To Research

Alexander Rodchenko - Advertisement: “Books!” 1925 (Davies, Denny, Hofrichter, Jacobs, Roberts, Simon 1006)

One of my favorite definitions of research is to search and search again. This is in keeping with the etymology of word research, from the Old French word recercher, to search again. This is what we have been doing when you wondered why we were not leaving marks on our blog… Our search, our exploration of portraiture continues. We have not ceased our investigation. We have instead been involved in individual research projects. Each person selected a portrait artist, and has been pursuing a research thesis that involves some aspect of human character. The research projects culminate in a written paper, an oral presentation, and a blog summary. The research presentation ends with prompts, asking classmates to respond to questions or ideas relating to the project artist and the thesis’ character issue. The blog summary is essentially a précis of the research project. Classmates are responding to the prompts in the comment portion of the blog précis. Since some class members have opted for some degree of anonymity, not using their entire names on their blog links, I will list the blogspot site identifier, the research title, and the day each person presents the oral portion of their research. The blog précis is posted the day of the presentation. Classmates’ responses will appear two days later. The links are to the right, under the CLASS BLOG LIST.
alicia anne - Botero’s Inconvenient Truth, April 13
ashley k - Henri Carier-Bresson: The Man Behind the Lens, April 8
Carrie2009 - Renoir: The Quest for True Painting, April 22
Casey - A Repressive and Fallacious Society: The Insights of a Madman, April 1
Dawn_fire - A Hidden Truth, March 25
E's UH280 Blog - Life on the Fringe with Diane Arbus, March 30
Erika W - David Hockney: A Life in Paint, April 10
Jared TennisWriter Brickman –The Face of Criminality, April 1
Jbilimoria – Dorothea Lange: A Beacon of Hope, March 27
Jenn K. – No Transitions: Reality to Distortion, April 24
Josilyn – Diego Rivera: A Politician in His Own Right, March 23
jschillios– Hieronymus Bosch: Radical Heretic or Religiously Devoted? April 8
K-Slice – W. Eugene Smith: Bearing Witness to the Human Condition, April 22
Kayla – Escapism and Realism, April 15
Kelleykristine – Botticelli’s Beatrice, April 13
Keora – Herb Kawainui Kane: Preservation through Paint, March 30
Kfreese – Influence, Innocence, and Identity: Sargent’s Creations, April 3
kyle2h – Alice Neel’s Life-Inspired Art, April 20
Nicholas Lawrence – Painting with Photographs, April 10
Pharangaisee – A Rope in the Sky: The Eyes of Odilon Redon, April 6
R. Hageman – Chipping away at the veil of Magritte, March 23
Shia – Man in the Shadows, April 20
Sj – Caravaggio: Conflict and Contradictions, March 25
UH 280- Erin S. – Steve McCurry’s Familiar Faces, April 15
uh280 edhille – Historian or Pleaser of Patrons? April 17
Wonder Woman – Through the Lens, April 6

Davies, Denny, Hofrichter, Jacobs, Roberts, Simon, Janson's
History of Art. Seventh Edition. Upper Saddle River,
NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007.

Photograph: Édouard Manet

Photograph of Édouard Manet by Nadar, c. 1910

Photograph: Suzanne Leenhoff / Madame Manet

Photograph of Suzanne Leenhoff, Madame Manet,Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris

Olympia's Look by Susan Vreeland

Portrait of Mme. Manet on a Blue Sofa, 1874, Musée d'Orsay, Paris





Read Olympia’s Look from Susan Vreeland, Life Studies (New York: Viking, 2005), 69-91. I will discuss Édouard Manet and show a PowerPoint presentation on Wednesday February 25 containing many of the images alluded to in the Vreeland short story.
Based on Vreeland’s portrayal and on your interpretation of this short story, how do you understand Suzanne Manet’s personality, her character?
Select and discuss two passages from Olympia’s Look that you found interesting and that relate to your understanding of Suzanne Manet’s character. What do you like or dislike about the two sections you selected, and how do they address an issue of character.
An individual is affected by the cultural environment, by close relationships, and by formative experiences and events. That said, do you believe Vreeland’s Suzanne Manet exerts free will in this story? Or, is she only reacting to the forces and events in her life? Does the author give you a sense of who she was or who she will become?
Some of you had criticisms of Vreeland’s writing when you read The Yellow Jacket. How do you feel about the writing of this story? What strengths and weaknesses do you find in the writing?
What questions or comments do you have about other characters in the short story? What questions or comments do you have about the fact or fiction aspects of the story?

Who is that person really?

With the first blog, you speculated on a portrait without knowledge of the title or artist’s name; you based your narrative on careful observation and creative speculations. There were no wrong answers. The only way to flub that assignment was to not work at the observations or the speculation or to write poorly.
With this assignment, we are unearthing factual answers to the same question: Who is that person? Sometimes the appearance of a portrait subject is due to the character of the person portrayed. Sometimes the appearance of a portrait is a projection of the artist’s personality. Often there is some combination of the two contained in the image. Art comes to us through the artist’s sensibilities and is received by our sensibilities.
Who is that person? Tell us in the form of an annotated bibliography. Include research using at least two or three sources to solve some of the riddles and to research the image you chose for the Who is that Person assignment. With this short annotated bibliography assignment I am not specifying what type of source you use. You may, with this initial annotated bibliography, use all credible web sites if you can find answers there. All should be cited properly. The object of this assignment is two-fold: Find some answers, through research, to the factual questions surrounding the identity of the portrait and the artist responsible for creating the image. Practice constructing an annotated bibliography. In your annotations, reveal the answers you uncovered with your research. Under the title of your bibliography, specify which citation style you have employed.

Children of the Screen

Photograph by Hannah Baylon


Read Children of the Screen, reproduced on e-learning with permission of the author Hannah Baylon. The article is accompanied by a provocative photographic portrait, also by Ms. Baylon.
2009 marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Charles Darwin, famous for his influential theory on evolutionary biology and for his landmark book On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. Author Baylon refers to Darwin’s theory in her opening sentence.
Write a short essay responding to the ideas the author eloquently puts forth in her essay. Are we indeed children of the screen? Have you adapted to a screen-based environment? If not, what has prevented you from being absorbed by the dominant popular culture perpetrated so successfully by television, movies, monitors, by the ubiquitous screen image? Do we face a loss of our true natures if we adapt to the modern world of television’s screen reality? Is there an upside to our screen age reality? What do you see as a benefit or as a detriment? Write a short essay, of around 500 words (or more), of your response, ideas, and thoughts on the theme(s) of the essay and/or the startling portrait that accompanies the text.
On Wednesday, I will present a slide show and lecture on Annie Leibovitz, a photographer best known for her celebrity portraits. This Wednesday’s lecture, on a celebrity photographer, and the Baylon essay about our screen-age-culture zeitgeist are intentionally counterpoised.

The Film: The Picture of Dorian Gray

Albright's painting of Dorian Gray, from the 1945 film
http://www.artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/93798

Albert Lewin wrote the screen play and directed the film The Picture of Dorian Gray based on Oscar Wilde’s once controversial Victorian novel of the same name. The American film, released in 1945, won a number of film awards including an Academy Award for its black and white cinematography and a Hugo Award for dramatic presentation. As we begin our semester analyzing and considering portraiture through questions relating to character and determinism, the story that this film tells seems to be a worst case scenario. The film’s horrific painting of the debauched Dorian Gray is certainly a worst case likeness of a man’s soul.
Watch the film. The dialogue is marvelous and fascinating. The characters are intriguing and well realized. In this morality tale, the message seems clear. In your own words, what is the films message? Summarize the story. This is a film that tells the story of... In your own words, write a short synopsis of the story and its message.
Select a scene that you like. Describe this scene so the rest of us will know which passage you have chosen. Does your scene take place in the beginning, the middle or the end? What did you find meretricious or interesting about this film passage that you have selected. Was there a visual aspect that you found particularly noteworthy? Describe some of the dialogue. Which characters are involved in the part you chose. How does your selected scene relate to the overall message of the Picture of Dorian Gray? How does your chosen segment fit into the larger story, a particular character’s fate, or the overall message of the film?
Here is a list of the film’s main characters to help you with the correct spelling as you write: Dorian Gray (acted by Hurd Hatfield), Basil Hallward (played by actor Lowell Gilmore), Lord Henry Wotton (George Sanders), Sybil Vane (Angela Lansbury), Hallward’s niece Gladys (Donna Reed), and Glady’s friend David Stone (Peter Lawford).