Discussion 8: Gender/Race/Identity Analysis
Please report on one well-known or galley-level work of craft, fiber/textile art, high-art fashion or industrial design made between 1945 and 2010 CE. The work can, for instance, be an Eames chair, a Hitomi Hosono porcelain, or a Jagoda Buic fiber work. The work should be three-dimensional and have a use-function, as well as an art function, as noted in your readings. Your report should be at least 400 words, and should include these numbered sections:
1. Image: Post an image or link to your chosen work, with the MLA citation and URL to the source.
2. Material Data: Name the artist/designer (if known), date(s), current location or museum, materials used and size. Note its use(s) and any special production techniques utilized.
3. Formal Analysis: Describe your chosen work using at least four (4) of these categories: Line, Shape and Form, Space, Texture, Value and Light, Color, and Implied Movement (Time), Repetition, Variety, Rhythm, Balance, Compositional Unity, Emphasis, Economy, and/or Proportion.
4. [NEW] Gender/Race/Identity Analysis: This section will require research beyond your readings. Report on how this chosen work reflects on race, identity and/or gender. For instance the work might be meditating on Black, Latino or immigrant experience in America or women’s or LGBT discrimination, or a work that simply reinforces the mainstream White male heterosexual “status quo”. Even if the work does not explicitly deal with these issues, analyze these issues within the work, given its appearance at this time and place. (Note that the artist may not have had the intention to design a work that deals with these global issues, but every work appears in a political context, and therefore makes a comment on these issues).
On these methods see:
Nochlin, Linda (1971). Why Have There Been No Great Women Artists? Women, Art and Power and Other Essays. Westview Press.
https://deyoung.famsf.org/files/whynogreatwomenartists_4.pdf (Links to an external site.)
Race and Identity Sources by Lee and Rachel
http://arthistoryteachingresources.org/lessons/race-and-identity/ (Links to an external site.)
5. Personal Reflections: Why did you choose this work? What are its least and most attractive aspects to you?
6. MLA citations to your research sources.
Post this initial post by Thursday night. Afterwards, please post at least two substantial replies to other students (and/or the professor), on separate days, before the end of the instructional week (Sunday night). In your replies to one another, try to go deeper into the work presented, comparing and contrasting it with what you presented. Share new research or knowledge. End by asking a critical question of the other student (not a yes/no question but a how/why type question) on what they presented. Return later in the week to continue the discussion and go further with the conversation.
