Instruction
Art in Modern Society Midterm Fall 20 – Pick 3 out of 5 and answer in one to one and half pages each
-Double spaced please (:
1) Marx was concerned with the sum total of social relations driven by material inequality, and the way ideas obscured the real relations between men. might a work of art expose the contradictions inherent in material life between the appearances in the camera obscura of ideology, and the real experience of life in the system of social relations? Use an example of art that expresses social relations that Marx points out.
2) According to Durkheim, religious force is nothing other than the collective and anonymous forces of the clan. How do collective sentiments continue to impress upon us their stamp outside of religious representations, which are clan based? Are there symbols that arouse in us group and place-based collective memory in the modern moment? How do they function to excite group sentiment?
3) The social construction of art thesis suggests that both art and the artist are socially constructed in the modern setting. How does art get “constructed” and how is the character of the artist made? Use an example of an artist and how their reputation is socially constructed according to genre and type.
4) In talking about social class in the arts, we discussed the concept of habitus and aesthetic dispositions. How does one, according to Bourdieu, develop embodied practices relevant for engaging with art in the field of practice? Cite an example of art in a place that limits certain habitus and how art may break creative artists from traditional structures?
5) Race intersects with art value in both place and genre. In places, how does one’s body and mind experience the racialization of spaces of interaction? In genres, how historically has the middle eastern, African and Afro-Caribbean been framed in Western cultural contexts? Cite an example or two and explain. You may use Kara Walker or Kader Attia’s work to explain (or your own examples).