Final Paper

Your final assignment is a critical analysis of one work of art from this course.

Instructions

Choose one work from any unit (a painting, a building, a poem, a film, a piece of music, a dance, a photograph, anything we have looked at or listened to) and write a critical analysis of it using the three steps from Unit 3: describe it, interpret it, and evaluate it.

Requirements

• Minimum three pages, double-spaced, MLA format
• Name the work, its creator, and its date, and say where a reader can see or hear it
• Describe what is actually there, using the vocabulary of the art form (line, color, composition, rhythm, montage, and so on)
• Interpret what the work means or expresses, and support your reading with specific details from the work
• Evaluate how well the work succeeds, and say what standard you are using to judge it
• Relate your analysis to at least one idea from the course units (for example subject matter and content, form, or the revelatory function of art)

Suggested Approaches

• Look closely at a work from the Gallery and show how a single detail carries the whole meaning
• Compare two works in different art forms that treat the same subject, such as a war, a city, or a loss
• Respond to a performance you can watch or listen to online, and explain what happens moment by moment
• Test a claim from the course, for example that a work reveals the values of its culture, against a work you choose