[Art History] Annotated Bibliography

Students are not required to write a research paper for this class. Instead, you must select one of the artists discussed in lecture and research this figure as though you planned to write an essay about them. You will then present this research in the form of an annotated bibliography.  The objective of this assignment is for students to prioritize and analyze the research process, rather than a final essay. 

This bibliography will consist of ten sources, which, when pulled together, give the reader a sense of the scholarship about your particular figure.  At least TWO should be physical books that you obtain through the library or Inter-Library Loan (ILL). They should represent a range of literature: exhibition catalogues, scholarly books or monographs, interviews, journal articles, and others. These can be about a specific work, the artist more generally, about the period in which they worked, or specific themes or subjects. You will want to find a balance between all of these.

Your bibliography should begin with a paragraph characterizing the literature on this artist more generally; is it vast or limited? What are the primary languages in which it is published? Was most of the literature published during a certain period, or have there been different moments when it has received scholarly attention?  Following that, you will write an entry for each source you consulted in your research. They should be approximately 150 words long and should describe and summarize the publication.

Your final bibliography should conform to the following style guidelines (this will factor into your grade)

• The assignment should follow the following outline:

Title: Annotated Bibliography on [Artist’s Name]

Introduction (about 200 words): Provide a brief overview of the scholarly landscape surrounding the chosen artist. Discuss whether the literature is extensive or limited, the primary languages of publication, periods of scholarly attention, and any notable themes or aspects that have received focus.

Annotated Bibliography Entries (10 entries, each approximately 150 words):

Book (Physical):

Author, A. (Year). Title of the Book. Publisher.

Describe and summarize 

Book (Physical):

1. Author, B. (Year). Title of the Second Book. Publisher.

Describe and summarize 

• Journal Article:

Author, C. (Year). “Title of the Article.” Journal Name, volume(issue), page range.

• Describe and summarize 

1. Interview:

Interviewee, D. (Year). Interviewed by Author E. Title of the Interview. Publication Source.

• Describe and summarize 

Exhibition Catalogue:

• Editor, F. (Year). Title of the Catalogue. Exhibition Venue.

1. Describe and summarize 

Online Article:

• Author G. (Year). “Title of the Online Article.” Website Name. URL.

Describe and summarize 

• Monograph:

1. Author, H. (Year). Title of the Monograph. Publisher.

Describe and summarize 

• Biography:

Author I. (Year). Artist’s Name: A Biography. Publisher.

• Describe and summarize 

1. Secondary Source:

Author J. (Year). Title of the Secondary Source. Publisher.

• Describe and summarize 

Critical Review:

• Author K. (Year). “Title of the Review.” Journal Name, volume(issue), page range.

1. Describe and summarize 

Conclusion (about 150 words): Summarize the main findings from the annotated bibliography and highlight the key contributions each source makes to your understanding of the chosen artist.

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The artist I chose is Alfredo Jaar.

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1. What types of publications are not appropriate?
   The texts in your bibliography should all be scholarly in nature, rather than popular or trade focused.
   This is something you will need to evaluate as you begin assembling a list. Generally, the following
   publications are not appropriate for an annotated bibliography:
   Blogs, travel articles,Youtube videos, encyclopedia entries, exhibition reviews, social media posts, gallery
   pages, individual works of art. Sometimes an artist will maintain their own website.You will have to
   determine whether or not it is appropriate for the bibliography by considering some of the previously
   listed criteria.

What am I supposed to write in the annotation?

• There are many ways to describe and summarize a scholarly publications. There are also many criteria
  that can be used to judge such a text. Below are some of the questions that I often ask myself:
  1. When and where was the text published? Who is the publisher?
  2. Who is the author? Have they written extensively about this artist? Are they an established scholar or just starting
  out? What is their profession? For what type of audience is the work written? Exhibition goers? Specialists in
  Brazilian Art? Architectural historians?
  3. In what language is it published? Does this language dominate the literature?
  4. What is the publication about? The artist’s entire life? A specific body of work?
  5. Are there any special or unique features about the material? Does it have an exceptionally good chronology? Or
  does it offer more color images than any other book?
  6. How does it relate to the rest of the literature – that you described in the introduction, or in your other
  annotations?
  7. What are the strengths, weaknesses or biases in the material?

To reiterate, although the artist you choose will be the topic that holds all of the publications in the
bibliography together, your objects of study are the publications written about the artist.
YOU are not actually writing about the artist, but about the books that already exist. Think of the
publication as your “work of art.”

• I also uploaded examples of the Introduction paragraph.