question archive You are the new curator at the Virtual Museum
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You are the new curator at the Virtual Museum. As such, you want to organize a two-artist exhibition. First, you must identify the two artists, each of whom should be photographers. Look through the list of artists below and select two. Second, search the internet for three examples of their work (three for each artist). Third, identify the time period and style in which each artist worked (Pictorialism, Street Photography, Modernism, Naturalism, Documentary, Straight Photography, etc.), and prepare a short biography that might go on a wall label. Fourth, consider each artist’s work carefully and determine the fundamental characteristics that make his or her work unique and important. Fifth, consider why you think these two artists should be shown together by reflecting on how the work of these two artists are similar and how they are different.
Note - PICK YOUR ARTISTS VERY CAREFULLY. Be sure that you can make a convincing argument about why those two artists belong together.
PROJECT
Having done the steps above, organize and present your exhibition by embedding the six images into a word processing document, preferably Word. Prepare and present the following wall labels and didactics to accompany the show:
TITLE WALL – title your show and state the names of the artists.
OBJECT LABELS – for each work, include the artist’s name, the title of the work, the date, and the photographic process (such as, Gelatin Silver Print). We will not concern ourselves with size or who owns the work. Put these labels adjacent to the images. [six labels total]
Note – Google “museum labels” to see many examples of how museum wall labels are presented.
BIOGRAPHICAL DIDACTIC – for each artist, write a 200 – 300 word biography. A didactic is the name for the informational panels in a museum, and you are writing the language for the didactic (in your own words).
INTERPRETIVE DIDACTICS – for each artist, write 300 – 400 words explaining his or her work, the period in which it was done, the style in which it was done, and relate the work to at least one broad cultural event to give it context (for example, “…the despair apparent in the attitude of the figures reflected the artist’s personal struggles during the German economic deprivations that followed WWI.”) Give your didactics as title. [two didactics total]
SUMMARY DIDACTIC – This is an interpretive didactic in which you explain to the museum audience why you have put these two artists together. What does this show tell us about their work? What does it tells us about some larger issue in art (for example, perhaps they demonstrate how two artists working in different time periods can have similar concerns, or perhaps they demonstrate how differently two artists can approach similar subjects)? Write between 300 – 400 words. There may be some overlap with your other labels, but be sure that they are not too redundant (if so, there would be no reason for multiple labels). Give your didactic a title. [one didactic]
Note – In a real exhibition, the didactics would not be identified by their function, such as Biographical Didactic, Interpretative Didactic, or Summary Didactic. Even so, in this case, please identify them for me – don’t leave me guessing.
Since you are addressing a museum audience, do NOT use the word “I”, as in “I chose these artist because..,” for any label or didactic.
If do not use a quote, you need not footnote your information. If you use a quote, you must do a simplified form of footnoting. Just indicate the author, the book or article and the date. You need not indicate page number or show a link.
EMBED YOUR IMAGES – try to find smaller jegs. Not so small that they pixilate, but small enough that they will load easily into Word. Usually, the images in Google will show their size in the lower left corner when your curser hoovers over them. 600x800 pixels would be ideal, for example.
Organization
Organize and present your exhibition. For example, think about how you should present the artists and the information. Should each artist’s work be presented separately, or should you mix their works together? How effectively you present the material is important
Photographic Artists:
Adams, Ansel
Arbus, Diane
Atget, Eugene
Avedon, Richard
Baldessari, John
Baltz, Lewis
Bellmer, Hans
Blossfeldt, Karl
Bourke-White, Margaret
Brady, Mathew
Brandt, Bill
Bravo, Manuel Álvarez
Brigman, Anne
Bullock, Wynn
Callahan, Harry
Capa, Robert
Cartier-Bresson, Henri
Close, Chuck
Cunningham, Imogen
Daguerre, Louis Jacques Mandé
de Meyer, Baron
Edgerton, Harold
Eggleston, William
Emerson, P. H.
Evans, Walker
Fox Talbot, Henry
Frank, Robert
Gursky, Andres
Hine, Lewis
Höch, Hanna
Hosoe, Eikoh
Karsh, Yousuf
Kasebier, Gertrude
Kertész, André
Kuhn, Heinrich
Lange, Dorothea
Man Ray
Mann, Sally
Mapplethorpe, Robert
Margaret Cameron, Julia
Mather, Margrethe
Meatyard, Ralph Eugene
Moholy-Nagy, László
Moriyama, Daido
Mortensen, William
Muybridge, Eadweard
Nadar
Newman, Arnold
Newton, Helmut
Nicéphore Niépce, Joseph
Parks, Gordon
Penn, Irving
Porter, Eliot
Renger-Patzsch, Albert
Rodchenko, Alexander
Rothstein, Arthur
Ruscha, Ed
Sander, August
Sheeler, Charles
Sherman, Cindy
Smith, W. Eugene
Steichen, Edward
Stieglitz, Alfred
Strand, Paul
Tomatsu, Shomei
Ut, Nick
Warhol, Andy
Watkins, Carlton
Weegee
Wegman, William
Weston, Edward
White, Clarence
White, Minor
Witkin, Joel-Peter