+1 862 207 3288 Please choose two of the three proposed questions and produce a prose answer (1500 words minimum and
2500 words maximum each). Your answer must cite at least three of the essays we have read to date in
class, and you should not bring in any outside research or references. Images may be included as an
appendix, but in the case of image usage, please do not offer more than the most cursory formal
analysis.
1. If the concept of beauty is indispensable for the study and creation of art, why are we reluctant to
employ this concept in our discourse? Why is beauty controversial? Does beauty matter?
2. The status of representation changes across the history of art, vacillating between the
naturalistic, the idealistic and a refusal toward representation itself. Please explain with explicit
historical examples how we might understand the naturalistic, the idealistic and why artists in the
contemporary context (framed as 1950-present) have demonstrated a resistance to representation.
