Art History Research Paper: Minimalism. Research Paper

Choose one of the three research topics listed on the other side of the page. For each of the three
possible topics there are three electronic resources to consult. You can use these sources to get
started with your research and then locate at least three additional publications (journal articles,
exhibition catalogues, or scholarly books) on the artist/s and work/s you are covering. The three
other sources should be books or essays that are available online (through the BU Libraries,
Google Scholar, or JSTOR, for example). When referencing these texts in your essay, the
original article should be cited rather than the web address, unless you are citing an approved
website. Course readings can be discussed in your essay, but they will not count toward the three
sources that you locate on your own. Please communicate with us if you have questions about
the appropriateness of research material. Proper citation of sources (footnotes and bibliography)
is required; see the attached style guide.

Research Paper
AH 392—Twentieth-Century Art from 1940 to 1980
Spring 2020Due: Monday, April 20—to be submitted electronically (details coming soon)Format: 8-10 double-spaced, typed pp., 1-inch margins, Times New Roman 12-pt.Choose one of the three research topics listed on the other side of the page. For each of the threepossible topics there are three electronic resources to consult. You can use these sources to getstarted with your research and then locate at least three additional publications (journal articles,exhibition catalogues, or scholarly books) on the artist/s and work/s you are covering. The threeother sources should be books or essays that are available online (through the BU Libraries,Google Scholar, or JSTOR, for example). When referencing these texts in your essay, theoriginal article should be cited rather than the web address, unless you are citing an approvedwebsite. Course readings can be discussed in your essay, but they will not count toward the threesources that you locate on your own. Please communicate with us if you have questions aboutthe appropriateness of research material. Proper citation of sources (footnotes and bibliography)is required; see the attached style guide.We recommend that you write on several works or one major project by a single artist.This is likely the most efficient approach when conducting online research. You might focus onchanges in style or method during an artist’s career or on the work’s critical reception,addressing themes we have discussed in class. The questions on the other side of the page arebroad and allow for flexible responses, but your paper should present a cogent argument thatsituates the artist’s work within its socio-historical context. You do not need to answer eachquestion under the topic headings; a compelling paper could emerge in response to a singleprompt. You might also consider discussing several artists in the context of a clearly definedthesis, but in this case, we ask that you consult with us about your proposed topic. If you haveexperience in writing research papers in art history, we are open to discussing topics that do notderive from one of the three questions. In that case, we ask that you speak with us early so thatwe can help you to frame a focused and manageable paper topic.Note: Papers must include digital reproductions (black-and-white or in color) of the works youdiscuss, attached separately at the end of the paper (not embedded in the body of the text). Eachwork should be given a reference number (fig. 1, fig. 2, etc.) that is inserted in parentheses intothe body of the text. Full captions (artist, title, date, medium) are to be printed below each image.The paper should have a title at the top of the first page. Finally, be sure to insert page numbersinto the paper.Research—you should consult six sources in total, following the structure below:Erika Doss, Twentieth-Century American Art (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2002); N6512D67 2002—available as an e-book via BU Libraries; you can search for the book atwww.bu.edu/library and sign in when you click “Online Access Available”Grove Art Online: go to www.bu.edu/library; under Collections, click on Databases A-Z;navigate to Grove Art Online and sign in using your BU credentials. You can look upentries on individual artists, movements, and styles.Visit a reliable museum website to glean information about a specific artist. We recommend thefollowing links, but you might find others (ask us if you are not sure about reliability):Museum of Modern Art: www.moma.org/artistsMetropolitan Museum of Art: https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collectionTate Modern: www.tate.org.uk/artFinally, locate three essays or articles via JSTOR, Google Scholar, or another online source.Please ask us for tips if you have trouble finding material on your artist/s.1. Postwar PaintingIn our discussions of international postwar painting, we have talked about the visual presence ofthe artist’s “autographic” gesture on the surface of the work. How did individual artists establisha personal style through distinct marks and particular modes of applying paint to canvas?Analyze the work of one or more artists who address the question of artistic subjectivity as it wasexpressed in international painting of the 1940s and 1950s. How did artists attempt to positionthemselves in postwar society, and how did critics and the public respond?2. Pop ArtThe appearance of images and objects from consumer culture and the mass media in artproduced in the 1950s and 1960s upset categories that had been established by formalist critics.Writers like Clement Greenberg and Michael Fried were interested in maintaining clear divisionsbetween art and everyday life. To what divergent ends did Pop artists working in many locationsaround the world employ found elements and/or ephemeral materials in producing works of art?What techniques were used to challenge the restrictions associated with traditional forms ofpainting and sculpture?3. MinimalismSeveral of the artists grouped loosely under the label Minimalism took a modular, serialapproach to the production of their sculptures and paintings. How did this method offer analternative to the dominant trends of the immediate postwar period? Think about how this workrelates to other movements from the 1960s (e.g., Pop or Conceptual art). Artists associated withMinimalism also frequently placed strong emphasis on the perceptual and physical responses ofthe viewers who encountered the objects. How did the sculptures engage the audience andenhance awareness of the viewer’s position within the gallery or museum? AH 392—Research Paper: Guide to Footnotes and BibliographyArt historians typically use The Chicago Manual of Style as a guide to formatting the footnotes(we prefer footnotes over endnotes) and bibliographies of their scholarly essays. This handout isdesigned to introduce you to the citation style and to serve as a quick reference for your researchpaper (the Chicago Manual is available in both print and electronic format at Mugar Library).I. FOOTNOTESWhen referring to someone else’s ideas, you are required to use a footnote, whether youare paraphrasing or quoting the author. Here are some things to keep in mind:• Number notes consecutively throughout the paper.• You should place the numbers at the END of a sentence, after the period,quotation mark, or parenthesis (see example below).• The first time you make reference to a source you should include a completecitation. All subsequent references need only list the author, title (of book orarticle), and page number.• If you use an online database, such as JSTOR, to find an article, cite theinformation relevant to the original article and journal—not the website of thedatabase.EXAMPLESIn the body of the text, a footnote should appear like this:Constantin Brancusi fled Rodin’s studio after only one month.1-orAs Brancusi recalled, “I made a sculpture a day, in the manner of Rodin.”2At the bottom of the page, a footnote should look like this:a) Book format: Author, Title (City of publication: Publisher, year), page number(s).1 Anna Chave, Constantin Brancusi: Shifting the Bases of Art (New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1993), 5.Subsequent references do not include publication information and only cite the mainportion of the title:2 Chave, Constantin Brancusi, 10. 3 Ibid. (This abbreviation means you are citing the same author and page numberas the preceding citation, i.e., Chave, Constantin Brancusi, 10. If you wish to citethe same source as the preceding citation but from a different page, use: Ibid, pagenumber, i.e., Ibid, 12.)b) Article format: Author, “Title,” Journal [space] Volume, Issue (Year), Pagenumber(s).1 Anna Chave, “Minimalism and Biography,” The Art Bulletin 82, no. 1(March 2000), 149.II. BIBLIOGRAPHYYour bibliography should consist of a complete list of references you consulted inpreparation for writing the paper. The following are some basic guidelines:• List any reference that appears in the footnotes.• You may include references you consulted while researching, even if you do notcite any quotations from them.• All bibliographic references should be listed in alphabetical order by the author’slast name.• Note the differences in order of words and punctuation between footnotes andbibliographic citations.• In a bibliography, always give the page numbers for the whole article, not just thepages consulted.EXAMPLESBook format: Last name, First name. Title. City of Publication: Publisher, Year.Chave, Anna. Constantin Brancusi: Shifting the Bases of Art. New Haven: YaleUniversity Press, 1993.Successive books by the same author (replace the author’s name with seven underlinedcharacters):_______. Mark Rothko: Subjects in Abstraction. New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1989.Article format: Last name, First name. “Title.” Journal [space] Volume, Issue (Monthand Year of issue): page numbers.Chave, Anna. “Minimalism and Biography.” The Art Bulletin 82, no. 1(March 2000): 149-63.