HUM 122 and HUM 145/146
Basic Outline for Analysis of Artforms
Format for Papers
Sample Visual and Performing Arts Papers
1. Text
a) What is the medium (method/material) of this work of art?
b) Does this work of art have a specific subject that is immediately apparent? If there is no specific subject (or at least not one with which you are familiar) does there appear to be an overall thematic idea?
c) Are there certain compositional elements or unifying principles in this work of art that make its subject matter stand out or give strength to its theme? What are these elements and/or principles?
2. Context
a) Who created this work of art?
b) When and where did he/she live?
c) What events were occurring in his/her time and place? What ideas were popular? How might these events and ideas have shaped and influenced the ways in which people looked at their world?
d) What is the context in which you are viewing the work of art? Is it the original context? Does it help or hinder your full perception of the work? Why?
e) What is your context? What particular experiences, attitudes or assumptions do you bring to the work of art?
3. Subtext
a) Based on these events and ideas, what do you think the artist's purpose might have been in creating this work of art?
b) What kind of effect do you think this work of art had on its original audience?
c) In what ways do TEXT and CONTEXT work together to create SUBTEXT?
d) Given the events and ideas that shape your time and place as a viewer, what effect does the work of art have on you? How does it make you feel?
4. Format of Paper
a) Three to five pages, doubled-spaced. Please use a conventional font and neutral paper color (i.e., no “wedding invitation italics” on violet paper).
b) Your research should demonstrate evidence of having consulted at least two other sources beyond our textbook and the artform itself. Such resources are not limited to books. They may include interviews with gallery personnel, interviews with artists, informational brochures, the World Wide Web, etc.
c) All sources are to be included in a bibliography. References are to be cited, either by footnote, endnote or parenthetically within the body of the paper itself.
d) The bibliography and/or endnotes pages will not be counted as part of the minimum three page requirement.
THE FOLLOWING GUIDELINES ARE FOR THOSE IN HUM 122 "INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES" WHO MAY ALSO WRITE A PAPER ON A PERFORMANCE ART:
1. Text
a. What is the medium: theatre, dance or music (or a combination thereof)?
1. Theatre: tragedy, comedy, melodrama, musical, performance art
2. Dance: ballet, jazz, modern, tap, etc.
3. Music, classical, romantic, contemporary/pop/rock, etc.b. What production elements are important to the performance? Give examples of how they work together. Consider the following (all of them may not apply to the particular performance you saw):
1. Script, dance choreography, musical score
2. Plotline (for theatre and possibly dance)
3. The performers (actors, dancers, musicians)
4. The production (type of performance space, scene design, lighting, costuming, etc.)c. What is the performance space like? Is it a conventional "theatrical" space, or is it somewhere more unusual?
d. Use other questions from previous guidelines (above) as they apply to your subject.
2. Context.
a. Read the program for the performance. Who was/is the playwright, director, choreographer, or composer? What do you know about him/her?
b. Does the program tell you anything about the circumstances for the creation of this work (historical, political, social, theological, etc.)?
c. What do you, as the viewer, bring to this performance? How does your context affect your perception of this performance?
d. Use other questions from previous guidelines (above) as they apply to your subject.
3. Subtext
a. What primary illusion is expressed? How does this illusion come across? What elements of the performance seem most important in communicating this illusion to the audience?
1. Theatre: virtual history/experience
2. Dance: virtual power
3. Music: virtual time
4. Other???b. How did the performance affect you?
1. Did it work well as a performance? Did you enjoy it? Why? If not, why not?
2. If you were in charge of this performance, is there anything that would you have done differently, e.g., with scenery, movement, lighting, location of performance, etc.?c. Use other questions from previous guidelines (above) as they apply to your subject.
4. Format of Paper (same as previous paper, above)
SAMPLE
VISUAL ART PAPER
(reprinted here with permission of student)
Louise Bourgeois' "Woman with Packages" is cast in bronze (substitution), but was originally made of wood in the 1940s. The sculpture can be found between OCB and EMC at Johnson County Community College. Placed in the middle of the brick walkway, "Woman with Packages" is sculpture in the round and it sprouts from a nest of green bushes. It is a four to five foot tall, slim, narrow and smooth piece that resembles a needle. Attached on one side of the woman's hip area are two club-like shapes, and on the other side hangs a sole one.
"Woman with Packages" was unfortunately passed over by me many times until I began taking Art History courses. Without the title I still do not believe I would know what the sculpture represents. Although the narrow and vertical "body" does lead one to associate it with the human figure, it resembles a needle at first glance. I do not think the location provides a well suited atmosphere for Bourgeois' work. I believe it is easily missed, being surrounded by brick, but I like the idea that it is located outdoors.
Ann Wiklund, an Art History instructor at JCCC, has said that the elongated oval shapes hanging from the sides of "Woman with Packages" represent children, and the slim base itself represents a woman. Bourgeois is from France, born in Paris, and as a child coped with her father's affairs. Her mother knew of them, but passively ignored them and they were never talked about. Her father allowed one mistress to move into the house, saying she was there to teach the children English. As with most artists, Louise Bourgeois' childhood had a strong effect on her work.
"Woman with Packages" is from a period, about 1945-1955, when Bourgeois created what she called "Personages." The "Personages" were sculpted figures of wood and allowed an outlet for the artist's personal issues. JCCC's Bourgeois piece deals with the domestic responsibility of women, an issue that has become increasingly important since WWII when women poured into the workforce.
WWII was an important turning point in the art world because artists flocked from Europe to the United States to escape the chaos of war overseas. During the time Bourgeois began making her "personages", New York City, where she lived with her husband, was producing Abstract Expressionist artists like painters Jackson Pollock and Mark Rothke, and sculptors like Isamu Noguchi and David Smith.
I have read that Bourgeois' purpose in making the "personages" were to keep her company. The sculptures were portraits of her friends and family who she missed greatly after moving to America from France. They were exhibited in groups and turned "facing" one another to appear as though they were involved. "Woman with Packages" is not necessarily alone considering the "packages" are children, but they are hanging from the main stem of the sculpture which creates a heaviness or annoyance. Sometimes I want to reach out and pull the "packages" off of the piece so it will be more balanced for my eyes to look at.
Since "Woman with Packages" was created in the 1940s, I would consider that the original time it was received by the public. I think the audiences would have reacted towards Bourgeois' sculpture as they did other abstract sculpture: with confusion. The public did not embrace Abstract Expressionism because they did not understand what was going on. In most paintings and sculptures there was nothing that the average person could associate with or relate to. Even on JCCC's campus in the 1990's I doubt that many students know what "Woman with Packages" is, who it is by, or why the campus is lucky to have it. I didn't at one time.
The ways in which text and context work together to create subtext in "Woman with Packages" involves the piece's history. The sculpture was cast in bronze, but not before 1995. It had stayed in the wooden form since the late 1940s when the piece was originally thought of and made. Maybe Bourgeois wanted this piece to possess a more lasting medium by finally creating it in metal. She created this sculpture in the late 1940s when women were entering the workforce, but I'm sure there was more meaning in it from her childhood. Since her mother ignored her father's affairs and kept providing care for her family, I believe "Woman with Packages" could portray the instances of the difficulty to carry around such emotional and physical baggage. The "packages" do not appear as if they are hanging comfortably and I think that is an important compositional element of the work. Without knowing the title, the sculpture does not give much of a hint as to what it is meant to be. Of course, not every sculpture is supposed to have a meaning, but I think with the title Bourgeois gave the piece she wanted viewers to "get" what it was.
"Woman with Packages" is an important piece to me, and now that I am educated about it I cannot pass it by without admiring it. Bourgeois is making a statement about the domestic obligations of women, and I have yet to decide if it is a positive one. Since the thought of marriage or, heaven forbid, a family, is foreign to my imagination as a student with limited responsibilities, I tend to accept she is not sculpting a June Cleaver. However, I do believe she is sculpting a strong woman who is still standing straight and tall although she is weighed down by her "packages."
References
l) Arnason, H. H., & Prather, Marla F. (1998). History of Modern Art. New Jersey: Prentice Hall, Inc.
2) Gardner Paul (1994). Louise Bourgeois. New York: Universe Publishing.
3) Strick, Jeremy (1994). Louise Bourgeois: The Personages. St. Louis: St. Louis Art Museum.
SAMPLE
PERFORMANCE ART PAPER
(reprinted here with permission of student)
For my performance art paper, I attended the play, W; t (Wit) by Margaret Edson. It was performed at the Unicorn Theatre in Westport.
The medium, of course, is theatre. I would classify this play as a tragicomedy.
Textually, the play is about a 50-year-old female college professor with a Ph.D. in 17th century English poetry, who finds out she has stage IV ovarian cancer. The plotline takes us from the time she is given her diagnosis through to the time of her death. There are several flashbacks, including a childhood scene, her time as a student and also as a teacher.
The script is performed by the main character, Vivian Bearing, PhD., her oncologist, Dr. Kelkian, Research Fellow, Dr. Posner, primary care nurse, Susie Monahan, English professor, E. M. Ashford and small parts for college students and various hospital staff. The small cast helps keep the focus on the central character and the trials she must endure.
The musical score consists of plucked guitar chords played during transitional times of the play when scenery is being shifted around. The plucked guitar strings almost seem symbolic of raw nerves being manipulated, as the tension throughout the play runs quite high.
I felt the production of the play was quite important to the overall effect. The Unicorn Theatre is a small (150?), intimate theatre. I feel the handling of the subject of the play; (cancer, our humanity, and death) can only be accomplished in an intimate setting. With the actors and actresses only feet from us, we become part of their world. I think this would be lost in a large, "arena" type setting.
As we were seated for the show, the bare stage contained only some type of medical apparatus that consisted of an I.V. bag, lines and a monitoring device, all mounted on a stand with wheels. As I sat there looking at it, I instinctively wanted to draw my forearms in to prevent any type of invasive procedures from happening to me.
In considering costumes, when the play begins, the main character, Dr. Bearing, walks out barefoot, wearing only two hospital gowns and a baseball hat. This is her costume for the entire play. The medical doctors are, of course, fully dressed. This helps show the vulnerability of a patient in an institutional setting. The actress who plays the part of Dr. Bearing went so far as to shave her head for the play. This helps create a feeling that she really is going through difficult treatment for cancer. At the end of the play when she dies, she steps behind a gauzy curtain, the lights dim, and with her back toward the audience, we see her shed her hospital gowns as she ascends a ramp with her arms held outward. I felt the shedding of her clothes showed how we meet God without any adornments. We bring only what we carry within.
Contextually, the author of the play, Margaret Edson, won a Pulitzer Prize for this, her first play, written in 1991. She currently lives in Atlanta and teaches kindergarten there (Trussell, 3-9-00). In the mid 1980s, she worked as a clerk in the AIDS/oncology ward of a research hospital. She drew upon her experiences there in writing this play.
Although I myself haven't had any firsthand experience with cancer, (thank you Lord Jesus), the author of the play said "It's not about a loss of control, it's about transformation", and contextually as I grow older, I identify with the change one feels as you begin to face your own mortality.
Subtextually, the primary illusion expressed is virtual history/destiny. We see the history of the main character through narrative as the characters speak their lines. And sometimes the main character speaks right to the audience in the form of direct address. This helped relieve tension, as some of her dialogue was surprisingly humorous. Also, I felt that by using direct address, somehow the main character seemed even more "real", like a friend standing there talking.
The main character's dialogue is sometimes purposely difficult to understand. (My husband gave me several quizzical looks during some of the main character's monologues and I felt myself really concentrating to understand the lines. English majors would probably eat this dialogue up!) She loves words, and being a Ph.D. of 17th century poetry, particularly the metaphysical poet, John Donne, the use of words is central to her character. In fact, the main character's love of words seems to be the very thing that puts her at odds with any human emotions for those around her. As the play progresses, I felt the most important elements of communication occurred during the time when little acts of kindness took place between the main character and others; when she is alone and afraid, her nurse brings her a Popsicle and they sit and talk; in the end when she is dying, her old professor brings a children's book, climbs in bed with her, and reads. I think it's OK that we don't always understand what Dr. Bearing is saying, because we can empathize in our hearts with what she is going through.
I enjoyed this play very much. I thought it dealt with cancer in a very forthright manner, without all that Hollywood glop and melodrama. When it was over, there was that quiet, sniffling sound going on as people exited the theatre. I liked the part in the end where Dr. Bearing's old professor was reading a child's book about a bunny who wants to change his form in order to hide from his mother, and used it as an analogy to show that even if we choose not to see God he always lovingly sees us and watches over us.
References
Robert Trussell, "Let's Get Metaphysical," Kansas City Star, 9 March 2000: Fl-2.
Robert, Trussell, Theatre Review: "'Wit' nears rarified air of masterpiece status," The Kansas City Star, 13 March 2000: F3.
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