Art History Contemporary Art

Instructions for Essay 2

1) Choose an artwork from Art 313 lecture slides made between 2000 and today OR visit one of the following museums, and choose a work of art or an exhibition of art that was produced between 2000 and today. The work or exhibition you choose must be different from the one you wrote about for the first essay.
—I choose Diana Thater, which I attended at LACMA in Los Angeles CA

These museums regularly feature contemporary art exhibitions of international stature: the Los Angeles Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA.org), the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA.org, especially its onsite contemporary-art building BCAM), the UCLA Hammer Museum (Hammer.ucla.edu), the Getty Center (Getty.edu), REDCAT (Redcat.org), Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (welcometolace.org), LAX ART (LAXART.org), the Santa Monica Museum of Art (SMMOA.org), the Museum of Latin American Art (molaa.org), and The Broad Museum (thebroad.org).

2) Choose one of the following theories of art: formalist or postmodernist. Material not yet discussed in class is off limits and will not receive credit.

3) Write an essay in which you evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of the theory�as defined by Terry Barrett in Why Is That Art?�for understanding or experiencing that particular work or exhibition. How does the theory help and how might it hinder understanding of that work or exhibition? Make sure you have a clear thesis and support your argument with sound evidence from the relevant chapter in Barrett as well as from the work you�ve chosen.

In order to successfully do the above, you will have to demonstrate how a theorist of the type you choose (not an individual theorist Barrett discusses, but rather an imaginary representative of the ideas common to all theorists of the type you choose) would go about interpreting the work. Walk the reader through a sample interpretive process as if you were a theorist of that type. Then, evaluate that sample interpretation. Does it address what you think is important to notice about the work? Does it ignore what you think are important considerations?

Note: If you choose postmodernist theory, address what all of the theories that make up postmodernist theory have in common (as presented in the lecture slide for discussion of chapter 5), but when pointing out examples of those ideas in the book, be sure to identify which of the particular theories you are drawing your examples of theoretical thought from (poststructuralist, feminist, postcolonialist, etc.)

Note: Do not use quotations in place of your own words. Quotations may be used only as evidence of a point you are making. Using quotations requires you to explain them. They do not substitute for your own words. Always differentiate your voice from another author�s. You will get credit only for your own words.

4) When handing in any essay for grading, fill out the Grading Rubric (posted on Blackboard) with your name and the course information and staple it on top of your essay so that it is the first page of your essay. Consult this Grading Rubric if you want to understand what constitutes a good essay and how your essay will be graded. Note that the weight your professor gives to each criterion in the rubric may vary. This is due to the fact that a student’s performance in any one area may be especially good or bad that it disproportionately affects the work’s overall quality.

5) If you visit a museum, please attach your ticket stub or receipt with your name on it to the back of your essay as proof of your visit. If you did not visit a museum for this essay, please hand in your first essay as proof that you visited a museum for that assignment.

Text formatting: Double spaced, 12-point font, 1-inch margins.

Approximate length: There is no strict length requirement. A few pages should do the trick, but this is just a guideline.

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