Research Proposal: "Seated Woman" vs. Romanticism

How does movement and direction in an artwork provoke thought in its viewers?

High school or college audience

“Seated Woman” by Nicholas Africano

(Kilncast Glass Statue), 2010.41 Portland Art Museum Permanent Collection

Theme/Big Idea

Between 1800 and 1850, Romanticism was the most popularized style of painting in the 19th century. Although artists within this era had diffenent topics that they painted, each painting provoked thought and feeling in its viewers. I have found that as time passes, some artists continue to provoke thought with their works using motion and direction of the eye's path. But why is this important? Is the message behind a work of art or attempt to provoke thought important in art?

Three Open-ended Questions

Why is the provocation in art important? Why do artists want their viewers to feel or think in a certain way? What types or styles of art show movement or direction?

Three Bullet Points of Information

• Romanticism lasted from about 1800-1850

• Art throughout history has provoked thought or has held a meaning

• When the "Seated Woman" is viewed, its viewers (without prior knowledge) are able to project any of their own ideas to what it means or what she may be thinking

Sources

Janson, H. W., Penelope J. E. Davies, and H. W. Janson. Janson's History of Art: The Western Tradition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall, 2007. Print.

De Man, Paul. The rhetoric of romanticism. Columbia University Press, 2013.

Ferguson, Frances. Solitude and the Sublime: Romanticism and the Aesthetics of Individuation. Psychology Press, 1992.