Overview
writing four (4) essays
The Humanities Through the Arts
Lee A. Jacobus & F. David Martin, 2018
GED120 - INTRODUCTION TO HUMANITIES
UNIT #1
You only need to select one question from the list below:
- Using your experience in perceiving either Blume’s "The Eternal City" (Figure1-3) or David Alfaro Siqueiros’s "Echo of a Scream" (Figure 1-2), discuss how education and experience changed your perception of the art. Were your values identified at all? If so, how?
- Do you agree with the authors’ assertion that participation is the most fundamental of the basic distinctions of art? Why? If you disagree, which do you think is the most important and why? Do you have any experiences with art to draw on to support your claims?
- Select one of the following paintings and describe its organization in terms of the principles of composition including balance, gradation, movement and rhythm, proportion, unity, and variety: Fragonard, The Swing, 1776 (Figure 4-13) Monet, Impression, Sunrise, 1873 (Figure 4-15) O'Keeffe's Rust Red Hills, 1930 (Figure 4-12)
UNIT #2
You only need to select one question from the list below:
- Compare Michelangelo’s "David" (Figure 5-8) with Rodin’s "Danaïde" (Figure 5-9). How does each sculptor establish the gender of his figure? Does Rodin achieve more in terms of gender identity by leaving some of the original marble unfinished?
- Analyze the “spatial” and “revelatory” functions of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum. Give specific details and incorporate relevant terminology.
- Compare and contrast Old Comedy and New Comedy. Describe characteristics of each. Give examples.
UNIT #3
You only need to select one question from the list below:
- Using Beethoven’s "Eroica", discuss, in detail, the difference between “hearing” and “listening to” music. What specific factors go into “listening”?
- Explain, in detail, what makes Alfred Stieglitz’s "Paula" a pictorialist photograph. Be sure to use examples to further your discussion.
- Explain the significance of understanding the context in which a film exists. How does contextual knowledge influence our participative experience with film? Give examples to illustrate your point.
UNIT #4
You only need to select one question from the list below:
- Explain the origins of Dadaism. What did it aim to achieve? What distinctions are made between Dadaism and Duchampism? Why are these “isms” categorized as idea art?
- Why is Frank Gehry’s Nederlanden Building in Prague (Figure 15-8) considered an “extraordinary interaction between the arts”? What art form does the work of architecture interpret? Which elements does it appropriate? Explain.
- Explain the relational theory of value and how it has informed our study of the humanities during this course. Give examples to support your explanation.