Back to Schedule / Back to Course Index

IVT105 / Reading Review Assignment for PDF  #2: Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird by Thomas McEvilley

In this essay Thomas McEvilley claims that all aspects of a work of art create content (meaning). He attempts to identify a number of content effecting categories (13 of them) from which a work’s meaning may arise:

1. Representation 2. Verbal supplements 3. Genre 4. Material

5. Scale 6. Temporal duration 7. Context 8. Relationship with art history 9. Destiny through time

10. Iconographic tradition 11. Formal properties 12. Attitudinal gestures 13. Bio or physiological responses

As an advanced art critical writing, this essay tends to use lots of complicated references and qualifying comments without always offering an overall definition for each heading. So our challenge is cut through the complexity and arrive at a useful definition for each heading.

1. Read and Research: For each of the 13 categories, Read the author’s remarks looking up any terms and artworks you are unfamiliar with. Also try looking up each category heading in online dictionaries and factor that into your definition (see below).
   
   
2. Write: For each of the 13 categories, write a straightforward description of what you believe each category entails. Explain by both briefly summarizing what McEvilley says and by inventing examples (at least two). For each of these examples, name the quality of the artwork you are imagining and speculate as to the meanings that might arise. Write no less than 1/3 of a page per category. Here is an example:

Category is Material…

Material is the stuff that an artwork is made out of. Materials bring meaning to a work of art through the associations we have with them. McEvilley says that beyond the associations connected with specific materials, the use of certain materials in an artwork can form “statements of affiliation to, or alienation from, certain areas of cultural tradition.” For instance, using natural materials such as wood, leaves, sand, or seashells, might indicate an environmentalist mindset and implicitly rejects the modern world of industry, mass production, and mass consumerism. Another example of a “statement of affiliation” could an artist who chooses to work with a material associated with traditional art making such as carved marble. Such an artwork might indicate an alignment with more conservative, old- fashioned, high-art making values. Besides cultural associations, materials used can also give rise to personal meanings for a viewer. For example, if a particular viewer has spent a lot of time at the beach specific memories might be triggered by a piece of art that uses seashells or sand.

Invented example 1: The artwork is a glass sculpture of a face. Glass is a material used to create transparent surfaces. It is also know as a material that is easily broken. Thus, a portrait created in glass might indicate openness, honesty (transparency). Or it could imply a fragile presence or personality.

Invented example 2: The artwork is a painting of the map of the USA made with butter. Butter is an edible material that is associated with rich, high calorie foods. Thus, in the case of this map painting, it might be interpreted as a comment on the obesity problem throughout America.

3. In Depth Study of One Assigned Category w/ Illustrations. Study your assigned category in more depth so you are prepared to lead class discussion and then…

a. Find one image of an actual work of art that you believe illustrates this type of meaning.

b. Write no less than half a page addressing your selected illustration including the following:

· Provide complete information for the artwork (artist, title, date, materials etc.)

· Explain why you selected each example (how it fits McEvilley’s category)

· Speculate as to the specific meaning that this element brings to your interpretation of the artwork. (don’t just say it adds meaning say what meaning it adds)

4. Submit: This assignment, prefaced by this assignment page should be printed for your notebooks (with your part 3 illustration embedded)

ALSO: email the part 3 illustration as an attached jpeg file to Lisa titled yourlastname_categoryname.jpg