Looking paper (due Monday, Mar. 4).

Your first paper for this course will be based on your analysis of a single Asian painting, chosen from several that I have posted online. If you have an Ethernet connection to the campus network, you can access these images at Artifact, the Visual Resources Collection website: http://vrcsrv.hws.edu. Click on "Reserves," then, under “Presentations Currently Available,” click on the one titled “Images for looking paper,” ARTH 103. (If you cannot link to the site directly using the URL above, you should be able to access Artifact via the Library website, http://library.hws.edu/; choose the Artifact database on the main page and enter your campus username and password at the prompt.)

I have posted these eight paintings:

• Detail from the Heike nōgyō (Sutras Dedicated by the Heike/Taira Clan, or the Lotus Sutra Scrolls), color on paper with kirigane decoration, 27 x 26 cm, Japanese, Heian period, 1164. Itsukushima shrine, Hiroshima prefecture, Japan.
• SHEN Zhou (1427-1509), Landscape, folding fan, ink and color on paper, 16 x 20 cm, Chinese, Ming dynasty.
• School of Bijapur, Sultan Ibrahim Adil Shah II Holding Castanets, miniature, gouache on paper, 17 x 10.2 cm, Indian, ca. 1610-20. Bijapur, Karnataka, India.
• GONG Xian (ca. 1617-1689), “Mountains and Mist-Filled Valleys,” from Landscape Album, album of ten leaves, ink on paper, 24 x 45 cm, Chinese, Qing dynasty, 1671.
• Shitao (ZHU Ruoji, a.k.a. Daoji or Yuanji, 1642-1707), “Peonies,” from Flowers, album of nine leaves, ink on paper, 25.6 cm h., Chinese, Qing dynasty, ca. 1698.
• YOSA Buson (1716-1783), Cuckoo Flying over New Verdure, hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 154 x 79 cm, Japanese, Edo period.
• Radha and Krishna in the Grove, paint on paper, 13 x 17 cm, Indian, Rajput dynasty, 1780.
• YASUI Sōtarō (1888-1955), Portrait of Mrs. F., oil on canvas, 88 x 66 cm, Japanese, Shōwa era, 1939.

Choose one painting from the list above to analyze.

This is supposed to be a "looking" paper, by which I mean that I don't want you to do extensive research or background reading. I want you to look at the painting and analyze it based on what you see. Sylvan Barnet's A Short Guide to Writing about Art (10th ed.) refers to this kind of assignment as an "analysis," and Chapters 3 (“Formal Analysis and Style,” pp. 46-68) and 4 (“Analytic Thinking,” pp. 69-134) explain specifically how to write this kind of paper. I expect you to read those chapters carefully, paying special attention to the section titled “Drawing and Painting.” *  Please note that Chapters 1 (“Writing about Art,” pp. 1-35), 2 (“Writing about Art: The Big Picture,” pp. 36-45), 8 (“How to Write an Effective Essay,” pp. 175-85), and 9 (“Style in Writing,” pp. 186-219) may also be useful.

The finished paper should be about 600-900 words long (roughly 2-3 pages), but it is due in two parts.

First draft (due Monday, Feb. 4): Write a careful description of the painting, making sure to identify which painting it is. This part should be about 300-600 words (roughly 1-2 pages). You will want to talk about the subject matter of the painting, and you should also use what we have learned about formal characteristics of art in this part of the paper. These potentially include the following (remember that the absence of certain characteristics is sometimes important too):

• media;
• composition;
• proportion or scale;
• quality of color;
• quality of line;
• representation of space, mass, or volume on a two- dimensional surface; and
• the perspective or vantage point of the viewer.

Second draft (due Monday, Feb. 18): Take the description you wrote for the first draft and start to revise it in order to include your analysis of the painter's artistic choices in regard to media, composition, proportion or scale, color, line, space/mass/volume, and vantage point. (A great artist paints thoughtfully, and his or her choices are deliberate. Consider how the painting could have been different. Then consider what the artist's choices convey to the viewer.)

After you have come up with ideas about why the artist painted this particular work in a certain way, use those ideas to develop a specific thesis around which to organize your writing, and put the thesis in the first paragraph. (Note: this should not be an inflated claim such as "This painting exemplifies the beauty of Chinese art," nor should it be something so vague that it could apply to many paintings, such as “This painting exhibits the formal characteristics of composition, line, and color.”) Pay attention to your language: please avoid judgmental words like "good" or "bad," as well as overused adjectives like "nice" and "interesting." Your draft at this point should have grown by another 300-600 words, making it roughly 600-900 words or 2-3 pages altogether. It is not necessary or even desirable to keep the first and second drafts separate; ideally, the writing you do for the second draft should be integrated into your first draft.

If you have further questions about writing papers, you might visit the HWS Writes website (http://www.hws.edu/academics/ctl/hws_writes.aspx).

Format for written work:
One of the things you will learn in an art history class is the importance of presentation. This applies to your written work as well:

• Type all work in a 12-point font.
• Double-space.
• Leave one-inch margins on all sides.
• Number your pages.
• Put your name and the date on the first page.
• Check that your spelling, grammar and punctuation are correct—these are crucial to effective communication of your ideas. I will lower your grade if you have excessive errors. A Short Guide to Writing about Art has a helpful chapter titled “Manuscript Form.” Read it.
• If you cite another source, use either parenthetical references or footnotes. (See A note about cheating and plagiarism below.) Make sure that you follow one of the documentation styles explained in A Short Guide to Writing about Art (Chicago Manual of Style or Art Bulletin Style).
• Include pictures with captions if appropriate.

You can submit written work via Canvas. Please upload a Microsoft Word document (.doc, .docx), Rich Text Format file (.rtf), or a PDF file (.pdf): these are the only formats that Canvas will accept. Alternatively, you can turn in a stapled hard copy, plus copies of any earlier drafts, to me during the class period. PLEASE NOTE:  I do not accept papers via e-mail.

A note about cheating and plagiarism:
I will not tolerate any form of academic dishonesty. Not only does it destroy the trust that I have in you to do your best, it is unfair to the other students, and obviously you will not learn anything if you resort to cheating. If I find that you have cheated on a test or on a written assignment, you will receive a zero for the assignment and I will contact the Deans and/or the Committee on Standards about your case. I follow the recommendation of the Committee on Standards; if it also finds evidence of cheating or plagiarism, the recommendation is usually failure of the course at a minimum. See the Colleges’ Principle of Academic Integrity and General Academic Regulations (http://www.hws.edu/catalogue/policies.aspx) and the Handbook of Community Standards (http://www.hws.edu/studentlife/pdf/community_standards.pdf), pp. 38-40.

Now, just in case you are not clear about what plagiarism is: plagiarism is the use of someone else’s words or ideas without giving that person credit.  In application, this means that in your writing assignments, you need to cite your sources. When quoting directly from a text—say, five words or more in succession—you need to put those words in quotation marks and include a parenthetical reference or footnote citing the source. When rewriting a passage from a text in your own words, you don’t need the quotation marks but you do still need the parenthetical reference or footnote. If you don’t understand exactly what constitutes plagiarism, or how to use parenthetical references or footnotes, please ask me. I would prefer to explain what it is and how to avoid it before it happens rather than after.