Explain why it's important to understand the historical, social, and political context of a work of art.

This needs to be between 1000 – 1200 word count.
Step Directions
Be sure to follow these steps so you can write a well-organized exam.
Introduction to the Exam:
One of the most important aspects of this section is to make explicit those nine reasons and your tenth reason why the
Humanities matter. You’ll note that it is not the course content such a philosophy, history, the arts, literature, but ways of thinking about content that matter.
It’s all about my investment in your critical thinking and my investment in the other reasons that you leaned that the humanities
matter.
You’ll learn some about history, about painting, about conceptual and performative art and about philosophy as it’s demonstrated in these works, about art as a means for social and transformative change.
Step 1:
1) When most of us walk into a museum, we don’t expect to encounter propaganda on such as grand scale as Gros’ Napoleon at
the Pest House.
Introduce Gros’ Napoleon at the Pest House.
Be sure to use the artist’s full name and the date of the painting in your introduction. This only needs to be one or two sentences.
1a) What did it mean to you to learn here in Humanities or in another class or outside of school that Gros’ large and seemingly
beautiful oil painting was propaganda?
Explain why it’s important to understand the historical, social, and political context of a work of art. Be sure to incorporate
textual detail and direct quotation from the reading and short video.
Step 2:
1) When Gerault’s painting Raft of the Medusa was first shown, why was it dismissed and scoffed at? What standard did Gerault transgress? Be sure to incorporate textual detail and direct quotation from the reading and short video.
Do you think those standards still exists today? Why?
Step 3:
1) In at least 300 words, explain the concept of cultural jamming? Why is it important? How does it make us reconsider the
purpose of art? For instance, how does cultural jamming define art’s purpose?
Step 4:
1) Make a case that each of the artists and their work teach us about what is means to human. Be sure that you do not leave any of the artists out. You won’t earn full credit.
For instance, ask and answer — how do these artists confront and engage injustice and the human capacity for social and
cultural change? When we contend with competing biases regarding the beautiful and the ugly? How do Fred Wilson and Mark
Quinn shows us that beauty often conceals the ugly? Regarding Mark Quinn’s Self, recall that much of what we study as art from early civilizations (such as from the Etruscans, and from Egypt and China) is from burial chambers; the intention was to preserve bodies and spiritually conquer death. Also, one of the chief purposes of all portraits has been to conserve an individual’s legacy. Quinn’s engagement with cryopreservation in a gallery setting reminds us of art’s ancient role in ensuring posterity.
Step 5: Write a least a 250 word conclusion that shares with me what you learned from Humanities as you wrote, drafted, and organized the exam.

Essential:
This is graded regarding two particular areas:
(1) incorporating relevant quotations and details from the reading assignments and
(2) proofreading and editing before you submit
It’s about big and complex questions with no easy or quaint answers.

Many scholars, art historians, humanites researchers and ordinary individuals would argue that beauty is an essential, a
fundational criteria and benchmark by which we call something art and value it culturally.
Now that you better understand the social, historical, and political context of Gros’ Napoleon at The Pest House is it beautiful?
Now that you better understand the social, historical, and political context of Gerault’s Raft of the Medusa is it art, is it beautiful? What is its purpose?
What about performative and conceptual art and cultural jamming? What is its purpose? How is “Carry that Weight”
performative art and legitimated as art by the artist herself?
And what about the Fred Wilson’s installation art featuring the chairs and the stock on which a slave was chained? In the artist
own words, what does he want us to learn about beauty? Think about what you learned in the section on the West reception of
African Art? Was it understood as beautiful? Why and why not?
And Mark Quinn’s Self?
Your mission and goal here is to take notes and incorporate textual details from the short videos and reading assignments that
will help you write a reflective and expository essay exam.

Art and Propaganda
Propaganda is a way to deliver a message that appeals to the emotions instead of presenting solid evidence to support a point. It is used by advertisers, salespeople, and politicians who may lack adequate facts to persuade people to support their point of
view. Governments may use propaganda to rally support and influence people for a specific agenda, such as war. Part of being a critical reader is the ability to recognize these propaganda techniques.
Watch each of the videos that illustrate one way in which propaganda is used.
Stop after the first page; you only need to complete through the section Beautiful People.
Note: two of the videos are not available; however, the definitions are.

1.Use the full screen for best viewing
2.Use the close caption feature
3. Actively take notes as you read and watch this material.
4.Make a list of names both contemporary and historical.
5. Be prepare to incorporate direction quotations into your exam.
Napoleon was a master at using art to manipulate his public image. In reality, he had ordered the death of the prisoners whom he could not afford to house or feed, and poisoned his troops who were dying from the plague as he retreated from Jaffa.
Gros completed this painting in 1804, which is an oil on canvas. It is necessary to fully watch the Smarthistory video (Open
Educational Resource; watch time 3 minutes 54 seconds) and read the short commentary that accompanies the video.
The plague to which the commentary refers is the same one that you studied in this course. There are recurrent world outbreaks of the bubonic plague, the Black Death.
Napoleon soldiers find themselves at war in what was once Syria, a distant land, poisioned by their Commander in Chief, dying away from family, community, and homeland.

Before you begin:
Note: Watch Time: 6 minutes; 35 seconds Read Time: 60 minutes with review (commentary)
Success tips:
1.Use the full screen for best viewing
2.Use the close caption feature
3. Actively take notes as you read and watch this material.
4.Make a list of names both contemporary and historical.
5. Be prepare to incorporate direction quotations into your exam.
For this exam:
What Specifically Makes Theordore Gericault, Raft of the Medusa, radical? And as we asked of other work in Units 7 and 8 is
it art and by whose standards?
For concrete details that will help you to answer directly this question, you’ll need to pay careful and thoughtful attention to the
Smarhistory video (Open Educational Resource), on Gross oil painting that depicts Napoleon at the Pest House in Jaffa. You’ll
find additional insights here in this material.
What tradition did Gericault push back on? Be specific. Read for detail.
Despite these more traditional elements, Géricault challenged everything about the conservative approach to art in Raft of the
Medusa. The unified moment of a history painting, that should teach a lesson of moral virtue, is instead a scene of horror. The
suffering figures then turn their backs on the viewer in a dark, dramatic light, reminiscent.
In a history painting like Jacques-Louis David’s Oath of the Horatii, for example, the painter presents the men and women
directly to the viewer with a clear, even light, that makes it possible to see everything. In Raft of the Medusa, most of the living
men depicted turn their backs on the viewer and the bodies that extend toward us are corpses. The carefully composed groups of figures and allusions to past art do not mitigate the impact of the dead bodies depicted on the raft and the futility of their loss.

Understanding Critical Theory, A Succinct Working Definition —
Critical theory is oriented toward critiquing and changing society as a whole. It differs from traditional theory, which focuses only on understanding or explaining society. Critical theories aim to dig beneath the surface of social life and uncover assumptions
that keep human beings from a full understanding of how the world works.
Understanding the Practice of Cultural Jamming —
The practice of culture jamming is inspired by the critical theory of the Frankfurt School, which focused on the power of mass media and advertising to shape and direct our norms, values, expectations, and behavior through unconscious and subconscious
tactics. By subverting the image and values attached to a corporate brand, the memes deployed in culture jamming aim to
produce feelings of shock, shame, fear, and ultimately anger in the viewer, because it is these emotions that lead to social
change and political action.
For our purpose here:
Sometimes, culture jamming uses a meme or a public performance to critique the norms and practices of social institutions or to question political assumptions that lead to inequality or injustice.
Next Step, Please read: What is a Norm? Why Does It Matter?

Fred Wilson: Beauty and Ugliness
Is beauty the primary standard and criteria by which we judge a work of art? A culture? Its people? It’s art and landmarks in the
humanities? Does it have value only if it’s beautiful? If we are pleased with its aesthetic pleasantness and appeal? Reflect on
what you learned about why African Art was not considered art until Picasso, among others, understood their own cultures to
lack vitality and energy and turned to African Art for inspiration and purpose.

Conceptual artist and TED Fellow Sanford Biggers uses painting, sculpture, video and performance to spark challenging
conversations about the history and trauma of black America. Join him as he details two compelling works and shares the
motivation behind his art. “Only through more thoughtful dialogue about history and race can we evolve as individuals and
society,” Biggers says.
Questions to Think About:
Focus on how Sanford Bigger uses cutural jamming and repurposes African statuary art for 21st century artistic purposes?
Focus on the beauty of locus. Like the chairs in Fred Wilson’s work, what does the beauty conceal?
What conclusions do you draw here about cultural jamming and the arts role in cultural jamming?

Art and Innovation: Many works of art caused shock when they were first created. Think of Theodore Gericault, Raft of the
Medusa, which you just studied. Art was not supposed to be inspired by newspaper headlines.
Sometimes, it is relatively easy for the artisit to cause shock, but the outrage quick wears off if the work lacks dimension, and there will be many forgotten names in the history of twentieth-century art, music and cinema who resorted to the kind of superficial shock whose impact petered out all too quickly.
Does Self fall into this category? A defense of its merits would point to the breadth of themes addressed in this essay: its
painstaking process, its appropriation of medical technology, its art-historical reference points and its aim to act as a vehicle of
the artist’s self-expression. Self, such an argument would run, serves as an example of provocation with a purpose, where
medium, technique and message coalesce, and the art achieves both a memorable aesthetic and a satisfying quantity of
conceptual ballast.

These 7 sources NEED to be used (including the 2 uploaded files):