Art 110A - Final Examination - UCLA 1966
Print name:________________________
I. Description of project:_______________________________________
Additions and/or corrections:_____________________________________
II. True - False. Answer all questions; specific examples cited count for extra credit where indicated, Check after "T?" if true, after "F" if faIse.
T__F__
In the twentieth century there have been authoritarian governments that systematically desecrated art and persecuted artists - essentially on grounds of "taste", although supported by ample, if fallacious arguments based on racism, moralistic self-righteousness and political social or economic absolutism - and this is (from the historical, philosophical and practical points of view, anyway) one of the most significant problems related to the arts that can be discussed today.
T__F__
The United States Government itself, especially through the State Department, has restricted artistic expression in America and has controlled its exhibition abroad.
T__F__
The recent cutback on funds for the government anti-poverty campaign has circumscribed some research projects in the arts and the humanities.
Examples:____________________________
T__F__
Former President Eisenhower drew an amazing (and somewhat problematical) connection between admitted ignorance and the willingness or capacity to render aesthetic judgments in his statement (not even original), "I don't know anything about art, but know, what I like," and thus perpetuated a long tradition of American heads of state functioning as critics.
Examples:____________________________
T__F__
There are some people of power and influence in the Los Angeles area who--at least partly because of their personal taste in art which tends to reject contemporary media and styles of expression--oppose and attempt to discredit not only the art itself, but as well the new directions of thought, writing and research associated with it.
T__F__
The bulk of evidence available to us now indicates that smoking and alcohol pose far more serious threats to human well-being (on both the individual and the social levels of medicine, philosophy and psychology) than marijuana and LSD (the latter two being illegal).
T__F__
Research in substances containing consciousness-expanding or psychedelic chemicals is severely hampered and in some cases prevented entirely by recent legislation in California and other states. Research with pychedelic phenomena is of great potential significance not only for the fine arts and for all forms of creativity, but also as one of the newest an most promising developments for therapy in the field of mental health.
T__F__
Challenging this restrictive legislation through all available means within the law may thus involve defending life liberty and the pursuit of happiness in addition to defending the principles of free enquiry and the pursuit of knowledge and truth so essential to the traditions of the university and the democratic society; hence such action would oppose authoritarinism and support the humanist tradition much as Erwin Panofsky describes The History of Art as a Humanistic Discipline" in Meaning in the Visual Arts.
III. Multiple choice. Place a check to the left of the most appropriate answer to each question.
Among the artists from 1850 to the present, the most histoirically significant is on of the following (cite one work of art for your choice)
__John Altoon
__John Paul Jones
__Johnny Fart
__Augustus John
__Jasper Johns
Among the following artists who worked in 3-dimensional media, my (your) favorite is (and city one work).
__John Chamberlain
__John Mason
__John Tinguely
__Joan Miro
__Jasper Johns
Among 20th century musicians, two of the following have had a great interest and influence upon the visual arts:
__John Philip Souza
__John Coltrane
__John Lee Hooker
__John Cage
__John Lennon
Among Twenty snowy mountains, the only moving thing was:
__Johnny Guitar Matson
__John, John the Piper's son
__John Wayne, over the top
__John Jacob Jingleheimer Smith
__The eye of the blackbird
IV. Frank questions. Fill in the correct answers.
The only way to make MVP in both leagues___________
Wrote about his life and adventures (formerly banned) ___________
Plays drums for Canned Heat ______________
Great Architect ______________
Distinguish between the following (French Form( Franks: Millet_____ Pude______
Distinguish between the following (Germanic Form) Franks: Kafka_____Kline_____
Distinguish between the following (English Form) Franks: Picabia_____Sam_____
Distinguish between Frank Stella and Joseph Stella_____________
How do you suppose St. Francis of Assisi and Francisco Franco might stand on the issue of psychedelics?
V. Charles questions. Indicate the medium in which each of the following Charleses works:
Charles Mattox:__________
Carl Andre:___________
Karl Schmidt Rottluff:__________
Charles Edouard Jeameret:__________
Carlo Carra:__________
Carl Belz:__________
Charles Kessler:__________
Charles Chaplin:__________
VI. Paul questions. Indicate the significance for the history of art of the following Pauls:
Cezanne:__________
Gauguin:__________
Klee:__________
Eluard:__________
Chabas:__________
E. Pavillion:__________
VII. Mark questions. Mark your favorite Mark:
Tobey:__
Rothko:__
Chagall:__
Robson:__
Twain:__
VIII. Jean questions. The following Jeans are listed in alphabetical order. Rearrange them according to any standard (e.g. beauty, meanness, wit, significance for the history of modern astrophyslcs), indicating the standard:
Arp
Baptiste Corot
Cocteau
Crotti
Dubuffet
Garren
Genet
Harlow
Jacques Rousseau
Paul Riopelle
Paul Sartre
Tinguely
Varda
Xceron
Other:__________
- What would you serve the fifteen Jeans from the Alice B Toklas Cookbook if you had them all together for a dinner party?
- As John Cage would (did) ask, "Are there any important questions?"
- As Kurt von Meier would (did) say, "There is a difference between a silly question and a stupid question."
- Well, did you read "Communication"; and is there or isn't there?
IX. Objective questions. Optional. For the diligent student, who likers concrete facts, the following three questions are provided. By answering any two out of the three, it will be possible to gain an "A" grade for the final examination: ,-
- In the "essay" space at the bottom of the page, indicate, in order the digits published on the first page of: Rand Corporation, One Million Random Digits (The Free Press, Glencoe, Ill.).
- In the essay space at the bottom of the page, or on the overleaf, indicate the digits, in their correct sequence, for Pi, carried out to at least 500 places:
- Indicate the name of an artist who has used either of of the above bases for structure in a statement or in a work of art:__________
X. Serious questions. Answer accordingly, to the best of your abiIity, one only.
- "Why does Andy Warhol's work (or is it Andy Warhol's image?) make so many people so mad? "
- Who killed Arnold Schuster?
- "Just what is it that makes today's homes so different-so appealing?"
- Why is true seriousness so often wrongly associated with being somber?
- Can you think of something better to ask Santa Claus for than Jean Shepherd's request (there are plenty more jeans): A box of perspective.
- Compose an essay based on the following structure:
ROME : RONAN GABRIEL : GABRIEL MARCEL : MARCEL DUCHAMP : CHAMP - The particular questions in any examination are incidental; they are important only in so far as they provide an opportunity for the student to demonstrate the dgree to which he has become interested in or involved with the real content of the course (in distinction to the superficial subject matter). Apart from its possible value as therapy or catharsis, this demonstration for practical, serious university students realistically aware of the demands-being (or about out to be) placed upon them by the world is only important as it is read and understood or interpreted by the grader. This interpretation itself is, strictly speaking, less significant than the actual letter grade itself assigned to the student at the end of the course. But even this grade doesn't really matter as much as in itself, except in its relation to other grades, and as it contributes to the Student's Grade Point Average (GPA); and the GPA is what really matters in the end. Except possibly for graduate students or potential fellowship applicants, even the GPA itself doesn't matter so much, so long as it is sufficient to avoid the draft and to graduate with a degree. And the degree, for realistic people, is only significant in so far as it enables one get a good job. And the job is only important, really, for what it gives one apart from more or less pleasure, it is really, in the end, the money. But the money isn't truly so important in itself (except for a miser); it is the things it will buy. And really, "what it will buy" simply refers to the pleasure we derive from the experience of things, not possession of the things themselves. Excepting the corrupt and utterly degenerate, that sheer pleasure cannot be justified unless it results in a bona fide aesthesic experience, helping to make one a more beautiful human being--that is to say, important only in so far as it involves art. Now isn't that right?
Essay space: