EXHIBITION REVIEW WRITING ASSIGNMENT. Exhibition is in the Royal Academy of Arts in London “Picasso and Paper” https://www.royalacademy.org.uk/exhibition/picasso-and-paper

Imagine that you are an art critic for a newspaper or an art magazine. You have been asked to review an
exhibition. The reviewer’s job is to inform a potential audience about an exhibition and to provide some
context and an assessment of its overall quality . Therefore you need to describe and critique the exhibit and
its rationale. Read reviews in the national media, or check out reviews in art magazines like Apollo, Flash
Art, Frieze, or Art Monthly. This is not a research paper: you do not need to provide biographical detail on
the artists, but you can provide context by referencing materials from class discussion and the assigned
readings. Critics write from their own backgrounds, so feel free to use concepts you have developed on this
course or before it. Also feel free to mention when the exhibition confirms something you’ve learned
elsewhere and when it challenges it.
Visit the exhibition of your choice
§ Start by thinking of the exhibition’s arrangement as someone’s conscious creation (and not as if it is
“natural”). What are your initial impressions? Be very conscious of your reactions to the display.
Questions to help you get started.
1. What seems to be the premise for the exhibit arrangement? What aspects seem to matter most to the
museum? How were the works chosen for inclusion in this space? Why these and not others? How does the
room relate to its neighbor? What story does this room tell?
2. Curating exhibitions involve choices. What is accomplished by bringing these works together?
3. Does the display make you aware of where these works originally were and the purposes that they served?
Is this aspect important to a museum display?
4. What can you learn about art by seeing originals on display in a museum setting? What sorts of works are
included? What is their scale? What media and techniques are represented? Do you have a sense of why
different media are used for different purposes? About how different media relate to one another?
5. How have the works been installed? Consider why certain works are grouped together. Does the
arrangement make sense to you (does it create a narrative)? Notice things like placement, spacing, and
lighting. What difference do these make (individually and collectively)? Are some of the works privileged
over others by their position? What do you infer from seeming intangibles like framing and lighting?
6. Be conscious of your experience in visiting the rooms. How do you feel in the exhibition? What is the role
of your surroundings in your experience?
7. Is learning an important part of the museum experience? What did you learn -century art from your visit to
the exhibition? How did you learn? How would you evaluate the labels, wall text, gallery guides (if any), or
materials available elsewhere in the museum? Do these represent the best way to provide such information?
What other alternatives might there be? Would you provide other kinds of materials in other formats?
8. Is there one or more works that you find particularly interesting? Discuss one work detail, always bearing
in mind how it relates to the exhibition as a whole.
10. Assess the exhibition’s originality, overall accomplishments, shortcomings
Writing an effective essay:
1. The length of the paper is intentionally short to permit you (through the process of revision) to w
something substantial and succinct.
2. Recall that you are evaluating and providing context for a display. This assignment, therefore, requires you
to take a position and argue it.
3. Your essay must be very specific and focused on those issues you choose to feature. This is meant to be
your work based upon your observations and reactions from an on-site analysis.
4. Choose your best ideas for inclusion and then build up your case point by point.
5. Good writing is essential to getting your ideas across.