The Renaissance

There are 3 parts of the assignment:
1.
2. Exploring the Google Art Project
Closer to Van Eyck is part of a recent trend in the art and museum world—the digitization of art.
The most powerful online resource is certainly—The Google Art Project—released in 2011.
www(dot)googleartproject(dot)com
This amazing Web site features high-resolution reproductions of more than 32,000 works in 31 mediums and materials from the collections of more than 150 museums and arts organizations around the world.
You can visit individual works, travel through museums using Google Street View technology, and make your own galleries of your favorite objects.
Making and Sharing a Gallery in Google Arts Project
https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=DjqVW24yhbw
-Go to: https://www(dot)google(dot)com/culturalinstitute/beta/
-Log in/create account.
-Search the site for works of art, by artist, medium, or art movement by using the drop-down menu in the upper left corner of the screen.
-When you have found a work you want to use, click on it and hit the "favorites" (heart) icon.
-Once you have chosen three images, go to your favorites, and select "Create a new collection."
-In "Create a new collection," give the collection a title, and be sure to hit the "Public" button (upper left), which allows your collection to be shared.
-Copy the URL of your shared collection and paste it into the text field in the Berklee Online page where you are typing your response to this question.
For this week's History in Art discussion, please make your own gallery of three objects and share with the class. Choose works from any culture, but from three distinct historical periods, and write briefly about why you chose what you did. Imagine that you are curating your own exhibition of these three works. One question you might ask yourself: Do the patterns we have been exploring in this class express themselves in the three choices you made? Or, does a different pattern emerge?
Your post should be two to three (well-developed) paragraphs long. You may also upload descriptive text, a YouTube link, or an MP3 file.
3. Vandalism
In 1953, a young artist named Robert Rauschenberg approached Willem de Kooning—one of the most revered artists of his day—with a strange request. He asked De Kooning for a drawing . . . so that he could erase it.Rauschenberg himself went on to be one of the greatest artists of the twentieth century.
Listen to Rauschenberg’s account of the story below.
https://www(dot)youtube(dot)com/watch?v=tpCWh3IFtDQ
When Rauschenberg is asked about the Erased De Kooning, he says that it is not a protest against De Kooning and Abstract/Expressionism, nor is it a work of destruction/vandalism, but rather, "poetry." If we take Rauschenberg's assessment at face value, and understand the work as a poetic statement, where does the poetic dimension lie? Keep in mind, of course, that the word poetry can be construed quite broadly. Also keep in mind that you may need to expand your frame of reference in order to include this work in the category of "art," as many of us are accustomed to seeing things like Michelangelo's David as works of art, partly because they took a certain kind of skill to create. But the fact is, that this piece is very much considered a work of art. And by accepting this, we can then move to the next level of asking ourselves, what were the new ground-rules of art at that moment, at least as they were being defined by Rauschenberg? In other words, however we may personally feel about his gesture, how do we look at this situation like inquitsitive historians/scientists/lovers of all kinds of art? In other words, how do we make sense of this rather noticeable shift in artistic practice historically? What is the real work of the artist here, as compared with more traditional art? And what does this say about the nature of not only art itself, but existence? Can you think of any parallels in music or philosophy (or general cultural situations) that were occurring around the same time that Rauschenberg (and De Kooning?) made this piece?
Your post should be two to three (well-developed) paragraphs long.