Week 9

Good day to you all. Today our class meets at the Art Museum of Ft. Lauderdale to attend the special event exhibit of Norman Rockwell's work. Assignments due should be brought to the museum, where I will collect them. You will have the whole class to view the exhibit, take careful, complete notes, and form your conclusions as to the interest and merit of his work. The essay/review of the show is due week 10 in class. We we will also take the final exam, an essay composition, week 10 in class; it is to be an essay written spontaneously in response to a topic drawn from a set I will distribute that day. Week 11 is reserved for makeups and revisions.

I hope to see you in the lobby of the museum at 1:30 Friday. See below the trip information and assignment specifics given in handout form at our last class meeting.

Field Trip Information and Assignment Description

Instructor: Nancy Doyle

Contact: 954-732-6644

Course: ENC1101 Sec. Fridays 1-4

Location and Date: Museum of Art Ft. Lauderdale;Week 9: December 4, 2009, from 1:30 to 4:00 p.m.The Norman Rockwell Exhibit. Class will not meet at school, but at the museum.

Cost: $12:50 with student I.D. (group rate); $15 otherwise.

Parking: City Park Garage: From I-95, take the Broward Boulevard exit east to SE 1st Avenue. Take SE 1st Avenue south, approximately one and a half blocks. The entrance to the garage will be on the east (left) side, across the street from the Broward County Main Library. There is an additional entrance on SE 2nd Street. Parking is $1 per hour, paid in advance at centralized meters. Metered street parking is also available on the surrounding streets and at other nearby garages.

Address:
MUSEUM OF ART | FORT LAUDERDALE
One East Las Olas Boulevard, Fort Lauderdale, Florida, FL 33301. 
954-525-5500
 Website

*Map and directions attached.

Assignment: Write 500-700 words recording your first-person (eye-witness) observations and impressions of the work of Norman Rockwell on exhibit. Identify specific works by title and date and describe the subject matter, medium, size, and so on; discuss the import of the work, what it describes or means, its story content, and the artist’s particular rendering of his subject. Ask yourself, what has the artist attempted to say about this subject? What feelings or attitudes does the composition evoke, and what specific elements or design choices (i.e. use of colors, shapes, light and dark, tonal contrast, textures) produce them? Information accompanying the exhibit pieces or that you yourself research may be integrated in the form of brief direct quotation or summary. Each of the example art pieces included in the essay should support the central idea or thesis of the essay. Description and commentary regarding the museum space, the presentation in general, and the activity in the museum on the day of your visit, may also be included as you describe the event. Provide a clear introduction and thesis, multiple body paragraphs, and a conclusion that underscores the thesis idea. Paper due week 10.

*Alternate Assignment: An essay exploring the work of a major artist, using at least three secondary sources (as well as primary sources—the works on view, if available).

Assignment Objectives: To provide opportunity for constructing an essay built from primary source material, i.e. firsthand observations of an important artist’s work; and from secondary source material in the form of supporting literature and/or documentary work accompanying the exhibit. In addition, students will engage with others in the group in an environment that offers intellectual and aesthetic stimulation and acquaintance with an important local resource, the museum itself.

Norman Rockwell (1894 – 1978) painted the best of America, creating indelible images of the lives, hopes and dreams of American in the 20th century. Expertly weaving both narrative and painterly images, he was consummate visual storyteller with a finely honed sense of what made an image successful in the new, rapidly changing era of mass media. Rockwell’s unique artistic legacy, established during 65 years of painting, offers a personal chronicle of 20th century life and aspirations that has both reflected and profoundly influenced American perceptions and ideals.

American Chronicles: The Art of Norman Rockwell traces the evolution of Rockwell’s art and iconography throughout his career – from carefully choreographed reflections on childhood innocence in such paintings as Day in the Life of a Little Girl (1952) to powerful, consciousness-raising images for Look magazine in the 1960s documenting the traumatic realities of desegregation in the South. Rockwell’s artistic contributions and the impact of his images on American popular culture is explored within the context of his life and times through in-depth exhibition commentary and a decade-by-decade installation of forty-two original artworks and a complete set of 323 archival Saturday Evening Post cover tear sheets, which span forty-seven years.