De Anza College Art Discussion

Question 1 and 2 should be submitted by due Jan 25 at 6 am (PST).

Question 1

In these assignments, you select a prompt and respond. Each of these allows you to focus on a specific idea or example of art and then write your thoughts and reactions – essentially a reflection. Why do this? So you can see how your personal ideals and values influence the way you respond to art – which is the focus of this course.

Choose one of the following prompts:

#1: Who Makes Art?

Who makes art? Do you think artists have innate ability or acquired skill (or both)? How do artist’s roles change with different cultural considerations? Support your answers with examples, and provide any links or images that help in your explanations.

#2: The Artists of Art21

View at least five short videos from ART21 (Links to an external site.). You can search artists from the link at the top middle of the homepage. Watch how these artists work and what they say about their process. List the five (5) artists you viewed. Then place one artist in each of the following categories:

Identify the artist most concerned with the process of making the work.

Identify the artist most concerned with creativity in the idea for their art or the work itself.

Identify the artist most concerned with materials.

Identify who surprised you the most and explain why.

THE TASK:

1. Identify which prompt you selected. (5 points)
2. Compose a written response to the prompt. Be thorough and address each point or question in the selection. You can choose to do this as an essay or use a question/answer format. (15 points)
3. Your response must be at least 150 words. (5 points)

Question 2. Explore Valuation in Art

There’s a whole world of creativity out there to explore. Most of us probably think of paintings and sculpture when someone asks us, “What is art?” but the reality is that art encompasses so much more. There are many mediums to investigate, so many different techniques and methods of producing objects of beauty, and there are the art forms that encompass movement, sound, and performance. For this series of exercises, students are encouraged to think outside the basics. There’s a lot of creativity to explore, here’s your opportunity to share the things that you find intriguing.

How much is something worth?

Valuation in art is sometimes difficult to understand. Why does one painting sell at auction for millions of dollars while a similar composition does not? Of course, it matters who created the work in question. But sometimes the reasons seem mysterious, especially when the value seems oddly out of proportion to the work itself. For example, compare the difference in auction prices for a well-known work by Picasso (Links to an external site.) or Rembrandt (Links to an external site.) and you’ll see that both fetch high prices. Both are excellent examples of distinct styles of painting but a viewer may not value one as much as the other. That’s personal taste, and it certainly is a part of this conversation, but things can be more complicated…

There can be differences in materials that are intrinsically precious – and those that are made more valuable by perception. For example, pearls are relatively rare in the natural world, but because people assign a high value to them, they become a desirable commodity. Pearls are now harvested in great quantities by seeding the oysters with tiny occlusions that irritate the organism and, as a result, produce a pearl.

The same ideas apply to art. Some pieces require painstaking effort and others do not. Some have high desirability or are made of intrinsically precious material – both valued in human perception. The reverse is also true – perhaps explaining why we don’t appreciate certain works of art.

The Task:

1. Select an art object with documented valuation (this may be a sales price or auction point) and identify the materials used to create the object, the title, and the artist. Discuss how the artist made an object of much greater value than the inherent worth of the raw materials – explain what factors, other than the creation process, might lead people to value it highly. (20 points)
2. Your post should be a minimum of 250+ words, and you should cite the resources used. (5 points)
3. Leave substantive* comments on THREE (3) other student posts – select ones who wrote about different songs than you selected. Use this as an opportunity to learn what they have to share. Each comment should be a minimum of 75+ words. (5 points each)

This assignment is worth 40 points.

*Substantive comments extend the conversation, ask a question, or offer an observation – strive to create a dialogue. Comments that consist of only praise will be awarded 20% of points or less.

Question 1 and 2 should be submitted by due Jan 25 at 6 am (PST)

And I can send you other students’ posts after I submit mine. (from Question 2, task 3)

Please feel free to ask me If anything seems unsure.

Thank you.