Overview
This is what I chose the presentation: Gavin Jantjes b. 1948, Cape Town, South Africa Works in Oslo, Norway Untitled 1989-90, made in London Acrylic on canvas PURCHASED WITH FUNDS PROVIDED BY THE SMITHSONIAN COLLECTIONS ACQUISITION PROGRAM, 96-23-1 Following a starlit path. A Khoi San myth recounts how a girl dancing around an evening fire threw embers into the night sky. They persisted, becoming the wide, shimmering pathway illuminating the celestial firmament known as the Milky Way. Inspired by this moving tale, South African artist Gavin Jantjes created this painting as part of a series entitled Zulu, meaning sky or heavens. To evoke movement, Jantjes drew upon the figurative style of southern Africa's ancient rock paintings and created a work so compelling that it has traveled to four U.S. states for exhibition, appeared in five different exhibitions at this museum, and been used as the cover image for a book. Gavin Jantjes' paintina Untitled in collection storage in preparation for travel PHOTOGRAPH BY FRANKO I KHOURY, NATIONAL
This assignment is broken into different parts starting with visiting an exhibition and ending with an in-class presentation.
Part 1
Visit an exhibition/museum from the list below.
National Gallery of Art
Looking Up: Studies for Ceilings, 1550–1800
Called to Create: Black Artists of the American South
Any drawing work on view that's not part of a specific exhibition in any of the galleries
National Portrait Gallery
The Outwin 2022: American Portraiture Today
Any drawing work on view
Smithsonian American Art Museum (at Gallery Place, NOT the Renwick Gallery)
Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture (I was at the this museum)
Reckoning: Protest. Defiance. Resilience.
Hirshhorn Museum
- Put It This Way: (Re)Visions of the Hirshhorn Collection
Part 2
Choose one drawing, noting the title, date it was made, the artist’s name, and the pertinent wall text near it. Take several images of the work, including one of the whole thing, the surrounding gallery space, and detail images.
- Spend 45 minutes taking extensive notes about it and making a high quality sketch(s) of the work in your visual journal. Note the compositional qualities of the work (how would you describe the work in terms of art elements and design principles?) and anything that stands out to you about the work (why did you choose this work over others?).
Take a selfie (or something) with the artwork you chose.
Part 3
- Put together a slide presentation (~7–10 slides) with the following information included:
Give us the background information about the work—who is the artist? what style and medium did the artist use? what is the intent of the work/what is the artist trying to convey? how would you describe the work in terms of descriptive, compositional qualities?
- Tell us what you thought about the museum/gallery as a whole—show images of the artwork among its surroundings.
Weave in images of the artwork as you tell us the background information and what you thought of the gallery.
- Show us your notes and sketches (in image form on a slide(s)), your reactions and interpretations to the work, and the selfie of you took with the work.
A potential ordering of slides:
Title slide
- Slide with image of whole artwork and basic info (Title (year), Artist Name, Medium, Dimensions, in X Museum/Exhibit)
Slide with Background (who is the artist and what is the exhibition about?)
- 1–2 slides with images of the gallery space and other images of the artwork
1–2 slides with detail images of the artwork or images that show specific compositional qualities
- 1–2 slides with your notes and sketches of the work, detailing your reactions to the artwork
Slide with selfie and your takeaways from the work (what do you think it means based on your reactions, the composition, and where the work is located physically?)
- Part 4
Present the work to the class on April 18th. You must submit your presentation either as a .PDF
- I could take care of the sketching in PART 2 just let me know if that's needed and I will get it done, also please reserved a spot where I can add a picture of myself with the drawing.