do not write biographies of the artists. A small amount of biographical information may be appropriate, but do not simply paraphrase what you read. If included, you should explain why the biographical information is relevant to our understanding of the artwork and selected theme. The focus of your research and analysis should be on the artwork as an artifact of material culture.
