WMST 3512 Art/Work: Sex, Aesthetics, and Capitalism

This best-selling text has guided tens of thousands of art students through the writing process. Students are shown how to analyze pictures (drawings, paintings, photographs), sculptures and architecture, and are prepared with the tools they need to present their ideas through effective writing.

Writing About Art was written as the text for a course of the same name required of all art majors at The City College of New York. The book explains the different approaches college students encounter in undergraduate art history classes. Each chapter outlines the characteristics of one type of visual or historical analysis and briefly explains its history and development. Passages by well-known art historians provide examples of each method. Sample essays by students are accompanied by extensive explanations of suggested revisions. The book also includes a step-by-step guide to researching art historical topics and a section about correctly citing sources.

This straightforward guide prepares students to describe, interpret, and write about works of art in meaningful and lasting terms. Designed as a supplement to Art History survey and period texts, this efficient book features a step-by-step approach to writing-from choosing a work to write about, to essay organization, to research techniques, to footnote form, to preparing the final essay. For beginners as well as more advanced students.

 

 

Making Image Captions

Image captions should include both the location of the work of art itself, as well as the location of where you found the image. Below is an example of an image from the Metropolitan Museum of Art's collection and how you would cite it depending on where you found the image.

 

 

 

Elements of a Caption

Title: Josephine Baker

Artist: Adolph de Meyer

Date: 1825 - 1826

Medium: Direct carbon print

Location of work: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Where image was found: metmuseum.org

 

 

 

 

 

 

Caption (artwork viewed in person):

Fig. 1. Adolf de Meyer, Josephine Baker, 1825 - 26. Direct carbon print. Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Caption (online): 

Fig. 1. Adolf de Meyer, Josephine Baker, 1825 - 26. Direct carbon print. Metropolitan Museum of Art. metmuseum.org. 

Caption (in print):

Fig. 1. Adolf de Meyer, Josephine Baker, 1825 - 26. Direct carbon print. Metropolitan Museum of Art. The New Vision: Photography between the World Wars, Ford Motor Company Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of Art​. By Maria Morris Hambourg. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1989.