ART 494 SMP II

PHASE I: Winter Break Activities

So you’ve completed SMP #1! And now it’s time to take on the final frontier… SMP #2! This, as you know, means creating a body of work for exhibition in the gallery, writing an essay length artist statement, and giving a 20 minute artist talk about your work in relationship to other visual sources. In the first two weeks of class I will ask each of you to make short presentations during which you will describe your exhibition plans, outline the salient critical issues of your work, and discuss your selection of art and non-art sources. To prepare you for these short presentations I am asking you to complete the following assignments over winter break (Please do all of your writing digitally so we can share and exchange when the time comes.)

  1. Reassess Your Work: In light of recent events (your artist statement draft, interviews, SMP I exhibition, and final critique) and a reading of the Thomas McEvilley essay (that I have emailed to you). McEvilley essay will help you expand your ideas of how your work makes its meanings. You should review the audiotape of your critique and take some notes to refer to later while the work in the gallery is still up.

"Everything we might say about an artwork that is not neutral description is an attribution of content" - Thomas McEvilley, Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird

Writing and talking about your artwork should be, at its best, a sincere attempt to explore the nature and meaning of your artwork. Meaning, as McEvilley suggests, happens simultaneously on multiple levels of experience and is communicated by all explicit and implicit aspects of a work. To focus your reassessment you have two options. You can use the following questions as a general prompt to think and write about the nature of your work as presented in your SMP I exhibition or you can respond to or answer the specific questions and challenges raised in your critique by carefully reviewing your audiotape and responding in an interview format manner.

For those of you who maybe need some prompting to get started consider the following questions (or formulate your own if you wish) ….

2. Research Your Sources: This is the research that will serve as a basis for your artist statement and talk.

To complete this initial research you might :

  1. Search for Books:

To search the Maryland system for books one can use "Victor" (which becomes USMAI) on Jan 6th ) which can be accessed via our library web page on or off campus unfortunately it is not available Dec 23- Jan 6th this year. When you find texts via victor/USMAI you can have them sent to SMCM or find them and check them out at the library that owns them (i.e. college Park for instance). All you need is your SMCM id. If you check them out at another library you can actually return them via SMCM library when you return in January. Of course the SMCM might own the books you want. You could check them out before you leave campus or return after the New Year for a few hours to gather stuff to read (break hours are posted on their web page).

2. Search for periodicals:

You can access the Maryland Digital Library databases (specifically the "Academic Search Elite") online while off campus via the library web page to find magazine and newspaper articles. Requesting full text copies of articles must be done through inter- library loan mechanism (available on line via the library).

3. Go and Visit Museums and Galleries!

Current dynamite exhibitions include the Arte Povera show at the Hirshhorn (an absolute must see for those of you doing sculpture and installation!!) The Emit Gowin photo show at the Corcoran (amazing!!), the tromp’ oil show at the National and of course no one should miss the Corcoran Biennial this time entitled "Fantasy Underfoot"!?.

In sum…

ASSIGNMENT: are and should include:

WHEN: Due and posted* upon your return January 22nd

*As per instructions during our first class meeting.