Final Exam Prompt Written Below – For art history class
SOURCES TO BE USED ATTACHED, PROMPT BELOW
Students are expected to prepare a thoughtful and considered discussion of the major theoretical, historical, cultural, and aesthetic issues raised in class and in the readings and refer to specific works of art. The reading component is not to be taken lightly or added in at the last minute. Rather, the readings should be discussed critically as part of your general argument. The essay is worth 30 points and should be 6-8 pages. Endnotes using Chicago Style must be included. A bibliography is not required.
The World’s Columbian Exposition, held in Chicago in 1893, was the highwater mark for American cultural production in the nineteenth century. It looked back to the history of the nation and looked forward to America’s position as a world power—politically and culturally—at the turn of the twentieth century.
Discuss the exhibition as a spectacle in and of itself and with respect to how it evoked long-held assumptions about American ideas, identity, and ideals. Be sure to link the exposition to broad shifts in American culture and artistic production in the post-Civil War era and discuss how it looked forward to what is often called “the last great nineteenth-century world’s fair,” the Panama-Pacific International Exposition, which was held in 1915.
