What traits of the work or subject stand out in person?

What traits of the
work or subject stand out in person? Consider if multiple interpretations of the work are
possible.
Consider the following formal attributes as a few possible points of evidence:
– Genre (landscape, portrait, photograph, sculpture) – the medium gendered?
– Material (paint, fabric, metal, wood, silk) – is it gendered?
– Representation (abstract or figurative)
– Subject (individualized or idealized); scene
– Pose, posture, and activities of sitter
– Dress and adornment
– Lighting (emotional or highlighting something specific)
– Color (gendered, emotional)
– Level of craft (clearly handmade or with precision)
– Scale (diminutive, massive, life-sized, table-top)
– Function (decorative or utilitarian)
When you are ready to write, first prepare your thesis. How do the works’ formal features or
material indicate social or cultural attitudes towards gender difference and relations? Citing the
works’ formal features, argue how the works comment on, relate to, support, or criticize positions
on themes such as:
– Sexual binaries or gender spectrum
– Profession, privilege, and power
– Masculinity versus femininity
– Nudity and nakedness
– Suffrage and Civic rights
– Women or men as objects of the gaze
– Patronage, collecting, and privilege
– Allegorical themes
– Double marginalization
ARH-321 Women, Art, and Society
Paper 1; Museum Visit and Comparative Analysis
2 ARH321 Women, Art, and Society
– Icons, signals, traits, or enforcers of gender difference
Your 4-page paper should consist of an introduction with a clear and specific thesis, organized body
paragraphs with topic sentences, transitions between ideas, a balanced discussion of the works, and a
conclusion.
Your introduction should introduce the works (title of work, artist and a brief context, materials)
and include a general description. Contextualize both works in their historic moment and identify
what about them encourages comparison. What are the social, political, religious, or cultural contexts
of their creation? Are they of the same medium, from the context, of the same country, or from the
same decade? The reason behind your selection can be helpful for crafting your thesis.
Your body paragraphs should consider the formal characteristics of the works and how they signal
different attitudes towards your gender-themed thesis. Two popular options for organizing a
comparative paper is to discuss each work in separate paragraphs; or to organize the body
paragraphs by point of comparison (like pose of the sitter). Each paragraph should have a topic
sentence that clearly identifies the subject of the paragraph.
Your conclusion should summarize your argument. How do the attitudes on view in the works of
art relate to their broader cultural moment? The concluding paragraph is also a productive moment
to consider how the historic attitudes displayed in the works of art differ from those of today

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