DISCUSSION BOARD

Instructions

Based on your reading in Chapters 1-5 in Living with Art, respond to BOTH of the questions in below. Your responses should be “mini-essays” ranging from 175-300 words per question.

In responding to the questions for each discussion board, you are encouraged select specific examples of art works from the text book to illustrate and support your points—these supporting examples of art works should be different from those that the author of the course text uses when discussing similar themes or issues. Include the artist, title and page number of the each work of art you use. You may also find images of art works on the internet. If you do so, include the link and source information.

Try looking in other chapters of the course text, even those that are not assigned; you will find a wealth of images throughout the book. It should be part of your learning experience in this course to learn to LOOK at works of art and to see not only what the experts see, but also to experience a work of art for yourself and to discover what you find there.

Two Power Points will assist you in preparing your Discussion Board responses: “How to Write a Comparison”, in the main menu, and “How to Look at Art” in the INTERACTIVES in Unit 2.

Also, remember that if you copy or paraphrase word or ideas from the text or other sources, make sure that you follow appropriate procedures for crediting those sources. Put any quoted text in quotation marks “” and follow it with the source in parenthesis (). Citing incorrectly will reduce your grade. You must cite your sources in MLA format at the end of each response.

Finally, please note that responses that merely report back information from the text, or that do little more than repeat other students’ posts, or that quote extensively, will not receive high marks. Originality and critical thought are the goals here.

Question 1

1. Imagine that you are in a debate with someone who asserts that, just as beauty is in the eye of the beholder, art is whatever the spectator thinks it is; there are no rules, no criteria, no universal boundaries delineating what is and what is not art, who is and who is not an artist. If something expresses or creates an aesthetic or emotional response, it is art.

Your task is to take the other side of the debate: How would you respond to and rebut this view? In the first chapter of Living with Art, Getlein lists six roles that artists fulfill; these may help you in coming up with your response. Come up with points and specific examples of art works to support of the other side of the debate, which is that not just anything can be art, not just anyone can be an artist: There are established and justifiable criteria to confer that status upon objects and individuals.

Question 2

In Chapter 5, Getlein covers the principles of design. For each term listed, identify an art work art included in the text, Living with Art, but NOT mentioned in either Chapter 4 or Chapter 5, that illustrates the principle in question and explain why you chose it.

Note: in some cases you will find both the contrasting principles in the same work, (i.e. a painting that has both emphasis and subordination). You will have a minimum of 5 art works selected, maximum of 9. A required part of this question is to explain WHY you chose each work. Make sure we can “see” what you are seeing. Please include both the page number and illustration number in your response.

1. unity and variety (describe an example of both terms here, either in the same work or in 2 different works)
2. symmetrical and asymmetrical balance (describe an example of both terms here, either in the same work or in 2 different works)
3. emphasis and subordination (describe an example of both terms here, either in the same work or in 2 different works)
4. scale and proportion (describe an example of both terms here, either in the same work or in 2 different works)
5. rhythm