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2005

Virginia Commonwealth University

Arts and Humanities

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Menorah Review (No. 63, Summer/Fall, 2005) Jan 2005

Menorah Review (No. 63, Summer/Fall, 2005)

Menorah Review

Affirming Life -- Anti-Semitism, The Holocaust and Christianity -- Beginnings Departures Endings -- Christians and Israel -- Judaism and Superstitions -- Noteworthy Books

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The Photographer's Wife: Emmet Gowin's Photographs Of Edith, Mikell Waters Brown Jan 2005

The Photographer's Wife: Emmet Gowin's Photographs Of Edith, Mikell Waters Brown

Theses and Dissertations

Exemplified in the oeuvres of photographers Alfred Stieglitz, Harry Callahan, Lee Friedlander, and Emmet Gowin, the photographer's wife is a distinctive subject in twentieth-century American fine-art photography that fuses the domains of public and private life through the conflation of art and marriage. The transgressive nature of this juncture can be located in a confluence of gazes - the artist's, the subject's, and the viewer's - that are embroiled in constructing subjectivities. The phrase "photographer's wife" underscores an assumed imbalance of power reflecting a binary of active/passive, artist/model, and husband/wife. It is this study's contention that the complexity of the …

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From Typologies To Portraits: Catherine Opie's Photographic Manipulations Of Physiognomic Imagery, Jennifer T. Bridges Jan 2005

From Typologies To Portraits: Catherine Opie's Photographic Manipulations Of Physiognomic Imagery, Jennifer T. Bridges

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis proposes that California contemporary photographer Catherine Opie's Being and Having series (1991) and her Portrait series (1993-1996) parody the constraining binary gender discourse and stereotypes that emanate from it. In her art Opie uses familiar codes and identity discourses associated with traditional portrait photography and typological photographs to promote a postmodern and fluid model of gender identity. Her manipulation of photographic technique and subject matter validates cultural stereotypes of gender at the same time that it destabilizes them. Opie also simultaneously highlights fallacies such as the presumed objectivity and evidential force that is associated with the discourse of …

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If Chivalry Is Dead, Women Have Killed It, Nicole Heimbach Jan 2005

If Chivalry Is Dead, Women Have Killed It, Nicole Heimbach

Theses and Dissertations

I am interested in the dual meaning of pattern. Pattern is a design format used for decoration. By introducing certain images into patterns, they have the ability to give meaning or messages. The repetition of a certain image emphasizes importance to a particular idea or issue. I embroider pattern designs onto pre-manufactured clothing pattern pieces as a response to things in society that I find absurd. This body of work focuses on female iconography. The delicate nature of these materials lends themselves to feminine associations. Embroidery, which is stereotypically associated with women's work, is used to play on these clichés.Patterns …

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Thalhimers Department Store: Story, History, And Theory, Elizabeth Thalhimer Smartt Jan 2005

Thalhimers Department Store: Story, History, And Theory, Elizabeth Thalhimer Smartt

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis looks at Thalhimers department store through the lenses of story, history, and theory. It first introduces the intertwining narratives of the author's paternal family and the store's history, then shares the author's personal story of Thalhimers. The second half outlines the master narrative of the American department store then applies "fantasy-theme analysis" and the symbolic convergence theory to stories and artifacts related to Thalhimers. A conclusion discusses the end of the department store era including a deeply personal goodbye from the author.

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Paragon/Paragone: Raphael's Portrait Of Baldassare Castiglione (1514-16) In The Context Of Il Cortegiano, Margaret Ann Southwick Jan 2005

Paragon/Paragone: Raphael's Portrait Of Baldassare Castiglione (1514-16) In The Context Of Il Cortegiano, Margaret Ann Southwick

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis argues that Raphael's portrait, Baldassare Castiglione, is three portraits in one: 1) a "speaking likeness" of the subject, 2) a portrait of the "perfect" courtier, and 3) a "shadow" portrait of the Court of Urbino in the early sixteenth century. The formal analysis of the painting is presented in the context of the paragone of word and image expounded by its subject in his masterpiece, Il Cortegiano. Both author and artist demonstrate the concepts of sprezzatura (an artful artlessness) and grazia (graceful elegance) in the creation of their portraits, as well as avoidance of affetazione (affectation). It is …

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Searching For The Transatlantic Freedom: The Art Of Valerie Maynard, Karen Berisford Getty Jan 2005

Searching For The Transatlantic Freedom: The Art Of Valerie Maynard, Karen Berisford Getty

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis focuses on an African-American female artist, Valerie Maynard, examining how she synthesizes African and American elements in her works. It provides detailed formal and iconographical analyses, revealing concealed meanings and paying special attention to those works with which the artist mirrors the Black experience in the United States and Africa on the other side of the Atlantic. In the process, the thesis sheds new light on the significance of Valerie Maynard's work and how she has used some of them to embody the Black quest for freedom and social justice during the Civil Rights struggle of the 1960s …

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