Abstract Images
Instructions
It is impossible to fully understand the tradition of painting without having some awareness of abstraction and its aesthetic effect. For many painters and lovers of painting, abstraction is painting purified, painting liberated from its long-standing duty to always depict and instead freed to be about unbounded visual pleasure for its own sake.
Review the book’s discussion on abstraction. Here you are given away to understand abstraction, as the free play of the sensa. The visual sense is line, color, texture, space, shape, light, shadow, volume (the appearance of three-dimensionality – imagine a water glass with its rounded cylindrical shape), and mass (the appearance of three-dimensionality combined with weight and density-imagine the water glass filled with sand). Abstract pictures often cannot be fully understood through pictures – which they avoid, or at least complicate but they can always be understood and analyzed through discussion of their sense.
Follow this link to some of the Metropolitan Museum of New York’s collection of abstract art: Metropolitan Museum of Art (Links to an external site.)
As you explore the page, find a painting that speaks to you in some way. Be sure that the work is a painting and not a photograph or sculpture, which the page also includes (you can tell by clicking on the work and reading its description). After choosing work, and identifying it by name and artist, do a short analysis of the piece through its sensa, listing the visual qualities of the work as they are communicated through the values listed above. Keep in mind that, although there will likely be no picture to discuss, the sensa do suggest meaningful ideas in and of themselves. For example, a line can look thin and weak and spindly, or jagged and aggressive; shapes may have mass and feel like they are crowding a canvas and making it feel claustrophobic; many colors have powerful suggestions, like yellow suggesting happiness, or red suggesting anger, passion, or love, depending on context. Be attentive to these suggestions as you do your analysis, and finally, use them to comment on what kind of emotional content the piece has, as best you can discover and describe it. Does the painting elicit any particular feeling in you? Does it seem to define or reveal anything? What drew you to it?
Post this on your blog with an image of the painting, or at least a link directing the reader to a site where the image can be seen.
Posting should be 250 words, minimum. This assignment will be assessed on its formal clarity, the quality of the writing and editing, its degree of engagement with its topic, its creativity/inventiveness/originality of ideas, and the sophistication of thought it expresses.
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Rubric
2020 Blog Post/Writing Rubric
2020 Blog Post/Writing Rubric
CriteriaRatingsPts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeContent
Ability to incorporate and synthesize learned material into written responses that are accurate and meaningful, and which reflect student’s grasp on, and ability to think independently about the course content.
35 pts
Exceptional
The student shows mastery of the relevant information and ideas and demonstrates deep thinking on the topic. The response demonstrates creativity, synthesis, and/or incisive critical thinking on the issues at hand.
30 pts
Good
The student demonstrates a solid grasp of the material and can convey responses to the material in a clear, accurate, and thoughtful manner. Depth of student knowledge and thinking on the topic seems adequate but not exceptional. The response is solid but may not make new critical leaps, or synthesize information in unexpected ways.
25 pts
Adequate
The student demonstrates basic familiarity with the material and adequately addresses the prompt. Conveys ideas in a coherent, though unremarkable, manner.
20 pts
Unacceptable
Student response lacks clarity, accuracy, or demonstrates a lack of thought and engagement about ideas/material, or an inaccurate grasp of ideas/material.
35 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeGrammar/Mechanics
Ability to craft coherent thoughts in standard English, free from errors in diction, spelling, grammar, and punctuation, and edited for flow and clarity.
35 pts
Exceptional
Writing is well-edited and completely free from errors in spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Reads smoothly, clearly, and with careful attention to sentence rhythm, word choice, and thoughtfulness about overall flow.
30 pts
Good
Writing is clear, well-edited, and completely free from errors in spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation. Shows some awareness of word choice and overall flow.
25 pts
Adequate
Writing is largely free from errors in spelling, grammar, diction, and punctuation is largely clear, and demonstrates some attention to editing and reader experience.
20 pts
Unacceptable
Writing contains several errors in spelling, grammar, diction, and/or punctuation. Is unclear and shows little to no editing.
35 pts
This criterion is linked to a Learning OutcomeStructure
Ability to form a body of ideas on a topic into a coherent whole. Knowledge of how ideas flow together and how transitions connect passages logically to one another.
30 pts
Exceptional
Argument/exposition demonstrates mastery of form and flow and overall awareness of the assignment as a written whole. Demonstrates creative, inventive, or incisive solutions for presenting students’ thoughts and course materials in novel, meaningful and effective ways.
27 pts
Good
Argument/exposition demonstrates a grasp of form and flow and awareness of the assignment as a written whole.
23 pts
Adequate
Argument/exposition is coherent and complete
Unacceptable
Argument/exposition is haphazard and not logically presented
An added link will hardly be appreciated.
