Museum Paper

In this paper, I would like you to connect your first-hand aesthetic experience of art with the essay by Diepeveen and Van Laar, “Art and Difficulty: Foucault’s Nightmare”. Your essay should have the following: 1. A detailed description of your experience of the artwork. This is the core of your essay, so try to be expressive, honest and specific about it. Also be sure to include a brief, general description of the artwork and where you saw it. 2. An analysis of your experience using the model set out by the Diepeveen article. I am looking for you to describe if your experience was difficult (as defined in the article) or not. Be sure to include the following: –Why (you think) you reacted as you did. What specific qualities or characteristics of the artwork or the viewing context caused your reaction? –If the artwork was difficult, what kind/s of difficulty did you experience, ie. was the artwork “unsettling or revolutionary”, “revealing the conditions of art” etc. If you do not think the artwork was difficult, describe how it does not have the characteristics of difficulty. What specific details of the artwork can you identify that support your argument? –A discussion of whether or not you think the difficulty (or lack of it) you experienced was valuable to you. If you struggled with the artwork, did you feel that you benefitted from the struggle? Why or why not? If you did not struggle with the artwork, do you think the ease of your experience affects your sense of the value of the artwork? Good examples of this kind of analysis can be found throughout the Diepeveen essay. The authors introduce an artwork, and then explain which category it is in by giving examples of the artwork’s formal characteristics. The key to their analysis is in their use of details of the artworks, so be sure to ground your arguments in specifics. Although I will expect you to have a thorough understanding of the Diepeveen article, I am not looking for a long summary or explanation of the article as a whole, unless it is relevant to your analysis of the artwork. Remember that your experience and analysis of the artwork should be the focus of the paper.