As discussed in class, your final exam will be a discussion of your selected theme relevant to our 19th century course material and to our interest in this theme today. This means that if you just talk about, let’s say, Romanticism, your fellow students from CSI, for example, may not even think that art/and your exhibition here is interesting based on your paper. If you, however, formulate the need to talk about Romanticism, because some of its aspects continue to be discussed even today, and so on, it is clear that you formulate a topic that will appeal a wider audience. In otehr words, people will be able to relate to your discussion even if they don’t know much about art history.
For example, if I choose to talk about paintings that show surgeries in the 19th century, I may want to stress that this is interesting to us today, because we can actually see that the painter painted attention to this or that and in that way, innovations in medicine and so on were shown. I may also examine gender role in the profession at that time and reflect on if this has changed today or not. Just find a way to link your interest with our present times.
Have your own title! After formulating a thesis in your introduction, explain why you think this particular thesis is important! This explanation needs also some historical context and should be about one page long. (DO NOT INCLUDE YOUR NAME ETC. on the first page. Students are trying to fill space. In fact, I will be looking for 6 pages of text at least. The paper should be 6-8 ppp. long double spaced in Times New Roman font.
Next, select 5-6 works of art. Variety is a key!! You need to have works by 3 artists at least included! Always ID works of art in the way we always did on the midterm and so on. I suggest that you take about one page for each work. The discussion has to incude visual analyzes and historical context. this has to be YOUR OWN VOICE! Finally, include a short conclusion.
The USE of AI tools is not allowed. Plagiarism will result in an F grade and failing the course. Cite any sources you use!
You do not need to include images! If you do, they have to be on additional pages.
1 point is symbolic here. The final essay evaluation is stated in teh syllabus.