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Art History

Question: TMA 02 Part 1 Art History 86%

In not more than 300 words, write a descriptive account of Harmen Steenwyck’s: Still Life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life ( Illustration Book, Colour Plate 10), paying particular attention to the organisation and lighting of the composition and to the effects of tone and colour.

Answer: Harmen Steenwyck illustrates an eclectic mix of objects in this fine oil painting. The objects are placed close to the picture plane, as within reach of the spectator, drawing the eye from left to right as the clustered objects increase in height. This suggests that this is the way that Steenwyck wanted the spectator to view them. His skilful use of light draws us to the principal object, the i......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: How does the Surrealist photography (of Man Ray) engage with gender politics?

Answer: The inherent mimetic quality of photography, its ability to represent ‘the real forms of real objects’ , appears to conflict with André Breton’s insistence on an uncontrolled, unframed automatism as the primary route to the unconscious. Yet, paradoxically, Breton was suggesting a link between photography and automatic writing even before his founding of the Surrealist movement in 1924. In......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Discuss the importance of the concept of ideal beauty in the evolution of western art between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries.

Answer: In discussing the importance of ideal beauty in the evolution of western art between the seventeenth and nineteenth centuries we ought to first understand what the concept of ideal beauty means. In defining the term there is a mass of literature that can provide evidence of its tradition from as early as Plato’s The Republic. The Platonic tradition of the ideal can be understood in terms of an a......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Critically assess the degree to which to which it can be said that traditional African theatre was also ‘a theatre of resistance’ to colonialism.

Answer: Pre –colonial, Traditional African theatre was an extremely important division of the typical Africans life. It was not purely for entertainment, as it also had an essential role to play in the harmonious functioning of African society. It relied heavily on music and dance, along with mime, masquerade and acrobatics. But by far the most significant element of African theatre was its story telli......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Pop Art as a cultural expression of American democratic values.

Answer: The aim of this paper is to show that Pop Art was one cultural expression of this American “democratic ethos” (Kroes,p.46). It will further discuss in how far Pop Art as part of American culture had an influence on Europe and if the fears and criticisms by European intellectuals of being ‘Americanised’ are justified.......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: The graffiti subculture mirrors the functions of ‘institutionalised art’. Discuss.

Answer: Graffiti first came to public attention in the late 1960s, mainly in New York City and largely as an outgrowth of political radicalism and of black and Hispanic empowerment and identity. It was from here that it spread to Europe and other parts of the world as part of a ‘graffiti underground’ (Ferrell J, 1995:74). The term ‘graffiti’ comes from a word meaning to scratch, and in a sense ......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Considering the ways in which feminist interventions in art history have developed our understanding of the genres of portraiture and history painting.

Answer: Our understanding of the genres of portraiture and history painting is, I will show, greatly enhanced by feminist interventions in art history. From feminist writers, such as Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock, we gain pathways into examining the history of art in a much greater and all-encompassing depth. I will consider here the kinds of interventions feminists to the development of our understa......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Compare and Contrast Barbara Kruger’s ‘Your body is a battleground’ and The Guerrilla Girls ‘Do women have to be naked to get into the Metropolitan Museum of Art?’

Answer: Artists Barbara Kruger and The Guerrilla Girls often use their work to cover issues of political content and in particular the highly debated topic of feminism. Both artists’ works continue to be bold and striking, containing important and significance issues. Born in New Jersey 1945, Barbara Kruger’s photography has a highly recognisable style, using images and words often presented using ......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Discuss and evaluate the importance of some of the innovations in style and structure found in modernist text.

Answer: After the catastrophic aftermath of World War I, many artists believed that the traditional, social, religious and political order of Western culture had disintegrated. As a result of this, doubts about the function of realist art, which was the dominant literary mode of representation of the nineteenth century, was called into question. Modernist writers felt that Realism could not adequately des......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

Question: Can art accurately capture the experience of war?

Answer: Throughout history, artists and authors have tried to allow their audience to experience war and to some extent have been very accurate. There is however, no truly accurate medium through which the experience of war can be portrayed. Accurate, as defined by the Merriam-Webster online collegiate dictionary, means free from error and conforming exactly to truth or to a standard. No human author c......(short extract) to download the full answer, please Sign in or Register then make a payment or submit an essay

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