SIP Information: Comprehensives Kalamazoo College Art Department Billie Fischer, Associate Professor Tom Rice, Professor and Department Chair Richard Koenig, Associate Professor Sarah Lindley, Associate Professor Kevin Brady, Visiting Assistant Professor Dhera Strauss, Instructor Department of Art and Art History Comprehensive Exams The comprehensive exam for the Department of Art and Art History is based on a reading list that students will be given in the spring quarter of their junior year. Art, Art History and Art/Art History majors will be expected to read and study the assigned materials over the summer in preparation for a three-hour essay exam that will be given during the 4th week of their Senior fall quarter. A meeting will be scheduled for 2nd week of the fall quarter to answer questions and provide guidelines for studying the materials. Reading Materials You should have all of the readings completed before the meeting during 2nd week of fall quarter. Below are the two required books, which you can purchase on-line through Amazon or another bookseller. Start your reading with Taylor, but you might want to read pertinent essays in Risatti as they come up. Contemporary Art Art since 1970 Brandon Taylor ISBN: 013183729X read entire text; also use as an artwork reference book (study the images--draw from them to use as concrete examples during the exam) Postmodern Perspectives Issues in Contemporary Art Ed. By Howard Risatti ISBN: 0136145043 read six assigned essays* and the introductions to parts one, three, and four--exam questions will focus on these essays * Assigned Essays from Risatti: Part One Introduction, Greenberg, Clark Part Three Introduction, Crimp, Lawson Part Four Introduction, Owens, Linker Regarding Notes It is a good idea to take notes while you are reading these materials. Underlining can be helpful, but there is a tendency to underline too much, which undermines its effectiveness. If you read about an artist that is unfamiliar to you please take the time to look up more examples of the artist's work than is provided in your required readings. Likewise, if you read a term that you don't know how to define, try to find out what the author means by the term by looking it up. A good place to start is this on-line glossary from the Art 21 series on PBS. When writing your notes, try to determine if the author of the article is expressing his/her own views, or citing/explaining the views of others. The point of the exam will be to make comparisons, deductions, and connections using the ideas and artists covered in the readings. You may bring notes to the exam. Your notes can be unlimited in number of pages, but may not include any Xeroxed or scanned material. We will collect your notes with your exam. We are expecting variation from student to student in regards to examples, quotations and references made within the essays. This is not to say that you cannot get together and discuss the material and share ideas, just that in the end the notes you bring to the exam should be your own. Structure of Exam There will be three to five sections on the exam. You may have a choice on some questions to be answered. Keep in mind that these "groupings" will cover over-reaching themes or concepts within the art world-from about 1970 onward. All answers will be in essay form. The exam will be "open-note", but no books/articles, images, Xeroxed or copied material may be brought to the test. A few examples: How does one author respond to the ideas and writings of another? We might ask you to ruminate on extended definitions of concepts such as modernism and postmodernism. We may show images as a basis for questions, but will provide you with artist, title, media and date of work. Study Tips Summarize the main ideas of each article from Risatti and know the name of the author. The point of the exam will be to make comparisons, deductions, and connections using the ideas and artists covered in those readings-it will not simply be a repetition of the information. You should make note of contrasting or similar viewpoints from each author whenever possible. Pick at least twelve to fifteen artists and know a minimum of four individual works for each artist when appropriate. Make sure that your artists come from a variety of movements throughout the last thirty years. You will be using these artists to argue points in your answers. We highly recommend you organize and take part in study groups. If you do form study groups, that's splendid, but you shouldn't all use the same examples of artists. Make sure you're picking artists that you have a reaction to-either way-like, but also dislike. You may be asked to take/defend your own position on one or more of the ideas discussed. Grading Senior Comprehensive Exams are graded Honors, Pass, or Fail. An Honors grade is reserved for truly exceptional work.