History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

Between Myth And Memory: The Case Of Italian Fascist World War I Monuments, Grant Gregory Topjon

Theses - ALL

“Between Myth and Memory: The Case of Italian Fascist World War I Monuments” examines the relationship between Italian soldiers’ testimonies from the First World War and later Italian Fascist monuments that commemorated their sacrifices. During the First World War, soldiers’ diaries and letters home expressed feelings of abandonment, dehumanization, and a lack of patriotic enthusiasm for the war effort. Combined with the Supreme Command’s widespread use of summary executions, the mass desertion at the Battle of Caporetto, and the Italian government’s complete abandonment of its prisoners of war, the First World War was a tragic experience for many. By contrast, …

Joseph Ducreux And The Physiognomical Millieu, Josiah Phelps

LSU Master's Theses

Joseph Ducreux was an eighteenth-century artist from Nancy, France, whose grimacing self-portraits made their way into to the Parisian Salons during the age of the French Revolution. His self-portraits showcased himself in a state of yawning, state of laughing, state of self-confidence, and state of fear. This series is believed to derive from his study of physiognomy and his knowledge of physiognomical studies by such Enlightenment scholars as Johann Kasper Lavater. It will contextualize Ducreux’s his oeuvre of self-portraits and his commercial portraits including those previously executed for the French court, with the influence of the pseudo-science of physiognomy. The …

The Significance Of Christian Iconography In Communist Mexican Muralism Of Diego Rivera, Rachel Renee Amaro

University Honors Theses

This study compares two of Rivera's fresco mural paintings; Liberation of the Peon (1923) at the Secretaria de Educación Publica building in Mexico City, Mexico and Agrarian Leader Zapata (1930) located at Palacio de Cortés in Cuernavaca, Mexico to two Renaissance Christian paintings to highlight the similar use of Christian iconography. This analysis argues that although groundbreaking in style, Rivera's art relied heavily on Christian iconography that not only came from his own background of knowledge, but also enabled him to speak to the people of Mexica in a time when they relied heavily on his art to tell the …

A Tale Of Two Biennales: How Contemporary Art In Italy Reflects Current European Politics, Hannah Rosabel Capucilli-Shatan

CISLA Senior Integrative Projects

No abstract provided.

Miming Modernity: Representations Of Pierrot In Fin-De-Siècle France, Ana Norman

Art History Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the commedia dell’arte character Pierrot through the lens of gender performance in order to decipher the ways in which he complicates and expands understandings of gender and the normative model of sexuality in fin de siècle France. Beginning with a case study of a chromolithograph by Jules Chéret, the first chapter of this thesis traces the perceived relation between Pierrot and the bohemian artist, and the underlying tensions between the male dominated artistic sphere and increasingly emancipated women. In contrast, Chapter II complicates the dominant impression of Pierrot’s association with the artists of bohemian Montmartre, and instead …

The Adobe Frontier, Christopher J. Gauthier

Theses and Dissertations

The Adobe Frontier is a documentary film about Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello—together known as “Studio Rael San Fratello” —and their work connecting contemporary technology with the legacy of pottery making and adobe architecture in the Southwest United States.

Site Catchment Analysis Of The Middleborough Little League Site, Christine Leigh Paquette

Honors Program Theses and Projects

The Middleborough Little League Site in Middleborough, MA has undergone all phases of archaeological investigation, yielding nearly 70,000 artifacts and debitage that enhance our knowledge and understanding of the pre-historic past. This site is unique for its amount of ceremonial objects recovered, more than any other site in southeastern Massachusetts. Many artifacts of this site’s assemblage are made from lithic materials not available within the local catchment area – defined by a 15km radius from the site’s location. These factors beg the question of how this site fits into the context of others within the region. This project analyzes this …

Art And Empathy: Self Discovery In A Dark Forest, Younser Lee

Graduate School of Art Theses

According to the National Institute of Mental Health, 40 million people report feelings of depression, anxiety, and stress as the world moves at an increasingly rapid pace and faces unprecedented challenges. However, many ignore these negative thoughts and fail to acknowledge them as a serious issue. My art, which shares my own experiences, creates safe, cathartic places for viewers to think about their own emotional experiences. Crucial to this process is my use of daily objects and the creation of individualized, participatory, and multisensory experiences.

My art relates to daily life and the negative emotions that we experience daily. I …

67 | Jerusalem: Western Wall Plaza Excavations Volume Iii The Roman And Byzantine Periods: Small Finds From The Roman Refuse Dump And Other Contexts, Shlomit Weksler-Bdolah, Alexander Onn

IAA Reports—Monograph Series of the Israel Antiquities Authority

This volume is the third in a series describing the results of salvage excavations conducted in the northwestern part of the Western Wall Plaza. This third volume presents the small finds of the Early Roman to Byzantine periods, most of which originated in the ‘Roman refuse dump’, a fill deposited into an abandoned quarry during infrastructure work, and then sealed by the paving stones of the Eastern Cardo. The well-preserved and securely dated finds (70–130 CE) can be clearly attributed to the Roman army. The volume describes the numerous quarries at the site that shaped the surface topography, and the …

Combatting Arts-Led Gentrification: A Case Study Of Slanguage Studio, Julia M. Campbell

Global Tides

This essay examines Slanguage Studio, founded by Karla Diaz and Mario Ybarra Jr. in 2001, as a case study that illuminates how community-based art spaces can resist arts-led gentrification. The processes of arts-initiated gentrification and displacement of lower-income residents of color are demonstrated through explorations of arts districts in the Lower East Side, SoHo, and Boyle Heights. In response to artist Charles Gaines’ claims that art spaces inevitably lead to gentrification, Slanguage Studio offers an alternative in which community needs are prioritized.

Posthumous Painting: On Pigment And Binder, Jameson G. Magrogan

Theses and Dissertations

Modernism brought about a logical culmination of painting, an epoch where logic and reason can no longer attempt to account for or speculate its behavior. This paper considers the perpetuation of painting from an ontological standpoint, documenting its inherent aporia, its relationship to meaning, and its function in contemporary society.

The Understanding Of The Other In Orientalist And Primitivst Art, Jasmine Groves, Jasmine A. Groves

Honors College Theses

In 1978, Edward Said published Orientalism, a seminal book that shed light on one of the “leftovers” of European colonialism. In it, he describes the West’s attempts to exotify and romanticize the non-Western world. While the Near East, the Far East, and East/Southeast Asia are geographic terms that correspond to specific countries and cultures, the “Orient” is a Euro-American fantasy that only exists to contradict the West. The term is intentionally vague in order to satisfy any and all exotic desires that a consumer may have.

A great deal of European and American artists found inspiration in the exotic …

Stripped And Exploited Blackness: Black Nude Men In The Art Of F. Holland Day And John Singer Sargent, David P. Saiz

Art & Art History ETDs

Black representation in late-nineteenth to early-twentieth-century U.S. art and visual culture is primarily dominated by racist depictions produced by white elite (usually male) artists. Exploiting Black male nude subjects in their art production, F. Holland Day and John Singer Sargent are inextricably tied to this complicated legacy. For Day, his African series featuring U.S.-born model, J.R. Carter, extracts the subject from his time and place to present him as an exotic African subject/object. On the other hand, Sargent encounters Black Bahamian laborers at Miami’s Villa Vizcaya where he then documents his subjects in watercolor as bathers in the surrounding subtropical …

Art And Environmental Racism In The United States: Through The Works Of Latoya Ruby Frazier, Pope.L, And Mel Chin, Veronika Anna Molnár

Theses and Dissertations

Through the works of LaToya Ruby Frazier, Pope.L, and Mel Chin, this thesis examines the ways in which artists address environmental racism in the United States. Focusing on three locations with majority Black populations and significant toxic hazards, this paper demonstrates artists’ agency to alleviate crises caused by environmental injustice.

A Sculpir Qui Cose Divine: The Spiritual Non-Finito In Michelangelo's Pietà, Kaitlin Arbusto

Theses and Dissertations

The evolution of Michelangelo Buonarroti’s faith – rooted in his contemplation of salvation and his own mortality in art and the written word – is explored in this thesis via an investigation of his four surviving Pietà. Each of these artworks, like the nature of his spirituality, is considered in relation to the non-finito.

The Female Body In The Works Of Débora Arango And Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo: Colombian Modernism, Religion, And Politics, 1930s-1950s, Gina M. Vásquez

Theses and Dissertations

In 1930s-1950s Colombia, the social position of women was highly politicized by the government and Catholic church. This thesis investigates how Débora Arango and Ignacio Gómez Jaramillo painted the female body at this time, exploring themes of the nude, modernity, and violence in an era of political and religious animosity.

Power Dressing: Feather Fans And The Visual Language Of Female Portraiture, Charlotte Svetkey

Theses and Dissertations

Feather fans in sixteenth-century portraiture not only allowed the female sitter to express her own claims to wealth, status, and power but also acted as a visual indicator of changes that were occurring on the global stage. Both fans and sitters will be evaluated through ideas of gender and class.

Pepón Osorio And Merián Soto: Multidisciplinary Collaborations, From 1985 To 1995, Zuna Maza

Theses and Dissertations

This paper assesses Pepón Osorio and Merián Soto’s collaborative multidisciplinary works created from 1985 to 1995. Underdiscussed in their individual scholarships, these joint works are reexamined through their collaborative approach, multidisciplinary framework, and their thematic explorations of the nuances of culturally specific subject matter.

Yankee Go Home: Roci In Latin America, Vitoria Hadba

Theses and Dissertations

In 1984, at an event hosted by the United Nations, American artist Robert Rauschenberg announced his most ambitious and controversial project to date: the Rauschenberg Overseas Culture Interchange—or ROCI. Blending primary source documents with social art history, I retrace the artist’s steps—and missteps—during the first leg of his tour through Mexico, Chile, and Venezuela. This thesis investigates the convoluted political implications of ROCI in Latin America during the transitional period in which binary Cold War politics were ebbing amidst the rise of a global free-market economy.

Matson Jones, Jasper Johns, And Robert Rauschenberg: Breaking The Boundaries Of Advertising And Art, Ximena Santiago

Theses and Dissertations

Matson Jones, formed by Robert Rauschenberg and Jasper Johns, has scarcely been the focus of art historical scholarship. This thesis examines works created for New York City department store window displays, revealing that the Matson Jones collaborations were rooted in intersubjectivity and challenge historical hierarchies of high and low art.