History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

For Those In Peril On The Sea : The Motivations Of Nineteenth Century European Artists To Create Shipwreck Paintings, Calvin Liepins

MA Theses

This thesis will be an examination of the motivations of nineteenth century European artists to create paintings portraying shipwrecks. I have identified four main motivations, Nature over Man, Man over Nature, Political Position, and Personal Upheaval, and will analyze various works in order to view how each motivation relates to the other. Each work analyzed falls into one or more of these categories and by studying them side by side I hope to gain a better understanding of these works unique place in art history. Additionally I will be taking a look at how depictions of shipwrecks were politicized by …

From Spectacle To Collectible : A Reappraisal Of Katherine Dreier And Juliana Force's Pioneering Impact To Bolster The Ascendancy Of Modern Art In America, Caroline Holt Yarbrough

MA Theses

My thesis analyzes the critical and pioneering role that Katherine Dreier, Juliana Force, and other New York-based female cultural promoters played in advancing the education, acceptance, and appreciation of modern art in America. By illuminating the strategies these women used to accomplish their objectives to support contemporary artists and demystify modern art to the public, as well as elucidating the barriers they overcame as women driving for change in a male-dominated society, I seek to answer the fundamental questions of how and why women were able to play such a central role in creating the canon of modern art in …

Collectors Beware: A Glimpse Into The High-Risk, High-Reward World Of Antiquities And Its Dark Underbelly, Claire M. Purcell

MA Theses

The market for Antiquities often sparks fierce moral and legal debates amongst the public and professionals. What most do not concern themselves with is the unusually high level of risk the market functions under. From cultural heritage concerns, to the surprising abundance of fake Antiquities available for purchase, and the dark market entwined with legitimate business, the market is saturated with danger and yet continues to operate. This thesis will investigate how the market forces come together, considering the differing roles preformed by collectors, museums, auction houses, galleries, and Antiquities dealers. In an attempt to answer the question, how does …

On The Fluidity Of Honey And Fugitivity Of Sound In Trauma, Ecstasy, And Black Radical Tradition, Evgenia Grant

MA Theses

From Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological perspective to Derridean postructuralist view, to an intersectional force traversing somatic, social, political, and cultural, sound, in its non-linear epistemology, breaks barriers between forms and escapes any structured definitions. Like the insidious stickiness of honey, sound’s viscosity invaginates, spreads onto the interior, and, by triggering memories and the somatic, threatens the very totality of our identities. At that rupturing moment, we are not the ones subjecting sound to be known as an object; instead, in its fugitive protest and agency, sound flips the roles of the knower and the known and establishes new possibilities of relating to …

“Whose Utopia?” Kimsooja & Bottari Utopia, Younghee Kim Wait

MA Theses

This thesis will explore the progressive evolution of utopia and utopianism in order to answer the question: “Whose utopia?" in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on people who were already marginalized, disadvantaged, and discriminated against.

I will first review the writings of Sir Thomas More, Ernst Bloch, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Owkui Enwezor, and Jose Estaban Muñoz tracing the progressive evolution of utopian ideals. I will then introduce and survey the artist, Kimsooja’s oeuvre in relation to salient features from my review of utopia's progression, and gradually revealing her aesthetics of making as revealing utopian …

Re-Thinking Risk Management Of Auction House Guarantees And Third-Party Irrevocable Bids, Nathan Krasnick

MA Theses

This paper addresses the question of how deviations between expected and actual art auction results impact the auction guarantees made within an artist’s market and among multiple artists, and whether those impacts can be identified and quantified. To do so, I use a theoretical pricing model based on datasets of historical auction records going back to the earliest available date for a specific artist but no further than 2010. I find that, in comparing the model’s expected and actual results to empirical price deviations at auction, we can identify and quantify the impact of those deviations on guarantees.

Role Of Art In International Relations : Analysis Of The Key Operational Patterns On The Example Of French Cultural Cluster, Maria Meshcherskaya

MA Theses

Reflecting on the role of art in the socio-cultural context would be unfair not to notice its unconventional nature of the transformation, definition, and understanding, depending on the time, place, and society, which would start the dispute. Yet, there is still no one answer or guide on how does art work as a singular system, using multiple mediums for translating, spreading, and sharing values from one culture to the another, without destroying origins of the message, but organically adopting it for the new environment. Luckily there is a set of tendencies kept by centuries, analysis of which might bring a …

Hilma Af Klint's Divine Commission, Paintings For The Temple : Modern Western Esotericism Embodied And Art Historical Norms Redfined, Hilary Cianciolo

MA Theses

Swedish occultist, scholar, and artist, Hilma af Klint (1862-1944), produced a series of 193 paintings after receiving a commission in 1906 from a divine spirit who offered complex iconographic insight into human ontology. The resulting series of colorful abstract paintings would not only alter her life, but also redefine contemporary perceptions of the Western art historical canon. Although all works of art are inherently spiritual to a degree, af Klint’s, commission Paintings for the Temple, is an example of Modern Western Esotericism. The commission maintains the six principle characteristics the construct is defined by, including: Role of Mediations and Imagination, …

The Old Masters Market And The Salvator Mundi: What Did It Do, What Can Be Done?, Mary Sullivan

MA Theses

On 3 November 2017, within the Post-War & Contemporary Evening Sale at Christie's auction in New York, nestled between a Vija Celmins and Jean-Michel Basquiat, was a painting attributed to Leonardo da Vinci, the Salvator Mundi (1490-1500.) The work quadrupled the estimated sale price of 100 million USD, hammering at 400 million (for a total of 450.3 million with buyer’s premium.) This work, setting the record for the most expensive work of art ever sold, at auction or private, creates a curious case for the Old Masters category. What appears to be a shrinking, potentially dwindling category of art, now …

Thoughts Around The Psychological Attributes Of Fascist Aesthetics, Carolina Mimi King

MA Theses

This paper aims to outline a series of thoughts around the topic of fascist aesthetics. In 1981, Benjamin Buchloh argued that the revival of representational forms after abstraction signaled a political regression toward authoritarianism. It is the hope of this analysis to expand on Buchloh’s argument in light of the recent claims of fascist revival, particularly in the United States. Looking at aesthetic examples of definitive fascism from the early 20th century as well as the aesthetic culture from the latter part of the 20th century around the time Buchloh was writing, this project can function as a lens through …

Artist Frames: A Lost History Tracking The Innovations Of Discarded Visions, Isabella Leokadia Kapczynski

MA Theses

By considering the multiple aspects of a picture frame, this thesis paper explores the relationship between the frame and the painting it surrounds. Functioning to both preserve and present a painting, the frame is often a concern of curators, dealers, restorers and institutions. Though neglected, the painters themselves had opinions about the framing of their work. This research centers on the classification of a picture frame as either fine or decorative art. First, the metaphysical and marketing ramifications of the frame will be considered, followed by a concise history of the frame that will focus on the nineteenth century Impressionist …

Land Art : True Capitalist Art, Annie Gustafsson

MA Theses

Land art is known to exist in remote locations, are immense in scale, are site specific and are incredibly costly to create. All of these traits make Land artworks inherently resistant to conservation and the secondary market.

If these artworks do not present an obvious investment opportunity, how then can an art movement like Land art even exist? What is its role in a capitalist driven society, if it cannot perform as a financial asset? Where then does the value in Land art lie?

This paper will attempt to explore the cultural effects on the movement, the subsequent methodologies developed …

From Micro To Marco: Jade Snuff Bottles In Qianlong Era, Jinpeng Wang

MA Theses

Emperor Qianlong, whose original name is Aisin Gioro Hongli, was the sixth emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Qianlong was one of the most famous emperors in Chinese history. As the word “Qianlong” means in Manchu, he was truly blessed by the god: the Qing Empire was already very strong when Qianlong came into power; meanwhile, Qianlong had a relatively stable outside environment. It allows Qianlong to be able to focus on pushing his own governing policy. Qianlong’s policy of agricultural development and tax reduction was very effective, under sixty years of reign, the empire has expanded its territory, and the …

Contemporary Methods Of Preserving Land Art: A Case Study Of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Samara Johnson

MA Theses

The preservation and conservation of Land art has become an increasingly complex and urgent issue as important Earthworks created in the late 1960s and early 1970s continue to age. They present a variety of challenges—both physical and philosophical—to those tasked with maintaining them. Using Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) as a case study, I have outlined four key guidelines for maintaining and preserving works of Land art. In order to survive, the artist’s intention intact, these works require collective stewardship, an interdisciplinary approach, the promotion of responsible visitorship, and an extension of the museum model. Today, social media has presented …

What Are The Challenges Of Establishing The Fair Market Value (Fmv) Of Guggenheim Founding Collection? If The Transparency Of An Asset Value Is Possible On Non-Profit Financial Year Report, How Can The Fmv Preserve The Continuity Of Public Art Patronage, In Spite Of, Deaccession Artwork From The Guggenheim’S Collection Being Sold On The Auction Market?, Leng Ho

MA Theses

A collector’s financial interest in purchasing works of art is often motivated by potential return on investment. These collectors have heard countless stories of others gaining huge financial returns after consigning rare works of art from a museum collection. In recent decades, rising debates on the capitalizing of museum collections to gain financial assets allude to long-term negative repercussions. Those opposed postulate that art patron will lose trust in a museum’s ability to care for its publicly-owned collections. Deaccession is a difficult research topic, attempts to resolve any conflicts of interest in the matter of selling cultural work of art …

Double-Edged Experiences And Their Impact On The Twenty-First-Century Audience: The Ever-Evolving Museum, Ana Sanz Menchero

MA Theses

The twenty-first-century museum is an ever-changing art institution adapting itself to engage a broader audience. The democratization of the museum becomes the priority to make art accessible to everyone. In the quest to find the perfect strategy, museums commit themselves to a constant transformation that seeks to create a unique “business model.” Along this process, institutions provide two-folded experiences to the public; first, the exhibition of art as a spectacular experience, and second, the staging of the museum as an entertaining entity. Today, museum attendance is not necessarily related to the quality of the show anymore. Welcome to the era …

Private Art Museum Backed By Hong Kong Invetment - Wan Fung Art Musem As An Example, Yiye Chen

MA Theses

The rapid development of private art museums in the world can be regarded as the epitome of global economic development. The Chinese government has given unprecedented support to the development of culture and art. As the world's second largest economy, China's middle class has been increasing year by year. The hot art market has attracted European and American auction giants, and famous galleries have entered the Chinese market. Since the birth of the first private art museum in China at the end of the 20th century, Chinese scholars have been constantly exploring the direction of development. From copying the European …

The Celebrity Factor: An Evaluation Of The Effect Celebrity Provenance At Auction, Danielle Gray

MA Theses

The effect of celebrity provenance on value of fine art and design is a recent phenomenon that can be explained by unpacking the changing profile of collectors, the rise of the digital age and contemporary fascination with celebrity. Understanding these changes will shed light on different factors that contribute to the premium often associated with celebrity sales. Although research has been done before on this topic before, the research neglects to look at the auction house as a factor in understanding the effects of celebrity provenance. By evaluating the celebrity, and the auction houses, relationship to the works of art …

Teamlab Research, Chinchen Liu

MA Theses

teamLab undoubtedly opened a new era of art. It allows professionals in multi-industries to use the latest science and technology to create art, they are all popular for local audiences from Japan to the United States, from Italy to China, wherever they go. As a significant representative form of the trendy show and immersive exhibition, teamLab's works are completely different from the past in terms of creative logic, exhibition experience, and collection methods. By going through the development history of teamLab, this article studies the characteristics of its exhibitions, audience, and the connection with traditional art, in order to explore …

A Study On The Commercial Promotion Mode Of Contemporary Young Artists In China Taking Art Nova 100 As An Example, Han Le

MA Theses

Nowadays, young artists have increasingly become a significant part of the art market in China since there has been a recent emergence of China's art market. Therefore, their personal growth and development would greatly impact the future of art market. With the support of relevant economic and political policies from the government, China has initiated many innovative characterized business modes of cultivating young artists. By looking at Art Nova 100, a quite typical art project of recent years in China, this paper firstly deals with the actual living situation of contemporary young Chinese artist together with considerations for specific historical …

The Explosion Development Of Chinese Contemporary Art Market From 2000 To 2015, Yaning Wang

MA Theses

After Chinese Culture Revolution, the brand new chapter was approaching which opened for the modern Chinese art history; Chinese contemporary art has been deepened understanding by the art market. In the context of an emerging market, art is as much a matter of cultural economy as socio-politics. Thus the thesis will focus on the challenges facing the market and how tradition and economics providing the framework for the sustainability of art market. It will present a historical overview of emergence of Chinese contemporary art the period of 2000 to 2015 and expose the unbreakable bind between the development of its …

Story Of Twin Cities, Who Will Be The Next Storm Center Of Art Fairs?, Rui Bian

MA Theses

Since 2000, with the rapid development of China's economy, the evolution of contemporary art fairs in China has been accelerated. This paper takes two representative cities, Beijing and Shanghai, as examples. In the past one decade, Shanghai and Beijing have respectively led the trend of contemporary art market due to various internal and external factors. This paper uses PEST model to analyze, trying to find out who will be the next center of contemporary art in the next ten years.

The first part of this paper mainly starts from the differentiations in policies and regional distributions of Chinese contemporary art …

How Does Contemporary Artists Consolidate Their Success And Achievements Through Social Media Platform Such As Instagram? : Case Study Of Successful Co-Existing Relationship Developed Between Contemporary Artists Ai Weiwei And Kaws With Their Instagram Account, Rouchen Yao

MA Theses

In the following thesis, I would compare and contrast the two art world phenomenon:Ai Weiwei and KAWS, whom have very distinctive artistic focus and style. And how the two artists utilize their social media platform to achieve different purposes and reflect different values. In the past few years, due to internet accessibility to the art world, online and social media platforms have become an intermediary between the art world and the masses, giving everyone access to art. Being household names from the art world, both of the artists generated a large number of fans on their social media platform of …

Market Value Analysis Of Takashi Murakami's Artwork Under Howard Becker's Theory, Liu Yi-Ding

MA Theses

This paper is an analysis about the artist Takashi Murakami. As a representative of the corporate artist, he is favored by the Art business world while being criticized by many people. This paper adopts American sociologist Howard Becker's art world theory as a research tool to observe that the construction of Murakami and his art market is not the growth of genius, but the result of collective cooperation. Based on two decades of data on the art trade, Murakami has made his unique brand of ultra-flat theory and otaku work. These labels, along with internalization and external marketing, eventually gave …

The Demand For Women Who Painted: Recent Art Market Trends For Female Artists Of The Premodern Era, Cristina Demiany

MA Theses

A number of events highlighting female artists who lived and worked before the year 1900 are currently appearing in the art world. In consideration of this expanding cultural activity, this paper explores recent art market behavior around premodern female painters by examining sales of their work at auction between the years 1998 and 2019. The larger questions around such an analysis include assessing if the work of premodern female artists presents a new investment opportunity for collectors, and if it could also provide a means of invigorating the Old Master market. Three case studies representing female artists from different locations, …

Museum Websites And Restitution: Rediscovering Holocaust-Era Objects In The Digital Age, Gabriella Bloom

MA Theses

Under the Third Reich, Europe experienced one of the most far-reaching examples of plunder of cultural property in modern history. While the Allies succeeded in returning many objects and artworks towards the end of the war and initially following it, many objects remained missing and hidden. The late 1990s led to a resurgence of interest in Holocaust-Era looting, resulting in a rise of cases and litigation over previously plundered objects. As many looted artworks materialized in United States museums, museums began further researching their collections’ provenance and inputting this information online. Today, most major museums have a section of their …

Chuck Close: The Cost Of Behaving Badly, And #Metoo, Rebecca Cohen-Homapour

MA Theses

In July of 2016, artist, Chuck Close was interviewed with a front cover spread in New York Times Magazine to discuss his legendary career. In December of 2017, Close was accused of sexually mistreating women on numerous occasions. This dissertation considers the powerful artist Chuck Close and repercussions following recent accusations against him made by multiple women. It will help us begin to understand how the recent allegations affect art museums and public exhibitions. There is also a discussion analyzing if an artists’ work can be separated from the reputation of its author. A hedonic regression, data analysis and interviews …

Moral Rights: The Economic Ramifications Of Moral Rights Under Vara In The U.S., Akilah Chandler

MA Theses

When balancing the interests of the art market gatekeepers including patrons, dealers, and auction house intermediaries, with the interest of artists, artists have always bared the shorter end of the stick. It has been almost 30 years since the U.S. legal system acknowledged moral rights and a lifetime that artist have had to defend those rights. However, the question remains— how has the art market balanced these conflicting interests and at what expense? This paper will explore the effects moral rights have on an artist’s market and with that, the overall art market. This paper will also cover the ramifications …

The Rococo Revival In Contemporary Porcelain, Ariel Senackerib

MA Theses

The contemporary design market has seen a resurgence of the rococo style. Porcelain has become a popular medium, and artists and designers have been revisiting the possibilities of it by returning to the motifs and symbols of the mid eighteenthcentury. While there is a wealth of existing literature on porcelain manufactories, including Meissen, Sèvres and others, the rococo style is often overlooked in literature for its cultural and theoretical value. The rococo has been given little consideration by art historians, because of its excessive luxury and cultural appropriation. However, many contemporary artists and designers have found new inspiration in the …

Protest Of Controversial Art In New York City Museums In 2017-2018: Reactions, Responses, And Legal/Ethical Obligations Of Museums In The Age Of #Metoo, #Blacklivesmatter, And Activism On The Internet., Isabel Telonis

MA Theses

Over the last two years, museums in New York City have experienced a rise in protest and backlash against the display of works of art, particularly those that are perceived as offensive, controversial, and relevant to current sociopolitical issues.

This thesis explores three case studies of controversy at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Whitney Museum of American Art, and the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, all of which faced protest and public criticism over particular works of art and responded in a unique way to their respective scandal. This study is comprised of an introduction, four chapters, and a conclusion. …