Art Appreciation 58.101 Section 001

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UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS LOWELL

Continuing Studies, Corporate and Distance Education

http://continuinged.uml.edu

Fall 2010

Course Title:                          Art Appreciation

Course and Section:              58.101-001

Instructor:                              Professor Kathleen Smith

                                                Email: Kathleen_Smith@uml.edu

                                                Office Hour: Wed, 5-6PM, Coburn 300

Class Meetings:                      Coburn Hall, Room 300, South Campus

                                                Wednesday 7-9:30pm

Text: Available at University Book Store

Patrick Frank, Prebles' ARTFORMS: An Introduction to the Visual Arts, Ninth Edition (Pearson/Prentice Hall); ISBN-10: 0536285454 or ISBN-13: 978-0536285454

REQUIREMENTS AND ASSIGNMENTS

CLASS DESCRIPTION/CLASS GOALS:

- Be able to analyze the formal character of art objects through visual analysis.

- Understand connections between subject matter and formal choices.

- Be able to identify the works of major artists and their artwork, including dates and places where they worked, the mediums they used (e.g., tempera, oil, fresco, marble, bronze), and subjects they portrayed.

- Identify the stylistic characteristics of each major period within the scope of the course,

e.g., Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern, Classical, Romanesque, Gothic, Renaissance, Baroque, Modern, Contemporary/Postmodern, etc.

- Write an informative, brief essay about works of art using visual analysis.

-Develop a vocabulary of terms.

CLASS COMPORTMENT: Since this is a professional presentation at the university level, you are not permitted to eat and you are not permitted to converse or text message on cellular phones during class lectures and discussion. Cellular phones must be turned off at all times and must not be visible. Students are not permitted to tape the lectures without my permission.

ACCOMMODATIONS: Students must see me as soon as possible if you have a documented need or learning disability so that we can make arrangements for you.

REQUIRED READINGS:  There is one required textbook for this class.  Reading assignments are due on the date that the assignment appears in the syllabus. Class participation and, hence, the final grade depend upon students' having completed the reading for each week's class.

ATTENDANCE: Class attendance is mandatory.  More than one unexcused absence from class will result in a reduced grade.  An excused absence will only be granted for a documented illness or emergency, discussed with me in advance in person or via email. The maximum number of excused absences permitted, before a Dean's note and/or further documentation is required, is three.

PARTICIPATION:  While a portion of each class will take the form of lectures, classes will have time devoted to discussion.  These discussions will use the weekly readings as their point of departure.  The spirit in which both the readings and lectures are presented is intended to provide students with multiple approaches for considering both the art objects themselves and the ways scholars have approached the art of the period.

EXAMINATIONS:  There will be three examinations, on Wednesday, September 29; Wednesday, November 3; Wednesday, December 8.

Examinations are based on specific material covered in class and on the required readings.  Examinations missed without prior written excuse from the instructor or written excuse for medical or other emergencies cannot be made up.  No electronic mail, fax, telephone, or voice mail is acceptable.

WRITTEN ASSIGNMENT:  There will be one 2-page paper assigned during the semester due on Wednesday, December 1. The written assignment will be a comparative paper between a choice of five artworks in the textbook and a work of art in a local museum/gallery of your choice. *You must attend a local museum/gallery to complete this required paper assignment.  Papers are not accepted via email.  There are no extensions for paper assignments. Half a letter grade (e.g. from A- to B+) will be deducted for each day that a paper is late.

*NOTE ON PLAGIARISM*: Be careful never to copy directly or directly adapt from another author without crediting the source.  General sources must be listed in a bibliography; any direct quotation or paraphrase must be footnoted.  Any unacknowledged copying will receive and F for the course.

GUIDELINES ON PLAGIARISM or ACADEMIC DISHONESTY FOR THIS COURSE: Since this is a professional presentation at the university level, collegiality and honesty must be honored. Please read careful the information regarding Academy Dishonesty and Etiquette Comportment.

Students at UMASS Lowell are expected to be honest and to respect ethical standards in meeting academic assignments and requirements. A student who cheats on an examination or assignment is subject to administrative dismissal.

The following definitions are provided for the information of all students and constitute official notice of prohibited academic practice and behavior.

1. Cheating is defined as:

a) misrepresenting academic work which has been done by another as one's own efforts, whether such misrepresentation has been accomplished with or without the permission of the other individual;

b) providing or utilizing prohibited assistance (whether in the nature of a person or a resource) in the performance of assignments and examinations;

c) copying of another person's work or the giving or receiving of information or answers by any means of communication during an examination;

d) utilization of the services of a commercial term paper company; and

e) the unauthorized or fraudulent acquisition and/or use of another's academic property.

2. Plagiarism is defined as

a) direct quotation or word-for-word copying of all or part of the work of another without identification or acknowledgment of the quoted work;

b) extensive use of acknowledged quotation from the work of others which is joined together by a few words or lines of one's own text; and

c) an abbreviated restatement of someone else's analysis or conclusion, however skillfully paraphrased, without acknowledgment that another person's text has been the basis for the recapitulation

d) downloading information from the internet without direct quotation and reference, name of author, title of article or text and date .

HANDOUTS: A series of xeroxed materials will be given out throughout the course, including the one writing assignment, to help you along in the course.

COURSE WEBSITE: http://faculty.uml.edu/ksmith/58.101.001/index.htm

All handouts will be uploaded to the course website. Other important material will also be uploaded to the website, which I will announce throughout the semester.

EVALUATION:  The following grading percentages are intended as an approximate guideline to help students understand how grades are generally assessed in this class.  The actually weight given each assignment may be altered somewhat depending on individual circumstances.

Exams: Each of the three exams will count for 20% (total 60%)

Paper: 25%

Attendance and participation: 15%

SCHEDULE of CLASSES, READINGS AND ASSIGNMENTS:

 (N.B.  SCHEDULE IS SUBJECT TO CHANGE WITHOUT PRIOR NOTICE)

Week 1          

W, Sept. 1       Introduction: Scope of the course. The Nature of Art.

Overview- Ancient to Medieval Art. Renaissance to Baroque Art.

Neoclassicism/Romanticism/Realism. Modern to Contemporary Art.

Week 2

W, Sept. 8       The Nature of Art continued. Discussion of Terms.

The Language of Art: Visual Elements

The Language of Art: Principles of Design

Textbook: Prebles, Chapters 1-4

Week 3

W, Sept. 15      The Media of Art: Or How is Art Made? From What is Art Made?

            -2D objects

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapters 6-10 

Week 4

W, Sept. 22     The Media of Art: Or How is Art Made? From What is Art Made? 

-3D objects and architecture

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapters 11-13 

                        Chapters 1-13 REVIEW

Week 5                                                                                                                                 

W, Sept. 29     EXAM #1 on Chapters 1-4, 6-13 (Weeks 1-4)

Ancient Art and Architecture

Visual Analysis

*Paper Assignment will be handed out

Week 6

W, Oct. 6        Ancient Art and Architecture Continued

Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 14 

Week 7

W, Oct. 13      Classical and Medieval Art and Architecture

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 15 

Week 8

W, Oct. 20      Renaissance and Baroque Art and Architecture

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 16

Week 9                      

W, Oct. 27      18^th & 19^th Centuries- Neoclassicism/Romanticism/Realism. Photography. Impressionism and Post-Impressionism

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 20 

*Paper Proposal due in class

Week 10        

W, Nov. 3       EXAM #2 on Chapters 14, 15, 16, and 20 (Weeks 5-9)

Modern Art in the Early Twentieth Century

Week 11        

W, Nov. 10     THURSDAY CLASS SCHEDULE, NO CLASS

Week 12

W, Nov. 17     Modern Art in the Early Twentieth Century Continued

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 21 

Modern Art Between World Wars

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 22

Postwar Modern Movements in the West

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 23

Week 13

W, Nov. 24     THANKSGIVING HOLIDAY, NO CLASS

Week 14        

W, Dec. 1        2-page paper due in class!  It will NOT be accepted via email.

Postwar Modern Movements in the West Continued

                                    Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 23

Postmodernity and Global Art

            Textbook: Prebles, Chapter 25 

Conclusions and Review since Exam #2

Week 15

W, Dec.  8       EXAM #3 on Chapters 21-23 and 25 (Weeks 10-14)          

Artists Speak: Selections from Art:21, Art in the Twenty-First Century

Art:21 is a PBS documentary series about contemporary visual art in the United States and the artists who m