Discuss how its method of getting to truth compares with the method by which the modern American novel tries to get to its truth.

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. Answer the following question: What are the possibilities and limitations of art as perfect likeness? In what ways is realistic art still less than wholly realistic? Is realisim the most important feature or merely one the features? To what extent can two-dimensional space of the canvas capture three-dimensional psychological reality?

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 tries to get to its truth.  Review “Renaissance Art” and “Art as Alteration”; “The Modern American Novel”