To this end, students are required to purchase and read a copy of Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art. While there are many kinds and types of art writing, the art-historical research paper involves specialized features, which are explained further to students below.

This assignment primarily involves formal analysis in combination with an exploration of the content—aesthetic, expressive, intellectual, etc.—that may be comprised in the work(s) under investigation. Students will avoid the "appreciation." Rather, they will assess the artist’s achievement or contribution and keep in mind some of the central questions of art-historical research: What is the artist trying to convey by way of form and meaning? What is the role of the subject matter? How do both form and meaning work together to create a coherent expression? What are the art-historical and cultural contexts surrounding the works? Once these questions are addressed, others will suggest themselves, and students will investigate those as well.

Writers will be sensitive to the artist's associations, the influences acting upon him/her (no style is self-generated), and they will try to discover what led to the particular forms present in the work(s). The artist him/herself may throw light on this, as will his/her contemporaries, and recent writers, all of which may be found in during the research process.

d. make use of the technologies commonly used for research and writing in the field of art history

The technology necessary to art-historical research is very rudimentary: typewriters, word processors, copy machines, etc. in addition to the use of computerized catalogs, PALS, as well as the judicious use of the Internet.

e. learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in art-historical writing

Students are instructed (aided by the Barnet text) to strive for a clear and coherent organization, and how to present evidence. The final page of the course syllabus gives students further advice as to effective organization, the matter of drawing conclusions, format, and proper documentation. They are also informed that their papers will be evaluated on the basis of good writing, in addition to content.

identified as to artist, style, nationality, rough date (decade) and sometimes subject matter.

B. Other Identifications will consist of terms, names, and titles.

Part II. Essays built around pairs of slides stressing stylistic analysis, interpretation of content, etc.

No make-ups given except in rare circumstances when a legitimate excuse is provided, usually in advance of the exam. Each case considered on an individual basis. Any make-up given will be entirely essay.

The Writing Center, located in Minne 340, offers WSU students free, individualized instruction in writing. Students may visit the center on your own or on the recommendation of a teacher; they may "drop in," or they may sign up for a scheduled appointment; they may seek assistance with any aspect of their writing for any class or purpose. A schedule and sign-up sheet is posted on the Writing Center door each semester. Call x5505, email wcenter, or visit the Writing Center Web at http://www.winona.edu/writingcenter for appointments and information.

COURSE SCHEDULE (subject to change)

Week Readings

1900-1920s

2-3 Early 20^th Century Expressionism:

Les Fauves (Matisse to 1911) 101-11

Die Brucke (German Expressionism) 112-17

Early 20^th Century Sculpture 61-74, 129-30

4-5 The Revolution in Form:

Cubist Painting and Sculpture to c. 1925 132-52

Futurism 152-56

Brancusi 76-80

6 Exam I (Date to be announced)

Der Blaue Reiter 117-24

6 Austrian Expressionism 124-26

1900-1920’s continued

"Fantasy" 163-67

Dada 167-77

Surrealism 177-89

EXAM II (Date to be announced)

1920s-1940s

The later work of Picasso, Braque, Matisse, 190-94

and other artists/trends of the 1920s 215-46

Precisionism 254

American Scene, Regionalism, and Magic Realism 255-58

Modernism: The Second Wave 260

FINAL EXAM

The Research Paper: Writing Flag

a. practice the processes and procedures for creating and completing successful writing in the field of art and art history

• Refer to the information contained on p. 2 of the syllabus.

Length of paper: approximately 10-12 pages of text, exclusive of endnotes, bibliography, and illustrations, which must accompany the text.

Select a topic that interests you, something you genuinely would like to learn more about. Only in this way will you do a good job and learn from the experience. You will need to decide what kind of work(s) you wish to deal with.

To this end, you are required to purchase a copy of Sylvan Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art. While there are many kinds and types of art writing, the art-historical research paper involves specialized features, as explained further below.

This assignment primarily involves formal analysis in combination with an exploration of the content—aesthetic, expressive, intellectual, etc.—that may be comprised in the work(s) under investigation. Avoid the "appreciation"; rather, assess the artist’s achievement or contribution. Always keep in mind some of the central questions of art-historical research: What is the artist trying to convey by way of form and meaning? What is the role of the subject matter? How do both form and meaning work together to create a coherent expression? What are the art-historical and cultural contexts surrounding the works? Once you begin to consider these questions, others will suggest themselves; proceed to answer those as well.

Be sensitive to the artist's associations, the influences acting upon him/her (no style is self-generated). Try to discover what led to the particular forms present in the work(s). The artist him/herself may throw light on this, as will his/her contemporaries, and recent writers, all of which may be found in the books/articles you are reading.

d. make use of the technologies commonly used for research and writing in the field of art history

First begin with the bibliography in your text. Take note of books and articles both. For those items not available in the Library, take advantage of the PALS network that enables you to obtain books and copies of articles by interlibrary Loan (Minitex). Librarians will assist you with this. The Art Index, which is comparable to The Reader's Guide to Periodical Literature, is a critical source for articles on art. Start with the most recent volumes (covering the last few years) and work backward.

The Internet is a growing source of information, but a word of caution: anyone can put anything on the Internet. So you need to be especially careful to evaluate the material; institutional sponsorship—a museum or university, etc. is a safe bet. The Barnet book has useful information as to Internet research. In any case, when citing web pages in notes and bibliography, it is necessary to include as much information as possible about the site, comparable to a book or article citation, never simply the Internet address alone. The WSU Library home page has information as to citing electronic references (see MLA documentation style).

e. learn the conventions of evidence, format, usage, and documentation in art-historical writing

Strive for a clear and coherent organization, gradually presenting your evidence in a step-by-step fashion. Avoid repetitiousness and jumping back and forth to ideas previously explored; however, there may be times when you must go back to an issue introduced earlier but not fully explored then, or to compare points in one work to one or more works discussed earlier in your text. A critical part of the writing will come at the end of the whole process when you'll have to decide what to edit out, what to add, and what needs to be shifted here or there. It may be preferable for certain topics to consider an organization based on a sequence of ideas, into which you "plug" the works, rather than a chronological discussion of one work at a time. Include photocopies of works under discussions, though there is no need to include copies of works reproduced in your text or shown in class. The photocopies should follow the bibliography or list of works cited.

The order of the required contents:

• Text, Endnotes, Bibliography, Illustrations.

CONCLUSIONS

Be as objective as possible, but this does not mean that you are not permitted to offer insights or conclusions of your own. Simply take care that you have earned them on the basis of what you have already presented to the reader. In other words, they should not be arbitrary, but arrived at in a logical, reasoned way; and they must be supported by your research findings.

THE WRITING

The paper will be graded on the basis of points outlined here, in addition to good writing, i.e. sentence and paragraph structure, usage, grammar, punctuation, etc. Common grammatical mistakes include misusing like, which is a preposition and therefore must have an object and not a subject following it; do not use it to introduce a clause, e.g. Like he said. As he said is the correct form because as is a conjunction, and only conjunctions introduce clauses; they require a subject, followed by a verb.

Commas generally precede conjunctions. A semicolon, not a comma, must be used to link two independent clauses. When used with quotations, commas and periods go inside the closed quotation marks; all other punctuation goes outside the closed quotation mark. Do not omit the apostrophe before the s ('s) when using the possessive case. As to verbs, try to use the active voice whenever possible instead of the passive voice. Titles of works of art should be underlined or italicized, not placed in quotation marks. Also, use about an inch and a quarter margins so I may make notations easily.