Digital Commons Network^™

Dark As Day, Rachel Keady

CMC Senior Theses

“All works, no matter what or by whom painted, are nothing but bagatelles and childish trifles... unless they are made and painted from life, and there can be nothing... better than to follow nature." - Caravaggio

In the fall of 2021, I registered to take “Italian Baroque Art” with Professor Gorse at Pomona College, for the spring of 2022. Professor Faggen, one of my advisors, encouraged this and piqued my interest in the characters of this world. After some casual online research, I was transfixed by one artist in particular: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. How could I not be struck …

Himalayan Murals, Himalayan Buddhist Murals: Styles, Symbolic Themes And Historical Evolution, Jiazhen Zhang

MA Theses

Himalayan Buddhist murals are decorative elements and represent profound artistic expressions laden with relevant cultural and religious values. Disseminated through monasteries and temples of the Himalayan regions, such as Tibet, Bhutan, and Nepal, these murals represent a unique blend of religious art and cultural identity. According to Jackson, mural art was a longterm tradition in these areas, starting from the eleventh Century and being influenced by different schools of Buddhism throughout history. Jing further posits that the tradition of art reflects an active interaction between religious concepts and local art styles, influenced by socio-political transformations and cultural contacts between the …

Create Space–Create Communal Change: An Exploration Of Tactics Used By Augusta Savage And Theaster Gates, Ardel'paschal P. Sampson

Senior Projects Spring 2023

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Why Have There Been No Rich Women Artists? Examining The Gender Price Discount In The Contemporary Auction Market For Early Twentieth Century Mexican Avant-Garde Art, Lucy P. Bloomstran

Scripps Senior Theses

This paper examines the gender price discount for early twentieth-century Mexican avant-garde art in the contemporary auction market. A premium for art by men is established through the econometric analysis of a dataset of auction transactions taking place at major American and Mexican auction houses between 2000 and 2022. After this price discount for women’s art is established, a deep delve into gender discrimination in the creation and exhibition of Mexican Muralism and Surrealism is presented to provide possible art historical explanations for the results of the regression analysis.

Keith Haring And Jean-Michel Basquiat: Visionaries Of The Legendary Art Movement Of The Eighties In Downtown, New York City, Ritu Cipy

MA Theses

The 1980s in New York Downtown culture was about rebellion. A vibrant community of young artists had occupied Lower Manhattan; interested in various art forms like painting, music, dance and theatre. The community thrived in an area largely ignored by Ronald Reagan’s presidency. It was an explosion of creativity that has had reverberations ever since. Jean-Michel Basquiat’s and Keith Haring’s art grew out of that zeitgeist. Their art was an uprising against a world that did not support their talent. Their need to enforce a social change prompted them into
using their work as a call to action. Their illegal …

The Dance Of Domesticity: How Gender Constructs Obscure Lived Experience At Museums, Marcy J. Botwick

Museum Studies Theses

My thesis focuses on Mary Shepard Greene Blumenschein and Ernest L. Blumenschein, married artists born in the late 1860s. Ernest Blumenschein was an important regional artist and member of the Taos Society of Artists (TSA). Paintings by Blumenschein and other TSA members promoted tourism in the Southwestern United States through annual exhibitions and their use in advertising the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway (AT&SF). Mary Greene Blumenschein was an award-winning painter and illustrator whose work focused on images of women at the beginning of the twentieth century, however, she is now a secondary and obscure figure in art history. …

Introverse Arrangements: Rediscovering The Typewritings Of Ruth Wolf-Rehfeldt, Savannah M. Champion

Masters Theses

This thesis aims to understand Wolf-Rehfeldt’s place in the unofficial art world of the GDR by examining her work in light of her status as a clerical worker with social rather than professional ties to the art world. She stands out within the East German Mail Art context, not just for her inventive use of a typewriter to create abstract figurations, but for the way she used it to interject considerations of gender and power into a network of artists overwhelmingly dominated by men with her open-ended Typewritings.”

Through historical research and close readings of her work, this study uncovers …

Off The Press: Exploring Reproducible War Art, Emily Rose Hankins

Theses and Dissertations

Aspects of modernity, such as the news cycle and ever-changing technologies, have played large roles in the construction of the history of wars through the power of reproducible war art imagery as seen in various public spheres and contexts. These include engravings and photographs of the war in news publications, propaganda posters promoting patriotism, protest posters pleading for peace, and prints and books made by artists for display in galleries. The inundation of these images become ubiquitous with the conflict, and the artists who have a hand in creating these images also have the power to construct and reconstruct histories, …

Goddess Of France, 1745-1764: Madame De Pompadour And The Rococo Traditions Of 18th-Century French Portraiture, Meredith Glasco

Student Research Submissions

The reign of Louis XV of France was spectacular in its advancement of the Late Rococo period due to the patronage of Madame de Pompadour, his head mistress from 1745-1764. Her upbringing as an educated woman in court would influence trends of Late Rococo that she would use to embellish her own public image. I seek to identify and explain the different elements of her court portraits and mythological portraits as a way to examine her roles as patron and mistress. Six portraits, three from each category of court and mythological, will be used as specific examples and to provide …

Revealing The Black Form: Black Bodies In Nineteenth-Century French Orientalist Visual Art, Nathanael Amir Justin Lapierre

Honors Undergraduate Theses

In the nineteenth century, Orientalism functioned as a Western tool for dominating and restructuring the perception of the Orient. In France, where Orientalism found favor amongst artists, Orientalist works were produced in the literary and visual arts to inform and control the narrative about the East. Influenced by the Napoleonic imperial conquests and an increased French presence in the East, Orientalism became an integral movement in the French visual arts. The relationship between France and the Orient was one of power and domination, which was mirrored in that between the French and the Blacks.

As a part of the Western …

Evocation, William Robert Gary

Senior Projects Spring 2022

Evocation

When I began my time at Bard College, I was already deeply interested in children’s Art. The ideas supporting my senior project reach all the way back towards the end of my Freshman year. The last few years have consisted of practicing, preparing and researching for what would become my thesis. Evocation encompasses a large body of paintings, prints and sculptures inspired in part by my own childhood artwork. After discovering a box of nearly five hundred drawings from my childhood during the summer of 2021, I have sought to infuse my interest in the expressive and symbolic tendencies …

Women In Post-War Japan: Bodies Of The Avant Garde, Cassidy P. Boulanger

Honors Undergraduate Theses

From 1945 onward, post-war artists in Japan encountered two interrelated challenges: to both adjust to the war’s aftermath, and also to create a new visual language which expressed new ideas and emotions. For women artists in Japan, this time of distinct culture change allowed for a re-defining of their role in the art community as well as society. However, there were strict boundaries surrounding the institutional and academic realm of art, one that was not inviting to women, or one that allowed opportunity or growth. Nevertheless, many women artists sought to explore gender roles, the idea of womanhood, sexuality, and …

An Interdisciplinary Study Of An Aesthetic Particularism: The ‘Split Representation In The Art Of Asia And America’, Benjamin Pothier

School of Art, Design and Architecture Theses

An interdisciplinary study of an aesthetic particularism: the ‘Split representation in the Art of Asia and America’. This thesis consists of an interdisciplinary research on an aesthetic particularism mentioned by anthropologist Claude Levi-Strauss as “The split representation in the Art of Asia and America” in his 1944 eponymous essay. Most researchers include in this group the Ainu and Jōmon People from Japan, tribes from the Amur Basin, Haida people from the Northern West Coast, Ancient China (Yangshao and Shang Dynasty), Māori People from New Zealand and Kadiweu people from Brazil. I conducted this inquiry through an online study of academic …

Cultural Connection: The Value Of Art History In Early Childhood Development And Education, Sara Ashley Turner

Theses

This thesis focuses on the utilization of art historical inquiry to improve the relationship and narrative of culture within appropriate settings. Although this thesis will prove the beneficial and important role that the subject matter of art history can have in early education, the subject matter will also show the specific possibilities of using such inquiries in art therapy, museum education, and in general education classrooms. The aim of the thesis is to present these practical and useful employments of art historical inquiry, within subject matter for young children, to be a tool for finding cultural identity and inclusivity in …

Re-Creating Judith Beheading Holofernes, Originally Painted By Artemisia Gentileschi, In A Real-Time Rendering System, Elizabeth A. Schlesener

All Theses

Artemisia Gentileschi is one of the most renowned female artists of her time, best known for her Baroque style paintings of religious narratives.Judith Beheading Holofernes, originally painted by Gentileschi in 1620-21, now hangs permanently in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy, the birthplace of the Renaissance. Many Renaissance artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, were dedicated to the arts and sciences. For the first time, artists used scientific techniques to replicate real life accurately, including knowledge of linear perspective and human anatomy. As pointed out in the Hockney-Falco thesis, artists used new inventions like the camera-obscura …

The Life And Times Of The Berlin Secession Podcast, Chris Kitamura

Theses

This project is a podcast series with five of episodes titled “The Life and Times of the Berlin Secession”. By research and design, the podcast can be used as supplemental material to modern art discussions in art history classes, as well as be entertaining to the public audience. This series presents information and education on how the Berlin Secession helped bridge between earlier genres of German art to the modern art of the Expressionists. It discusses the value of specific artists – Max Liebermann, Käthe Kollwitz, and Max Beckmann – within the Berlin Secession and to the greater history of …

Écorché Figures In Mannerism As Influenced By The Reemergence Of Systematic Human Dissection, Megan Tanner

Honors College Theses

During the sixteenth century, many individuals became fascinated by the human form, which led to an increase in artistic and scientific focus on these subjects. Artistic interest in the human body resulted in a close relationship between artists and anatomists during the time, and the societal acceptance to public demonstrations of dissections, including flaying, was often converged with Mannerist ideals. It is historically evident that écorché figures during Mannerism were based on these, as well as torture methods during the time. As these demonstrations became more common throughout the sixteenth century, they began to be monitored in order to ensure …

The Intersection Of Art History And Graphic Design, Caitlin Anessa Childers

Honors Theses

A study of Graphic Design provides an excellent opportunity to work in an interdisciplinary field, particularly when paired with a degree in Art History. Over the course of my time at Coastal I have had a challenging time trying to unite the two parts of my degree, as well as finding a project that best suits my style of design. Both parts have inspired the other, but only now has the project been entirely focused on uniting the two. In considering my capstone I decided to create an art museum exhibition for a graphic designer.

Absurdity Is A Distinct Aesthetic Category, Sarah Jean Szopinski

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Absurdity is the sudden discomfort caused by direct awareness of your being consciousand your relation to reality. Camus’ absurdist philosophy refers to the conflict between the human desire for inherent meaning in reality and the incomprehensible and irrational nature of the universe. Facing absurdity requires confronting the absurd feeling through introspective awareness of this tension. Otherwise, you are overcome by it, succumbing to a lack of mindfulness and avoidance of the confrontation. Absurdity, especially in its aesthetic dimension, has not received the sustained attention it deserves. In this paper, I argue that due to the sustained relevance of the absurd …

Philip Guston’S Absurd And The Sisyphean Affirmation In The Battle For Existentialism, Jason Blacklock

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Abstract Philip Guston’s Absurd and the Sisyphean Affirmation of the Battle for Existentialism – By Jason Blacklock This dissertation offers an Existentialist interpretation of the life and work of Philip Guston. Discourse regarding avant-garde New York School artists and their knowledge and manipulation of Existentialism has an illustrious rollcall. Dore Ashton and Harold Rosenberg, amongst others have added their powers of exegesis to contemporary work by Mark Rothko, Jackson Pollock, and Willem de Kooning. Amongst this canon of America’s great twentieth century Abstract-Expressionists Philip Guston’s work is often noted, but rarely aligned fully with Existentialist and particularly Absurdist values. I …

Painting Politics: The Anarchist Art And Lives Of Camille Pissarro And Barnett Newman, Johan Marby

Theses and Dissertations

The times in and around the Paris Commune and the Depression followed by Second World War in the United States were instances in history that greatly influenced artists’ output. This thesis investigates how anarchist thought and activities during these periods, respectively, affected the œuvres of Camille Pissarro and Barnett Newman.

Gut Feeling, Shelby Fleming

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Through curated space and abstracted sculptures that reference the viewer’s body, Gut Feeling, acknowledges the viewer’s experience as the focal point of the exhibition. I designed the whole gallery as an art object using both positive and negative space. The sculptures act as one unified system that guides the viewer through the exhibition in a counterclockwise rotation inward. The viewer follows the forms as they puncture through the walls of the gallery, while considering their own body’s relationship to the forms being seen. The viewer directly engages with the scale of the forms, sculptural placement, and sensory experience; these elements …

Some Way In Between, Noah D. Stitt

Theses and Dissertations

Merging the subjective and objective through paintings and small objects, my work uses humor, subtlety, and suspension to create specifically ambiguous images that encourage a narrative reading.

Talent Against Tradition: The Art And Life Of Kate Freeman Clark, Grace Moorman

Honors Theses

This paper explores the art of Holly Springs, Mississippi, painter Kate Freeman Clark, especially in association with the work of her teacher William Merritt Chase. Much of this paper is based on two extensive biographies: Cynthia Grant Tucker’s Kate Freeman Clark: A Painter Rediscovered, and Carolyn J. Brown’s The Artist’s Sketch: A Biography of Painter Kate Freeman Clark. Using a number of object studies, this paper explores the development of Clark’s work under the tutelage of Chase, highlighting similarities and differences that lead to the conclusion that Clark had a very real talent that she seemed reluctant to …

Embedded: The Bed As An Art Object, Maya Annika Teich

Senior Projects Spring 2020

Senior Project submitted to The Division of Arts of Bard College.

Imagining And Remembering The Soldier At The Imperial War Museum (1980-1995), Jayne Buchanan

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

This research addresses the contemporary representation of the soldier in art by focusing on the work commissioned by the Imperial War Museum (IWM) over the period 1980-1995, which includes Linda Kitson (b. 1945), for the Falklands War in 1982, John Keane (b.1954) in the Gulf War in 1991, and Peter Howson's (b. 1958) work in Bosnia between 1992–1994. From a foundation of existing academic research on the representation of the soldier in art, which has informed a framework of investigation into imagery of the soldier as hero, as masculine ideal and as a symbol of nationalism, I examine how the …

Bodycloth In Performance Art, Natalie Raven

Other Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Business Theses

Bodycloth is a term coined to describe a third entity which emerges when the boundaries between body and cloth (as separate elements) collapse. This artistic research thesis analyses a variety of inter-relations between body and cloth, as well as various modes of adornment and utilisations in order to understand the performance, experience, and presence of bodycloth in performance art. Drawing upon a wide range of contemporary and historical examples of textiles represented in relation to the body in art history – including as sculpture, painting, dance, tableau vivant and performance art – the main method of this research investigation is …

The Making Of Cleveland’S Artist: The Aesthetic And Cultural Politics Of Boundary Crossing In The Industrial Landscape Paintings Of Carl Gaertner, 1923 - 1952, April N. Johnston

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

ABSTRACT

The Making of Cleveland’s Artist: The Aesthetic and Cultural Politics of Boundary Crossing in the Industrial Landscape Paintings of Carl Gaertner, 1923 – 1952

by

April Johnston

Master of Arts in American Culture Studies

Washington University in St. Louis, 2019

Dr. Iver Bernstein, adviser

In 1923 Carl Gaertner captivated jurors at the Cleveland Museum of Art’s annual competitive May Show with a painting of a local bolt factory titled Up the River at Upson’s. What made the painting so arresting was its rendering of the elements of factory, nature, and the human spaces that mediated between them, as …

Ballet De La Nuit: Staging The Absolute Monarchy Of Louis Xiv, Sarah Curtis Lysgaard

Master's Theses

This thesis researches the ballet de cour spectacles of the seventeenth century French court, with a careful examination of the political and social importance of such spectacles in anticipation of reconstructing Louis XIV’s Ballet de la Nuit (Ballet of the Night), originally performed February 23, 1653 at the Louvre’s Salle de Petit Bourbon. This ballet de cour was a visual spectacle that combined music, dance, poetry, and allegory with elaborate staging and costumes. Such spectacles were first produced in France during the sixteenth century and involved the royal court not only as spectators but also as performers. The Ballet de …

The Impact Of Patronage On Contemporary Visual Arts, Emily Coats

Honors College Theses

Patronage is vital to the art world and the success and notoriety of its artists. From straightforward patronage during the Renaissance of the Medici Family, the independent artists of modernism, to contemporary crowdfunding, it is important to note the changes in the art world throughout history to truly understand how artists and patrons have grown and continue to evolve in our contemporary society. Considering how patronage has changed and adapted throughout history and understanding the influence it has, not only allows a deeper understanding of the art world but also the world’s culture.