4.8: Art of Social Conscience
1. Théodore Géricault’s painting Raft of the Medusa depicts:
a. the results of a shipwreck off the coast of West Africa
b. the mythological monster Medusa destroying ships
c. French people relaxing on the Riviera
d. a boat race across the English Channel
e. none of the other answers
2. Amidst the death and despair in Théodore Géricault’s Raft of the Medusa, the artist imbued his
figures with a sense of nobility.
3. Which of the following did Géricault do to prepare for the making of Raft of the Medusa?
a. interviewed survivors d. all of the other answers
b. built a replica of the raft e. none of the other answers
c. studied corpses
4. Write an essay on Théodore Gericault’s Raft of the Medusa (4.8.1) in which you discuss why it
was made and the research done by the artist in preparation to undertake this work. Discuss the
composition of the artwork in detail. What aspects of the artwork do you consider Romantic and
which aspects are Neoclassical?
5. French artist JR’s Women are Heroes shows:
a. the faces of poor women in Rio de Janeiro.
b. portraits of firefighters, soldiers, and other heroic women in uniform
c. mothers from around the world
d. famous Brazilian movie stars who came from nothing
e. all of the other answers
6. In Women are Heroes, artist JR displays portraits of women on:
a. New York City billboards d. museum walls
b. homes and buildings e. none of the other answers
c. movie screens
7. What happened to the woman featured in Migrant Mother after Dorothea Lange photographed her?
a. the government fed her and her family for several months
b. she was paid royalties for the famous photograph
c. she was ashamed of the photograph
d. she and the photographer became good friends
e. none of the other answers
8. The identity of Dorothea Lange’s migrant mother has never been discovered.
9. What medium is Kehinde Wiley’s Portrait Bust of Cardinal Richelieu?
a. painting d. fiber art
b. sculpture e. none of the other answers
c. photography
10. In Portrait Bust of Cardinal Richelieu, Kehinde Wiley recasts a famous portrait bust from art
history as a dark-skinned man.
11. Chris Jordan’s Gyre refers to:
a. Hokusai’s “The Great Wave off Shore at Kanagawa”
b. a Pacific whirlpool
c. trash created by humans
d. all of the other answers
e. none of the other answers
12. Chris Jordan used 2.4 million pieces of plastic in his artwork Gyre. These represent the number of:
a. women living in poverty in Brazil
b. pounds of plastic trash that enters the world’s oceans every hour
c. followers the artist has on Twitter
d. people that helped him create the artwork
e. toothbrushes used and thrown away every year by the US
13. Mary Richardson, the attacker of the Rokeby Venus in 1914, compared the physical beauty of the
woman in the painting to the beautiful character of:
a. Rosa Parks
b. Marie Antoinette
c. the director of the National Gallery in London
d. Emmeline Pankhurst
e. Florence Nightingale
14. Mary Richardson, the attacker of the Rokeby Venus in 1914, did so because:
a. she wanted more rights for women
b. she thought the painting was ugly
c. she hated the National Gallery in London
d. she was a performance artist and it was part of her piece
e. she was protesting about war
15. The artist of the sculpture Falling Woman is:
a. Diego Velázquez d. Eric Fischl
b. an unknown ancient sculptor e. Jacques-Louis David
c. Terry George
16. Critics of the sculpture Falling Woman said that it was irrelevant to the terror attacks of September
11, 2001, and did not capture any of the pain and emotion of that day.
17. What is true about Emil Nolde?
a. he was a member of the Nazi party
b. he painted in watercolor
c. his painting Crucifixion was considered by the Nazis to be “degenerate”
d. all of the other answers
e. none of the other answers
18. Emil Nolde’s Crucifixion was admired by Adolf Hitler.
19. Write an essay considering why Adolf Hitler and the Nazis might have found Emil Nolde’s
Crucifixion so abominable. What does it say about the power of art that some people find it
necessary to destroy artworks? Explain what you think was the goal of the Degenerate art
Exhibition.
Match the artwork with its reception:
a. was covered up for its shocking reality
b. was attacked for its ideal beauty
c. was mocked by the Nazis
d. raised awareness of the severity of the Great Depression
20. Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus
21. Fischl’s Falling Woman
22. Lange’s Migrant Mother
23. Nolde’s Crucifixion
Match the artwork with the issue or incident to which it refers:
a. the Great Depression
b. racism
c. the imprisonment of a suffragette leader
d. environmentalism
e. the terror attacks of September 11, 2001
24. Jordan’s Gyre
25. Lange’s Migrant Mother
26. Wiley’s Portrait Bust of Cardinal Richelieu
27. Fischl’s Falling Woman
28. Velázquez’s Rokeby Venus