food for thought

  1. The purpose of art is washing the dust of daily life off our souls. Pablo Picasso
  2. Art is not what you see, but what you make others see. Edgar Degas
  3. No great artist ever sees things as they really are. If he did, he would cease to be an artist. Oscar Wilde
  4. To send light into the darkness of men's hearts - such is the duty of the artist. Schumann
  5. The art of art, the glory of expression and the sunshine of the light of letters, is simplicity. Walt Whitman

March 14, 2024

6. The Compare and Contrast Essay

general term - comparison

more specific meanings - showing similarities = comparing

- showing differences = contrasting

communicative purpose(s): depending on the specific intention of the writer, we can speak about:

  • descriptive comparison - to show similarities and differences between two artworks
  • expository comparison - to show similarities and differences between two issues in order to support a personal thesis
  • argumentative comparison - to show similarities and differences between two issues in order to support a personal thesis that is expected to encounter considerable opposition

standard move-pattern(s): two patterns: the "block" pattern and the "point by point" pattern

the "block" pattern

Move I: Introducing the theme and the compared artists
Step 1: Setting the stage (the general context in which the two terms intended for comparison belong)
Step 2: Introducing the artists + works + theme(s)
Step 3: Stating the thesis and points of proof (if they exist in the writer's intention)
Move II: Transition: announcing intended organization (the block pattern)
Move III: Developing description/analysis/points of proof/constructive arguments
Step 1: artist/artwork A: elements 1,2,3 / points of proof 1,2,3 / constructive arguments 1,2,3
Step 2: artist/artwork B: elements 1,2,3 / points of proof 1,2,3 / constructive arguments 1,2,3
Move IV: Concluding upon the basic differences and/or similarities (by showing to what extent these have served the intended communicative purpose of the essay)
Move V (optional) Works cited


the "point by point" pattern


Move I: Introducing the theme and compared artists (see above)
Move II: Transition (announces the "point by point" pattern)
Move III: Developing description/analysis/points of proof/constructive arguments


Step 1: Describing/analyzing element 1 / elaborating on point of proof 1 / offering constructive argument 1 for work/artist A

Step 2: Describing/analyzing element 1 / elaborating on point of proof 1 / offering constructive argument 1 for work B

Step 3: element 2 / point of proof 2 / constructive argument 2 for work A

Step 4: element 2 / point of proof 2 / constructive argument 2 for work B

Move IV: Concluding

Move V (optional) Works cited


Task 1:

Read the text Two Edges of the Subconscious Reality in the Twentieth-Century Art by Olga Bersan.

 What pattern is there used? Which are the elements being compared? What discourse strategies are employed by the writer?

Task 2:

Read the essay
Uniform Pigment and Abstract Paintings, by Laura Oprea. What move pattern is here employed and how exactly does it work? Which are the compared elements?




 Deadline: March 28



February 26, 2024

5. The Argumentative Essay

keywords:

"to argue"= to present reasons for or against a thing; to dispute; to debate.

"to persuade" = to convince; to induce somebody to believe.


communicative purpose:

- to present, explain, clarify, and illustrate a viewpoint (the author's) (so far, the goals are identical with those of the expository essay) + to persuade the reader that personal views are more valid than another person's viewpoints

move pattern:

Move I: Introducing the issue in contention.

Step 1: introductory remarks to identify work + artist + issue in contention

Step 2: acknowledging counterthesis and counterpoints (the other person's viewpoints)

Step 3: providing specific details (who, what, when, where)

Step 4: stating the thesis (personal viewpoints - in one complete, unified statement about the issue in contention, precise enough to limit the issue, but general enough to ask for support, not too obvious, and showing the changes proposed to the counterthesis)



Move II: Presenting counterthesis and counterpoints

Step 1: Restating the counterthesis and enlarging upon it (in the introductory move, we have just formulated it; now we have to show the reader that we bothered to understand what the other person's thesis really claims; therefore, we use our own words to explain what we understood and to convince our reader that we know exactly what the other opinion is)


Step 2: Presenting/restating counterpoint 1 (using our own words to show what the first point of proof used by the other person was)

Step 3: Presenting/restating counterpoint 2

Step 4: Presenting/restating counterpoint 3



Move III: Arguing thesis and providing evidence/proof

Step 1: Restating our own thesis and enlarging upon it (we have to make sure the reader fully understands what we claim)

Step 2: Providing constructive argument 1 and evidence/proof to support it (the weakest) to fight against counterpoint 1

Step 3: Providing constructive argument 2 and evidence to support it (stronger) to fight against counterpoint 2

Step 4: Providing constructive argument 3 and evidence to support it (the strongest) to fight against counterpoint 3

Step 5: Disagreeing with counterpoint 1 (refutation 1)

Step 6: Disagreeing with counterpoint 2 (refutation2)

Step 7: Disagreeing with counterpoint 3 (refutation 3)



Note: We can place side by side (mirror) our constructive argument and our disagreement with the other person's counterpoint in the same step by convincing the reader that our argument and evidence to support it are correct and are better than the other's.

Move IV: Concluding by enhancing the validity of the thesis

We conclude by reminding our reader (in other words) what we claimed and by suggesting that our arguments were (far) more convincing than the other person's. We must always remember to be polite! We must always remember that our simple claim of truth (our truth) is not convincing without providing proper arguments and evidence. After all, it is the reader who decides who is more effective!


Move V: (optional) Works cited.

Tasks:

Task 1: Read the text Fashion Art: To BE or Not to Be, by Maria Hritcu. Pay attention to the thesis, to the counterpoints and constructive arguments; which of them convinces you most? Which side do you tend to take? Why? Express your own viewpoints on these matters (provide your own thesis, arguments, and evidence). 


DEADLINE March 17              

November 09, 2023

4. Course 3: The Expository Essay



COMMUNICATIVE PURPOSE: to theorize/speculate about:

-causes + /- effects
-particular meanings
-artist's choices
-possible developments, etc


Theorizing = performing an inferential type of mental activity (moving from particular items to general ideas), whose result is a thesis that must be supported by several points of proof


DISCOURSE STRATEGIES (that can be used when developing points of proof):

  • explaining viewer's reactions
  • formal analysis
  • comparing works/artists/features
  • historical/anecdotal narratives
  • exemplification
  • quoting/paraphrasing
  • paradox, etc

STANDARD MOVE-STRUCTURE:

MOVE I: introducing the subject, thesis, list of points of proof



Step 1: Introducing the subject (title of work, artist, context of creation)

Step 2: stating the thesis: one complete, unified statement, limited to one aspect only, general enough to ask for support, defensible, not too obvious

Step 3: stating the points of proof (2-3) intended to be used in order to support the thesis



MOVE II: developing the points of proof


Step 1: developing the first point of proof

Step 2: developing the 2nd point of proof

Step 3: developing the 3rd point of proof

MOVE III: concluding by evaluating the measure in which the points of proof have demonstrated the thesis

MOVE IV: Works cited (whenever one uses bibliography)

Task 1.    Comment on the way the theses and the points of proof were formulated and developed in the two texts we have read in class (1. The African Influences in Brancusi's Work by Paul Stoie  and 2. Idea for Sale by Oana Boca). Which of them appears to you more convincing and why?
Task 2. Try to formulate a thesis and a list of points of proof on a subject of your choice.

Deadline: December 20














BRANCUSI

The Beginning of the World




Newborn




The First Cry 



The First Step



November 06, 2023

3. Course no. 2: The Critical Essay. The Formal Analysis

The artistic discourse community:

- a socio-rhetorical group of people who share common goals directly related to art; certain mechanisms of communication (eg. art magazines); specific vocabulary, grammar, semantics, rhetoric; specific GENRES

- genre: type of texts that share the same communicative purpose



The Critical Essay = a genre whose communicative purpose is to offer a personal opinion on a specific subject. Therefore we can consider it subjective writing. Nontheless, subjective does not mean total lack of evidence for what we claim.



The Formal Analysis
- a type of critical essay

- to analyse = to take a thing apart; to decompose it in order to see what its components are and how they work together as a whole => to analyse a work of art = to deconstruct it into smaller elements such as : subject-matter; formal elements; principles of design; style; purpose, etc.
- purpose: to describe, interpret and/or evaluate a work of art, that is, to analyse a work of art
- prerequisite: direct access to the real work or to a good reproduction
- each such important element is then analysed in order to see what role it plays in the whole

- the standard move-structure of a text belonging to the subgenre of formal analysis:

MOVE I: Introducing the work and the artist


  • step 1: identifying the work (some details about the title, author, theme, subject-matter, medium, dimensions, period of creation, current location, purposes of creation)
  • step 2: identifying the artist: only that biographical information considered relevant for the work analysed


MOVE II: Transition:


- usually offers a personal first response to the work


MOVE III: Analysing de-constructed elements:


  • step 1: analysing first element : describing the first element + interpreting the first element + /- evaluating the first element (e.g. a character in the work)
  • step 2: analysing element 2 (e.g. the principle of the perfect symmetry)
  • step 3: analysing element 3 (e.g. the dominating colour)




MOVE IV: Concluding:


- offering a final interpretation +/- evaluation of the whole work, based on the previous analyses


TASKS:

- study the texts:

1. The Marriage of Giovanni Arnolfini and Jeanne Cenami by Jan van Eyck, written by Erwin Panofsky

The text you are supposed to read is really Panofsky's text (which can be found in the book Anda-Elena Cretiu: Discourse and Communication in Visual Arts, Casa Cartii de Stiinta, 2014, or in 

Genre-Structured Discourse in Art Texts, Presa Univ. Clujeana, 2003) (in our library). The links below are only commentaries on the text and may help you better understand it. 

Erwin Panofsky and his interpretation of art woks
another version of the text
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arnolfini_Portrait

2. Ten Lizes by Andy Warhol by Anca Teodora Pora


- comment on the analyses made by the authors, that is, on the descriptions and interpretations and/or evaluations offered; did they convince you?; can you find other possible interpretations to those elements?; are there other elements you would have chosen instead? which? why?

3. Access the video material below. What elements are there analyzed? Although no interpretations are assigned to the formal elements analyzed here, can you think of 2-3 partial interpretations and an on-the-whole one? 






DEADLINE: November 13



October 05, 2023

2. BASIC TAXONOMY (course one continued)

Here are the most important terms we will be using throughout this year's study; please be sure you get well acquainted with all of them:

  • THEME: the general content of the artwork (general aspect/subject) (e.g. the landscape)
  • SUBJECT-MATTER: the sum of identifiable objects, persons, places, references in the artwork (e.g. the rosegarden)
  • MEANING (or, CONTENT): is revealed through interpretation; sometimes the title may be of help, but most often than not, it is revealed through careful iconographic and/or iconological interpretation
  • ICONOGRAPHY: the overt or hidden symbolism in the artwork, rendered through images (signs, symbols)


  • ICONOLOGY: the meaning revealed through the study of the cultural, social, historical background of the artwork (through literary, historical, etc., texts)
  • DESCRIBING ART: the verbal pointing to the features; a means of gathering the support for interpretations; it concerns the subject matter, the most expressive formal elements; the principles of design, etc.
  • ANALYSING ART: explaining how the described elements get their meanings, the artist's choices; inferring meaning; evaluating technique
  • INTERPRETING ART: a most important and complex activity; the arriving at the meaning of the artwork by employing different strategies of interpreting based on the information gathered through iconographical and iconological insights
  • EVALUATING ART: determining how good the artwork is, according to some criteria, either clearly stated, or implied, while providing reasons and evidence for judgments
Task: Watch the video. What is the role of iconography, and how does it work?

Deadline: Oct 23

1. Course one: Art and Communication. An overview on the peculiarities of the discourse about art

The members of the (artistic) discourse community share several features:
  • a set of common public goals
  • mechanisms of intercommunication
  • mechanisms to provide information and feedback
  • GENRES - which are specific to the common goals
  • specific lexis
  • discourse expertise in the specific field
TASK 1: Can you exemplify these common features: e.g. What common goals do artists have? Which are the mechanisms through which they communicate among themselves?
Art and communication: visual + verbal/linguistic

Visual communication: facilitated by such features as theme, subject matter, elements of design, principles of design/composition, iconography (signs, symbols).



Linguistic/verbal communication: 

The artistic discourse community employs its own discourse, characterized by certain features:
  • specific vocabulary (the specific lexis)
- everyday words placed in a new, art-specific context (e.g. brush, installation, ground, glazing, etc)
- words from science and technology (e.g. de-gas; alkyd resin)
-word-formation (e.g. water-colour, aqua-tint, body-color, aquamarine, etc)
- borrowings (from French: e.g.frottage, sanguine, gouache, and Italian: e.g. sfumato, chiaroscuro, sgraffitto, etc )
- specific phrases (e.g. still life, life-size, color  field, nonobjective art, found object, ready-made, etc)
- trademarks/tradenames (e.g. a Picasso, a Chanel, an Impressionist, etc)
- NOMENCLATURES
  •  specific morphology, syntax, semnatics, rhetoric (not extremely different from the general use, yet presenting some peculiarities; see Artspeak and IAE = International Art English)
  •  specific GENRES

NOMENCLATURES = hierarchical arrangement of the terminology of an area of study; they are probably the most important characteristic of any specific vocabulary.

subject-matter identifiable objects, stories, events; "what is depicted?"
  • representational/abstract/non-representational=nonobjective art
  • meaning=content
  • title
  • iconography + iconology
formal elements:
  • line (e.g. dominant/subordinate, smooth/jerky/brusque/jagged)
  • shape (e.g. geometric/biomorphic)
  • light/dark (value,key)
  • mass
  • volume
  • colour, hue, value, intensity/saturation/purity; primary/secondary/intermediate/analogous/monochromes/warm/cool
  • space (overlapped shapes, foreshortening, size, linear=geometric perspective + vanishing point/atmospheric=aerial perspective/realistic space/analogical,abstract space; three/bi-dimensional space
  • texture
  • time and motion
  • sound and smell
principles of design:
  • balance (symmetrical/approximately symmetrical/asymmetrical balance)
  • focal point
  • dominance
  • economy
  • rhythm
  • scale, proportion ("the golden section")
  • unity/variety
  • open/closed composition

purposes of art (functions that artworks may fulfill - in religious rituals, commemorating, the assertion of power, honoring a person, recording an event, etc)

processes and materials/media
  • drawing (e.g. in silverpoint, in pastels, etc)
  • painting (e.g. in acrylics, oil paint, etc)
  • printmaking (relief/intaglio processes/engraving/drypoint/aquatint, etc)
  • sculpture (additive/subtractive; modelling, casting, assemblages, etc)
styles
  • conceptual, representational, illusionistic, naturalistic, realistic, idealistic, abstract, non-representational;
  • Classical/Romantic/Baroque/Impressionistic/Expressionistic, etc
In addition, click the link below:



Task 2: give some examples of how the artist may communicate a specific thing through one or more of the above features of the plastic discourse.

GENRES     = classes of communicative events (spoken, or written) that share the same communicative  purposes

The genres that we will be studying are:
  • the critical essay (the formal analysis, the expository essay, the compare and contrast essay, the argumentative essay);
  • the essay examination;
  • the research paper
  • the art review
  • the art news
  • the artist's statement
  • the artist's blog
  • the artist's home page/website
  • the exhibition catalog

NOTE: for more detailed information and deeper insight, please consult the following books (in the UAD library) by Anda-Elena Cretiu: An ESP Perspective on Art-Related Discourse, EZway Books, LLC, Las Vegas, NV, 2004, chapter3- An overview of the peculiarities of the discourse about art, pp.71-100; the 1000 terms dictionary at the end may also be of some help + Art Terms - English-Romanian/ Romanian-English Dictionary, CCS, 2015. You may as well consider  Discourse and Communication in Visual Arts, CCS, 2014 (pp. 9-68) and 249-259


TASKS:  DEADLINE: October 18, 24 hrs.