Senior Research Paper: Researching and Writing About Artists and Their Work

Overview: You will be choosing one artist, either from the following list or a contemporary artist (or 20th Century artist) of equal historic merit--(he or she must have adequate primary and secondary source material from which to research). The research you gather will help you prove your thesis about specific pieces of art (1-5). Choose an artist whose work you like, and even more importantly, who you think makes an interesting statement through his or her artwork that you think you can explain for about 15 pages.

Here are two model papers from last year:

• Philip Guston
• Sandy Skogland
  

You should read these papers to understand where this process is going.

Step 1: I have set up hyperlinks for about 50 artists. Spend the next hour or so choosing an artist that you would like to focus for the next few weeks. (You will want to have a back-up choice or two for various reasons.) I know a bit about each of these artists and have an idea of what you will face if you choose to research any of them. I’ll be around to answer questions. Enjoy.
For some of these artists, it is just as easy to do an image search.

Painters and Artists:

• Francis Bacon
• Banksy
• Jean Michel Basquiat
• Romare Bearden
• Wallace Berman
• Norbert Bisky
• Joe Brainard
• Chuck Close
• Jess (Collins) (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Joseph Cornell
• Jay DeFeo
• Willem De Kooning (Image search has more variety of his work.)
• Jorge de la Vega
• Jim Dine (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Marcel Duchamp (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Max Ernst (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Shepard Fairey (At the ICA right now)
• Tony Fitzpatrick
• Lucien Freud
• Arshile Gorky (Image search has more variety of his work.)
• Philip Guston (Image search has more variety of his work.)
• Tim Hawkinson
• David Hockney
• Hans Hofmann
• Damien Hurst (Image search has more variety of his work.)
• Jasper Johns (Image search has more variety of his work.)
• Alex Katz
• Anselm Kiefer
• Edward Kienholz
• Franz Kline (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Lee Krasner (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Sol Lewitt
• Roy Lichtenstien (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Julie Mehretu
• Joan Mitchell (Easier to do an image search.)
• Robert Motherwell (Easier to do an image search.)
• Vik Muniz
• Wangechi Mutu (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Alice Neel
• Damian Ortega
• Raymond Pettibon
• Tom Phillips (He’s got a blog, people!)
• Jackson Pollock (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Robert Rauschenberg (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Gerhard Richter
• Larry Rivers
• James Siena
• Amy Sillman
• Sandy Skoglund
• Frank Stella (Just as easy to do an image search.) He was born in Malden!
  
• Yves Tanguy (Just as easy to do an image search.)
• Cy Twombly (Easier to do an image search.)
• Kara Walker
• Lee Waisler
• Trevor Winkfield
• Jerry Uelsmann

White Cube also has a good list of contemporary artists.

So does this PBS site.

I chose these artists because they should be easy enough to find research on but have not been written on endlessly. If you have an artist in mind, I’d be happy to add it to the list.

Step 2: Post a Comment on which artist you want and why (brief). You can, of course, pick someone that is not on the list. I would also like you to hyperlink the title of an image that you like from the artist, so a quick mini-lesson:

This is due at 8:00 a.m. on Wed. Feb. 4th. Artists are given on a first-post basis. Only two people per artist.

Kevin Ta 5 said...Alright, here’s my quick mini lesson on how to hyperlink in comment boxes. Say you want to make a link like this. All you have to do is type the following into the comment box:
<"a href=http://www.google.com">"this"<"/a">
and get rid of the quotation marks. When you publish it, it will look like:
this
Replace the URL (making sure you have the http:// part) and the “this” and it’s as simple as that. Remember that the Preview button is your friend. Hope that helps.

Essay due 1.14.09

Choose from the following list of AP prompts and write a 3 - 5 page (at least 1,000 words) essay on your independent reading book.

Format Guidelines are below in previous post.

Rubric: MHS Long Composition...worth 200 points in Major Projects and Papers.

• 2002, Form B. Often in literature, a character’s success in achieving goals depends on keeping a secret and divulging it only at the right moment, if at all. Choose a novel or play of literary merit that requires a character to keep a secret. In a well-organized essay, briefly explain the necessity for secrecy and how the character’s choice to reveal or keep the secret affects the plot and contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole. You may select a work from the list below, or you may choose another work of recognized literary merit suitable to the topic. Do NOT write about a short story, poem, or film.
• 2003. According to critic Northrop Frye, "Tragic heroes are so much the highest points in their human landscape that they seem the inevitable conductors of the power about them, great trees more likely to be struck by lightning than a clump of grass. Conductors may of course be instruments as well as victims of the divisive lightning." Select a novel or play in which a tragic figure functions as an instrument of the suffering of others. Then write an essay in which you explain how the suffering brought upon others by that figure contributes to the tragic vision of the work as a whole.
• 2003, Form B. Novels and plays often depict characters caught between colliding cultures -- national, regional, ethnic, religious, institutional. Such collisions can call a character's sense of identity into question. Select a novel or play in which a character responds to such a cultural collision. Then write a well-organized essay in which you describe the character's response and explain its relevance to the work as a whole.
• 2004. Critic Roland Barthes has said, "Literature is the question minus the answer." Choose a novel, or play, and, considering Barthes' observation, write an essay in which you analyze a central question the work raises and the extent to which it offers answers. Explain how the author's treatment of this question affects your understanding of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
• 2004, Form B. The most important themes in literature are sometimes developed in scenes in which a death or deaths take place. Choose a novel or play and write a well-organized essay in which you show how a specific death scene helps to illuminate the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
• 2005. In Kate Chopin's The Awakening (1899), protagonist Edna Pontellier is said to possess "That outward existence which conforms, the inward life that questions." In a novel or play that you have studied, identify a character who outwardly conforms while questioning inwardly. Then write an essay in which you analyze how this tension between outward conformity and inward questioning contributes to the meaning of the work. Avoid mere plot summary.
• 2005, Form B. One of the strongest human drives seems to be a desire for power. Write an essay in which you discuss how a character in a novel or a drama struggles to free himself or herself from the power of others or seeks to gain power over others. Be sure to demonstrate in your essay how the author uses this power struggle to enhance the meaning of the work.
• 2006. Many writers use a country setting to establish values within a work of literature. For example, the country may be a place of virtue and peace or one of primitivism and ignorance. Choose a novel or play in which such a setting plays a significant role. Then write an essay in which you analyze how the country setting functions in the work as a whole.
• 2006, Form B. In many works of literature, a physical journey – the literal movement from one place to another – plays a central role. Choose a novel, play, or epic poem in which a physical journey is an important element and discuss how the journey adds to the meaning of the work as a whole. Avoid mere plot summary.
• 2007. In many works of literature, past events can affect, positively or negatively, the present activities, attitudes, or values of a character. Choose a novel or play in which a character must contend with some aspect of the past, either personal or societal. Then write an essay in which you show how the character's relationship to the past contributes to the meaning of the work as a whole.

Format requirements:

Type the following in the upper left (not in the header) of the first page and single space:
Your Name
My Name (Please spell it correctly.)
English 12 CP, Period _
Due Date

Page Setup:

• 1 inch margins
• Insert page numbers, top right. Click box to not show number on first page. Add your last name to header with page number and align right.
• Center title in bold on first page.

Format:

• Times New Roman, 12 pt. font, align left, double-spaced.
• Staple rough drafts to back.
• Staple Scoring Guide to front. No scoring guide = no comments.

I will not accept papers until / unless all the above requirements are met.