Transcript Free-Response Tips - Arcadia Unified School District

Free-Response Tips &
Sample Questions
Tips taken from Barron’s APAH
Exam Review
Tip
• Never use value judgments or matters of
taste or opinion in an essay.
• Never say that a work of art is “better” or
that an artist used perspective “better” or
color “better.”
• Instead, express differences in terms of
values that few can object to such as “The
work on the right has more vivid color than
the work on the left.”
Tip
• It is permissible in questions with two
slides to simply refer to them as right and
left rather than repeating a title. Once you
have established what they are, left and
right, or even L and R, are sufficient.
Tip
• Always identify a work of art clearly and
not generically.
• For example, don’t identify by simply using
“the pyramid” or “a cathedral.”
• Use the Pyramid of the Sun in
Teothuacan, Mexico or the Pisa Cathedral
in Pisa, Italy.
Tip
• Write in complete sentences.
• Do not list and do not use bullets!
•Read the question carefully
•and fully answer each part.
Tip
• To focus the reader’s attention, have your
opening statement rephrase the question
• Example question:
• Often the original context of a work of art is
essential to its interpretation. Choose two works
of art from two different periods in which the
original context is known, explain the context,
and discuss how it contributes to its meaning
Tip
• Example Answer:
• The original context of a work can add
significantly to its meaning – artists often having
been commissioned to create works for a
particular place or function. Two works that
create this impression are the High Renaissance
painting of the Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci
and Robert Smithson’s Site Art work called
Spiral Jetty in Great Salt Lake, Utah.
Tip
• Questions 3 – 9 will be short answer—
• Free-response questions
• You will have between 5 – 10 minutes to
answer each.
• The questions are based on color images
and/or text
• 1 question will include a quote
The work on the left is from the beginning of the Roman
portrait tradition, and the work on the right is from the end of
that tradition.
Identify the portrait on the right. Discuss ways in which the
function and time period of each account for the differences
in their appearance. 10 mins
• Identify the period of the fresco shown here in a black and white
illustration. How does the work exemplify the artistic concerns of its
period. 5 mins
• Attribute the painting to an artist you have studied. Justify your
attribution by identifying and discussing specific characteristics seen
in the painting. 10 mins
• This shows a Roman copy of a Greek original. Name the
specific art-historical style of the original. How is the
theme of death treated and why? 5 mins
• Identify the architect of this building. How did the innovations in this
building lead to the development of the modern skyscraper? 10 mins
• The architect of the building shown on the right is Leon Battista Alberti.
• Name the period of the building on the right. How and why did Alberti
adapt elements of the work on the left? 10 mins
The two works were made in the same period about 100 years apart.
Identify the period. Explain how the two works exemplify developments in
sculpture during that period. Refer to specific characteristics of both
works to support your answer. 10 mins
• Identify the culture in which the manuscript page was made. How is the
manuscript page characteristic of its culture? 5mins
• Identify the photographer. How did the photographer’s work
influence painting? 10 mins
• An aerial view of a monumental work is shown.
• Identify the artist. What artistic concerns motivate the creation of
earthworks such as the one shown? 10 mins
Analyze how the Roman temple is similar to and different
from a Greek temple. 5 mins
Both of these paintings were made by the same artist.
Identify the artist. Citing specific details from the paintings, analyze
how the artist used satire to comment on class and taste in the
society of the time. 10 mins
• Thomas Cole painted the work shown.
• Identify the art historical school with which Cole was associated.
Discuss how this painting embodies the political, social, or
philosophical ideas of its time. 10 mins
• The following statement, made by Mary Cassatt in 1904, refers to her
1879 collaboration with the artistic group with which she is most
closely associated.
• “Our . . . exhibition . . . Was a protest against official exhibitions and
not a grouping of artists with the same tendencies . . . “
• To which group of artist’s does Cassatt’s remark pertain? Referring to
the work shown and a work by one other artist in this group, defend
her claim that these artists did not have the same stylistic tendencies.
5 mins