With A Painter's Brush
Annotated Bibliography & Research Question
DUE: 1/15/2006
Length: 2-3 pages
Audience: An art historian looking for concise summaries of critical articles.
value: 5% of your grade

ASSIGNMENT: Now that you have analyzed and interpreted the painting, it is time to see how your initial analysis compares against other art critics. Your goal is to develop an annotated bibliography on your painting, the artist, the artistic movement etc. through which you will later "re-vision" your analysis.

RESEARCH: Your bibliography should consist of a MINIMUM of five (5) outside sources. However, you do not have to incorporate all of these in your paper, but I would be nice if you could cite at least 4. A paper can include a Works Cited page (those critics you quote) and a Bibliography (those you read, but do not refer to in your paper).

One should be an article that explains the critical perspective (see above).

First, demonstrate your developing research skills by locating and reading a minimum of three (3) "expert" critical articles about the painting itself and at least two (2) on related topics (biographical information, historical moment, gender issues etc.)

For example, in Assignment 1, you may have decided that the artist was making a radical statement about racism. You may want to read articles or chapters of books about: the artist's beliefs about racial discrimination, important racial historical events which the author may have experiences, etc. The opportunities and combinations are endless. Find something which you would be INTERESTED in researching.

Please make copies of the articles you find. It’s amazing what you miss upon first reading. As your ideas change, you will want to re-read these articles. Do NOT waste your time by having to hunt them down again at the busiest time of the semester, especially since the book may not be there the second time around.

Second, each annotated entry must briefly summarize the article (5-6 sentences).

Third, place entries beneath the correct citation in the bibliography. Use correct MLA format.

Fourth, based on your findings, pose a research question which argues for something which other critics have failed to consider. How will you accommodate or refute each argument? In other words, how will your analysis EXTEND the critics' arguments into an ORIGINAL analysis?

  A successful paper will:
  • complete all four activities
  • have tightly focused paragraphs which "downshift"
  • summarize each article with stylistically precise sentences
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