Posted: May 1st, 2015

Critical Review

Critical Review

General Directions:
?Choose from one of the following prompts and respond with a 6-8 page essay. You must engage with the work of at least three theorists we have read over the course of the semester; place their ideas, methodologies, assumptions, or strategies into conversation with the artwork(s) of your choosing from paper prompts 1, 2, or 3. Use direct quotes from the reading responsibly— do not let the quotes make the argument for you! Include images discussed in the paper on the last page before the works cited, and properly cite each work.

Topic 3: Critical Review
You have been asked to write a review essay for the art blog Hyperallergic – congratulations! Choose one cultural production (from a 20th-21st century visual artist/performer, or a 20th-21st century mass media/popular cultural production) and perform a close textual analysis of the piece. Use one or more theoretical frameworks we have covered in the course to frame your analysis. Consider how the work makes meaning for present-day viewers, and how it reflects and shapes the historical context in which it was created. Some questions to help guide your analysis: How does the artist comment on historical and/or contemporary social, cultural, economic, and/or political issues? How does the work reinforce, challenge, or reject social norms and dominant discourses? How does this piece fit into or break from the larger body of work by this individual artist and from larger artistic movements? What is its significance for contemporary audiences –why does this work matter?

As you see it requires references from our course readings. I will provide all the course readings in a zip file, named by authors. I put them into folders that named with week numbers. I will also provide a copy of the course syllabus. At the end of the syllabus, there is a detailed course schedule, which you will see the topic of each week. This is to make your selection of the course reading easier so that you can filter out what you need.