The biography should showcase not just facts from the artist’s life, but your understanding of the socio-political, historical and cultural contexts. You should explain how the societal and cultural conditions influenced this artist and his or her works and which theoretical grounds were created a foundation of its creation.
Questions to consider:
What did shape his/her artistic identity?
How did his/her ethnic, religious, political identity influence the creative vision?
How was his/her personal life affected by self-perception and thereby was reflected in his/her art?
Did this artist belong to a certain group or artistic movement? If yes, how did this movement or group impact this artist?
Was his or her art well accepted or it was harshly criticized by the contemporaries and critics?
When discussing the image, you should focus on its content and the modes of representation. Please explain: 1) how this work exposes the political, social, and cultural-historical contexts; 2) how it might reveal the artist’s position/views; 3) how this work explores artist’s identity.
more question to consider:
1) When did she live and where was she born?
2) what was her “ethnic identity and ethnic community”?
3) What art schools did she attend?
4)which her works did “reflect the political aspect of Russia” and what exactly was the “political aspect of Russia”?
Once your researched the biography and completed annotated bibliography, you are ready to write a reflection essay. Your reflection essay should be devoted to one image of your choice.
For this essay you should assume the role of a critic or a general viewer and produce an essay from a positive or negative point of view.
Imagine yourself living in the period between the 1880s-1930s and place yourself in a position of a person who after attending an exhibit and seeing this artwork writes a newspaper or art-periodical article (a critic), or a letter to friend/relative, etc. (a general viewer). You can invent their identities.
In this reflection you should showcase your understanding of political, cultural and social situation, and your vision of what could be discussed by critics or general viewers as well as what was an impact of this image on public in general. Avoid any attempts to judge or to explain this artwork from the today (i.e. 21st century) perspectives.
The biography should showcase not just facts from the artist’s life, but your understanding of the socio-political, historical and cultural contexts. You should explain how the societal and cultural conditions influenced this artist and his or her works and which theoretical grounds were created a foundation of its creation.
You should introduce the creator. Identify the artist/creator, title, date and the museum. You can include important details from artist’s life (you can use the biography you already wrote for take home exam) and his or her self-portraits or photographs that are related to your topic.
Show the image (include title, date, museum, etc.). Avoid using fancy ppt designs that may distort the image.
Openly state the role you choose (critic, general viewer, etc.).
You should provide a formal visual analysis of this work (composition, colors, representation mode, etc.).
While explaining the position of a “critic” or “general viewer”, you should show your understanding of the political, socio-historical and cultural context in which this image emerged and which meanings were produced by the artist and by the viewers in the Russian empire and the USSR.
I’ll provide the annotated bibliography, and use the annotated bibliography I provided in the essay. Please specify how you use them in your research.