Arts and Humanities Commons^™

The Cult Of Salomé: Decapitation Imagery And Cultural Anxiety In Belle Époque Europe., Sean C. Hall

Master of Liberal Studies Theses

The Belle Époque in Europe marked a time of great change. Many of the old, yet longstanding traditions were being challenged and modernity really took hold of society at that time. The changes in the social fabric with issues such as the roles of women were common topics of conversation. Women demanded new rights and began to even question the role of masculinity in this new age. This was the emergence of the “New Woman,” and with all of these great changes came great anxiety. This cultural anxiety felt by many was expressed in the arts of the period which …

The Monumental Province: Asia And The Temples Of The Roman Empire, Andrew Findley

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation presents a study of monumental temples built or appropriated by the Romans in the province of Asia from the late 1st to the middle 2nd century AD. The practice of constructing extraordinarily large temples in Asia originated during the Hellenistic period but ceased for several centuries until the Roman Empire took control of the region and began to build monumental temples in the province. This study focuses on five temples that best represent the Roman relationship with monumental temple building in the province of Asia: the Wadi B Temple at Sardis, the Vetters Temple at Ephesus, the Red …

Razing Awareness: The Bethlehem Steel Administration Building, Steve Bukowski

Museum Studies Projects

Razing Awareness: The Bethlehem Steel Administration Building is a practice in the process of coordinating and opening a professional-grade museum exhibit. Hosted by the Steel Plant Museum of Western New York, "Razing Awareness" explored the history and controversial demolition of the Bethlehem Steel Administration Building in Lackawanna, New York. The exhibit featured artwork, photography, and artifacts from the building itself, weaving art and history together to construct a narrative about historic preservation and the establishment of a sense of place.

An Early Christian Reliquary In The Shape Of A Sarcophagus In The University Of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Collection, Anne O'Connor

Theses and Dissertations

This paper seeks to introduce a relatively unknown example of a small fifth or sixth century AD reliquary object in the shape of a sarcophagus now in the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Art Collection. Its material - mostly likely Prokonnesian marble - a highly prized stone in the Roman Empire - speaks to strength, permanence, endurance, and the concept of romanitas. The form, as derived from Roman burial practice, provides apotropaic powers for the viewer and for the holy person whose remains were contained within. Its design also facilitates the offering of votives and veneration, as well as requests for intercessions …

The Morals Of Marc Chagall, Cassie Ann Sacotte

Theses and Dissertations

This exhibition catalog presents a selection of illustrated book suites by Marc Chagall, a twentieth-century European artist. In presenting the print suites Dead Souls, The Fables of La Fontaine, and The Story of the Exodus, this exhibition highlights the subject of morality as defined by the images and experiences of Marc Chagall. The three texts comment overtly on morality in various ways, and Chagall's attitude regarding the morality depicted in these texts displays both personal and historical experiences. The themes and iconography chosen by Chagall for each illustrated book also reflect the experiences of his life. Chagall's intention in depicting …

Elevating The Wood Engraved Landscape: The Work Of Elbridge Kingsley, Elizabeth Anne Siercks

Theses and Dissertations

This is a graduate thesis catalog exploring the work of 19th wood engraver Elbridge Kingsley. Kingsley's contemporary influences are traced using primary sources and visual analysis. Kingsley's stylistic tendencies, in both his original and interpretive engravings, are linked to other 19th century American artists. A brief discussion of the history of wood engraving and its technique are included as it relates to the evolution of Kingsley's style, as evidenced in his published work and his prints for collectors.

An Archaeological And Historical Search For German Ethnicity At The Janis-Ziegler Site ( 23 Sg 272 ), Lisa Marie Dretske

Theses and Dissertations

Ste. Genevieve, Missouri is a small town south of St. Louis, settled by the French and home to the Janis-Ziegler site (23SG272). However, the German Ziegler family along with other German families resided in the town beginning in the early nineteenth century. The Ziegler family used the Janis-Ziegler site as a home and a tobacco shop. Beginning in 2006, archaeological investigations went underway on the Janis-Ziegler site. The purpose of this research is to figure out to what degree the Ziegler family showed their ethnicity while living at the Janis-Ziegler house. The second purpose of the research is to figure …

Identifying With The Help: An Examination Of Class, Ethnicity And Gender On A Post-Colonial French Houselot, Erin Nicole Whitson

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to attempt to analyze and interpret an outbuilding located in Ste. Genevieve, Missouri, a town established by French settlers in the 1780s. First the functional activities associated with the outbuilding will be determined and examined to best understand where and how the structure fit within the larger property. The activities taking place within/outside the outbuilding--especially those linked to domestic chores--will theoretically paint a clearer picture of who was living and/or working within the structure and who was not. Since little work has been done within the French Mississippi River valley on outbuildings in general, …

The Function Of A Middle Woodland Site In The Central Illinois Valley: A Ceramic Study Of Ogden-Fettie, Montana L. Martin

Theses and Dissertations

Ogden-Fettie is a Middle Woodland Havana-Hopewell mound group in the Central Illinois Valley. Fv196 is the midden area near the largest mound. The function of Fv196 was in question, because it does not conform to the settlement and function models that have been applied to other sites. The ceramic collection from Fv196 was typed and categorized into categories based on perceived function, either habitation or ceremonial. The majority of the pottery belonged to the Havana series, which is traditionally considered habitation pottery; however, many of the Havana sherds were decorated indicating a ceremonial function. The highly decorated pots showed the …

Eagerly Patient, Erin Elizabeth

Theses and Dissertations

Are banal and routine experiences in life less important or memory-worthy than celebratory moments that require preparation and planning, the anticipation of which is akin to emotional foreplay? What is the purpose of celebration? Is it empty, bound to disappoint, or is it ritualistic punctuation of the mundane, providing balance for the sublimity of suffering? These questions are addressed in the thesis exhibition, Eagerly Patient. The exhibition includes carriers of celebration such as cake, confetti, banners, and gifts in an attempt to understand the paradoxical hierarchy of experiential value.

Queer(Ing) Politics And Practices: Contemporary Art In Homonationalist Times, Cierra A. Webster

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

This project investigates homonationalism through three different art practices. Briefly, homonationalism is a term to articulate the imbricated systems of contemporary mainstream LGBT politics and nationalist politics. The first article, Queering the Canon: Museum Politics and Hide/Seek at the Smithsonian, unpacks the first major exhibition of gay artwork in America as an example of homonationalist processes in the United States. The second article, entitled Colonial Queeries: Centering a Two-Spirit Critique of Homonationalism, analyses Canadian artist Kent Monkman’s paintings and focuses on the political potential of Miss Chief Eagle Testickle. (Pink)Washing the Conflict in Zero Degrees of Separation is …

Tracking Fish And Human Response To Abrupt Environmental Change At Tse-Whit-Zen: A Large Native American Village On The Olympic Peninsula, Washington State, Kathryn Anne Mohlenhoff

Dissertations and Theses

Evidence of large earthquakes occurring along the Pacific Northwest coast is reflected in coastal stratigraphy from Oregon to British Columbia, where there also exists an extensive archaeological record of Native American occupation. Tse-whit-zen, a large Native American village dating between 1824 and 54 cal B.P. located on the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State, was excavated with exceptionally fine stratigraphic control allowing for precise comparison of natural and cultural records. Here I report on the >10,000 fish remains from one 2x2 m excavation block; this assemblage spans one earthquake event, allowing study of changes in relative taxonomic abundance through time that …

Following The Turn: Mapping As Material Art Practice, Kyla Christine Brown

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

Following the Turn: Mapping As Material Art Practice investigates my artistic practice and MFA research based in London, Ontario. This dossier of research elements includes: an extended artist’s statement, a documentation of artistic practice and development, and a selection of in-process and published exhibition reviews of contemporary artists’ work; in Chapters 1, 2, and 3 respectively. This written document is in part intended to work as a specific accompaniment to my thesis exhibition. In the body of the thesis I propose that a project-based and embodied material art practice can perform mapping of negotiated experiences of the city. Dealing with …

Agency At Hacienda Pancota: Early Colonial Daily Consumption Of A Contested Age And Material Culture, Collin Roderick Gillenwater

Theses and Dissertations

The artifact assemblage of indigenous, imported, and contraband material goods at use in the Izalcos region of western El Salvador's early colonial period were analyzed to determine material agency. The archaeological remains of a specific hacienda and its residents' daily consumption were analyzed spatially and typologically. The resulting data concluded in the interpretation of Hacienda Pancota residents' adapting their lives with remarkable versatility during Spanish occupation. Specialization of place becomes more heavily emphasized with the incorporation of European goods, an important factor defining agency at Hacienda Pancota.

The Relief Of The Unreal Life: Poems, Colleen Robertson Abel

Theses and Dissertations

This collection of poems takes as its subject desire in its various guises. Religious desire--the human need to find faith and to hope for an afterlife, and the doubt and skepticism in those very needs--is braided together with more earthly desires, as well as with ruminations on artistic ambition. These poems situate themselves within the rich tradition of the postconfessional, transmuting autobiographical elements to form a narrative of marriage, pregnancy, loss and birth that anchors the book. This narrative is juxtaposed with other lyric voices to explore the connections between hunger of all kinds.

"A Painter's Brush That Also Makes Poems": Contemporary Painting After Northern Song Calligraphy, Andy J. Patton

Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Repository

There is no Western equivalent to the practice of calligraphy in pre-modern China, an aesthetic form which does not resolve itself into a literary object or a visual one. Calligraphy was sustained by a rich and complex body of thought that can fully rival art criticism and theory in the West. To undertake this project, I immersed myself in the study of both key works of calligraphy and the aesthetic that sustained it during the Northern Song dynasty (960-1127) in China—not in order to practice calligraphy but to transform my own understanding of art and make contemporary Western paintings out …

Ritual Process, Kevin A. Baer

University of New Orleans Theses and Dissertations

My art is a means for investigating the passage of time, the decay of physical things, and the truth of mortality. I explore these concepts through process-oriented sculptures that emphasize ritual and material. The process is communicated with the creation of relics, often existing as drawings or the remains of degenerated sculptures. These relics bear witness to the process. I focus on themes of temporal change and death because they remain central to our metaphysical and physical existence. I see a diminished reverence for the power of death in our culture, and through my work I aim to pay homage …

Painting Lucretia: Fear And Desire : A Feminist Discourse On Representations By Artemisia Gentileschi And Tintoretto, Amy Lynne Endres

Theses and Dissertations

The myth of the Roman heroine, Lucretia, celebrates feminine ideals of virtue and chastity and is considered pivotal to the establishment of the Roman Republic. Yet, her rape and suicide is also the fulcrum of uncomfortable tension about notions of female sexuality, morality, patriotism and heroism.

My thesis is a comparative discussion of two intriguing and radically dissimilar paintings of Lucretia: Tarquin and Lucretia by Tintoretto and Lucretia by Artemisia Gentileschi. These paintings function as visual counterpoints that reflect the diverse literary and historical interpretations of her legend.

Tintoretto and Gentileschi depict two different, yet pivotal and dramatic moments in …

Made You Look: Chicano Experience, Graphic Identity And Agency In Pilsen Murals, Nina Teubner

Theses and Dissertations

This paper examines three different types of Mexican-identified murals in the Pilsen neighborhood of Chicago, Illinois. Using three murals as a case-study, Francisco Mendoza and Gallery 37, 1710 West 18th Street, Chicago, 1998, Hector Duarte's Gulliver in Wonderland, 1900 West Cullterton, Chicago, 2005 and Jeff Zimmerman Unbelievable the Things You See, South Ashland Ave & West 19th St Chicago completed 1998, this paper examines the artistic process, formal aspects and graphic identity, and function and continuing role of each mural.

Painted Discourses: Lived Experience In The Nasca Visual System, Sean Leland King

Theses and Dissertations

This paper looks at the ancient Peruvian culture of the Nasca and discusses the ceramic iconography in terms of lived experience. By understanding the images as "discourse," a term from the philosopher Michel Foucault, scholars can begin to contextualize the iconography not simply as bearers of esoteric meaning, but sociopolitical statements regarding how the ancient peoples experienced their world.

America Through The Kitchen Window: Mid-Twentieth Century American Culture Through Kitchen Advertisements, Products And Design, Kristen Eileen Schulrud

Theses and Dissertations

During the nineteen-fifties in America the kitchen space and its related objects came to be emblematic of the concerns and ideals of American culture at the time. A study of the advertisements and articles in the periodicals of the era reveals a culture focused on leisure, technology, family life and personal plenty. Through a combined analysis of the images and texts found in surviving vintage magazines of the decade and more recent scholarship on the popular culture of the era it can be seen that the American dream of a happier, easier, more free and more luxurious life was made …

Sedimenting Solidarity: Signs From The Madison Protest, Melissa Deann Seifert

Theses and Dissertations

The 2011 Wisconsin protest inspired the wide ranging production of handmade and commercially-produced signage. Five hundred signs were collected and preserved by the Wisconsin State Historical Society and others were obtained by the Smithsonian Museum of American History. Art historians and prominent art institutes have dismissed the aesthetic qualities of handmade signs, instead cataloging them as ephemeral historical artifacts. I argue that signs work similarly to other art forms in the modern era, such as advertisements and poster art, which have gained scholarly attention. This project uses the Madison protest as a case study in order to track the often …

The Development Of The Architectural Styles Of New France, Jennifer Brazier

Arts & Sciences Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In this paper, I will explore the impact of multiple cultures, climate and available resources on the architecture of New France. I will begin with early settlements of Nova Scotia and Québec, and follow the Mississippi River down to New Orleans. These early French settlements in the new world struggled to retain their identities in the face of English and Spanish control. Although Canadian territories were affected by English possession, they were the most successful in retaining a French influence. Even today, French is the official language of Québec, and the Catholic religion remains an important part of everyday life …

Envisioning The Unseen: Sisyphos In Chthonic Landscapes, Elizabeth Graff Wolfson

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

No abstract provided.

Chronicles Of Revolution And Nation: El Taller De Gráfica Populars 'Estampas De La Revolución Mexicana' (1947), Mary Theresa Avila

Art & Art History ETDs

This dissertation concentrates on the key 1947 portfolio Las Estampas de la Revolución Mexicana' ('Prints of the Mexican Revolution') produced by El Taller de Gráfica Popular (The Popular Graphics Workshop) or TGP, a graphic art collective founded in Mexico City in 1937. The album's eighty-five prints recount Mexican history from the l870s to the 1940s, as well as address the human condition and denounce social and civil injustices. These images are anchored in the diverse narratives and legacies of the Mexican Revolution (1910 and 1920). My analysis of the visual, textual, and historical components in the TGP's 1947 portfolio, a …

Spaces Of Japonisme And The Art Of Whistler, Van Gogh, And Monet: Collecting, Decoration, And The Japanese Other, Diane Marie Towle

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

The belongings a person surrounds himself with can be physical representations of his interior life and social aspirations. Many avant-garde artists in late nineteenth-century Europe collected Japanese art, particularly woodblock prints, and used this art to decorate their living spaces. In this dissertation, I studied the collections and decorations of Whistler, Van Gogh, and Monet, and analyzed their art to discover how they used ideas from Japanese art and their understanding of Japanese culture to define their artistic identities and to develop a decorative vision, moving away from spaces defined by linear perspective and tonal indications of volume, and toward …

Through The Body: Corporeality, Subjectivity, And Empathy In Contemporary American Art, Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt

All Theses and Dissertations (ETDs)

This dissertation considers the relationship between embodied experience, subjectivity, and empathy expressed in artworks created and exhibited in New York in the early 1990s and linked with identity politics. I focus on works that represented or evoked bodies and elicited viscerally somatic responses from viewers. As I demonstrate, the multicultural and post-structuralist interpretive frameworks applied to these artworks hinged on implicitly antagonistic notions of subjectivity which undercut the works' affective potential. In particular, such models disregarded the powerful epistemological import of corporeality in favor of discursive constructions. Through three paired case studies, I investigate how these artists engaged with emerging …

Bearing Likeness, Christine M. Salama

CGU MFA Theses

The world is saturated with images and things. I have chosen to put more images and things into the world. In doing so, I complicate and further saturate these connections, but I also find clarity and answers through the mark, the gesture, the image, and material. I make marks with materials that are closely related to the meanings of the things I depict. The images and objects I make are ones that I know and understand because they are close to me, but the process of making leaves room for inquiry and unfamiliarity with these same objects.

I am guided …

Prince Sihanouk: The Model Of Absolute Monarchy In Cambodia 1953-1970, Weena Yong

Senior Theses and Projects

This thesis addresses Prince Sihanouk and the model of absolute monarchy in Cambodia during his ‘golden era.’ What is the legacy bequeathed to his country that emanated from his years as his country’s autocratic leader (1954-1970)? What did he leave behind? My original hypothesis was that Sihanouk was a libertine and ruthless god-king who had immense pride for his country. He fought for his people and had strong good intentions. Instead, through research, I discovered that there are many good and bad facets of Sihanouk’s past and the political practices that marked his era as Cambodia’s supreme ruler. His legacy …

Power And Nostalgia In Eras Of Cultural Rebirth: The Timeless Allure Of The Farnese Antinous, Kathleen Lamanna

Scripps Senior Theses

Little did Hadrian know in 130 A.D. that when he deified his beloved departed Antinous, in order to provide a unifying symbol of worship for his diverse empire, that he was instead creating a lasting symbol of the antique world. This thesis examines the power of nostalgia and its successful use by two formidable men from different eras in Rome: The Emperor Hadrian and the extravagantly wealthy Renaissance merchant Agostino Chigi. Though separated by centuries, each man used the nostalgic allure of the beautiful youthful male figure of Antinous to gain power and influence in his own time and to …