Research Paper, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Online Resources
Using the website for the Metropolitan Museum of Art, select a work of art to take under careful study for this paper. You may choose any work you like as long as it is a topic that we have covered or will cover in this course. Our course covers American artwork from the first settlers through the Contemporary period. You may see works in the collections of The American Wing, Modern and Contemporary, and Prints and Drawings. You can confirm that the work is by an American artist by looking at the description and seeing American following his or her name.
Look carefully at the work you have selected and, following the outline below, describe the work you are viewing. This will comprise the first half of the paper. The second half of the paper is research oriented. You must use three scholarly sources for the second half of the paper. Use the Farmingdale State Library website to help you. There is a tool called ask a librarian. If you choose a work early, you can ask for a librarians help in finding good resources. Ebooks and journals as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Arts website will be your chief resources. The Library subscribes to a number of journals, and in the discipline of art history, JSTOR will be the most useful. The paper should be organized as a traditional research paper in MLA style with citations. The research should not provide a biography of the artist, but rather insight into the artists style, the narrative of the artwork, or another topic related to the work you are studying. In some cases, biography may be important to this discussion. The topic of your paper is self-selected, but should address the core question why does this work look this way? If you are having trouble deciding upon a theme, please feel free to reach out to me with some ideas or observations you have made about the work so that I can offer some guidance. If you reach out to me with a question, please include a link to the work we are discussing so that I may be well-informed.
This paper should be 8-10 double-spaced single-sided pages with 1 margins, in 12-point font, and include a title page and blank page at the end.
I. Introduction
A. Artists name
B. Title of the artwork (in italics)
C. Date of the artwork
D. Medium
E. Acquisition number
F. Two-dimensional or three-dimensional
G. Where the work is placed within the Museum (wing and gallery number)
II. Describe the formal elements of the artwork
A. Line
1. edges
2. contour
3. implied line
4. types of lines use adjectives
5. variety
B. Shapes (two-dimensional artworks)
1. positive
2. negative
3. hard edged – geometric
4. soft edged organic
5. variety
C. Forms (three-dimensional artworks)
1. positive
2. negative
3. hard edged – geometric
4. soft edged organic
5. variety
D. Depth
1. overlapping
2. linear perspective
3. atmospheric perspective
4. tromp loeil
5. flatness on the picture plane
E. Movement
1. how your eye moves through the artwork
2. why
F. Texture
1. use adjectives to describe how the artist want you to think it feels
2. variety
G. Color
1. primary
2. secondary
3. value saturation or intensity of hues
4. natural or applied color
5. visual temperature
a. warm
b. cool
6. complementary colors
7. analogous colors
8. monochromatic
9. emotional effects of color
10. variety
H. Rhythm and Repetition
1. what elements repeat in the composition
2. how does this effect the movement of the artwork
I. Balance
1. is the work balanced vertically
2. is the work balanced horizontally
3. how does this effect the composition
III. Conclusion
A. Overall comments about the composition
B. How do the elements relate to the theme or narrative of the piece
IV. Discussion about the scholarly sources
A. What is the work about?
B. Why does it look the way it does
C. How was the work received when it was made?
D. What other research about the work did you find interesting?
Notes:
The paper should flow as an essay, please do not answer each point individually.
Remember to proofread your papers for grammar and spelling these will effect your grade. One of the most common mistakes in writing about art is verb tense consistency. Artworks are traditionally written of in the present tense; Slobodkina uses a variety of collaged textiles and, in so doing, provides the piece with both texture and depth. Also, do not write in the first person; My eyes travel through the large blue diagonal which crosses the canvas from the upper right to the lower left, rather in the third person, The viewers eye travels
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