AH 202 Worksheet #1

Name:_______________________________________ AH 202 WORKSHEET #1 WEEK 4: The readings for this week, ?Interpretation and Interpretations,? and ?Some Critical Approaches,? in Barnet?s A Short Guide to Writing About Art (pp. 22-25 and 220-245) suggest a variety critical approaches, methodologies, and criteria for doing the work of art history. Read the selection and answer the following questions. Consider Baxandall?s essay from Week 3 (or read ahead to the essays by Rona Goffen or Mary Garrard) and briefly analyze and describe the author?s approach or methodology. What elements of art history is the author most concerned with when studying a particular art historical period or a select group of artworks? Does the author utilize only one or several of the approaches mentioned in chapter 10? Why do you think the author chose the particular approach(es) he or she used? Choose a work from the AH 202 image list or your textbook and briefly do a formal analysis of the work (formal elements include line, color, composition, light, etc.). Suggest an interpretation (even a very simple one) based on your formal analysis. Be sure to include the artist and title of the work. Using the same image, apply one of the critical approaches Barnet describes (for example, social history, Marxism, postcolonial studies, cultural materialism, feminist art history, queer studies, psychoanalysis or iconology). Explain the elements in the image that could be analyzed using this approach. What additional information or ideas do you get about the particular work of art and its context by using a critical approach rather than using only visual analysis? Suggest an interpretation based on the critical approach.