“PICTURE PERFECT?”

Introduction

One of the tasks that a museum curator must do is to verify the provenance of a work of art. They must know the lives and works of various artists in order to determine if a donated work is real or a fraud. They also must be able to tell whether a particular piece of an artist's oeuvre is worthy of being exhibited in a museum's collection.

Assignment

You are a museum curator who has been given a painting that may have been done by a famous artist. Your task is to determine the following information about the artist and his/her work:

  • Artist, title of the work, date, and medium
  • Period in which it was painted, sculpted or designed
  • Style or school of art to which it is attributed
  • The story, theme or message of the work
  • Mood of the work
  • Where it was created
  • Why the artist created it
  • Historical or political events that may have influenced the artist
  • How the artist's culture is evident in the work
  • The events in the artist's life that may have affected his/her work

Each person must present her findings in a written paragraph , and deliver an oral report accompanied by the facsimile of the artist's work to a group of museum trustees (your classmates), and justify why the work should be exhibited in the museum. You may use the Lite Pro to display Internet sites. You will need to cite at least two books and one Internet site in your report. See the sample citation form for a book and Web site on the following page.

Assignment Mechanics

You will work in groups of three. Each person in the group has her own contribution to the project:

Group Member 1 must determine the title, date and medium of the work, research the life and times of the artist around the date when the work was completed, conclude whether some event during the artist lifetime influenced the creation of the work.

Group Member 2 must research the style or movement that the work is from. This task entails the ability to describe the work's characteristics in terms of brushwork, color, theme, composition, feelings conveyed, perspective, and technique.

Group Member 3 must research the reputation of the artist. What do you consider to be the artist's legacy and significance of their work? You must also render a defensible verdict that the individual work is worthy of display in the museum's collection.

Research Hints

  1. Consult the books about the individual artist on the Reserve cart in the Library.
  2. Consult the Library's Home Page and click on Eagle Eyes – type in the keywords Picture Perfect for a list of appropriate Web sites.
  3. Consult the electronic database Wilson Biographies Plus for additional biographical information.

Sample Citation Format

Book: Brown, Jane. The Art of Picasso . New York: Doubleday Inc., 1997.

Web Site: “The Art of Picasso”. http://picasso.edu September 27, 2003.

Prepared by K. Craver and J. Foust, 2003

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