Overview
Visiting an art museum offers an opportunity to explore the visual culture of distant times and foreign places, while bringing your own experiences and background to each work you see. As the viewer, you complete the artwork.
Imagine you are creating your own art gallery to reflect what you’ve learned in this course and represent what you believe are the most important paintings, sculptures, drawings, photographs, decorative artworks, and installations from 1451 to the present.
From the iconic marble sculpture of David by Michelangelo to Caravaggio’s dramatic Baroque oil painting, The Calling of Saint Matthew, what will you add to your collection? Will your viewer journey to the Mughal Empire to observe the precisely rendered watercolor of Emperor Jahangir or will they ponder the process of crafting Korean ceramics? Whether you select a renowned American photograph like Dorothea Lange’s Migrant Mother or a contemporary installation by Kara Walker that confronts racism, you are the curator. You decide how to present your narrative of art history through the works you include. You will weave together a collection of artworks that engage your viewers and invite their interpretations.
Drawing from the course material and the categories below, you will select the eight artworks that you believe are most essential to understanding and appreciating this period of art history, 1451 to the present.
These eight artworks will be included in a slideshow to represent your virtual collection.
PRESENTATION REQUIREMENTS: Your presentation must be ten slides long and include the following:
one cover page slide
one slide per selected artwork with speaker’s notes of 150-200 words (8 total slides)
one reference slide
A. Directions
Step 1: Identify Artworks
Below you will find different categories of art. Review the categories and examples to determine which interest you the most. Then select eight artworks from the course material that fit within eight of the provided categories. You will eventually have eight different artworks from eight different categories in your final project.
Click each category to view a list of suggested works. You may choose any artwork from the lists, but you are not required to select one of the provided examples. Many other artworks from the course can fit each of these categories.