Visual and Cultural Studies

Spring 2008

Name:	
Date:		

Midterm Exam

Provide short essay responses to 4 of the 5 questions listed below.  Note: If you answer all 5, I’ll grade only the first 4 essays.  When finished, save and upload your document to the Digital Dropbox in Blackboard.  Be sure to include your name and the date.

Your essays should be no longer than 2 pages each, double spaced.  Your completed exam is due by noon, Monday, 17 March 08.  If your exam is submitted after the deadline, you’ll be marked down one letter grade for each day that it’s late.

Statement on Academic Honesty

It is expected that all work submitted for a grade in this course reflects the work of the student submitting it. If you borrow an idea from someone else, you must cite the source, even if it is based on a conversation or correspondence.  Plagiarism or any other form of academic dishonesty will result in a failing grade for the course.  Any student who does not fully understand the standards of academic honesty should speak to me in advance of submitting coursework.
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1.  Jonathan Harris, in Modernism in Dispute, spends a good deal of time discussing what he calls the "historical and critical orthodoxy" of Modernism.  He says that Modernism "relies on specific notions of formal and technical innovation, conceptions of art's uniqueness as a medium, and the assumption that art is, in its most significant respects, autonomous from social and historical circumstances"  Restate Harris' claim in your own words. Then, keeping this characterization of Modernism in mind, compare and contrast the arguments in "Modernist Painting" by Greenberg and "The Liberating Quality of Avant-Garde Art" by Schapiro, both defenders of Modernism. In what ways are they similar and in what ways different?

2.  "The artist who discusses the so-called meaning of his work is usually describing a literary side-issue. The core of his original impulse is to be found, if at all, in the work itself."  [Louise Bourgeois]  Explain in your own words what Bourgeois means by this, using the rest of her "Artist's Statement" as a larger context for the quote above.  Then imagine Clive Bell responding to her.  What would he say?  Be sure to use his theory of art in formulating the response to Bourgeois.

3.  "The Old Masters created an illusion of space in depth that one could imagine oneself walking into, but the analogous illusion created by the Modernist painter can only be seen into; can be traveled through, literally or figuratively, only with the eye."  [Clement Greenberg]
 Analyze and develop this statement by Greenberg. What is the difference between the space of the Old Master painting and the space of the Modernist painting?  Give an example of each.  Why is this difference important to Greenberg?  What role does it play in his theory of modern art?

4.  Nearly everything we've read so far this semester has, in one way or another, assumed the value of visual and aesthetic education in understanding and appreciating art.  What is the argument for visual education?  What role do formal analyses play in our understanding of visual culture? What else, if anything, is needed to understand the value and significance of visual objects within a culture?

5.  Schapiro believes that a great abstract painting can have a profound effect on the ordinary viewer. That’s because it engages us at the most human level—through perception of color, shape, texture, line, and an overall compositional quality that is expressive rather than conceptual.

But there seem to be obvious counter-examples to Schapiro’s claim. My Uncle Bob hasn’t a clue what to make of Jackson Pollock's One: Number 31, 1950 at MoMA. Doesn't that successfully refute Schapiro’s claim that modern (avant-garde) painting is for everyone?

Discuss this apparent contradiction.  Is there a resolution?  Is something missing in the argument presented above?
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