German Modernism Creative Analysis Paper #1 (5 pages)
Proposal + Outline due Tuesday, 2/24/15 – on paper in class!
Final Paper due Tuesday, 3/3/15 – via Canvas before class!
It’s sometime between 1900 and 1914. You’ve just been hired as a curator by a young American heiress, who thinks it would be fashionable to start a collection of German and Austrian art and design. She commissions you to go to Europe and bring back some important pieces for her collection. After several weeks of gallery hopping in Vienna and Munich, visits to exhibitions and artists’ studios, and hobnobbing with art dealers, you sit down late one night to write your boss a letter describing two works you’d like to purchase, and arguing for why you believe each of these works to be important.
You are particularly struck by the ideas represented in the works you’ve chosen. In order to convince your boss to allow you to spend her money on these cutting-edge works, you will have to explain how each of them exemplifies a new concept (or multiple new concepts) in art/design.
Your letter will discuss two works: one artwork (a painting, for example), and one design piece (an object that has a specific utilitarian function) Your letter will:
1) describe each work clearly, so that your boss can visualize it from thousands of miles away
2) argue for why each particular work is important within the context of art/design of this time
3) prove these arguments by explaining how each work you’ve described manifests specific ideas or concepts that you believe are fundamental to developments German/Austrian art during this period.
YOU MUST:
State a clear THESIS or argument about why you have chosen these works. Your argument for why you want to purchase them is based on how you see them, and why you feel they are important – you need show these works to your boss through your descriptions, and back up what you see with information from lectures and readings.
Cite information that is not common knowledge. If you employ specific interpretations of artworks as presented in the readings, make sure to site the specific reading using proper footnotes. If you employ specific interpretations of artworks as presented in class, please cite this information by date, e.g., (lecture, 2/10/15).
Choose your art/design works from SLIDE LISTS and written sources from the material presented in Weeks 2 through 4. Make sure to choose your pieces from among those works that are NOT marked with an asterisk* (since these may appear on your exam).
SUBMIT a PROPOSAL + OUTLINE that includes your THESIS, the 2 works you are thinking of writing about, and some ideas/readings you are thinking of using to support your argument on 2/24/15.
Your paper must include 5 pages of double-spaced text, proper footnotes, and page numbers.