PAPER 1 ASSIGNMENT

De Young Museum visit - Olmec Colossal Masterworks of Ancient Mexico

3 page Formal Analysis of  Olmec Exhibition and how it relates to the topics of exhibition vs. ritual in  the essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction

 http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

http://www.thephylaxis.org/williams/olmecs.php

 

Colossal Head, Olmec, La Venta, Mexico, ca. 900 - 400 BCE. Basalt.

Exhibition VS. Ritual:

cult objects witnessed through contemporary perspectives

Discuss from personal experience the "witnessing" of the Olmec Heads within the museum setting vs. the documented (photographs) cite to where they were originally deposited and buried.

•How many have been discovered? 

•Who are they? 

•What was their original purpose? 

•How does the environment in which they occupy and 'rest' influence our perception and what Walter Benjamin coins as the 'aura' of an artwork?

Word Document, 3 typed pages, Font: Times size 12 - 1.5 line spacing
Due Friday March 11