Looking paper.

Your first paper for this course will be based on your analysis of a single Asian painting, chosen from several that I have posted on Canvas. The assignment page for the Looking Paper will have links to these paintings. Alternatively, you can access them through Files, within the folder labeled “Images for Looking Paper.” (Look at the file names to tell which image is which.)

I have posted eight paintings; choose one to analyze:

1. WANG Meng (ca. 1308–85), Writing Books under the Pine Trees, double album leaf mounted as a hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 66.7 × 70.5 cm, Chinese, Yuan dynasty, 14th cent.
2. [Unknown artist], Gathering among the Members of Office Censor-General, or Literary Gathering, hanging scroll, ink and light color on paper, 121 × 69 cm, Korean, Joseon period, ca. 1700–1800.
3. [Unknown artist], Two Princes Hunting, miniature, gouache on paper, 24.1 × 45.6 cm, Indian, ca. 1670. Bijapur, Karnataka, India.
4. IKE Gyokuran (a.k.a. TOKUYAMA Gyokuran, 1727/8–1784), Autumn Landscape with a Waterfall, folding fan mounted as hanging scroll, ink and color on paper, 19.1 × 52.3 cm, Japanese, Edo period.
5. [Unknown artist], Royal Women Celebrating Diwali, miniature, gum tempera and gold on paper, 20.5 × 24.7 cm, Indian, Mughal period, ca. 1760. Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India.
6. Aqil KHAN (fl. ca. 1700s), Princess and Attendant in Trompe-l’oeil Window, gum tempera, ink, and gold on paper, 44 × 31.6 cm, Indian, Mughal period, ca. 1765.
7. Xugu (1823–96), Squirrel on an Autumn Branch, folding fan, ink and color on alum paper, 18 × 48 cm, Chinese, Qing dynasty.
8. Narashige KOIDE (1887–1931), Self-Portrait with a Hat, oil on canvas, 124.5 × 88.9 cm, Japanese, Taisho era, 1924.

This is supposed to be a “looking” paper, by which I mean that I don’t want you to do 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 (11th ed.) refers to this kind of assignment as an “analysis,” and Chapters 3 (“Formal Analysis and Style”) and 4 (“Analytical Thinking”) 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”), 2 (“Writing about Art: The Big Picture”), 9 (“How to Write an Effective Essay”), and 10 (“Style in Writing”) may also be useful.

The finished paper should be about 600–900 words long (roughly 2–3 pages), but it is due in three parts. You will need to meet with Writing Colleague Ingrid Miller about the first two drafts before submitting the final version (worth 20% of your course grade).

First draft, due Friday, Feb. 2 to Ingrid Miller via e-mail: Write a thorough description of the painting, making sure to identify which painting you have chosen at the beginning of the paper. This draft should be about 300–600 words (roughly 1–2 pages). You should describe the subject matter of the painting, and wherever possible, you should use the vocabulary for formal characteristics of art in this part of the paper. You should write about any of the following elements that you see as important to the painting you have chosen:

• media;
• composition;
• proportion and/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 Thursday, Feb. 15 to Ingrid Miller via e-mail: 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 their choices are deliberate. Consider how the painting could have been different, remembering that the absence of certain characteristics can be important to your analysis. Then consider what the artist’s choices convey to the viewer.)

After you have come up with ideas about why the artist painted 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. (This should not be something so vague that it could apply to many paintings, such as “This painting exhibits the formal characteristics of composition, line, and color.”) Please avoid judgment: I am not looking for an assessment or a critique of whether the works of art are good or bad, but an argument about what you think the painter is trying to convey. 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.

Final draft, due Thursday, Feb. 29 via Canvas: Revise your second draft as necessary, incorporating any suggestions that other readers or I made on earlier drafts. (It is possible that your second draft will not need further revision and can be resubmitted as the final draft.) The final draft should include an introductory paragraph with a thesis that explains what you think the artist is trying to convey or express, multiple body paragraphs (with clear topic sentences) that each focus on a single idea that supports your argument, and a concluding paragraph that reiterates your thesis and your findings. Make sure to follow the guidelines in the Format for Written Work on the syllabus and cite sources for any information you include in your paper. If you have further questions about writing papers, you might make an appointment with me or visit the Center for Teaching and Learning.†