Museum Paper

Due date:
The paper is due Wednesday, DECEMBER 1st NO EXCEPTIONS!!!!!
Papers are due as a hard copy to me in class. No emailed papers will be accepted. If a
paper is handed in late, it will be marked down a third of the grade per DAY late. You
may hand in the paper early.

Assignment:
Visit the Metropolitan Museum of Art (www.metmuseum.org), the Museum of Modern
Art (www.moma.org) or the Brooklyn Museum (http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/) and
choose two artworks from one room from the options provided. Write a two-page
analysis and comparison of the pieces following the guidelines given below.

Objective:
The purpose of the paper is threefold: first, the object is to get you into a major museum
to look at art; second, the paper allows you to pursue a particular interest beyond what
will be covered in class; third, you will learn to describe and compare works of art and
reflect on works studied in class.

Locations you can choose:

- MoMA: Painting and Sculpture I, II (4th and 5th floors)
- Metropolitan: The American Wing (1st and 2nd floors), Arts of Africa Oceania and
the Americas (1st floor), or the Arts of Korea or Chinese art (2nd floor)
- Brooklyn: Arts of the Pacific or Africa (1st floor), Indian and Southeast Asia (3rd
floor) or Contemporary Art (4th floor)

At the museum:
Create a detailed pencil sketch of your chosen artworks, paying particular
attention to line, color, texture, composition, spatial representation, and
iconography. Note these descriptive qualities in the margins of your sketch.
(Remember: This is an exercise in observation not an art project. You will not be
assessed on how perfect your sketch, but instead how carefully you studied the
artwork.) It should be based on real life observation, NOT from a photograph.
This should be attached to the end of your paper.

Format:
The paper in 2 double-spaced pages (No more! No less! Times New Roman font size
12) should contain the following information:
1. A paragraph introducing and describing the particular room of the museum
you chose. What is the relationship between the artworks in the room?
2. Two to three paragraphs should be devoted to comparing two works of art in
the room. The works should be identified by the artist that produced the work,
the name of the object (painting, vase, altarpiece, etc.), date and title if there is
one. First describing each piece so that the reader can imagine the work. Then,
compare and contrast the two works you have chosen: do they have similar or
different styles? Media? Are they by the same artist but have different goals?

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 Do the works serve the same purpose? Do they illustrate some particular
aspect of history? Or two sides of an historical debate? Other questions or
ideas may occur to you; these questions are merely suggestions.
3. Make sure you write a CONCLUSION.
4. Attach the receipt from your museum visit (the dated receipt from the cashier
and the admission button) to your paper and hand it in to me at any time
before the due date. I suggest that you complete the paper soon after visiting
the museum and not waiting until the due date to write it.

Tickets:
Admission to the Metropolitan and the Brooklyn Museum is SUGGESTED. Simply
hand the cashier whatever you are willing to pay – do not be shy, they expect a wide
range of payment. MOMA has a very high admission price ($20) but they have a deal for
CUNY students; you can get in for free if you go to the information desk and show your
school ID.
Get a receipt as you must staple it to your paper – an admission button on its own is not
acceptable. I encourage these museums because it is possible to go for virtually no money
and they have good quality and wide collections.

Writing:
Your paper should be cleanly written – free of grammatical and spelling errors; it should
be organized so that I can follow logically your analysis – sentences should follow
logically and paragraphs should begin with a topic sentence followed by supporting
sentences. The description of the works should be clear enough for someone to draw the
work as he/she reads it. If writing has been a problem for you and/or English is your
second language, I strongly suggest that you visit the writing tutors Paul and Nicole
who have office hours in the Art Department library, 5300 Boylan. They are there to
help you with writing assignments in art history. You can also stop by the Learning
Center (1st floor Boylan hall) with a draft (or partial draft).
Art history writing tutors hours:
Monday and Wednesday 11:00 am – 3:00 pm; 3:30 – 6:30 pm
Tuesday 10:00 am – 2:00 pm

Footnotes: The purpose of footnotes is to indicate the sources of specific pieces of

information within your paper. If you quote a passage directly, you must enclose the
passage in quotation marks and put a footnote at the end of the quote. If you use
information from a source but don’t quote the source directly, you do not need to use
quotation marks but you still need to put a footnote at the end of the passage. Also
remember to cite the museum label if you cite that (not for artist, date, title, but the text
which was written by a curator). Failure to cite your source is PLAGIARISM and will
not be tolerated – you will receive an F for the assignment.
To create Footnotes in Word go to Insert > Footnote > and select the options you
prefer.

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Some things NOT to do in this paper:
1. Do not go over the 2-page double-spaced page limit; you will be penalized. This
is intended to be a brief assignment and it takes a certain amount of skill to write
efficiently.
2. Do not include personal anecdotes/comments about the works or the lecture and
avoid using first person. (I don’t want to read: “I went to a fascinating lecture at
the Metropolitan Museum given by Jean Sorabella.” Rather your paper should
begin with something more like: “A fascinating lecture exploring athletic
competition in Greek Vases was given at the Metropolitan Museum.”) Your
opinion about the works will come out in the comparison without your making
comments such as: “The Pollock seemed really confusing and I thought the
Newman was a much better painting.”
3. Do not tell me every work that you saw in the room, you are supposed to choose
just two to compare.
4. This is NOT a research paper, use your eyes and ears, but if you feel the need to
look something up, you MUST cite your source. Also remember to cite the
museum label if you cite that (not for artist, date, title, but the text which was
written by a curator). Failure to cite your source is plagiarism and will not be
tolerated – you will receive an F for the assignment!
Some other suggestions:
- Copy the pertinent information from the label (it is inexcusable to have
misspellings of artists names or titles when I know that the information is there in
the museum to be copied down).
-Decide while you are in the gallery what objects you are going to focus on and
do your sketches at the museum.
-Do the paper soon after leaving the museum and do not wait until the due date so
that the talk will be fresher in your mind.

GRADING
Title (5 points)
Your paper must have a title that describes your paper and relates to the thesis statement.
Thesis Statement (5 points)
Is your thesis statement clear and easy to find?
Organization (20 points)
Is there a logical progression of ideas in separate paragraphs? Is the progression signaled
by informative topic sentences and transitions? Your paper should include a title!
Formal analysis (20 points)
Does your paper effectively describe how the piece looks like? Does it effectively analyze
the works formal specificity?
Comparisons (20 points)
Do your comparisons relate back to your chosen artwork, strengthening your thesis
argument by providing either an additional or a contrasting example?
Writing (15 points)
Is it edited well, demonstrating grammatical accuracy, correct spelling, etc.?
Sketch (10 points)
Does it show careful observation of form and style? Is it based on a photograph?
Conclusion (5points)
Does it follow logically, summing up what has come before?