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Tama Art Library by Toyo Ito: Library in Paradise

case study art essay

Minimalistic approach and clean lines are a characteristic of the 2013 Pritzker Prize award-winning architect Toyo Ito. His architectural style showcases a lightness in the structures reflective of air and wind. His projects carry a fluidity to themselves which breaks the limitations of modern architecture .

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His projects radiate a drive for perfection that he achieves flawlessly with a connecting blend of noteworthy internal and external space qualities. Tama Art University Library located in the suburbs of Tokyo is one such project by the Japanese architect. 

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The Tama Art University Library as suggested by the name is part of an art university that provides for students to experience and experiment in all aspects of art and design. The library serves as the northern gateway to the campus, stretching up a gentle slope and standing out with its sharp lines and arcade-like composition. Due to the site topography and the presence of a front garden with varied short and tall trees, Toyo Ito envisioned the library to be a connection emerging as an experience of a continuous landscape within the building. 

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The university cafeteria was the only place where both students and staff members from different disciplines of the university could share space and interact. So, the first thought by Toyo Ito and his design team while ideating for the library was to create a space that served as a common ground for everyone in the passing by. The first concept was ‘to create an open gallery on the ground level that would serve as an active thoroughfare for people crossing the campus, even without intending to go to the library’. 

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To achieve the free movement of people and the surrounding view, the architect and his design team started thinking in the lines of a structure of randomly placed arches. The arches aligned to the thought derived from the want to create a structure corresponding to a cave and its stalactites that do not follow a certain pattern of geometry. Ito in his original proposal wanted the library to be excavated but due to budget restraints, he had to change his idea and raise the library from the basement to the first floor. The dimensions and placement of the arches are such that the ground floor of the building acts as an open space allowing for its floor to follow the slope of the surrounding land. The building blends with the natural surroundings merging the interiors and exteriors.  

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In this project architect, Toyo Ito worked in close collaboration with structural engineer Mutsuro Sasaki to derive an abstract and evolving grid of curved lines where the load is evenly distributed in its 56 intersecting points. The grid allowed for the derivation of the arches in a way that it created colonnades of rigid capitals and pin anchors. The simple arch-like structural system allows for the heavy concrete construction to look impossibly light. It then seems to reflect the initial visuals of the stalactites that had inspired the project. 

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“The characteristic arches are made out of steel plates covered with concrete. In plan, these arches are arranged along curved lines that cross at several points. With these intersections, we were able to keep the arches extremely slender at the bottom and still support the heavy live loads of the floor above.”  – Toyo Ito.

Therefore though the building’s 166 arches, varying in width from 1.8 to 16 m, follow the same grid on both levels, not two of them are exactly alike, as the floor slopes at the ground floor while the roof slants at the first floor. The library’s open plan on the first floor, which is a result of the curved grid, is a single flowing fluid space with just arches and a continuity unobstructed by non-existent walls. The junction of the lines of arches helps softly segregate zones within this one space. The wide and open volume of this floor is strategically divided with the use of furniture designed by Kazuko Fuji. The different furniture elements divergent in size and shapes, along with the partitions that function as bulletin boards, etc., give the space a sense of spatial continuity while assigning the zones with personal visual character.

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In the South-facing end of the building where the roof is lowest the function has been zoned to be for formal purposes demarcated by the high, rectilinear shelves. In the North-facing end, a more informal function like reading and studying area has been drawn due to low, winding shelves roughly following the curves of the grid.

case study art essay

As one moves up the stairs to the second floor, they can find sizable art books placed on low bookshelves crossing under the arch curves. Amidst these shelves are study desks of various sizes meant for a group as well as individual study. The presence of a state-of-art copy machine allows users to do specialized editing work. As the students or staff members wait for the bus in the library, they are invited by the large glass table showcasing the latest issues of magazines.

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The rows of arches along the curvilinear grid and the ones intersecting provide for a diverse spatial experience. Owing to the varied span and height changes of the arches the visual quality of the space changes from open volume filled with natural light similar to a gallery to a continuous impenetrable tunnel. The library acts as a point of opposites, as a place for interaction and of silent contemplation with books and film media around. The spatial and structural experience is a metaphorical parallel for the user producing a feeling of walking through a forest or in a cave. The openness and lightness of the building blending with the external nature thus without assertions acts as a focal center of activity helping enhance the creativity and curiosity among the members of the university very organically.

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case study art essay

case study art essay

All You Wanted to Know About How to Write a Case Study

case study art essay

What do you study in your college? If you are a psychology, sociology, or anthropology student, we bet you might be familiar with what a case study is. This research method is used to study a certain person, group, or situation. In this guide from our dissertation writing service , you will learn how to write a case study professionally, from researching to citing sources properly. Also, we will explore different types of case studies and show you examples — so that you won’t have any other questions left.

What Is a Case Study?

A case study is a subcategory of research design which investigates problems and offers solutions. Case studies can range from academic research studies to corporate promotional tools trying to sell an idea—their scope is quite vast.

What Is the Difference Between a Research Paper and a Case Study?

While research papers turn the reader’s attention to a certain problem, case studies go even further. Case study guidelines require students to pay attention to details, examining issues closely and in-depth using different research methods. For example, case studies may be used to examine court cases if you study Law, or a patient's health history if you study Medicine. Case studies are also used in Marketing, which are thorough, empirically supported analysis of a good or service's performance. Well-designed case studies can be valuable for prospective customers as they can identify and solve the potential customers pain point.

Case studies involve a lot of storytelling – they usually examine particular cases for a person or a group of people. This method of research is very helpful, as it is very practical and can give a lot of hands-on information. Most commonly, the length of the case study is about 500-900 words, which is much less than the length of an average research paper.

The structure of a case study is very similar to storytelling. It has a protagonist or main character, which in your case is actually a problem you are trying to solve. You can use the system of 3 Acts to make it a compelling story. It should have an introduction, rising action, a climax where transformation occurs, falling action, and a solution.

Here is a rough formula for you to use in your case study:

Problem (Act I): > Solution (Act II) > Result (Act III) > Conclusion.

Types of Case Studies

The purpose of a case study is to provide detailed reports on an event, an institution, a place, future customers, or pretty much anything. There are a few common types of case study, but the type depends on the topic. The following are the most common domains where case studies are needed:

Types of Case Studies

  • Historical case studies are great to learn from. Historical events have a multitude of source info offering different perspectives. There are always modern parallels where these perspectives can be applied, compared, and thoroughly analyzed.
  • Problem-oriented case studies are usually used for solving problems. These are often assigned as theoretical situations where you need to immerse yourself in the situation to examine it. Imagine you’re working for a startup and you’ve just noticed a significant flaw in your product’s design. Before taking it to the senior manager, you want to do a comprehensive study on the issue and provide solutions. On a greater scale, problem-oriented case studies are a vital part of relevant socio-economic discussions.
  • Cumulative case studies collect information and offer comparisons. In business, case studies are often used to tell people about the value of a product.
  • Critical case studies explore the causes and effects of a certain case.
  • Illustrative case studies describe certain events, investigating outcomes and lessons learned.

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Case Study Format

The case study format is typically made up of eight parts:

  • Executive Summary. Explain what you will examine in the case study. Write an overview of the field you’re researching. Make a thesis statement and sum up the results of your observation in a maximum of 2 sentences.
  • Background. Provide background information and the most relevant facts. Isolate the issues.
  • Case Evaluation. Isolate the sections of the study you want to focus on. In it, explain why something is working or is not working.
  • Proposed Solutions. Offer realistic ways to solve what isn’t working or how to improve its current condition. Explain why these solutions work by offering testable evidence.
  • Conclusion. Summarize the main points from the case evaluations and proposed solutions. 6. Recommendations. Talk about the strategy that you should choose. Explain why this choice is the most appropriate.
  • Implementation. Explain how to put the specific strategies into action.
  • References. Provide all the citations.

How to Write a Case Study

Let's discover how to write a case study.

How to Write a Case Study

Setting Up the Research

When writing a case study, remember that research should always come first. Reading many different sources and analyzing other points of view will help you come up with more creative solutions. You can also conduct an actual interview to thoroughly investigate the customer story that you'll need for your case study. Including all of the necessary research, writing a case study may take some time. The research process involves doing the following:

  • Define your objective. Explain the reason why you’re presenting your subject. Figure out where you will feature your case study; whether it is written, on video, shown as an infographic, streamed as a podcast, etc.
  • Determine who will be the right candidate for your case study. Get permission, quotes, and other features that will make your case study effective. Get in touch with your candidate to see if they approve of being part of your work. Study that candidate’s situation and note down what caused it.
  • Identify which various consequences could result from the situation. Follow these guidelines on how to start a case study: surf the net to find some general information you might find useful.
  • Make a list of credible sources and examine them. Seek out important facts and highlight problems. Always write down your ideas and make sure to brainstorm.
  • Focus on several key issues – why they exist, and how they impact your research subject. Think of several unique solutions. Draw from class discussions, readings, and personal experience. When writing a case study, focus on the best solution and explore it in depth. After having all your research in place, writing a case study will be easy. You may first want to check the rubric and criteria of your assignment for the correct case study structure.

Read Also: ' WHAT IS A CREDIBLE SOURCES ?'

Although your instructor might be looking at slightly different criteria, every case study rubric essentially has the same standards. Your professor will want you to exhibit 8 different outcomes:

  • Correctly identify the concepts, theories, and practices in the discipline.
  • Identify the relevant theories and principles associated with the particular study.
  • Evaluate legal and ethical principles and apply them to your decision-making.
  • Recognize the global importance and contribution of your case.
  • Construct a coherent summary and explanation of the study.
  • Demonstrate analytical and critical-thinking skills.
  • Explain the interrelationships between the environment and nature.
  • Integrate theory and practice of the discipline within the analysis.

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Case Study Outline

Let's look at the structure of an outline based on the issue of the alcoholic addiction of 30 people.

Introduction

  • Statement of the issue: Alcoholism is a disease rather than a weakness of character.
  • Presentation of the problem: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there.
  • Explanation of the terms: In the past, alcoholism was commonly referred to as alcohol dependence or alcohol addiction. Alcoholism is now the more severe stage of this addiction in the disorder spectrum.
  • Hypotheses: Drinking in excess can lead to the use of other drugs.
  • Importance of your story: How the information you present can help people with their addictions.
  • Background of the story: Include an explanation of why you chose this topic.
  • Presentation of analysis and data: Describe the criteria for choosing 30 candidates, the structure of the interview, and the outcomes.
  • Strong argument 1: ex. X% of candidates dealing with anxiety and depression...
  • Strong argument 2: ex. X amount of people started drinking by their mid-teens.
  • Strong argument 3: ex. X% of respondents’ parents had issues with alcohol.
  • Concluding statement: I have researched if alcoholism is a disease and found out that…
  • Recommendations: Ways and actions for preventing alcohol use.

Writing a Case Study Draft

After you’ve done your case study research and written the outline, it’s time to focus on the draft. In a draft, you have to develop and write your case study by using: the data which you collected throughout the research, interviews, and the analysis processes that were undertaken. Follow these rules for the draft:

How to Write a Case Study

  • Your draft should contain at least 4 sections: an introduction; a body where you should include background information, an explanation of why you decided to do this case study, and a presentation of your main findings; a conclusion where you present data; and references.
  • In the introduction, you should set the pace very clearly. You can even raise a question or quote someone you interviewed in the research phase. It must provide adequate background information on the topic. The background may include analyses of previous studies on your topic. Include the aim of your case here as well. Think of it as a thesis statement. The aim must describe the purpose of your work—presenting the issues that you want to tackle. Include background information, such as photos or videos you used when doing the research.
  • Describe your unique research process, whether it was through interviews, observations, academic journals, etc. The next point includes providing the results of your research. Tell the audience what you found out. Why is this important, and what could be learned from it? Discuss the real implications of the problem and its significance in the world.
  • Include quotes and data (such as findings, percentages, and awards). This will add a personal touch and better credibility to the case you present. Explain what results you find during your interviews in regards to the problem and how it developed. Also, write about solutions which have already been proposed by other people who have already written about this case.
  • At the end of your case study, you should offer possible solutions, but don’t worry about solving them yourself.

Use Data to Illustrate Key Points in Your Case Study

Even though your case study is a story, it should be based on evidence. Use as much data as possible to illustrate your point. Without the right data, your case study may appear weak and the readers may not be able to relate to your issue as much as they should. Let's see the examples from essay writing service :

‍ With data: Alcoholism is affecting more than 14 million people in the USA, which makes it the third most common mental illness there. Without data: A lot of people suffer from alcoholism in the United States.

Try to include as many credible sources as possible. You may have terms or sources that could be hard for other cultures to understand. If this is the case, you should include them in the appendix or Notes for the Instructor or Professor.

Finalizing the Draft: Checklist

After you finish drafting your case study, polish it up by answering these ‘ask yourself’ questions and think about how to end your case study:

  • Check that you follow the correct case study format, also in regards to text formatting.
  • Check that your work is consistent with its referencing and citation style.
  • Micro-editing — check for grammar and spelling issues.
  • Macro-editing — does ‘the big picture’ come across to the reader? Is there enough raw data, such as real-life examples or personal experiences? Have you made your data collection process completely transparent? Does your analysis provide a clear conclusion, allowing for further research and practice?

Problems to avoid:

  • Overgeneralization – Do not go into further research that deviates from the main problem.
  • Failure to Document Limitations – Just as you have to clearly state the limitations of a general research study, you must describe the specific limitations inherent in the subject of analysis.
  • Failure to Extrapolate All Possible Implications – Just as you don't want to over-generalize from your case study findings, you also have to be thorough in the consideration of all possible outcomes or recommendations derived from your findings.

How to Create a Title Page and Cite a Case Study

Let's see how to create an awesome title page.

Your title page depends on the prescribed citation format. The title page should include:

  • A title that attracts some attention and describes your study
  • The title should have the words “case study” in it
  • The title should range between 5-9 words in length
  • Your name and contact information
  • Your finished paper should be only 500 to 1,500 words in length.With this type of assignment, write effectively and avoid fluff

Here is a template for the APA and MLA format title page:

There are some cases when you need to cite someone else's study in your own one – therefore, you need to master how to cite a case study. A case study is like a research paper when it comes to citations. You can cite it like you cite a book, depending on what style you need.

Citation Example in MLA ‍ Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing, 2008. Print.
Citation Example in APA ‍ Hill, L., Khanna, T., & Stecker, E. A. (2008). HCL Technologies. Boston: Harvard Business Publishing.
Citation Example in Chicago Hill, Linda, Tarun Khanna, and Emily A. Stecker. HCL Technologies.

Case Study Examples

To give you an idea of a professional case study example, we gathered and linked some below.

Eastman Kodak Case Study

Case Study Example: Audi Trains Mexican Autoworkers in Germany

To conclude, a case study is one of the best methods of getting an overview of what happened to a person, a group, or a situation in practice. It allows you to have an in-depth glance at the real-life problems that businesses, healthcare industry, criminal justice, etc. may face. This insight helps us look at such situations in a different light. This is because we see scenarios that we otherwise would not, without necessarily being there. If you need custom essays , try our research paper writing services .

Get Help Form Qualified Writers

Crafting a case study is not easy. You might want to write one of high quality, but you don’t have the time or expertise. If you’re having trouble with your case study, help with essay request - we'll help. EssayPro writers have read and written countless case studies and are experts in endless disciplines. Request essay writing, editing, or proofreading assistance from our custom case study writing service , and all of your worries will be gone.

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What Is A Case Study?

How to cite a case study in apa, how to write a case study, related articles.

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  • Published: 31 October 2017

The visual essay and the place of artistic research in the humanities

  • Remco Roes 1 &
  • Kris Pint 1  

Palgrave Communications volume  3 , Article number:  8 ( 2017 ) Cite this article

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  • Archaeology
  • Cultural and media studies

What could be the place of artistic research in current contemporary scholarship in the humanities? The following essay addresses this question while using as a case study a collaborative artistic project undertaken by two artists, Remco Roes (Belgium) and Alis Garlick (Australia). We argue that the recent integration of arts into academia requires a hybrid discourse, which has to be distinguished both from the artwork itself and from more conventional forms of academic research. This hybrid discourse explores the whole continuum of possible ways to address our existential relationship with the environment: ranging from aesthetic, multi-sensorial, associative, affective, spatial and visual modes of ‘knowledge’ to more discursive, analytical, contextualised ones. Here, we set out to defend the visual essay as a useful tool to explore the non-conceptual, yet meaningful bodily aspects of human culture, both in the still developing field of artistic research and in more established fields of research. It is a genre that enables us to articulate this knowledge, as a transformative process of meaning-making, supplementing other modes of inquiry in the humanities.

Introduction

In Being Alive: Essays on Movement, Knowledge and Description (2011), Tim Ingold defines anthropology as ‘a sustained and disciplined inquiry into the conditions and potentials of human life’ (Ingold, 2011 , p. 9). For Ingold, artistic practice plays a crucial part in this inquiry. He considers art not merely as a potential object of historical, sociological or ethnographic research, but also as a valuable form of anthropological inquiry itself, providing supplementary methods to understand what it is ‘to be human’.

In a similar vein, Mark Johnson’s The meaning of the body: aesthetics of human understanding (2007) offers a revaluation of art ‘as an essential mode of human engagement with and understanding of the world’ (Johnson, 2007 , p. 10). Johnson argues that art is a useful epistemological instrument because of its ability to intensify the ordinary experience of our environment. Images Footnote 1 are the expression of our on-going, complex relation with an inner and outer environment. In the process of making images of our environment, different bodily experiences, like affects, emotions, feelings and movements are mobilised in the creation of meaning. As Johnson argues, this happens in every process of meaning-making, which is always based on ‘deep-seated bodily sources of human meaning that go beyond the merely conceptual and propositional’ (Ibid., p. 11). The specificity of art simply resides in the fact that it actively engages with those non-conceptual, non-propositional forms of ‘making sense’ of our environment. Art is thus able to take into account (and to explore) many other different meaningful aspects of our human relationship with the environment and thus provide us with a supplementary form of knowledge. Hence Ingold’s remark in the introduction of Making: anthropology, archaeology, art and architecture (2013): ‘Could certain practices of art, for example, suggest new ways of doing anthropology? If there are similarities between the ways in which artists and anthropologists study the world, then could we not regard the artwork as a result of something like an anthropological study, rather than as an object of such study? […] could works of art not be regarded as forms of anthropology, albeit ‘written’ in non-verbal media?’ (Ingold, 2013 , p. 8, italics in original).

And yet we would hesitate to unreservedly answer yes to these rhetorical questions. For instance, it is true that one can consider the works of Francis Bacon as an anthropological study of violence and fear, or the works of John Cage as a study in indeterminacy and chance. But while they can indeed be seen as explorations of the ‘conditions and potentials of human life’, the artworks themselves do not make this knowledge explicit. What is lacking here is the logos of anthropology, logos in the sense of discourse, a line of reasoning. Therefore, while we agree with Ingold and Johnson, the problem remains how to explicate and communicate the knowledge that is contained within works of art, how to make it discursive ? How to articulate artistic practice as an alternative, yet valid form of scholarly research?

Here, we believe that a clear distinction between art and artistic research is necessary. The artistic imaginary is a reaction to the environment in which the artist finds himself: this reaction does not have to be conscious and deliberate. The artist has every right to shrug his shoulders when he is asked for the ‘meaning’ of his work, to provide a ‘discourse’. He can simply reply: ‘I don’t know’ or ‘I do not want to know’, as a refusal to engage with the step of articulating what his work might be exploring. Likewise, the beholder or the reader of a work of art does not need to learn from it to appreciate it. No doubt, he may have gained some understanding about ‘human existence’ after reading a novel or visiting an exhibition, but without the need to spell out this knowledge or to further explore it.

In contrast, artistic research as a specific, inquisitive mode of dealing with the environment requires an explicit articulation of what is at stake, the formulation of a specific problem that determines the focus of the research. ‘Problem’ is used here in the neutral, etymological sense of the word: something ‘thrown forward’, a ‘hindrance, obstacle’ (cf. probleima , Liddell-Scott’s Greek-English Lexicon). A body-in-an-environment finds something thrown before him or her, an issue that grabs the attention. A problem is something that urges us to explore a field of experiences, the ‘potentials of human life’ that are opened up by a work of art. It is often only retroactively, during a second, reflective phase of the artistic research, that a formulation of a problem becomes possible, by a selection of elements that strikes one as meaningful (again, in the sense Johnson defines meaningful, thus including bodily perceptions, movements, affects, feelings as meaningful elements of human understanding of reality). This process opens up, to borrow a term used by Aby Warburg, a ‘Denkraum’ (cf. Gombrich, 1986 , p. 224): it creates a critical distance from the environment, including the environment of the artwork itself: this ‘space for thought’ allows one to consciously explore a specific problem. Consciously here does not equal cerebral: the problem is explored not only in its intellectual, but also in its sensual and emotional, affective aspects. It is projected along different lines in this virtual Denkraum , lines that cross and influence each other: an existential line turns into a line of form and composition; a conceptual line merges into a narrative line, a technical line echoes an autobiographical line. There is no strict hierarchy in the different ‘emanations’ of a problem. These are just different lines contained within the work that interact with each other, and the problem can ‘move’ from one line to another, develop and transform itself along these lines, comparable perhaps to the way a melody develops itself when it is transposed to a different musical scale, a different musical instrument, or even to a different musical genre. But, however, abstract or technical one formulates a problem, following Johnson we argue that a problem is always a translation of a basic existential problem, emerging from a specific environment. We fully agree with Johnson when he argues that ‘philosophy becomes relevant to human life only by reconnecting with, and grounding itself in, bodily dimensions of human meaning and value. Philosophy needs a visceral connection to lived experience’ (Johnson, 2007 , p. 263). The same goes for artistic research. It too finds its relevance in the ‘visceral connection’ with a specific body, a specific situation.

Words are one way of disclosing this lived experience, but within the context of an artistic practice one can hardly ignore the potential for images to provide us with an equally valuable account. In fact, they may even prove most suited to establish the kind of space that comes close to this multi-threaded, embodied Denkraum . In order to illustrate this, we would like to present a case study, a short visual ‘essay’ (however, since the scope of four spreads offers only limited space, it is better to consider it as the image-equivalent of a short research note).

Case study: step by step reading of a visual essay

The images (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) form a short visual essay based on a collaborative artistic project 'Exercises of the man (v)' that Remco Roes and Alis Garlick realised for the Situation Symposium at Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology in Melbourne in 2014. One of the conceptual premises of the project was the communication of two physical ‘sites’ through digital media. Roes—located in Belgium—would communicate with Garlick—in Australia—about an installation that was to be realised at the physical location of the exhibition in Melbourne. Their attempts to communicate (about) the site were conducted via e-mail messages, Skype-chats and video conversations. The focus of these conversations increasingly distanced itself from the empty exhibition space of the Design Hub and instead came to include coincidental spaces (and objects) that happened to be close at hand during the 3-month working period leading up to the exhibition. The focus of the project thus shifted from attempting to communicate a particular space towards attempting to communicate the more general experience of being in(side) a space. The project led to the production of a series of small in-situ installations, a large series of video’s and images, a book with a selection of these images as well as texts from the conversations, and the final exhibition in which artefacts that were found during the collaborative process were exhibited. A step by step reading of the visual argument contained within images of this project illustrates how a visual essay can function as a tool for disclosing/articulating/communicating the kind of embodied thinking that occurs within an artistic practice or practice-based research.

Figure 1 shows (albeit in reduced form) a field of photographs and video stills that summarises the project without emphasising any particular aspect. Each of the Figs. 2 – 5 isolate different parts of this same field in an attempt to construct/disclose a form of visual argument (that was already contained within the work). In the final part of this essay we will provide an illustration of how such visual sequences can be possibly ‘read’.

figure 1

First image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

figure 2

Second image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

figure 3

Third image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

figure 4

Fourth image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

figure 5

Fifth image of the visual essay. Remco Roes and Alis Garlick, as copyright holders, permit the publication of this image under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Figure 1 is a remnant of the first step that was taken in the creation of the series of images: significant, meaningful elements in the work of art are brought together. At first, we quite simply start by looking at what is represented in the pictures, and how they are presented to us. This act of looking almost inevitably turns these images into a sequence, an argument. Conditioned by the dominant linearity of writing, including images (for instance in a comic book) one ‘reads’ the images from left to right, one goes from the first spread to the last. Just like one could say that a musical theme or a plot ‘develops’, the series of images seem to ‘develop’ the problem, gradually revealing its complexity. The dominance of this viewing code is not to be ignored, but is of course supplemented by the more ‘holistic’ nature of visual perception (cf. the notion of ‘Gestalt’ in the psychology of perception). So unlike a ‘classic’ argumentation, the discursive sequence is traversed by resonance, by non-linearity, by correspondences between elements both in a single image and between the images in their specific positioning within the essay. These correspondences reveal the synaesthetic nature of every process of meaning-making: ‘The meaning of something is its relations, actual and potential, to other qualities, things, events, and experiences. In pragmatist lingo, the meaning of something is a matter of how it connects to what has gone before and what it entails for present or future experiences and actions’ (Johnson, 2007 , p. 265). The images operate in a similar way, by bringing together different actions, affects, feelings and perceptions into a complex constellation of meaningful elements that parallel each other and create a field of resonance. These connections occur between different elements that ‘disturb’ the logical linearity of the discourse, for instance by the repetition of a specific element (the blue/yellow opposition, or the repetition of a specific diagonal angle).

Confronted with these images, we are now able to delineate more precisely the problem they express. In a generic sense we could formulate it as follows: how to communicate with someone who does not share my existential space, but is nonetheless visually and acoustically present? What are the implications of the kind of technology that makes such communication possible, for the first time in human history? How does it influence our perception and experience of space, of materiality, of presence?

Artistic research into this problem explores the different ways of meaning-making that this new existential space offers, revealing the different conditions and possibilities of this new spatiality. But it has to be stressed that this exploration of the problem happens on different lines, ranging from the kinaesthetic perception to the emotional and affective response to these spaces and images. It would, thus, be wrong to reduce these experiences to a conceptual framework. In their actions, Roes and Garlick do not ‘make a statement’: they quite simply experiment with what their bodies can do in such a hybrid space, ‘wandering’ in this field of meaningful experiences, this Denkraum , that is ‘opened up’: which meaningful clusters of sensations, affects, feelings, spatial and kinaesthetic qualities emerge in such a specific existential space?

In what follows, we want to focus on some of these meaningful clusters. As such, these comments are not part of the visual essay itself. One could compare them to ‘reading remarks’, a short elaboration on what strikes one as relevant. These comments also do not try to ‘crack the code’ of the visual material, as if they were merely a visual and/or spatial rebus to be solved once and for all (‘ x stands for y’ ). They rather attempt to engage in a dialogue with the images, a dialogue that of course does not claim to be definitive or exhaustive.

The constellation itself generates a sense of ‘lacking’: we see that there are two characters intensely collaborating and interacting with each other, while never sharing the same space. They are performing, or watching the other perform: drawing a line (imaginary or physically), pulling, wrapping, unpacking, watching, framing, balancing. The small arrangements, constructions or compositions that are made as a result of these activities are all very fragile, shaky and their purpose remains unclear. Interaction with the other occurs only virtually, based on the manipulation of small objects and fragments, located in different places. One of the few materials that eventually gets physically exported to the other side, is a kind of large plastic cover. Again, one should not ‘read’ the picture of Roes with this plastic wrapped around his head as an expression, a ‘symbol’ of individual isolation, of being wrapped up in something. It is simply the experience of a head that disappears (as a head appears and disappears on a computer screen when it gets disconnected), and the experience of a head that is covered up: does it feel like choking, or does it provide a sense of shelter, protection?

A different ‘line’ operates simultaneously in the same image: that of a man standing on a double grid: the grid of the wet street tiles and an alternative, oblique grid of colourful yellow elements, a grid which is clearly temporal, as only the grid of the tiles will remain. These images are contrasted with the (obviously staged) moment when the plastic arrives at ‘the other side’: the claustrophobia is now replaced with the openness of the horizon, the presence of an open seascape: it gives a synaesthetic sense of a fresh breeze that seems lacking in the other images.

In this case, the contrast between the different spaces is very clear, but in other images we also see an effort to unite these different spaces. The problem can now be reformulated, as it moves to another line: how to demarcate a shared space that is both actual and virtual (with a ribbon, the positioning of a computer screen?), how to communicate with each other, not only with words or body language, but also with small artefacts, ‘meaningless’ junk? What is the ‘common ground’ on which to walk, to exchange things—connecting, lining up with the other? And here, the layout of the images (into a spread) adds an extra dimension to the original work of art. The relation between the different bodies does now not only take place in different spaces, but also in different fields of representation: there is the space of the spread, the photographed space and in the photographs, the other space opened up by the computer screen, and the interaction between these levels. We see this in the Fig. 3 where Garlick’s legs are projected on the floor, framed by two plastic beakers: her black legging echoing with the shadows of a chair or a tripod. This visual ‘rhyme’ within the image reveals how a virtual presence interferes with what is present.

The problem, which can be expressed in this fundamental opposition between presence/absence, also resonates with other recurring oppositions that rhythmically structure these images. The images are filled with blue/yellow elements: blue lines of tape, a blue plexi form, yellow traces of paint, yellow objects that are used in the video’s, but the two tones are also conjured up by the white balance difference between daylight and artificial light. The blue/yellow opposition, in turn, connects with other meaningful oppositions, like—obviously—male/female, or the same oppositional set of clothes: black trousers/white shirt, grey scale images versus full colour, or the shadow and the bright sunlight, which finds itself in another opposition with the cold electric light of a computer screen (this of course also refers to the different time zones, another crucial aspect of digital communication: we do not only not share the same place, we also do not share the same time).

Yet the images also invite us to explore certain formal and compositional elements that keep recurring. The second image, for example, emphasises the importance placed in the project upon the connecting of lines, literally of lining up. Within this image the direction and angle of these lines is ‘explained’ by the presence of the two bodies, the makers with their roles of tape in hand. But upon re-reading the other spreads through this lens of ‘connecting lines’ we see that this compositional element starts to attain its own visual logic. Where the lines in image 2 are literally used as devices to connect two (visual) realities, they free themselves from this restricted context in the other images and show us the influence of circumstance and context in allowing for the successful establishing of such a connection.

In Fig. 3 , for instance, we see a collection of lines that have been isolated from the direct context of live communication. The way two parts of a line are manually aligned (in the split-screens in image 2) mirrors the way the images find their position on the page. However, we also see how the visual grammar of these lines of tape is expanded upon: barrier tape that demarcates a working area meets the curve of a small copper fragment on the floor of an installation, a crack in the wall follows the slanted angle of an assembled object, existing marks on the floor—as well as lines in the architecture—come into play. The photographs widen the scale and angle at which the line operates: the line becomes a conceptual form that is no longer merely material tape but also an immaterial graphical element that explores its own argument.

Figure 4 provides us with a pivotal point in this respect: the cables of the mouse, computer and charger introduce a certain fluidity and uncontrolled motion. Similarly, the erratic markings on the paper show that an author is only ever partially in control. The cracked line in the floor is the first line that is created by a negative space, by an absence. This resonates with the black-stained edges of the laser-cut objects, laid out on the desktop. This fourth image thus seems to transform the manifestation of the line yet again; from a simple connecting device into an instrument that is able to cut out shapes, a path that delineates a cut, as opposed to establishing a connection. The circle held up in image 4 is a perfect circular cut. This resonates with the laser-cut objects we see just above it on the desk, but also with the virtual cuts made in the Photoshop image on the right. We can clearly see how a circular cut remains present on the characteristic grey-white chessboard that is virtual emptiness. It is evident that these elements have more than just an aesthetic function in a visual argumentation. They are an integral part of the meaning-making process. They ‘transpose’ on a different level, i.e., the formal and compositional level, the central problem of absence and presence: it is the graphic form of the ‘cut’, as well as the act of cutting itself, that turns one into the other.

Concluding remarks

As we have already argued, within the frame of this comment piece, the scope of the visual essay we present here is inevitably limited. It should be considered as a small exercise in a specific genre of thinking and communicating with images that requires further development. Nonetheless, we hope to have demonstrated the potentialities of the visual essay as a form of meaning-making that allows the articulation of a form of embodied knowledge that supplements other modes of inquiry in the humanities. In this particular case, it allows for the integration of other meaningful, embodied and existential aspects of digital communication, unlikely to be ‘detected’ as such by an (auto)ethnographic, psychological or sociological framework.

The visual essay is an invitation to other researchers in the arts to create their own kind of visual essays in order to address their own work of art or that of others: they can consider their artistic research as a valuable contribution to the exploration of human existence that lies at the core of the humanities. But perhaps it can also inspire scholars in more ‘classical’ domains to introduce artistic research methods to their toolbox, as a way of taking into account the non-conceptual, yet meaningful bodily aspects of human life and human artefacts, this ‘visceral connection to lived experience’, as Johnson puts it.

Obviously, a visual essay runs the risk of being ‘shot by both sides’: artists may scorn the loss of artistic autonomy and ‘exploitation’ of the work of art in the service of scholarship, while academic scholars may be wary of the lack of conceptual and methodological clarity inherent in these artistic forms of embodied, synaesthetic meaning. The visual essay is indeed a bastard genre, the unlawful love (or perhaps more honestly: love/hate) child of academia and the arts. But precisely this hybrid, impure nature of the visual essay allows it to explore unknown ‘conditions and potentials of human life’, precisely because it combines imagination and knowledge. And while this combination may sound like an oxymoron within a scientific, positivistic paradigm, it may in fact indicate the revival, in a new context, of a very ancient alliance. Or as Giorgio Agamben formulates it in Infancy and history: on the destruction of experience (2007 [1978]): ‘Nothing can convey the extent of the change that has taken place in the meaning of experience so much as the resulting reversal of the status of the imagination. For Antiquity, the imagination, which is now expunged from knowledge as ‘unreal’, was the supreme medium of knowledge. As the intermediary between the senses and the intellect, enabling, in phantasy, the union between the sensible form and the potential intellect, it occupies in ancient and medieval culture exactly the same role that our culture assigns to experience. Far from being something unreal, the mundus imaginabilis has its full reality between the mundus sensibilis and the mundus intellegibilis , and is, indeed, the condition of their communication—that is to say, of knowledge’ (Agamben, 2007 , p. 27, italics in original).

And it is precisely this exploration of the mundus imaginabilis that should inspire us to understand artistic research as a valuable form of scholarship in the humanities.

We consider images as a broad category consisting of artefacts of the imagination, the creation of expressive ‘forms’. Images are thus not limited to visual images. For instance, the imagery used in a poem or novel, metaphors in philosophical treatises (‘image-thoughts’), actual sculptures or the imaginary space created by a performance or installation can also be considered as images, just like soundscapes, scenography, architecture.

Agamben G (2007) Infancy and history: on the destruction of experience [trans. L. Heron]. Verso, London/New York, NY

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case study art essay

Art Essay Topics

Cathy A.

100+ Art Essay Topics to Help You Get Started on Your Essay

10 min read

Published on: May 4, 2023

Last updated on: Jan 30, 2024

Art Essay Topics

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Are you struggling to find a captivating and unique topic for your upcoming art essay assignment? Do you find yourself staring at a blank page, unsure of where to begin?

The pressure to come up with an engaging topic can be quite overwhelming. You don't want to settle for a generic topic that has been done a thousand times before.

Luckily, there are countless interesting and thought-provoking art essay topics to explore. 

In this blog, we will provide you with a comprehensive list of art essay topics that will inspire your next essay.

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Art Essay Topics for Middle School

  • The Importance of Art Education in Middle School
  • Art as a Means of Self-Expression for Middle Schoolers
  • The Significance of Colors in Art for Middle School Students
  • Comparing and Contrasting Art from Different Time Periods
  • The Role of Art in Different Cultures and Societies
  • Analyzing the Elements of Art in Famous Paintings
  • Exploring the World of Sculpture: Techniques and Materials
  • The Influence of Technology on Modern Art
  • The Relationship Between Art and Science
  • Creating Art with Recycled Materials: An Eco-Friendly Approach

Artistic Essay Topics for High School Students

  • The Importance of Art in a Well-Rounded Education
  • Art as a Form of Political and Social Commentary
  • Analyzing the Impact of Art Movements on Society
  • The Power of Public Art: Murals and Graffiti
  • The Role of Technology in Contemporary Art
  • The Beauty and Complexity of Abstract Art
  • The Significance of Color Theory in Art
  • Examining the Use of Light and Shadow in Famous Artworks
  • The Relationship Between Art and Music: An Exploration
  • The Intersection of Art and Literature: Visualizing Words on a Page

Art Essay Topics for College Students

  • The Evolution of Art through the Ages
  • The Value and Significance of Art in Contemporary Culture
  • Art as a Reflection of Society: Examining the Political and Social Context
  • Artistic Expression and the Human Condition
  • An In-Depth Look at Artistic Mediums and Techniques
  • The Intersection of Art and Technology: Digital Art and Virtual Reality
  • Analyzing the Work of a Famous Artist: A Case Study
  • The Relationship Between Art and Philosophy
  • The Role of Art in Education and Cultural Preservation
  • The Connection Between Art and Fashion: An Exploration

Art Essay Topics for University Students

  • The Intersection of Art and Science: An Exploration
  • The Political and Social Implications of Public Art Installations
  • Art as a Form of Cultural Resistance and Activism
  • Analyzing the Global Impact of Artistic Movements
  • The Role of Art in Shaping National Identity and Culture
  • Examining the Concept of Beauty in Art
  • The Impact of Art on Mental Health and Well-being
  • Art as a Means of Communicating Emotions and Ideas
  • The Psychology of Art: Understanding the Audience
  • The Relationship Between Art and Power: A Critical Examination

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Art Essay Topics IELTS

  • The Role of Art in Society and Culture
  • Analyzing the Aesthetics of Artistic Styles and Movements
  • The Use of Art to Convey Political and Social Commentary
  • Examining the Influence of Art on Personal Identity
  • The Significance of Public Art Installations in Cities
  • Artistic Freedom and Censorship: A Debate
  • The Value of Art in Education and Cultural Preservation
  • An In-Depth Look at Famous Artworks and Their Significance
  • The Relationship Between Art and Fashion: An Exploration

Art Research Topics

  • Analyzing the Significance of Artistic Styles and Movements
  • The Role of Art in Cultural Preservation and Heritage Management
  • Examining the History of Art through Different Time Periods and Regions
  • The Use of Art as a Means of Social and Political Commentary
  • An In-Depth Look at the Artistic Techniques and Mediums
  • Artistic Freedom and Censorship: A Critical Examination
  • The Relationship Between Art and Science: A Comparative Study

Art Essay Topic Ideas

  • The Beauty of Landscape Painting: An Exploration
  • The Role of Art in Environmental Activism
  • The Connection Between Art and Music: A Comparative Study
  • The Evolution of Street Art and Graffiti
  • The Use of Art as a Means of Personal Expression
  • The Impact of Public Art Installations on Urban Communities
  • The Significance of Abstract Art: A Critical Examination
  • Examining the Intersection of Art and Literature: Visualizing Words on a Page

Art Argumentative Essay Topics

  • The Debate on Whether Graffiti Should be Considered Art or Vandalism
  • Examining the Relationship Between Art and Politics: Should Art be Used for Political Purposes?
  • The Role of Art in Society: Does Art Have the Power to Change the World?
  • The Debate on Whether Public Funding Should be Used for the Arts
  • Examining the Relationship Between Art and Religion: Can Art be Considered Sacred?
  • The Intersection of Art and Commerce: Is Art Becoming Too Commercialized?
  • The Role of Art in Education: Should Art Education be a Required Course in Schools?
  • The Ethics of Artistic Freedom: To What Extent Should Artists be Allowed to Express Themselves Freely?
  • The Impact of Technology on Art: Is Technology Enhancing or Diluting the Value of Artistic Expression?

Contemporary Art Essay Topics

  • The Impact of Digital Technology on Contemporary Art
  • Examining the Contemporary Art Scene in Different Regions of the World
  • The Evolution of Contemporary Art: An Exploration of the Major Trends and Movements
  • The Intersection of Contemporary Art and Popular Culture
  • Analyzing the Work of a Contemporary Artist: A Case Study
  • The Significance of Conceptual Art: A Critical Examination
  • The Use of Contemporary Art as a Means of Social Critique and Commentary
  • The Significance of Installation Art: A Comparative Study
  • The Relationship Between Contemporary Art and Identity Politics
  • The Impact of Contemporary Art on the Art World: Are Traditional Art Forms Being Replaced?

Art History Essay Topics

  • The Evolution of Artistic Styles and Movements Through Different Time Periods
  • Examining the Artistic Traditions of Different Cultures and Regions
  • The Influence of the Renaissance on Western Art
  • The Role of Art in Ancient Civilizations: An Exploration
  • The Significance of the Baroque and Rococo Styles in Art History
  • The Impact of Impressionism and Post-Impressionism on Modern Art
  • The Role of Art in the Enlightenment: An Analysis
  • The Significance of the Avant-Garde Movements in Art History
  • The Evolution of Photography as an Art Form: A Comparative Study
  • The Ethics of Cultural Appropriation in Artistic Expression
  • The Significance of Public Art Installations in Public Spaces
  • The Use of Art as a Means of Social Critique and Commentary

Modern Art Essay Topics

  • The Impact of World War I on Modern Art: A Critical Analysis
  • The Role of Modern Art in the 20th Century: An Exploration
  • Analyzing the Work of a Modern Artist: A Case Study
  • The Significance of the Bauhaus Movement in Modern Art
  • The Evolution of Abstract Art: A Comparative Study
  • The Use of Modern Art as a Means of Social Critique and Commentary
  • The Impact of Modern Art on Contemporary Art
  • The Relationship Between Modern Art and Technology
  • The Significance of Minimalism in Modern Art
  • The Evolution of Modern Sculpture: A Comparative Study

Persuasive Art Essay Topics

  • Art and Education: Why Art Should Be a Required Subject in Schools
  • The Therapeutic Benefits of Art: Why Art Should Be Integrated into Mental Health Treatment
  • Art and Cultural Preservation: Why We Must Protect Our Heritage and Artifacts
  • The Role of Art in Political Activism: Why Art Has the Power to Inspire Change
  • Art and Technology: Why Emerging Technologies Should Be Used to Create Art
  • The Ethics of Censorship in Art: Why Free Expression Must Be Protected
  • Art and the Environment: Why Artists Should Be Involved in Climate Change Activism
  • Art and Innovation: Why Artistic Creativity is Essential to Progress and Development
  • The Importance of Public Art in Shaping Our Communities: Why We Must Invest in Public Art Installations.

Art Essay Topics On Multiple Cultures

  • The Significance of Indigenous Art Forms: A Comparative Study
  • Examining the Role of Art in African Culture: A Critical Analysis
  • The Influence of Asian Artistic Traditions on Western Art
  • Analyzing the Work of a Contemporary Artist from a Non-Western Culture: A Case Study
  • The Role of Art in Promoting Intercultural Understanding: An Exploration
  • The Impact of Colonialism on the Artistic Traditions of Different Cultures: A Comparative Study
  • The Significance of Islamic Art: A Comparative Analysis
  • The Evolution of Latin American Art: A Comparative Study
  • The Intersection of Art and Religion in Different Cultures: An Analysis
  • The Role of Art in Preserving Cultural Heritage: A Critical Examination

Good Art Essay Topics 

  • The Evolution of Art Movements: From Ancient Times to Contemporary Art
  • The Influence of Japanese Art on Western Artists
  • Comparing the Artistic Styles of Leonardo da Vinci and Pablo Picasso
  • Analyzing Picasso's Blue and Rose Periods: Symbolism and Meaning in Art
  • The Life and Art of Frida Kahlo: An Exploration of Feminism and Identity
  • Pop Art and its Impact on Consumer Culture in the 20th Century
  • Japanese Calligraphy: A Study of Form, Function, and Meaning
  • Ancient Art and its Significance in Modern Times
  • Art Therapy: The Healing Power of Creative Expression
  • Research Paper Topics in Art: Exploring the Intersection of Art and Technology.

How To Chose A Perfect Art Essay Topic 

Here are some tips on how to choose a perfect art essay topic:

  • Consider your personal interests: Choose a topic that you are passionate about or have a particular interest in. This will make the research and writing process much more enjoyable.
  • Think about the scope of the topic: Make sure that the topic you choose is not too broad or too narrow. It should be specific enough to provide a focused analysis but broad enough to provide sufficient material to write about.
  • Research current trends: Look into current trends in the art world to see what topics are currently relevant.
  • Consult with your professor: Talk to your instructor to get their input on what they think would make a good essay topic.
  • Consider the availability of resources: Make sure that there are enough resources available for the topic you choose.
  • Brainstorm potential topics: Take some time to brainstorm potential topics and write them down. Narrow down your list by considering the points mentioned above.
  • Choose a unique perspective: Try to approach the topic from a unique perspective or angle that has not been explored before. This will make your essay stand out and be more interesting to read.

In conclusion, art essays can be both challenging and rewarding to write.

With the right essay writer AI , you can produce a compelling essay that showcases your understanding of art. 

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Museuming Modern Art NGMA: The Indian Case-Study

This brief essay on India’s National Gallery of Modern Art traces the early years of the institution from when it was set up in 1954. It was an important site for the art world as much as for the newly independent nation state declaring its commitment to modernity.

In recent years there has been a considerable interest in Indian museums and their relationship to audiences. Appadurai and Breckenridge in their seminal essay ‘Museums are Good to Think’ look at the museum’s role in the “elaboration of the public sphere in non-western nations.” 1 The authors are interested in the transformation of the museum site under global impulses where “new visual formations link heritage politics to spectacle, tourism and entertainment.” 2 The sub-category of the art museum, however, does not present them with many possibilities when it comes to mapping contemporary public gaze in Indian life. They write, “…Except for a small minority in India and for a very short period of its history and in very few museums there, art in the current western sense is not a meaningful category…. In place of art other categories of objects dominate, such as handicraft, technology, history and heritage.” 3

While not disputing the marginality of the art museum in terms of the general public it draws, in the Indian institutional landscape, this essay chooses precisely such an institution that focuses on the category of ‘art’. This emblematic institution, the only of its kind, was set up in 1954 by the Government of India. From 1938 when such an institution was first proposed by an artist-based organisation, the All India Fine Arts and Craft Society (AIFACS), through the sub-sequent artists’ conferences that delineated the nature and scope of this institution, to its establishment by the government in 1954, and through the political leadership and the museum directors that determined its contours, and of course the parallel developments in art practice that it was trying to account for and represent, the NGMA has been subject to different pressures and imaginings. In the course of this unfolding history it has grappled with ideas of modernism, nationalism, tradition and internationalism and equally tried to address questions of identity and Indian-ness.

Proposing a National Art Gallery – The AIFACS Version

By early 20th century one can see a complex relay of styles, institutions, publications and exhibitions emerging in the Indian art scene. And it is from within this community of artists and critics that the first demands of a national art gallery were made. Unlike the National Museum which was a key project for a government body like the Archaeological Survey of India from 1912 onwards, the first proposal for a National Art Gallery was made by a Delhi-based artists’ organisation, the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS), in 1938. In the subsequent years, however, AIFACS claims were diluted by the factions that arose amongst the artists, with the newly set up All India Association of Fine Arts, Bombay putting forth its own agency as a central organisation at the Third All India Art conference in 19484. The All India Academy of Fine Arts, Calcutta, also proposed converting the Arts Section of the Indian Museum into a National Art Gallery.

It was left to the 1949 Art Conference at Calcutta, organised by Government of India, to resolve the matter once and for all. The Conference called for the formation of a Central Advisory Board of Art (formed in 1950) and passed a resolution for the early establishment of National Art Gallery and the improvement of National Museum as well as the formation of the three Akademis as part of a Sub Commission for Culture of the Indian National Commission for Cooperation with UNESCO.

The first attempt at the setting up of the National Art Gallery was made by an artist group whose founders owed their allegiance to the Bengal School and were, in keeping with the School’s ideals, keen to institutionalise the category of ‘national art’. The Bengal Schools move to identify an indigenist form of art with national sovereignty had a specific function in the anticolonial struggle. But with the passage of time, agendas had shifted, and from imagining itself as a site of resistance, India was now assuming a new authority as a post-colonial nation. AIFACS tried to address this shift by envisaging an art museum based on mass support, which organised art exhibitions as appendages to official conferences and meetings, and devised pragmatic roles for artists as makers of public commemorative art and assistants in government-driven mass education schemes. But the category of the national modern was being recalibrated by various members of the artist community, and above all by the state, and the museum would now be taken on a different course.

Institutionalising the Modern

Already by 1947-48 there were signs of the state’s interest in this project with Nehru personally intervening in the major purchase of the Amrita Sher-Gil collection and the more minor one of a few Brunner paintings. 5 These, among other moves, by the Indian state in general and Nehru in particular, made evident the desire to centralise and nationalise the modern art museum.

Meanwhile another sequence was unfolding at the Burlington House, London with the ceremonial 1947-1948 exhibition titled ‘The Arts of India and Pakistan.’ Organised by Royal Academy of Art, to mark the transfer of power in British India, it was followed by another version of the exhibition, ‘Masterpieces of Indian Art,’ at the Government House, New Delhi in the winter of 1948. In her extensive essay on these ceremonial exhibitions that eventually led to the formation of the National Museum, Tapati Guha-Thakurta shows how the London exhibition was bracketed by sections on ‘British Artists in India’ at the start, and ‘Modern Paintings, Drawings and Sculptures’ at the end. 6 The catalogue rather apologetically acknowledged a motley section of Bengal school, Amrita Sher-Gil, Zainul Abedin, N S Bendre, F N Souza, Dhanraj Bhagat and Kanwal Krishna, which were “nothing comparable in aesthetic interest with the great achievements of Indian sculptors,” 7 but were included nonetheless to present a complete image of Indian art abroad. However, neither of these sections was carried over to the subsequent exhibition held in New Delhi at the Government House. Here one sees a definite exclusion of the modern from “this spectacle of India’s art heritage. …and we find ourselves fully in the grips of an art historical past.” 8 The modern was bypassed and the great nation was conjured exclusively through its ancient and medieval art heritage.

While the mandate of the ‘national’ was being handed to the art objects from India’s great past, the state had a different role in mind for modern art and by extension the NGMA. It was seen as one among a series of cultural institutions that were set up in the post-colonial landscape of the 1940s-50s which served to dislodge the modern from the discourse of the national. Geeta Kapur notes how culture becomes an important means to disentangle the modern from the nationalist polemic. “The latter had often to speak in the name of tradition even as it covertly strengthened the desire for the modern. While national struggle had attempted to simulate a civilisational quest, the nation state was bound to privilege culture as a means of cohering contemporaniety.” 9 Under Nehru’s leadership a whole set of institutions were founded that carried the overall mandate of the modern. They were part of what Partha Chatterjee terms India’s statist utopia. 10

National Gallery of Modern Art was formally inaugurated by the Vice President of India, Dr S Radhakrishnan, on March 29, 1954 in New Delhi. It was located in Jaipur House which had been originally built as the winter palace of the Maharaja of Jaipur in the 1930s. German scholar and museologist Hermann Goetz was brought over from the Baroda Museum where he had been the director between 1943 and 1954, and given charge of the institution. The Gallery opened with an exhibition of contemporary sculpture apart from showcasing its initial collection of around 200 works which consisted of paintings by Amrita Sher-Gil, Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy, Nandalal Bose and MAR Chugtai, among others. The works displayed at the sculpture exhibition also doubled as the First National Exhibition of Modern Art 11 and sculptor D P Roy Chowdhury’s Triumph of Labour won the first prize and was commissioned to be made as a public sculpture on the lawns of the museum.

National Gallery of Modern Art – The Sher-Gil Collection

The core of the NGMA collection was without doubt a suite of 96 paintings by artist Amrita Sher-Gil that came into the hands of the state as early as 1948. In many ways, it is this cache of paintings that determined the course of the institution. The search for a reconfigured national modern that could translate the impulses and the potential of the ‘new paradigm’ found resolution, as much by design as by default, in the figure of Amrita Sher-Gil 12 .

In 1947 when Amrita Sher-Gil’s husband Dr Victor Eagen offered 33 paintings to the Government of India for sale, the Finance Ministry rejected the proposal to procure the collection given the price. The matter might have ended prematurely but for the insistence of Sher-Gil’s father, Umrao Singh Sher-Gil, who was keen to remove the paintings from Eagen’s possession. Umrao Singh offered to gift a large body of Sher-Gil’s works to the nation but on the precondition that the latter was able to obtain the paintings in her husband’s collection. In a letter to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, dated 23 April 1948, Umrao Singh wrote, “Most of her earlier juvenile work, when she was at School of Art in Paris, is with us. We wish to give them freely to the nation, along with sketches and studies which Amrita had intended to destroy. They serve along with her early works to show the development of her art and talent…. But if her later works are not actually acquired by our nation, then what good will the old style work, which she herself did not value, be.” 13

At this point, Nehru intervened to ensure the acquisition of the Sher-Gil paintings. He also took up the matter with Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, on March 7, 1948, “I think it desirable for government to acquire her paintings as a whole. Just a few chosen ones would not be good enough. It would be possible to get the paintings from Amrita’s parents without payment provided we make it clear we are getting the collection from the others also. As for the husband, he is not very well off and can easily sell them separately and may well do so if we delay.” 14

Thus we see a number of events converging–ranging from Sher-Gil’s charismatic artistic persona and untimely death, the subsequent family feud and Nehru’s personal intervention in resolving it, the sheer range of the collection, the fragile material conditions of many works– to place the Sher-Gil collection at the centre of the Gallery, six years before its actual formation.

In 1953, the Gallery had a nucleus of 163 paintings consisting predominantly of Amrita Sher-Gil paintings, apart from collections of the other ‘three pioneering modernists’–Rabindranath Tagore, Jamini Roy and Gaganendranath Tagore. The press reviews of the opening of NGMA in 1954 lavished praise on the Sher-Gil rooms (the only air conditioned rooms in the Gallery because of the fragile material conditions of the paintings) for their complete chronological display. Art critic Charles Fabri wrote, “The glory of the collection is Amrita Sher-Gil…. Paintings that are from her childhood to her years in Hungary, Budapest and Paris, right upto her last, unfinished canvas found on her easel.” 15

In the initial years the Sher-Gil collection, which came into its possession much before the formation of the actual institution, made the Gallery align with a modernist practice that was progressive, cosmopolitan and in conversation with an international modernism. It was a practice that was supported by a generation of powerful writers and intellectuals like Mulk Raj Anand and W G Archer who were close to the political establishment. But despite this ‘solid core of greatness,’ 16 the emphasis within the Gallery remained on marking the moments of modernism’s origin. Accordingly, it enshrined the four initiators of modern art in India, Rabindranath Tagore, Amrita Sher-Gil, Jamini Roy and Gaganendranath Tagore, even as the new generation of Progressive Artists’ Groups sprung up all over the country. The mandate of making sense of the current art movements was handed over to another cultural institution set up in the same year as NGMA – Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA) – which was an autonomous body governed by artists, scholars and government nominees but without any government interference in its activities. The NGMA thus absolved itself from needing to respond to current art scene or the needs of the artists, working with a more classical understanding of a museum as a historical and highly insulated institution. The LKA played the role of the democratic state institution responding to the artists’ needs – showcasing latest trends with its annual national exhibitions and creating a climate of state patronage that gave equal representation to different schools and movements. The success and failure of this enterprise is, of course, another story.

The text is an excerpt from the essay ‘Museumising Modern Art, NGMA: the Indian Case-Study’ to be published in the upcoming volume tentatively titled No Touching No Spitting No Praying: Museum Cultures of South Asia, Routledge, edited by Dr Kavita Singh and Dr Saloni Mathur.

References and Footnotes

  • Arjun Appadurai & Carol Breckenridge, ‘Museums are Good to Think’, in Representing the Nation: A Reader, Eds. David Boswell & Jessica Evans, Routledge, London & New York, 1999, p. 418
  • Ibid, p. 406
  • The All India Association of Fine Arts, Bombay was set up in 1946 with G Venkatachalam as president and members like Karl Khandalvala. The Association organised the 3rd All India Conference for Arts in 1948 because it noted that the first two conferences in Delhi had not been able to form a central art organisation that was wholly representative. They received a sum of Rs 21 lakhs for arts, education and cultural activities from the Government of Bombay. They declared that arts did not depend on official support alone but needed individuals and groups to come together spontaneously. If AIFACS was interested in being an official body, AIFACS was asking for the status of an autonomous artist association.
  • B P Singh, ‘Arts, Cultural Pageants and the state: The Nehru-Azad Dialogue’, India’s Culture, the State, the Arts and Beyond, Oxford University Press, New Delhi, 2009, p. 100 – 111. Singh looks into the purchase of the Brunner paintings by Jawaharlal Nehru. In June 1948, the PM visited Nainital and chanced upon paintings of two Hungarian artists Sass Brunner and her daughter Elizabeth Brunner. Touched by their sensitivity, he purchased a few of them including the one of Mahatma Gandhi in meditation, for his own collection. On his return to Delhi, he wrote to Abul Kalam Azad (14 June, 1948) recommending the paintings be acquired by Government of India. Azad referred the matter to the Ministry of Education (MOE) who solicited the help of R N Chakravarty, chief artist in Publications Division, MOE, and Barada Ukil for their opinions on the paintings. Both stated that the works were mediocre and did not deserve the price being asked. Nehru joined in to counter this assessment of the artists. The matter finally ended with the Government of India buying the works but not before the Ministry of Finance emphasised the need for prior clearance before making any financial commitments. It eventually led to the constitution of the art purchase committee for museums under the chairmanship of Vice President of India, with experts like Moti Chandra, Karl Khandalvala, Rai Krishnadas and others.
  • Tapati Guha-Thakurta, ‘The Demands of Independence: From a National Exhibition to a National Museum’, Monuments, Objects, Histories: Institutions of Art in Colonial and Post-Colonial India , Columbia University Press, New York and Permanent Black, New Delhi, 2004, p 277
  • Ibid. quoted by Guha-Thakurta from the catalogue Exhibition of Art, chiefly from the Dominions of India and Pakistan, Royal Academy of Arts, Burlington House, London, 1947-48, (London: Royal Academy, 1947) p. 192 – 195 held at the Government House
  • Ibid. p 274 9. Geeta Kapur, ‘Sovereign Subject: Ray’s Appu’, When was Modernism, Essays on Contemporary Cultural Practice in India, Tulika Books, New Delhi, 2000, p. 202
  • Ibid p. 201
  • The competition is referred to in the Hindustan Standard , 7 July 1957
  • The flamboyant artist of mixed Indo–Hungarian parentage, Amrita Sher-Gil studied at the Ecole des Beaux, Paris, between 1929 and 1934. In ’33 she exhibited at the Grand Salon, where she won a medal for her painting Young Girls and was also elected an Associate. She returned to India at the end of 1934, taking on the mantle of an Indian artist. She died at the very young age of 29 in December 1941, a few days before her major solo exhibition in Lahore. Her death was mourned at an almost national scale and public figures like Nehru and Gandhi sent condolences to the Sher-Gil family.
  • Letter by Umrao Singh Sher-Gil to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Minister of Education, GOI, dated 23 April 1948, F.178–16/48–G–2, National Archives, New Delhi, unpublished
  • Ibid, letter by Nehru to Maulana Abul Kalam Azad, Minister of Education, TOI dated 7 March, 1948 15. Charles Fabri, ‘review of NGMA opening’, Marg , Volume 8, No. 3, 2nd Quarter, 1954
  • File on W G Archer’s letter to Ashfaque Husain, F.3-112/54 – A.2, National Archives, Government of India, 1954, unpublished. W G Archer, who had served from 1931 – 1948 as a civil servant in India, returned to England after India’s independence to become the Keeper of the Indian collections at the Victoria and Albert Museum. Well respected for his research and scholarship on Indian folk, popular and miniature traditions, as well modern art, he was commissioned between January 2 and March 26, 1954 by the Ministry of Education to conduct a three month survey of national, state and art galleries and provide suggestions for their better administration. Archer complimented the government on its Sher-Gil collection which he described as “a superb achievement, giving the Gallery a solid core of greatness”. At the same time, he stated candidly, “It has to be remembered that the actual number of living artists whose works really deserve to be represented is probably small and it takes a great deal of courage to recognise originality.”

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About Author

case study art essay

Vidya Shivadas is a curator and art critic based in New Delhi. Working at the Vadehra Art Gallery since 2002, she has curated exhibitions like Faiza Butt, Ruby Chishti, Masooma Syed (three Pakistani women artists) (April 2009), Fluid Structures: Gender and Abstraction in India (1970s – 2008) (April 2008), Objects: Making/Unmaking (April 2007) and Are We Like This Only (March 2005). In 2009 she was a guest curator at Devi Art Foundation and worked on the solo exhibition of Bangladeshi artist Mahbubur Rahman. In her researcher capacity, she is interested in the relationship between art institutions and art practice.

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  • #2 CASE STUDY ESSAY
  • Positively White Cube Revisited by Simon Sheikh, e-flux Journal #03
  • Inside the White Cube: Ideology of the Gallery Space By Brian O'Doherty, Introduction by Thomas McEvilley
  • Hans Haacke: Institutional Critique: MoMA Poll White Cube in the 1970s
  • Hans Haacke: Institutional Critique: Shapolsky et al White Cube in the 1970s
  • Manifesta 10 catalogue Includes Joanna Warsza’s short essay “Turning Unpublic into Public”
  • Under pressure: Kasper König on the highs — and lows — of curating Manifesta 10 By Sasha Pershakova, Calvert Journal, June 19, 2014
  • The big question: can art change the world? Eight Manifesta artists respond Tillmans, Wolfgang et al, Interviews by Sasha Pershakova & Jamie Rann, Calvert Journal, July 1, 2014
  • The State of Detention: Performance, Politics, and the Cuban Public Fusco, Coco, e-flux, 3 January 2015
  • Art Basel Miami’s Big-Buzz 10 Chaplin, Julia, November 26, 2010, New York Times
  • Resisting Renaming of Miami Museum Pogrebin, Robin, New York Times, December 6, 2011
  • Detroit Art Museum offers Plan to Avoid Sale of Art New York Times, January 29, 2014
  • Paris has burned Green, Jesse, New York Times, 18 April 1993
  • Is Paris burning? Hooks, bell. Black looks: race and representation. Boston: South End Press, 1999.
  • Diary: Rashaad Newsome Marries Voguing With Art History Litovsky, Dina, New York Times, 25 August 2014
  • Paris is still burning Bernstein, Jacob, New York Times, 26 July 2012
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Examining the Expression of Childhood Nostalgia with the Help of Minimalistic Forms Case Study

Introduction, triangulated studies, reference list.

Childhood memories are often underestimated as the force behind people’s artistic expression, yet it produces a tremendous impact on how people view reality, interpret it, and perceive it emotionally. Childhood nostalgia drives a wide variety of artists to create art pieces that incorporate their early memories and convey a sense of wistfulness (Thompson & Jaque 2018). However, the forms that early childhood nostalgia takes are unsurprisingly numerous.

The observed inclination to portray childhood memories in unique and easily distinguishable forms is understandable, yet there is a common characteristic of the art pieces inspired by childhood memories. The tendency to include the details that either strike with their simplicity and basic colors or seem vaguely distant can be seen as one of the most common forms of representing childhood nostalgia in paintings, as the art pieces created by Ross Taylor, Carmen Selma, Hung Liu, and the “Nubian House” artwork exemplify.

Study 1: “The Nubian House.”

Despite being very personal, childhood memories open the gateway to public discussion and allow everyone to use their imagination in order to explore the deeper meanings of art pieces by relating to them in a very personal way. The “Nubian House” was created as a reference to my childhood and the experiences that I had growing up in Egypt. Thus, the “Nubian House” represents the Egyptian culture and the environment of a typical Egyptian setting through the eyes of a child, allowing the viewer to enjoy a very saturated picture and receive a very powerful, although slightly exaggerated, idea of what living in Egypt as a child might seem like.

The use of primary colors, thick brush strokes, and slightly blurred lines help to create the sense of a dreamlike setting that reflects the nature of childhood memories with their sense of vagueness perfectly.

Overall, the simplicity of the silhouettes and the use of primary colors that contrast with each other and create a memorable image help to create an environment that has dreamlike plasticity and serves as the foil for exploring one’s childhood impressions and experiences. The art piece evokes the memories that one may have built during one’s childhood and addresses the unique perception of reality that children have at an early age. The idea of seeing the world as a bright and colorful place invites the opportunity for the viewer to accept the perspective of naïve excitement and expectation of wonder, which transforms a seemingly simple image into a source of multiple emotions and impressions.

The “Nubian House” represents a foray into the time of early childhood, when I was exposed to the Egyptian culture. The presence of geometric patterns that are quite typical of the Islamic culture is, therefore, justified by their connection to my early childhood memories. The bright and vivid primary colors used in the artwork also helps the viewers to make the connection to their childhood and the vivid impressions related to it, thus making the message of the painting universal. Despite being linked to a very specific culture and quite unique memories, the “Nubian House” also offers every viewer an opportunity to enter their own realm of imagination and early childhood memories to create a vignette of unique impressions and enjoy the artistry of the painting.

Study 2: “Spanish City.”

Ross Taylor is a renowned artist who has been known for his works that strive to capture the magic of the moment and seek to explore how memories are reflected in art. Having grown up in England and studied art both in England and Germany, Taylor has embraced different cultural perspectives on painting (McGarry 2019). Taylor’s paintings, often being very simplistic and quite fragmented, can be seen as scattered memories that can make a cohesive picture once unified into a single entity.

Ross Taylor’s “Manor Walks” encompasses the period in his childhood when he lived in Northumberland from the current adult perspective of a resident of regional Victoria (Needham 2017). Thus, the often-exaggerated and strikingly colorful childhood memories blend with the reality as seen through the pragmatic lens of Taylor’s adult life. The resulting hybrid of memories and reality takes the dreamlike shape that shines through the crisp and clear lines of the painting, creating an outline of the images that Taylor saw as a child. As a result, childhood memories gain wondrous shapes, transforming the basic environment into a fairy-tale setting.

“Spanish City” is one of the paintings represented in Ross Taylor’s “Manor Walks.”

Performed with a pencil, the art strikes with its simplicity and the accuracy of its emotional articulation. Every pencil stroke represents a unique expression of thought and is imbued with a strong emotional meaning. For example, the rough lines are supposed to represent the fleeting nature of childhood memories and especially the sense of joy and wonder (Needham 2017). The juxtaposition of primary colors, namely, red, yellow, and blue, helps to convey the emotions of joy and nostalgia, as they harken back to the childhood impressions and the memories that one keeps about these experiences (Muñoz-Alonso 2017).

The emotional articulation of the art pieces manifests itself in walking “the fine line between luxury and debauchery” (McGarry 2019). Similar to childhood memories, most of which fade away as one grows older, with only the most vivid ones staying intact, the painting contains only the brightest primary colors, discarding anything in-between and creating an easily memorable combination of colors and shapes.

In addition, the painting represents a nod to the early development of one’s identity and the understanding of one’s belonging. Although “Spanish City” is incredibly simplistic, it manages to incorporate the elements of the Spanish culture that shine through every single line and curve (Muñoz-Alonso). As a result, the painting also becomes emblematic of one’s roots and origins, calling the audience to keep a strong sense of their identity and remember where they belong, which makes “Spanish City” a perfect specimen of emotionally driven art.

As emphasized above, Taylor has been widely recognized for his simplistic and expressive style. The artworks that he creates typically contain hidden layers of meanings for which the audience has to search by peeling off the layers of metaphors that he incorporates into his seemingly basic works. The careful use of a color palette and clear, linear elements helps to create easily recognizable imagery, whereas the vagueness of details introduces dreamlike plasticity to his artworks (Muñoz-Alonso 2017). As seen in “Manor Walks,” Taylor prefers to create art pieces that audiences can use to construct their own reality and indulge in reminiscences from their distant childhood.

Arguably, “Manor Walks” and “Spanish City” in particular deviate from the traditional approach that Taylor uses to create his art pieces. Instead of creating images that incorporate complex metaphors and appeal to his audiences on multiple intercultural levels, the “Spanish City is almost blunt in its interpretation of childhood perceptions. However, the naiveté of the child’s perspective and the ability to see the complex multicultural environment from the position of a child are the details that make the “Spanish City” a particularly interesting artwork. The “Spanish City” charms with its juxtaposition of colors and the simplicity of its lines.

Study 3: “Serie Vencidos.”

Although the idea of recalling childhood and returning to the experiences that one had as a child might seem fairly innocent, these attempts to revitalize the past may turn out to be quite unexpected and challenging than one might think. Carmen Selma is another artist whose works are linked to the experiences that one may have as a child, yet her art pieces incite anything but the feeling of innocent wonder. Selma has been known for her oil paintings, primarily portraits (“Carmen Selma” 2019). The artist has been praised for the focus on memories and the incorporation of contemplations about the past into her paintings, imbuing them with additional messages and allowing the viewers to discover them by peeling them off, layer by layer.

However, instead of relishing in the past as her constant refuge from the present, the artist manages to connect the two concepts in her art pieces, creating unique paintings and producing artworks that are thrillingly surreal and mesmerizingly poignant. The use of the past as the means of exploring the present is one of the essential ideas that run through Selma’s works: “She feels a special interest in discovering the past, immersing herself in it to try to understand the present” (“Carmen Selma” 2019). Therefore, the artist’s use of memories is not only aesthetic but also functional since Selma invites her viewers to re-evaluate their past experiences and consider their future ones through the lens of the past.

When considering the artistic style in which Selma paints, as well as the devices that she uses to imbue her paintings with references to childhood memories, one will need to refer to the sense of dreamlike environment once again. Although the imagery is far from being peaceful and soothing, the plasticity of the imagery reminds those of Taylor. The art piece is expected to convey a very specific idea, namely, one of memory and experiences being the tools for self-improvement and becoming a better person.

Nevertheless, the form that these ideas take is surreal and often unconventional, shocking the audience into paying attention and considering the artist’s message. In addition, similarly to the artworks of Taylor, the art pieces created by Selma also incorporate very rich colors that are mostly primary. In “Serie Vencidos,” the image that borders nightmarish and can be seen as frightening also has a unique palette that consists mostly of primary colors.

Although on closer inspection, more nuanced elements can be spotted in the painting, the first impression leaves the viewer with the image that incorporates mostly red and green elements in an overwhelmingly blue background. Thus, the colors do not distract the audience from relating to the main message of the art piece. The central image, in turn, is outlined clearly enough for the viewer to discern a person in it, yet it contains the surreal quality that pushes it into the uncanny valley territory, thus encouraging the viewer to recall their innermost childhood fears and embrace them.

Study 4: “Old Gold Mountain.”

Another artist that addresses the theme of memories quite often in her work is Hung Liu. Having become a renowned artist in the U.S., Liu explores the legacy of the Chinese culture as one of the crucial constituents of her personal and artistic identity (“Hung Liu: offerings 2013” 2019). Therefore, the theme of memories trickles into every artwork produced by Liu as the reminder of the essential part of per culture and the need to reconcile her memories of China with her present life in the U.S. (“Hung Liu: offerings 2013” 2019).

Using installations as her preferred method of artistic expression, Liu creates unforgettable and thought-provoking pieces, such as “Offerings.” Being rooted in the memories of her past life in China and the experiences that she had when interacting with her own culture, the works that the artist creates reflect the importance of processing memories and understanding them as the tool for self-cognition.

The art piece under analysis is quite different from the other three discussed above, not only in its content but also in its context. The form that Hung Liu’s work takes this time is not incidental, yet it still bears the unique touch of unpredictability and represents a challenge to viewers as the combination of ideas, memories, and symbols. “Offerings” represents. “Jui Jin Shan,” or “Old Gold Mountain,” is a very low hill in which two railroad ways lie in an intersection.

The symbolism of the art piece in question is staggeringly poignant since the artwork hints at the importance of life choices, the ways in which these choices echo in one’s later life, and the way in which people’s paths may cross. When approaching the artwork from the perspective of the authorial intent, one will realize that the “Old Gold Mountain” is expected to embody the “passage between two societies, their past, and present, and the sense of impermanence that is basic to human experience” that the artist has experienced in her life (“Hung Liu: Offerings” 2013).

In addition, the symbolism of the art piece harkens back to the era when Chinese workers were hired to construct the railroad that would encourage the further development of the Gold Rush and allow more visitors to come to the supposed locations of gold mines to become instantly and irrevocably rich. Surprisingly, the art manages to incorporate the legacy of the Chinese culture of the era and the emotional impact of the futile endeavors of gold diggers.

“Offerings” is expected to set the basis for a meticulous study of one’s personal experiences, the paths that one may have chosen, and the roads that one may have even forgotten to have taken. As a result, it becomes not only a part of an artist’s childhood memories but also a crucial part of the collective memory. A crucial part of the Chinese history and its legacy are baked into the body of “Offerings,” making it intriguingly somber. Thus, the art piece created by Hung Liu has built a life of its own, garnering credibility and acclaim as one of the art pieces that remain relatable to people from any cultural background.

By combining the simplicity of forms with either vividly plain or dreamlike and intentionally vague colors, artists manage to emphasize the presence of their childhood memories in their art pieces, thus making them distinctively unique. As the study of the four cases provided above has shown, the use of minimalistic forms and basic color schemes create a visual shorthand for delineating the thin line between the present and the past. Thus, audiences develop the feeling of a dreamlike reality when viewing the art pieces described above. Thus, childhood memories affect the choice of stylistic tools and expressive manners shown by artists.

The observed phenomenon occurs both on the subconscious level and with the understanding of the impact of nostalgia in mind, allowing artists to create truly unique pieces that harken back to their childhood memories. Moreover, the artistic expressivity of the art pieces and the careful selection of the stylistic tools allow the paintings to evoke the same feeling of nostalgia in viewers, helping them to relate to the artworks on a very personal level.

Carmen Selma 2019. Web.

Hung Liu: offerings 2013. Web.

McGarry, S 2019, A foreign affair with Ross Taylor . Web.

Muñoz-Alonso, L 2017, 5 Exciting young artists to watch at Sunday Art Fair . Web.

Needham, C 2017, Ross Taylor Manor Walks 31 October – 18 November 2017 . Web.

Thomson, P & Jaque, SV 2018, ‘Childhood adversity and the creative experience in adult professional performing artists,’ Frontiers in Psychology , vol. 9, pp. 111-114.

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Art And Architecture Case Study

Type of paper: Case Study

Topic: Culture , Society , Art , Nature , Turkey , Beauty , Artwork , Color

Words: 1200

Published: 03/26/2020

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TURKISH VASE

Art can be indeed very insightful into the lifestyle as well as the emotional and cultural disposition of the people responsible for the creation of the art. This is because art is a direct reflection of culture and lifestyle. The study of pieces of art from a given culture can reveal a great deal of information about the people who produced the piece of art as well as the historic period in which the art piece was produced. The following essay takes more of a descriptive paradigm as far as art is concerned. This means that the essay is exclusively inclined towards the detailed and exhaustive description of a piece of art focusing especially on the rather minute details of the piece of art that would normally pass unseen especially to the eyes of people who are not so keen on art. The piece of art chosen for description in this particular essay is titled the glazed fritware bottle Inv, no. LNS 327 C. This particular art piece can be dated back to Turkey as far back as the mid 16th century, which means that analysis of this art piece can be very insightful into the culture as well as the mental disposition of the Turkish people back in the 16th century. The material used to make this particular item as well as the design of the item can tell a lot about the culture as well as the workmanship and architectural prowess of the people who created it. The following essay is thus an exhaustive description of this particular art piece paying special attention to all key aspects as far as this particular art piece is concerned. Contrary to the title, this particular art piece is in actuality a vase as opposed to a bottle as suggested by the title. This particular art piece has the shape of any regular vase. The bottom of the art piece is spherical in shape and it has a neck that leads up to the spherical bottom. The texture of this art piece can be described as an artistic masterpiece to say the least. This is because this art piece has a very soft texture that leaves it extremely slippery and a complete nightmare as far as its handling is concerned. This particular art piece is also very colorful and beautifully decorated that one cannot help but stare at it subconsciously for extended periods. The predominant color of the art piece is primarily blue with there being several manifestations or rather several shades of the color blue used in the art piece. The top of the art piece is brown in color and hemispherical in shape, which especially makes it unique especially in relation to the fact that the rest of the art piece is predominantly blue in color. This also makes the art piece stand out as it brings about diversity as far as the color composition of the art piece is concerned. The rest of the art piece is blue in color. There are however distinct manifestations of the color white on the art piece which are shaped like flowers thus in essence greatly contributing to the beauty factor of the art piece. There are also lighter shades of the color blue used on the art piece which are distinctly flower shaped and blend perfectly into the art piece thus making the art piece a work of art to be marveled at. This art piece is made from porcelain and as such it is rather heavy as far as mass is concerned though it is not too heavy. The porcelain used for this particular art piece is rather pure and fine thus making this piece of art marvelous to say the least. This particular art piece has the particular viewpoint that tends to incline the viewer into wanting to get all perspectives of the object. Thus, any viewer is tempted to move around the object in an attempt to get as much detail as possible about the object from all possible points of view. The decorations on the object, which are flower shaped, are also very attractive to the eyes of the viewer. This is because the art piece has the perfect blend of white and blue flowers, which are on a blue background thus making them, stand out and especially aggressive as far as the attention of the viewer is concerned. The white flowers especially stand out because of their brighter color, which makes them very visible. The reaction between light and this piece of art is also very interesting. This is because the light falls on the art piece thus making it brighter or rather glowing to say the least. The beauty of this particular art piece is brought out when light falls on the art piece and illuminates the art piece all for the delight of the observer. The function of the object is not clear and requires detailed scrutiny of the object to determine. Based on the nature of the decorations on the object as well as the delicate nature of the object, its functionality can be determined as purely decorational. This object was created as a thing of beauty to be viewed and marveled at as opposed to it having a distinct purpose such as carrying water. The delicate nature of the object dictates that it has minimal movement as far as locomotion is concerned. If the object were designed to have a distinct function rather than its decorator purpose, then there would be absolutely no need for the object to have such distinct and outstanding decorations. The nature of the object inclines the art piece to a more ceremonial purpose as opposed to a functional purpose. This means that the art piece was designed to be looked at as opposed to being used. This particular art piece was designed in Turkey for ceremonial and beauty purposes. The nature of the object is very insightful on the nature of the society that designed it. This is because the object displays a society inclined towards beauty and high-class luxury. The object also showcases a society inclined towards fine artwork and artistic prowess based on nothing but the finest pieces of art. The shape of the object is especially very useful as far as the analysis of the artistic mastery of its creators is concerned. This is because not a single element of this art piece is out of place. The spherical part of this piece is a perfect sphere, which is difficult to achieve for any artist without the proper mastery of the art in question.

Works Cited

Bell, Clive. Art. New York: Capricorn Books, 2003. Print. McDonnell, Patrick. Art. New York: Little, Brown, 2006. Print. Reese, Bob. Art. Chicago: Childrens Press, 2005. Print. Reza, Yasmina, and Christopher Hampton. 'Art'. London: Faber and Faber, 2001. Print. Senge, Peter M.. The fifth discipline: the art and practice of the learning organization. New York: Doubleday/Currency, 2008. Print.

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Bringing Stories to Your Essay: Introducing a Case Study the Right Way!

Stefani H.

Table of contents

Ever found yourself immersed in a story, hanging onto every detail, eager to know what happens next? That, my friend, is the magic of a case study when sprinkled into an essay.

Just as a dash of spice can elevate a dish, a well-placed case study can take your essay from 'meh' to 'marvelous'. It's not just about showcasing real-world examples; it's about making your arguments relatable, tangible, and above all, memorable.

But hold on, before you dive headfirst into weaving in that intriguing case study you found, let’s chat about the art of introducing it. You see, dropping it in without context is like telling a joke without a punchline.

In this post, we'll guide you through the craft of smoothly and effectively introducing a case study into your essay, ensuring it's not just a detour but a meaningful journey for your readers. So, are you ready to give your essay that extra oomph?

Why Use Case Studies in Essays

You know those moments when you're explaining a theory or a concept, and you see those blank stares? Yup, we’ve all been there. That’s where real-world examples come into play. By weaving a case study into your essay, you're essentially turning on a light in a dim room. Suddenly, that complex theory has color, depth, and context. It's no longer just words on paper; it's a story, a lesson, a real-world incident that breathes life into your arguments.

And let's talk about the brownie points. When you toss a well-researched case study into the mix, it's like handing your readers proof that you've rolled up your sleeves and delved deep into your subject. It's a signal: you're not just skimming the surface; you're diving into the depths, bringing out treasures of knowledge.

Lastly, an apt case study is like the secret sauce to winning trust. Readers lean in, believing in your words, connecting with your narrative. It’s not just about flashing your research chops; it’s about creating a bond, engaging them, making them think, "Hey, this writer really knows their stuff!"

In a nutshell? Case studies? They're your essay's best friend.

Choosing the Right Case Study

Before you jump onto the Internet's vast ocean and fish out the first case study that sorta-kinda fits, let’s have a quick heart-to-heart. Not all case studies are created equal. And while it might be tempting to pick that dramatic, headline-grabbing one, it's essential to remember a few golden rules.

Firstly, it's all about alignment. Think of your essay as a puzzle. Every piece, every argument, every citation should fit just right. Your chosen case study? It's that central piece, setting the tone, connecting dots. So, make sure it's directly related to your topic. No square pegs in round holes, okay?

Next, reputation is everything. Dive into journals, accredited institutions, and renowned publications. Trustworthy sources not only boost your essay's credibility but save you from those cringe-worthy moments when someone points out a glaring error or bias in your chosen study.

Quick tip from the pros : Some case studies are like that popular song on the radio - overplayed and heard by everyone. Unless you’re bringing a fresh, unheard angle or a unique perspective to the table, steer clear of the overly popular ones. It's always more impressive to introduce your readers to a gem they haven't encountered before.

Introducing a Case Study: The Art of the Hook

Picture this : You're at a party, and someone starts a story with, "You won't believe what happened to me yesterday!" Chances are, you're all ears. That's the power of a good essay hook . Now, let's bring that energy to your essay!

Starting with a compelling fact or statement is your ticket to gripping your readers. Imagine leading with, "In a village where electricity was once a dream, solar panels changed everything." Instantly, your readers are curious. They want to know more about this village, the change, the story behind it all.

Once you've got their attention, lay down the problem. Paint a picture of the challenges, the obstacles, the scenario before the solution came into play. This sets the stage for your case study. By presenting the problem, you're essentially saying, "Hey, here's a situation. Stick around to see how it unraveled."

Quick Checklist: Crafting That Perfect Hook

  • Relevance : Ensure it ties back to your main essay topic.
  • Emotion : Strike a chord, whether it's curiosity, empathy, or even surprise.
  • Simplicity : Keep it straightforward. No need for jargon or over-the-top language.
  • Authenticity : Stay true to the essence of your case study. No embellishing facts!

Remember, the aim is to draw readers in, making them eager to delve into the heart of your case study. With a killer hook, you're not just starting an essay; you're beginning a journey they'll want to join.

MLA Citation: Giving Credit Where It's Due

Alright, let's chat about something we often overlook in our writing excitement: citation. I get it; it may not be the most thrilling part of essay writing, but think of it as the unsung hero, quietly ensuring your work stands tall with authenticity and respect.

First off, why the fuss about proper citation ? Well, citing your sources isn't just about avoiding the scary plagiarism monster. It's about acknowledging the hard work of others. It's a nod to fellow researchers, saying, "Hey, I see your efforts, and they've helped shape mine."

How to cite a case study in MLA format

Author's Last Name, First Name . "Title of the Case Study." Title of the Journal or Publication , vol. number, no. issue number, Year of Publication, page range.

For example: Smith, John. "Solar Power in Remote Villages." Energy Research Journal , vol. 5, no. 2, 2020, pp. 45-59.

If found online: Add the website name, the URL, and the access date at the end.

Smith, John. "Solar Power in Remote Villages." Energy Research Journal , vol. 5, no. 2, 2020, pp. 45-59. ERJ Online, www.erjonline123.com , Accessed 5 June 2022.

Avoid these mistakes

  • Forgetting the access date: Especially for online sources, this one's crucial!
  • Overlooking the punctuation: Note the periods, commas, and italics. They're all essential in MLA.

Quick Tip : If this feels a tad overwhelming, online citation tools are here to rescue! Platforms like EasyBib or Citation Machine can churn out MLA citations in a snap. Just feed in your source details, and voila!

In the end, think of citations as your essay's backstage crew, working behind the scenes to ensure your masterpiece gets a standing ovation.

Weaving the Case Study into Your Essay Narrative

Alright, so you've got this shiny case study and you’re all set to embed it into your essay. But here's the catch – it's not about just dropping it in; it's about stitching it seamlessly into your narrative fabric.

Make It Relevant : Think of your essay and case study as dance partners. They need to move in harmony. Ensure that your case study doesn't just stand alone; it should back up your arguments, add depth to them, or even offer a contrasting perspective. It’s about making the dance memorable.

Build a Logical Flow : Your readers are on a journey with you. Introduce your case study at a point where it feels natural, leading them from one idea to the next. It’s like following breadcrumbs; one leading to another, ensuring they never get lost in the woods.

Pacing is Key : Imagine watching a movie where the climax is revealed in the first ten minutes. Boring, right? Similarly, don’t spill all the beans about your case study right away. Tease a little, build intrigue, let it unfold gradually, keeping your readers hooked.

In essence, introducing a case study is an art. It’s not about making it fit, but about ensuring it belongs, enriching your essay's narrative and making it truly unforgettable.

Concluding Your Case Study Introduction

As you wrap up the intro to your case study, think of it as putting a bow on a gift. First, make a promise to your readers: assure them that venturing deeper into this case study will shed light, offer insights, or challenge perspectives. Maybe it's a promise of a lesson learned or an innovative solution unveiled. Then, seamlessly pave the way for what's next: your main arguments. Like a skilled guide, hint at the journey ahead, ensuring your readers are not only invested but also eager to embark on the exploration with you.

Final Thoughts & Wrap-up

Introducing a case study in an essay is much like mastering a dance step; at first, it might feel a tad awkward, maybe even a little forced. But with practice? Ah, that’s when the magic happens. Just as dancers become one with the music, with time, you'll find that blending case studies into your essays becomes second nature. The beauty lies in the richness they add, turning plain text into tapestries of real-life stories, insights, and revelations.

But what if you're pressed for time or feeling a tad overwhelmed? Here's a lifesaver: Writers Per Hour offers impeccable custom case study writing services tailored to your needs. They're the backstage crew ensuring your essay shines under the spotlight.

Now, with or without help, here's a challenge for you, dear readers: In your next essay, venture out, find that perfect case study, and weave it in. Experience the transformation it brings. And when you do, remember that every story you tell, every example you cite, adds depth and dimension to your narrative. Ready to give it a whirl?

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