Art-as-likeness

Instructions: Aaron Douglas’s style “is the result of a deep-rooted belief that in trying to imitate the actual world,
art-as-likeness was really falsifying the way we see that world.” Although all art is a form of imitation—whether
of the actual or the imaginary world—Douglas’s belief highlights the way artists have used conflicting methods
of getting to the “truth” of the world. Choose one image from early “realistic” methods of artistic representation
and one image from later “art of alteration” and analyze the following: What kind of truth does each work try to
achieve? What methods is each artist using to create this kind of truth? How do these methods differ from each
other? Then, focusing on one of the works you analyzed, discuss how its method of getting to truth compares
with the method by which the modern American novel (discussed in chapter 4) tries to get to its truth. Review
“Renaissance Art” and “Art as Alteration” (chapter 5); “The Modern American Novel” (chapter 4).