The Modernist World: A Critical Analysis 1,500 Words
A critical written analysis of a ‘Modernist object’ of your choice. A modernist object such as: a sculpture, painting, or other physical object.
The Modernist Object chosen is a painting by Amrita Sher-Gil, Mother India, 1935.
This Critical Analysis must include:
Introduce and contextualise your object: Explain what it is, who made it, and in what context. This aspect of the tasks assesses your skills in accessing and presenting accurate and relevant information.
Explain why it should be considered a modernist object, paying attention to the form of the object and how it is formally innovative.
Explain what is meant by ‘modernism’, using appropriate critical sources and definitions, and explain in detail how your chosen object demonstrates characteristics associated with modernism (these might include, for instance, abstraction, primitivism, dissonance, distortion, flatness, rejection of realism, critical attitude to ‘civilisation’).
You should pay attention to how the object challenges formal conventions in its field (that is, how the way the object is made and the techniques used represent a break with earlier traditions in that genre), and explain how these innovations are linked to modernist ideas.
Present an argument about why your object is significant for our understanding of modernism. You might, for example, make an argument about what it reveals to us about the modernist movement, how it constitutes a particularly good example of a particular aspect or tendency within modernism, how it intervenes in debates about modernism, or how it reveals particular limitations, contradictions, or tensions within modernism.
These suggestions are not exhaustive; you will need to carry out research using critical sources that discuss your object to develop a well-informed and independent argument.
Critical Analysis Structure
You need an introduction and a conclusion, and your discussion should develop logically, point by point, between them. Moving from specific details and facts at the beginning towards discussion of interpretation and significance is a good general rule. There is no exact rule about how much of the essay should be devoted to which element, but you need a good level of analysis (not just description), so ensure that you have space to pursue the meaning and significance of the work in some depth (not just a couple of sentences at the end).
The discussion must be clearly structured, with well-written and appropriate introduction and conclusion.
Clearly explaining and justifying the modernist object. (Is it a modernist object?)
Links and transitions between points
The points must be clear and good use of language in this Critical Analysis.
This critical analysis must include a good level of detailed analysis of formal characteristics, A clear and convincing argument and why these characteristics are present and what they mean.
Formal characteristics clearly related to modernism, Analysis demonstrating relevant concepts and ideas and A clear Argument about why the object is significant for our understanding of modernism
