artwork analysis 5

3-4 DOUBLE-SPACED PAGES.

A “landscape,” cultivated or wild, is already artifice before it has become

the subject of a work of art.

– Malcolm Andrews,

Landscape and Western Art, 1999

We began this course with Andrews’s proposition, and it has, in almost every way, shaped the

trajectory we’ve followed. Taking Andrews’s sentence as your point of departure, write a short

essay examining one of the key artworks we’ve encountered so far. How do Andrews’s terms

help us better understand the painting you’ve chosen to focus on and the image of nature it

produces? Think and write comparatively if you’d like; but be sure your essay centers on one

work in particular. Your argument should be about that one work.

Be sure to describe the picture(s) you discuss. Try, as best as you can, to link the conclusions

you draw to specific details in the artwork(s). In other words, help us see what you’re trying to

say about the painting(s) in question. And don’t forget – don’t be afraid – to state what seems

most obvious.

Finally, be sure your essay engages the course readings. At the very least you should have

something specific, and substantive, to say about the readings we’ve done around the picture(s)

you discuss. Show us that you’ve read closely and critically.