Arts and Humanities Commons^™

Mapping The Theaters Of Brooklyn's Past (1825-1925): A Gis Project, Elena Shefsky

Publications and Research

Despite its rich performance culture, Brooklyn remains underrepresented in theater history, eclipsed in fame by the well-known theaters of Manhattan. One of the most populous areas in America, Brooklyn has been an artistic home to actors, playwrights, directors, and impresarios for centuries. That said, there is a dearth of accessible information and scholarship on Brooklyn theaters. My objective was to update an ongoing mapping project, The City Performs, to include information and images of theater buildings from Brooklyn. The project is an interactive, open-source digital map that uses ArcGIS software to georeference data about NYC theaters. I collected data …

Futurism In The City Of The Future: Marinetti’S Avant-Garde In New York 1909-1930, Giovanni Angelo Falcone

Senior Projects Spring 2023

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

This project seeks to explain some of the reasons why it took four decades for Futurism to be recognized and understood in America. Using archival sources and other records from 1909 to 1930, this project charts the entrance of Futurist ideas into America and the reasons why the movement never found a following in the United States. Focusing on the years after the launch of the movement, the Armory Show of 1913, and the 1928-1930 stay of Fortunato Depero, this project argues that there were certain unbridgeable divides between …

Memorial Craze: How War Memorials Have Been Changed By War, Jillian Bass

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

This thesis project argues that memorials constructed after 9/11 were designed specifically in a way that privileged and focused on the dead individually. By taking a look at memorials throughout American history, the study of memorialization sets up the stage for the way the lives of ordinary people have been memorialized throughout history. 9/11 is one of the most memorable days in the history of the world in the 21st century. However, the academic world has generally ignored the study of war memorials throughout American history as a subset of memorials. Chronicling memorials from the Civil War period to present …

Lauder Art Collections: Two Brothers, Two Collections, One City, Carol Bradford Abruzzo

MA Theses

This thesis highlights two New Yorkers who donate a plethora of art treasures to their beloved hometown. The value of these collective materials provides a permeance to the history of civilization. Art works within these institutions provides visual history and allows for an immediacy to learn and a simple way to connect with the past. However, the art is as good as it is culled into a meaningful collective with easy accessibility for all. The Leonard A. Lauder Cubist Collection at the Metropolitan Museum of New York and the Ronald S. Lauder Neue Galerie are two of the most distinguished …

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.

Provincializing New York: In And Out Of The Geopolitics Of Art After 1945, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel

Artl@s Bulletin

In this article, I argue that the putative global centrality of New York in art after 1945 is a construct, as it is for Paris prior to 1945. Monographs and national approaches are unsuccessful in challenging such powerful myths as these. A global, transnational and comparative approach demonstrates that the struggle for centrality was a global phenomenon after 1945, a battle that New York does not win (depending on one’s point of view) until after 1964. Rather than considering centres and peripheries as a fixed category, I propose to consider them as a strategic notion which artists and their promoters …

Norman Lewis: Linearity, Politics, And Pedagogy In His Abstract Expressionism, 1946–1964, Andrianna T. Campbell-Lafleur

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation focuses on Norman Lewis’s studio practice between the years 1946-1964 in particular his associations with the painters Romare Bearden, Robert Motherwell, Ad Reinhardt, and David Smith. Lewis’s influence extended far into the twenty-first century. As told by numerous contemporary art practitioners—Firelei Baez, Mark Bradford, David Kennedy Cutler, Charles Gaines, Rashid Johnson, Julie Mehretu, RJ Messineo, and Jack Whitten—Lewis was the mentor, friend, father and grandfather figure of an innovative black artist working with abstraction. In Chapter 1: An Integrative Line of Becoming, I trace Lewis’s change from Social Realism in the 1930s to semi-abstract portraits and genre paintings …

The Public And The Personal: Mapping The Nyc Subway System As An Urban Memoryscape, Soledad O. Tejada

Library Map Prize

No abstract provided.

Staging A Modern Nation: The Art And Architecture Of The Peruvian Pavilion At The 1939/40 New York World’S Fair, Alida R. Jekabson

Theses and Dissertations

At the 1939/40 New York World’s Fair, the Peruvian government installed a multimedia display of objects and products in a foreign pavilion. An examination of the building and its contents provides a basis to understand how art and commerce work together to construct narratives of authenticity, nationalism and modernity.

Expanding Experimentalism: Art And Popular Music At The Kitchen In New York City, 1971-1985, Sarah A. Cooper

Theses and Dissertations

This paper explores artists' engagement with popular music at the interdisciplinary alternative space, the Kitchen, from 1971 to 1985. It seeks a critical language to challenge institutional frameworks to account for the creative output of artists' bands and the relationship between parallel and hybrid popular music and avant-garde performance practices.

From The Church Of Disco To Waterfront Ruins: An Analysis Of Gay Space, Liam Nolan

Senior Projects Spring 2019

My senior thesis is an analysis of gay space from the late 1970s to 1980s New York, and I’m questioning how themes of private vs. public, accessibility, race, and economic status dictated where one searched for gay self-expression and community in the built environment. In order to understand how queer spaces functioned architecturally and socially, I’ve chosen to research two opposites: The Saint and the west side piers. The former was a private club in New York City from 1980-1988 and was considered to be the “Vatican of Disco” with a planetarium that could hold over a thousand men, two …

Nimby: Not In My Backyard, Ariama Long

Capstones

Ariama Long talks to residents in Flatbush, Brooklyn who are clashing with developers over a hotel that houses homeless people. A hotel development has seemingly split the neighborhood. It’s community versus developer and neighbor versus neighbor.

Losing Its Way: The Landmarks Preservation Commission In Eclipse, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

New York City’s Landmarks Preservation Commission has an admirable history of protecting the city's historic character. Increasingly in recent years, the commission has backed away from proactively designated sites of historical, architectural, or cultural significance as city landmarks. At the same time, the commission has shown greater deference to the owner of a property when deciding whether to designate, and to the wishes of the owners of designated properties in matters of regulation, notwithstanding that owner consent is nowhere in the landmarks law. At the same time, the commission has introduced new definitions, such as “period of significance,” contributing/non-contributing, and …

Finding The Foundation : Exploring A Historic Stockade Property In Schenectady, New York, Hanna Marie Pageau

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

Schenectady County Community College Community Archaeology Program researchers have been excavating in the Stockade Historic District, an area dating back to the Dutch colonization period. Sites located on the current property of the First Reformed Church of Schenectady, located within the district, include a house razed in 1938, but which appears according to existing deed records, to have originally been built in the late 1700s. Two primary finds have come from the excavation, including the presence of two different strata with significant amounts of burnt debris that is believed to represent the most significant fires on the property (1861/1948). In …

Magie, Terre Et Cri. Les Resémantisations Politiques De L’Œuvre D’Antoni Tàpies Sous Le Franquisme., Claudia Grego

Artl@s Bulletin

Tout au long de sa carrière, Antoni Tàpies (1923-2012) fut partisan d’un modèle interprétatif qui permit l’appropriation individuelle de ses œuvres. Le peintre fut le défenseur et le bénéficiaire d’un mode de signification du tableau qui n’était ni univoque, ni prédéterminé. Dans cet article, on analysera comment cette ductilité interprétative a permis la resémantisation politique des œuvres de Tàpies pendant l’époque du franquisme (1939-1975). Guidés par une de ses premières créations, Croix de journal (1946 – 1947), nous tracerons les déplacements de ses toiles pour classifier les déclinaisons sémantiques de l’œuvre en trois grandes étapes : d’abord, l’émergence de Tàpies …

Merchandise, Promotion, And Accessibility: Keith Haring’S Pop Shop, Amy L. Raffel

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

During the peak of his career in New York, Keith Haring took his highly recognizable artistic style and distributed it in the form of merchandise in his Pop Shop, established in 1986. Stemming from his early work displayed on the New York streets, directly within public space, and his explorations into mass media strategies, he learned he could make his work accessible to new audiences outside contemporary art institutions and art circles. He translated his work across several surfaces: from subways or canvases, to everyday functional merchandise, such as buttons, t-shirts, and bags sold in his shop. Responding to a …

The Murals Of The Dewey Graduate Library, Kristen Thornton-De Stafeno

Dewey Graduate Library History

The history and descriptions of the Great Depression-era Works Progress Administration Murals created by artist William Brantley Van Ingen, a student of Louis Comfort Tiffany, depicting the history of Albany, New York State.

Windows On The World: The Aesthetics Of Difference In Neoliberal New York, Nicholas Gamso

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation seeks to refine critical methods for interpreting global cities and their cultures, charting an aesthetic history of neoliberal New York — from the 1929 regional plan to the present. Surveying a range of literature, art criticism, and planning discourse, I argue that the global has served as the dominant motif of spatial production and political power during this watershed era. I trace this argument through analyses of midcentury planning’s global spatial imaginings, gentrification and imperial metaphor, transnational encounter in World literature, and the city’s contemporary waste and recourse imaginaries. While I follow the Marxist account of the New …

Export / Import: The Promotion Of Contemporary Italian Art In The United States, 1935–1969, Raffaele Bedarida

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Export / Import examines the exportation of contemporary Italian art to the United States from 1935 to 1969 and how it refashioned Italian national identity in the process. I do not concentrate on the Italian art scene per se, or on the American reception of Italian shows. Through a transnational perspective, instead, I examine the role of art exhibitions, publications, and critical discourse aimed at American audiences. Inaugurated by the Fascist regime as a form of political propaganda, this form of cultural outreach to the United States continued after WWII as Italian museums, dealers, and critics aimed to vaunt the …

Have Traditional Auction Houses Been Affected By Online Ones?: The Case Of Phillips And Paddle8, Heejae Chung

MA Projects

There is always a strong demand for high quality art and collectibles. With the analysis of the case study and the interviews with experts from different auction houses, this paper will show whether the traditional auction markets have been affected by online ones.

Phillips is taking a strong hold over the middle market. In particular, Phillips’ Contemporary art department is known for focusing on younger artists, which represents lower prices than other areas. To compare in a fair way in terms of price and genre of artworks, Phillips’ Contemporary Art Day Sales in New York from 2006 to 2016 will …

Exploring Mortuary Behaviors During The Rural Cemetery Movement In The Capital District Of New York State, Jeanette Carioto

Legacy Theses & Dissertations (2009 - 2024)

This dissertation investigates the leading causes behind mortuary behaviors in the Capital District of New York during the Rural Cemetery Movement. Four cemeteries were sampled: Oakwood Rural Cemetery, an established rural cemetery; Waterford Rural Cemetery and Blooming Grove Rural Cemetery, two smaller, non-sectarian cemeteries; and St. John’s Cemetery, a Catholic cemetery. The built and natural landscape was the focus during data collection and analysis, to reveal how the cemetery was experienced and how that experience was affected by and affected society. This study combines a quantitative statistical analysis and a qualitative phenomenological study of the cemeteries’ designs, gravestone data and …

The Monroe Fordham Regional History Center, Chris Root

The Exposition

This article is a brief history and synopsis of the Monroe Fordham Regional History Center at SUNY Buffalo State. The center opened in 2002, but much of the collection is from the projects of Dr. Monroe Fordham over the course of his career.

Tapestry Of Space: Domestic Architecture And Underground Communities In Margaret Morton’S Photography Of A Forgotten New York, Irina Nersessova

disClosure: A Journal of Social Theory

This article addresses the impact urban space has on individuals through the use of Situationist International theory and psychogeography. Representations of homelessness in New York in Margaret Morton's photography are used to demonstrate the interconnectedness among space, people, and social issues. Social issues manifest themselves in urban decay, and the inhabitants react to this phenomenon emotionally and artistically. Some inhabitants demonstrate their relationship with space by responding with material production of housing and art, which they accomplish by building without exploiting the environment the way the manufacturing of commodities often does.

The Auld Sod: Staging The Diaspora At The 1897 Irish Fair In New York City, Deirdre O’Leary

e-Keltoi: Journal of Interdisciplinary Celtic Studies

The 1897 Irish Fair in New York City is significant for its map exhibit of a topographical map of Ireland, with soil from each county represented. For ten cents, participants could walk across the map and stand again on the soil of Ireland. This article examines the map exhibit as demonstrating diasporic nationalism of the late nineteenth century Irish emigrant, and also reads the exhibit as a contrapuntal political discourse on Irish nationalism, Anglo/American relations, and the position of the Irish immigrant in New York.

After Atget: Todd Webb Photographs New York And Paris, Bowdoin College. Museum Of Art, Diana K. Tuite

Museum of Art Exhibition Catalogues

Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Oct. 28, 2011 through January 29, 2012.

Essay entitled: Signs of the city / by Diana Tuite.

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai Interview, Flor Sigaran

Asian American Art Oral History Project

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai is a Chicago-born, Brooklyn-based Chinese Taiwanese American spoken word artist who fights for cultural pride and survival through how she spits and how she lives.

Kelly Zen-Yie Tsai has been featured in over 400 performances worldwide at venues including the Nuyorican Poets Cafe, the House of Blues, the Apollo Theater, Kennedy Center, Lincoln Center, and three seasons of the award-winning “Russell Simmons Presents HBO Def Poetry.” The author of Inside Outside Outside Inside (2004) and Thought Crimes (2005) and the CD Infinity Breaks (2006), Tsai has shared stages with Mos Def, KRS-One, Sonia Sanchez, Talib Kweli, Erykah …

Joseph Delaney: Retrospective Exhibition (Exhibition Catalogue), Sam Yates, Joseph Delaney

Ewing Gallery of Art & Architecture

Joseph Delaney was organized as part of the events for Homecoming '86 at the University of Tennessee. This solo exhibition featured 68 paintings and drawings by the artist.

Art In Craft Media: The Haystack Tradition, A Regional Exhibition From New England And New York, Bowdoin College. Museum Of Art

Museum of Art Exhibition Catalogues

Participating institutions: William Benton Museum of Art and others.