The document discusses how artists like Van Gogh and Edvard Munch expressed their psychological disorders through their artworks. Students are asked to choose either Van Gogh's "The Starry Night" or Munch's "The Scream" and analyze how the painting depicts the artist's anxiety or depression through a 300-400 word essay. The essay should first describe what is seen in the painting using spatial order, then explain how the central idea relates to the artist's psychological state.

1. Describe a Work of Art:
In class, we talked about how anxiety, depression and other
psychological disorders manifest themselves in the works of
talented and famous artists like Van Gogh, who suffered from a
by-polar disorder, and Edvard Munch, who had symptoms of
anxiety and depression in real life.
Choose a work of art that you know and like whose central idea,
image, or color palette reflect sorrow, despair, or a depressed
state of the artist who created that painting.
You can talk about the works that we discussed in class: “The
Starry Night” by Van Gogh or “The Scream” by Edvard
Munch.
Choose
one
of the works and reflect on it in an essay of 300-400 words:
what do you see depicted in the painting, what attracts you to it,
what is its central idea or message, how does the anxiety of the
artist manifest itself in the painting?
First, describe what you see on the painting using a spatial
order. When describing a painting, you can move from left to
right, from back to front, or from top to bottom. For example,
you can start by describing the central and most important
image or you can start with the background and move towards
the forefront of the painting.
Second, explain how you understand the work of art and its
central idea, why it appeals to you, etc.