Paper II – Exhibition Review 20%
– Format: minimum 3 pages–maximum 5 pages (cover page not included, Bibliography or Works Cited included at the end); all margins of 1 inch; double-spaced; paginated; Times New Roman typeface; 12- point font
– Cover page: title of your paper, your name and student number; installation view of the exhibition or the reproduction of the works you focused on in the review (optional; not mandatory)
– Punctuation, footnotes, and bibliography must follow the MLA Handbook, 8th edition.
Guideline:
– Review one of the five sections (Border/Mapping/Witness; Color into Light; Collectivity; Line into Space; LOL!) of the exhibition “Connecting Currents: Contemporary Art and the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston” (November 21, 2020–Summer 2023), Nancy & Rich Kinder Building, MFAH. (https://www.mfah.org/exhibitions/galleries/inaugural-installations-kinder-building)
– While analyzing one subsection of the exhibition, the review must contain focused engagement with at least two exemplary artworks from the section via visual analysis and historical contextualization. Connect the knowledge gained from these case studies to your broader takes on the organization of the exhibition’s chosen section.
– Sources: Use 2–6 legitimate scholarly sources for your writing. It is not necessary to cite sources for the basic information on each artwork mentioned (title, maker, date, medium, dimension, etc.) which is provided on the museum’s wall labels and collection webpages. In addition to those minimum 2 academic sources, you can also use these auxiliary sources found both from online and printed publications: interviews with artists or curators, newspaper or magazine articles on the exhibition or the particular museum building, and MFAH’s own explanations on the exhibition and the building. When using these sources, you still have to cite them properly according to the style of your choice.
* Useful sources:
“Writing Exhibition Reviews,” Emily Carr University of Art + Design, Writing Centre,
https://writingcentre.ecuad.ca/resources/
Sylvain Barnet, A Short Guide to Writing about Art, 11th edition (Harlow, UK: Pearson, 2015), 154–169