2008

Required Activity - Visit ONE of the following galleries:

National Gallery of Art, or

Hirshhorn Gallery

Assignment: To be handed in on the first day of class:

1. Select four works at the gallery and in writing, on notecards, apply the following criteria: description, analysis, interpretation, and judgment.

Description: Describe all the components of this chosen work.

List: a) title b) artist c) dimensions d) medium e) time period f) subject matter.

Analysis: Describe the elements of art that you can identify in the work (line, shape, form, texture, value, color, and space.)  For example:

• Is texture an important element in the work (skin, hair, or garments of a portrait subject or glass, alligator hide, or burlap in a still life?)
• How is the subject placed in the composition (at the center of a triangular shaped composition, or off center in a corner of a room?)
• Do curving lines, or angular shapes predominate?
• Does the artist use complementary colors to good effect?
• How does the artist combine these elements to draw us into the work?

Interpretation: This is your call. You may venture guesses. Use your intelligence and imagination.

• What does this painting say to you?
• What is its meaning?
• What ideas is the artist conveying? 
• Is this piece historical, a portrait, a social commentary, or an allegorical work?
• Are there questions that arise in your mind when you consider this work?
• Does the work answer your questions now that you look at it from a new perspective?
• There are reasons this work is hanging in a museum; what are they?

Judgment:  You can judge a work on your feelings and personal response (subjectively), or on aesthetics (subjectively and objectively). Aesthetics is the study of the nature and value of art. Determine the degree of artistic merit:

• Do you like this work?
• Is it successful and why?
• What value does this work have for you personally and perhaps for others?
• Do you know other works by the same artist, or of the same period?
• Can you identify a relationship, similarities, or differences that affect your judgment of the work’s artistic merit?   

2. Bring proof of your gallery visit in the form of a purchased postcard and a map of the gallery and deliver them along with your written/typed critiques the first week of class.

A.P. Studio Art:

Assignments:

1. Complete a portfolio building class during the summer.

(Some suggested venues: AHC, Einstein H.S., Montgomery College , Corcoran—check online for information, availability, or other options.)

2. Complete 3 works in a series based on your proposed CONCENTRATION (see the AP Drawing and 2D Design specifications on the AP website if you need clarification.)

A series is a number of works that have a common theme, subject, technique, or other commonalities, and that ideally build upon, or derive from each other in succession. An example might be three works, all in pencil, that take ever closer looks at a subject, perhaps a pile of rocks or a stand of trees. Another example might be three works that describe a subject in three different mediums, perhaps a portrait of your grandfather in charcoal, another in pen and ink, and a third in acrylic or oil paint.

3. Bring the three works on the first day of class.

A.P. Art History:

Assignment:

Read Gardner’s Art Through the Ages: Introduction, and Chapters 1-3.