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Full-Text Articles in Arts and Humanities
Stephen Antonakos: The Spiritual Tenets Of Neon, Seville Partida
Stephen Antonakos: The Spiritual Tenets Of Neon, Seville Partida
Undergraduate Research Symposium
Working without paint or brushes, Stephen Antonakos (1926—2013) created murals of neon light. These sweeping gestures of buzzing color achieve a meditative and spiritual quality yet remain accessible in their communal and urban settings. Douglas Crimp's 1981 essay, “The End of Painting '' argues that the most promising art of the time mounts a thorough critique on the myths of humanism, and consequently the cherished tropes of expressive painting. Antonakos’s career spans this period of upheaval, fraught by fears over the looming death of modernist painting as well as critical and curatorial activity that interrogated art’s structures. Although Antonakos seems …
Criticism Through Interpretation: Jules Olitski, Brooke E. Benham
Criticism Through Interpretation: Jules Olitski, Brooke E. Benham
Undergraduate Research Symposium
Modernist art critics tend to focus solely on formal elements. Clement Greenberg’s descriptive approach on the medium and Jerry Saltz’s off-the-cuff judgements fail to utilize the relevant insight that can be collected through cognizant interpretation. Susan Sontag attempts to justify the medium-specific approach by arguing that the merit of a work of art is independent of any interpretation. However, an interpretation based on historical and cultural connections can produce valuable insights about the form itself. A research-based analysis of Kristina Type 3 (1976) by the late-modernist painter Jules Olitski will show that criticism can serve viewers best through knowledgeable interpretation. …
The Problem Of Originality In The Work Of Sarah Lucas, Chelsey Burch
The Problem Of Originality In The Work Of Sarah Lucas, Chelsey Burch
Undergraduate Research Symposium
Sarah Lucas is a contemporary British artist known for satirical and often crudely sexual assemblages and photographs. Although she is often celebrated for this brazen imagery, this essay investigates the stark contradictions found between her statements and her work, particularly in contrasting her claims of originality with her similarities to the work of such artists as Louise Bourgeois and Marcel Duchamp. Through analyzing interviews and comparing her work with that of other famous artists throughout modern history, it posits that her strategy entails the purposeful imitation of a variety of inconsistent styles. Her work questions the idea of originality itself …