Art since 1980

Archive Exercise: Lets rewrite the textbook! Understanding the Art of the 1980s and Activism by

using both the textbook and interviews

Due: Please submit on Blackboard on Feb. 24

The purpose of this assignment is to help students understand the differences between primary

versus secondary sources. By definition, primary sources are immediate, first-hand accounts

of a topic, from people who had a direct connection with it (e.g., interviews, oral histories, an art

object, and letters). Archives often have primary source material that you can access for your

research. Secondary Sources are one step removed from primary sources, though they

often quote or otherwise use primary sources. They can cover the same topic, but add a layer of

interpretation and analysis (e.g., books and articles). For more information, please check out:

Primary Sources: A Research Guide, https://umb.libguides.com/PrimarySources/secondary

Your textbook for this class is a secondary source. While textbooks are useful, they have to

cover a lot of different artists and cannot always address nuances and specific issues for a

particular artist or a group of like-minded artists. Your job for this assignment is to rewrite the

textbook on a specific artist. You’ll need to read the textbook passage on your chosen artist(s)

and then read the corresponding excerpt from the interview with the specific artist(s), which

comes from the Smithsonian Archives of American Art (https://www.aaa.si.edu/). The interviews

are actually oral histories, and I have created excerpts to make the assignment easier for you.

Please note that all the necessary texts can be found on Brightspace. Youll then have to identify

how the information might differ in the two types of sources, and then rewrite the paragraph(s) in

your textbook to add more nuanced information. But please keep in mind that you will have to

write in your own words and you must have notes and a bibliography. You do not have to do any

other research.

Please complete the following steps:

Step 1. You have three options to consider for this assignment, and you must choose only one

of the following:

Option 1 is Ross Bleckner, a painter who lived during the height of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s

in New York. He is interviewed by Linda Yoblansky.

Option 2 is the Guerrilla Girls, a feminist activist group that began in 1985 to help promote

women in the visual arts and expose sexist biases in the visual arts. The interview is Judith

Richards talking with Guerrilla Girls Alice Neel and Gertrude Stein. Please note that in this

instance Alice Neel and Gertrude Stein are fake names that the members used to protect their

anonymity.

Option 3 is Nan Goldin, a photographer who documented much of the East Village in the 1980s

during the AIDS crisis. She is being interviewed by Alex Fiahlo.

Step 2. After you identify which option you will examine, you must complete parts A, B, and C:

Part A. After you have picked option 1, 2, or 3, please read the textbook passage on the chosen

artist AND the excerpt from the specific interview. Then answer the following questions:

What did you find in the textbook paragraph(s) that was NOT mentioned in

interviews. Please try to list two examples. Your list could be written as bullet

points.

What did you find in the interviews that was NOT discussed in the paragraph(s)

in the textbook? Please list two examples. Your list could be written as bullet

points.

Do you see any possible contradictions in the information found in the interview

versus the information in the textbook? Please identify one example if possible. If

you cannot find a contradiction, then please feel free to say so.

Part A should be no more than one-half of a typed page.

Part B. The next part of the assignment requires you to rewrite the paragraph(s) in the textbook,

so that it incorporates some of the information found in the interviews. Please note your writing

should try to indicate when you are relying upon primary source material.

Please keep in mind that you cannot talk about everything that you read for this assignment.

Youll have to make choices about what you think is most important to include in a textbook. The

purpose is for you to figure out how to integrate information from both primary and secondary

sources. If the textbook entry is only one paragraph, you can expand the text into two

paragraphs, and if your textbook entry is two paragraphs, you could expand it to three

paragraphs, if necessary. I will grade you on how well you combine information from the two

types of sources and how clear your writing is overall.

Part B should be about 2 pages of text, typed and double spaced, with notes and a

bibliography; please see my sample notes and bibliography below. Please note that you

have to write in your own words and CANNOT quote from Kalb’s textbook. You may

quote from the interview, if you wish, but only once, and the quotation should be short

and concise (no more than one or two lines of text) and must enhance your text (put

differently, please don’t use long quoted statements as filler). In the end, your text must

make sense on its own and provide your reader with a clear beginning, middle, and end.

I will grade you on how well you combine information from the two types of sources and

how clear your writing is overall.

Part C. Based on your experience, please distinguish the general pros and cons of a textbook

and the pros and cons of an interview. Part C should be no more than one-half of a typed page

Learning Outcomes

-To distinguish between primary and secondary source materials

-To understand the nature of what is typically included in a textbook

-To understand the nature of an interview or oral history

-To learn to write by combining secondary and primary sources together

-To explore a wider variety of sources when doing research

Sample Notes and Bibliography

Textbook

Note format:

Peter Kalb, Art since 1980: Charting the Contemporary (Upper Saddle River,

N.J.: Pearson, 2014), 145.

Short note format:

Kalb, Art since 1980, 180.

Bibliography format

Kalb, Peter. Art since 1980: Charting the Contemporary. Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Pearson,

2014.

Interviews

Note format:

Nan Goldin, interview with Alexa Fialho, Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An

Oral History Project, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution,

Washington, D.C., April 30 and May 7, 2017.

Guerilla Girls Alice Neel and Gertrude Stein, interview with Judith Richards,

Guerilla Girls Oral History Project, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian

Institution, Washington, D.C., December 1, 2007.

Ross Bleckner, interview with Linda Yablonsky, Visual Arts and the AIDS

Epidemic: An Oral History Project, Archives of American Art, Smithsonian

Institution, Washington, D.C., July 6 and 8, 2016.

Short note format:

Goldin, interview with Fiahlo.

Guerilla Girls Alice Neel and Gertrude Stein, interview with Richards.

Bleckner, interview with Yablonsky.

Bibliography format:

Bleckner, Ross. Interview with Linda Yablonsky. Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral

History Project, Archives of American Art. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., July 6 and

8, 2016.

Goldin, Nan. Interview with Alexa Fialho, Visual Arts and the AIDS Epidemic: An Oral History

Project. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., April 30 and May

7, 2017.

Guerilla Girls Alice Neel and Gertrude Stein. Interview with Judith Richards. Guerilla Girls Oral

History Project. Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C., December

1, 2007.

Checklist for the Assignment

_____ Did you choose only ONE option?

_____ Did you complete parts A, B, and C?

_____ Did you use spelling and grammar check to catch any possible errors?

_____ Do you have notes when necessary and a bibliography?

_____ Does your text, especially for part B, make sense? Are the individual paragraphs clear

and cogent (not choppy)?