Imaginary museum
Your task with this writing assignment is to create your own “imaginary museum” of seven works of art
that you feel are most important to understanding the world of images after 1950. You should choose
seven works by seven different artists, with each work corresponding to a particular decade, starting
with the 1950s, then the 1960s, and so forth (so, one work per decade from the 1950s to the 2010s). In
your paper, you should write a long paragraph on each work, providing a brief description of each, an
interpretation, and an analysis or justification of why this work is important enough to represent art of
that decade. Your works may come from class, or you may choose others on your own. You do not need
to do outside research for this paper, but if you do, you should cite that research with Chicago style
footnotes. Your paper should be a minimum of 1,000 words in length, use double-spacing, have a title
page (your name and your paper title), page numbers, and use one professional twelve-point font
throughout. You will not be graded on your choices of works, but rather how well you describe,
interpret, and contextualize each of them.
In your paper, you should do the following:
1. Write an introduction that discusses issues that are most relevant to you in choosing works for
your imaginary museum (war, global politics and how it effects everyday people). This should be five to six sentences in length.
2. Write a paragraph on each of your seven works. Each paragraph should describe, interpret, and
justify why you think this work is an important indicator of art of its decade. Missing works will
incur five-point deductions each.
3. In your conclusion, you should discuss what you think are the three most important issues for
art of the 2020s (Black lives matter and coronavirus) . Your conclusion should be a minimum five sentences in length.
4. Provide images of each work in your imaginary museum. Label them by artist, title, and date.
Missing images or identifying information will incur three-point deductions each (separate page with the works not in the body of the essay).
information on the works ive chosen can be found on these sites;
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/postwar-art-of-the-left-1_b_1123096
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/post_3244_b_1420959
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/9892000_b_1422848
https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/9-11-art/banksy-911-tribute
https://www.complex.com/style/2013/07/new-political-art/william-powhida
works:
1950s – Massacre in Korea by Pablo Picasso ( korean war)
60s – Cleaning the Drapes by Martha Roseler ( about vietnam)
70s – Revolutionary (Angela Davis) by Wadsworth Jarell (angel davis and the black panther movement)
80s – U.S. Military Successfully Bombs A Mental Hospital in Grenada by Sue Coe (us intervention in south america)
90s – Execution by Yue Minjun (failure of cultural revolution in China)
2000s – In The Shadow of No Towers by Art Spiegelman ( post 9/11 in usa)
2010 -Your Land/My Land: Election ’12 by Jonathan Horowitz (election of first black president in the usa)
