QUESTION 1
In Carrie Mae Weems’ Not Manet’s Type (1997), the artist positions herself within the context of Modernist art history. Why is Weems doing this? How does this work function as a greater commentary on cultural history more broadly?
20 points
QUESTION 2
Brazilian painter Tarsila do Amaral was both groundbreaking in early Brazilian Modernist art and extremely problematic in the way she commodified clichés of “Brazilianness” for an audience that was mostly white and privileged. Using one of the works by Amaral mentioned in our lecture, explain this tension between artistic innovation and problematic tokenism.
QUESTION 3
In popular culture, Frida Kahlo is often regarded as a Surrealist. What did Frida herself say on the subject? What does Frida’s inclusion into the Surrealist canon say about the perspective of most European Surrealists regarding Mexico and Mexican artists?
10 points
QUESTION 4
Explain the rupture between Diego Rivera and Nelson Rockefeller in the 1930s referencing the artwork discussed in the lecture videos.
10 points
QUESTION 5
Explain, using visual analysis of one of the Jacob Lawrence’s works discussed in the video lecture, how Lawrence used Modernist visual language to express the struggles of African Americans during The Great Migration.
10 points
QUESTION 6
The Futurist artists of the early 20th century were closely linked to the Italian Fascist Party. What caused the split between the Futurists and the Fascists?
10 points
QUESTION 7
Which of the following was not the inspiration for Giacomo Balla’s Street Light (1910-1911)
a. The synthetic paint tube
b. The installation of electric lights in major Italian cities
c. Marinetti saying “let’s kill the moonlight”
d. The promise of progress through technological developments such as electricity
2 points
QUESTION 8
Which of the following did Salvador Dali say was the inspiration for his important work The Persistence of Memory?
a. A wheel of brie cheese melting in the sun
b. The Spanish landscape
c. The slowness of time
d. Einstein’s Theory of Relativity
2 points
QUESTION 9
What year was the Semana de Arte Moderna in São Paulo?
a. 1928
b. 1919
c. 1922
d. 1920
2 points
QUESTION 10
What was more beautiful — according to the Futurist Manifesto — than the Victory of Samothrace?
a. Electricity
b. Movement
c. A roaring car
d. Destroying the museums
2 points
QUESTION 11
What is the story told in Aaron Douglas’s Aspects of Negro Life: From Slavery through Reconstruction (1934)?
a. The emancipation of enslaved African Americans through the Civil War and their move towards positions of political power threatened by the KKK
b. The importance of song and dance to African Americans living under Jim Crow laws in the Southern USA
c. The cultures and traditions that originate from Africa and still exist among people of the African diaspora
d. The Great Migration of African Americans from the South to Northern cities such as NYC
2 points
QUESTION 12
What were the social and political purposes behind many Mexican Muralists of the early twentieth century?
a. To expose the corruption of the current Mexican President
b. To unite the Mexican people regardless of race or class after the violence of the Mexican Revolution
c. To create a style of art that was popular with the people but not very political or historically significant
d. To create a style of art that was uniquely “Mexican” while still using modes of expression from Europe
2 points
QUESTION 13
In the 1960s and 1970s, Brazilian artists, cinematographers, and musicians developed a new movement they called ‘Tropicalia’, which used a mixture of folk art, popular subcultures, and drug references. What was the political reasoning behind the movement?
a. In opposition to the military dictatorship in Brazil
b. To legalize marijuana
c. To make Brazilian art more international
d. To promote Brazil’s economy and politics in the United States
2 points
QUESTION 14
In his 1932-1934 mural at Dartmouth College, The Epic of American Civilization, how does Orozco conceptualize “America”?
a. As a unified continent instead of politically- and linguistically-fragmented (Panamericanism)
b. He emphasizes the differences between Anglo-America and Hispano-America
c. As a collection of separate states
d. As something that was created after 1492
2 points
QUESTION 15
Why do objects such as Salvador Dali’s Lobster-Telephone or Meret Oppenheim’s Object give us such visceral reactions?
a. The artists want us to physically touch these objects and twist them into new shapes
b. The objects are difficult to look at because of the clashing colors
c. The artists combine two everyday objects and materials that come into close contact with the body and emphasize elements that are absurd and uncomfortable
d. The objects smell terrible
2 points
QUESTION 16
What was Gordon Parks trying to communicate to the wider American public in his 1956 photo-essay for Life Magazine, Segregation Story?
a. Stories of African American culture
b. The cruelties and indignities of racial segregation
c. The Great Migration of African Americans to the North
d. The Civil Rights Movement