Writing Report: Virtual Gallery Visit and Art Critique

Part A: Virtual Gallery Visit

Writing Report: Virtual Gallery Visit and Art Critique
There are two parts to this writing assignment. Part A involves visiting an art gallery using the Google Arts and Culture portal and reporting or describing your experience of attending a gallery virtually. In part B, you will choose one artwork that you saw in this gallery and discuss this work, including research about the context in which it was produced. You must use the Google Arts and Culture portal and can only select one of the galleries listed below. If you choose a gallery that is not on the list below, you will be penalized 3% and required to rewrite your report.
Here is the URL to this portal: https://artsandculture.google.com/partner
Guggenheim Bilbao, Bilbao, Spain
The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles, US
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Museo d’Orsay, Paris, France
MASP, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Yamatane Museum of Art, Shibuya City, Japan
Hong Kong Heritage Museum, Hong Kong
Stadel Museum, Frankfurt, Germany

 

Writing Report Due: Monday November 8th (15%)
You will be able to upload your report on MyCC from 9:00 am until 4:00 pm on Monday November 8th
All late assignments will be penalized 3% each day late.
Approximately 750-word, (not including Bibliography/Works Cited page)
Font size 12/double-spaced, paragraph form
Your full name and student number must appear on the top left of the first page.
Part A: Virtual Gallery Visit (https://artsandculture.google.com/partner)
Approximately 350 words (double space/PDF)
Compose in paragraph form.
Part A involves evaluating the “virtual visit” that this gallery has provided. This will require time as you repeatedly “visit” the gallery space, moving through the different floors. It is not possible to do this in only one visit. Include the criteria listed below and compose your report in paragraph form.
• What do you see when you first “enter” the gallery? Describe the space and include your first impressions.
• Using the person icon you are able to move through the gallery, choose directions, and zoom in closely. Look at the available space on each floor. How have the captured images permitted you to move through the exhibition and see the artworks?
• How is the art displayed? Is the space inviting? Appealing in some way? What are some of its key formal features? Describe and comment on what you see in the gallery. Be specific. Discuss your experience, providing specific details of the layout, etc. Once again, this should not be descriptive only, as your job is to evaluate your experience. It must be obvious that you have spent time in the gallery.
• Using the horizontal bar at the bottom, select one artwork in the gallery. Make sure this is not an artwork featured in our textbook. Identify its full title, the artist’s name, and the date produced. How is it displayed in the gallery? Why did you choose this artwork? What about it captured your interest? How does seeing it in a virtual visit impact your experience of the artwork?
Part B: Critique of Artwork
Approximately 400 words (double space/PDF)
2 academic research sources Include copy of artwork (it may be black and white)
Bibliography (Works Cited page) and in-text citations required

Part B: Critique of Artwork

 

Research will be required providing relevant contextual information. You are focusing on one artwork that you have chosen in the virtual art gallery. This is one of the artworks that you selected from the horizontal bar that appears at the bottom of the screen while you are “in” the gallery; the artwork you select must appear on this horizontal bar. Your intention is to better understand the artwork more fully by examining its relevant historical and cultural context.

Two academic research sources are required. While you may review dictionaries, encyclopaedias, newspapers, magazine articles, blog entries and book reviews, they are not academic sources. These sources will not count as fulfilling the requirement of two academic sources. On MyCC at the top left you will see a link to the college library (MyCC Library). JSTOR and Proquest E-library are two databases that you can use to find scholarly articles related to your chosen artwork.Also, you may want to begin your search by using Google Scholar. It is fine to use Wikipedia in the early stage of your research. It is however, NOT an academic source and will not count in fulfilling the research criteria. Do not simply provide only biographical information about the artist. Instead, if you provide some biographical information, state clearly why you think it is relevant to the meaning of the artwork.

Historical Information: This involves researching the time period in which the artist lived and produced their work. Are there important political, economic or social issues that you believe are relevant to understanding the artist and/or artwork?

Do class and/or gender play a role? Have you learned anything about the artist that you consider important to your understanding of the meaning of the work?

Cultural Context: Is the artist associated with a movement or style of work? (For example, was it produced during the Baroque period, is it an Impressionist work, etc.) Did other artists influence him/her? How were artists supported at the time?

What values and beliefs were dominant in the culture at the time (political, religious, economic etc.)?

While it is not necessary to answer every question listed above, your research should reveal your knowledge and demonstrate you have considered your subject closely.

 

Documentation
Documentation is written acknowledgement of the sources of information you have used in your paper. In academic writing it is essential you acknowledge all your sources. This will take place in the body of your essay and at the end of your essay (Works Cited or endnotes). Different academic disciplines use different documentation styles. The Chicago Manual of Style if most frequently used in art history. It is available online as The Chicago Manual of Style Online. You may also use MLA (Modern Language Association), which is used in the humanities. Purdue OWL is a good online resource.