What new insights does this theme offer a viewer interested in the history of art from various ancient cultures?

LINK TO DOWNLOAD THE BOOK YOU SHOULD USE AS A REFERENCE: https://u1lib.org/book/3676617/c5eda8

The Assignment:

This semester, you have looked at a wide variety of ancient artworks from Paleolithic to the Gothic periods . This assignment asks that you curate a hypothetical exhibition of five artworks that we have studied in this class according to a theme or topic of your choice. As is explained further in the supplementary articles linked to in this assignment module, an art curator is someone whose job it is to organize exhibitions for museums and other cultural institutions and events. A key role that any curator plays is to provide a framework for the works of art that they have selected to display for an audience, and to explain through didactic materials (e.g. labels on the walls of galleries) important details about these artworks and how they pertain to the theme of the show. An important first stage of any curatorial project is to make what is called a “checklist“. The exhibition checklist is the document that provides an explanation of the theme of the show, and then provides a short description and explanation for each artwork that is to be included in the show.

For this project, you will assume a curatorial role and produce such a checklist for your proposed exhibition.

• one PDF, an final curatorial plan that includes the following:

• • Page(s) 1: a written curatorial statement of at least 500 words that contains an exhibition title, explains the theme of your exhibition, and provides evidence for why this specific theme or topic is important to an understanding of some aspect of modern art history. Some examples of questions you might address in your statement: what significance does this topic play in the wider history of ancient art? What new insights does this theme offer a viewer interested in the history of art from various ancient cultures? How has this topic changed over the long historical arch of the pre-historic era to the 14th century? How does this theme look different in different cultural contexts and why do this matter? What kind of conversation do you wish to provoke for an audience based on your selection of works? This text should be single-spaced and fit on one page.
• • Pages 2 – 6: For each of the five artworks of your exhibition, you should include at the top of each page a small thumbnail image of each artwork with identifying artist’s name (if known), date, dimensions, and medium (all of which is located in your textbook); below this information, you should include a written explanation of at least 200 words that describes how this artwork pertains to your exhibition theme.

To be clear, you provide one page of identification/explanation for each individual artwork that you select for your exhibition checklist (5 pages); this, plus your one-page curatorial statement (1 page) brings you to a total of 6 pages.

In your writing, you should include pertinent historical context and formal detail. Imagine that these short written explanations are your wall text, explaining to an audience some key details about each piece and how it relates to the larger theme of the exhibition. This text should be single spaced and fit on one page per artwork. Please see the sample in this module for an idea of how to format your checklist.

Assignment Ground Rules:

This assignment is quite open, allowing you to pursue your interests and make interesting connections between artworks in a wide variety of ways. Within the basic terms of the assignment above, I encourage creativity and risk-taking in your ideas; however, there are a few rules that must be followed to receive full credit:

• there must be at least 800 years between the earliest work of art in your exhibition and the most recently produced one. Part of the point of this assignment is for you to think expansively and to make connections across the history that we’ve covered in the course. You can gear your show more to one end of the historical spectrum or the other or emphasize a particular culture; but your project needs to demonstrate this historical breadth.
• you must work with artists that we have looked at this semester. You can select works of art and architecture discussed in the textbook or in the Webcourses modules. You can also curate a very strong exhibition using only art works discussed in course content, requiring little outside research.
• your exhibition theme should be precise and specific. Exhibition ideas such as “The History of Ancient Art”, “Great Art Through the Ages”, “Beautiful Art”, etc. are far too broad to provide your audience with a specific insight. Even slightly more specific topics such as “Women in Art”, “Art and Nature”, “Art and Religion” are a bit broad and could be narrowed to make an even more compelling show (so, for example, “Representing Gender in the Female Nude”, “Idealized Landscapes”, “The Art of Political Persuasion”). You can think of your exhibition theme as you would a thesis of a more traditional essay; it is the specific and concise idea that frames your discussion of a particular topic. In order to produce a good discussion, you have to be specific about what you’re talking about.

Rubric

Final Project Rubric