History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology Commons^™

A Survey Of A Number Of Megalithic Grave Complexes In Tamil Nadu, South India, David K. Mcconkey

Masters Theses

This study compares and contrasts a number of Megalithic cemeteries from South India. The project involved the mapping of a number of cemeteries from the Lower Moyar Shelf. I then compared and contrasted them to the cemeteries of the upper Nilgiris.

Some have suggested that these two regions had very limited contact with one another. From the evidence that I have gathered I now believe that they were wrong. There is a strong continuity in grave types between the lower regions and the upper Nilgiris, which I believe demonstrates some degree of contact. I also believe that based on the …

An Analysis Of The Artifacts From The Historic Components Of The Elam Site (20ae195), Allegan County, Michigan, Mary Lynn Jeakle

Masters Theses

This study involved the analysis of the historic artifacts recovered from the excavation of the Elam site (20AE195) during the 1978, 1983, 1985, and 1987 field seasons, conducted by Western Michigan University.

The results of the analysis indicate that there were at least two pre-twentieth century historic occupations of the site. The first dates between A.D. 1680-1770, and was a transient and probably repeated usage of the site by Potawatomi Indians. The second dating to approximately A.D. 1840, is possibly the short term, temporary residence of an unknown fur trader, prior to settlement of the area by Americans.

Environmental Factors Influencing Prehistoric Site Selection Along The Portage River, A Tributary Of The St. Joseph River, Southwest Michigan, Timothy D. Knapp

Masters Theses

This study examines the environmental factors influencing the location of prehistoric sites within the Portage River drainage. Over 100 sites recorded during four seasons of archaeological survey are examined applying the following environmental variables: type of glacial deposit, glacial landform, soil, distance to the nearest source of water, distance to the nearest ponded water, and vegetation zones occurring within 100, 500, and 1000 meters. Site locations are then statistically compared with the location of 100 randomly generated loci within the study area.

The findings of this research indicate that sites are non-randomly located with respect to certain environmental variables. Sites …

Flotation Data Sampling Strategies In Archaeological Research: An Experiment At The Elam Site (20ae195), Allegan County, Michigan, Brian David Deroo

Masters Theses

Studies of prehistoric Native American subsistence patterns have benefited greatly from data recovered through the technique of flotation, which allows investigators to recover small scale organic remains which would otherwise be missed using standard excavation procedures. Using data recovered through flotation researchers have been able to more fairly evaluate the role of plant foods, both wild and cultivated, in the aboriginal diet.

A common method of obtaining a flotation sample is to define a column through the center of the cultural feature or midden and removing a specified volume of soil matrix (usually 10 liters) from this column. This thesis …

The Paleoethnobotany Of Schwerdt (20ae127): An Early Fifteenth Century Encampment In The Lower Kalamazoo River Valley, Gregory R. Walz

Masters Theses

Carbonized macrobotanical remains from the Schwerdt Site, an Upper Mississippian sturgeon fishery in the Lower Kalamazoo River Valley are identified and analyzed in terms of their implications for localized subsistence-settlement systems operating during the Berrien Phase in southwestern Michigan. The exploitation of wild plant foods at this limited-activity, spring sturgeon fishery and the environmental composition of the site environs are reconstructed from their representation in flotation samples derived from excavated feature and midden contexts.

Botanical data indicate a strong wetland-aquatic orientation in plant procurement, with aquatic tubers being the primary plant resource exploited at the site. Data from several sites …

An Analysis Of Early Woodland Pottery From Southwest Michigan, James W. Cogswell

Masters Theses

Significant amounts of Early Woodland pottery have been recovered from excavations in southwest Michigan. Radiocarbon and thermoluminescence assays date this pottery from 590 B.C. to A.D. 10. This pottery is analyzed in great detail, providing evidence for attributes heretofore unreported in the Great Lakes area. Selected vessel attributes are presented in a chronological framework, and potential trends in the regional development of Early Woodland pottery are discussed.

Trying To Publish An Article On American Painter Thomas Eakins, Elise Hempel

Masters Theses

Freelance writing for magazines is an uncertain business; that is, one cannot specifically school oneself to guarantee even a modicum of success in this career. A writer may, of course, learn the "proper" procedures for preparing and submitting an article by reading any of several reference books written by those who have "made it" in the business. These procedures vary, however, with each author; also, they say little or nothing about the actual business of writing well. Ultimately, then, a writer must test the waters of freelance magazine writing by trying and failing and trying again.

This paper details the …

Dissident Artists' Associations Of Germany 1892-1912, Mary Jo Eberspacher

Masters Theses

With the end of the Franco-Prussian War on January 18, 1871, the German Empire under the leadership of the Hohenzollern king, William of Prussia, was proclaimed in the Hall of Mirrors at Versailles. Now Emperor Wilhelm I, Otto von Bismarck, his chancellor, and their staff as federal executives of the Empire possessed important legislative and economic powers. However, the individual states retained rights in some areas such as: education, health services, police protection and some powers of taxation, and in some instances, there was a distrust of the newly organized federal institutions. Consequently, this states' rights concept seemed to have …

Post Object Art And Sociological Influences On The Internal Processes Of Art Making, Steve Havens

Masters Theses

The purpose of this thesis is to discuss how external sociological factors inevitably have a profound effect on current art.

Much great art has been created against the flow of what is critically "popular" or "fashionable," but as these external factors become more prominent so the art work produced inevitably suffers.

The exhibition of Frank Stella's black and aluminum paintings at the turn of the 60's, in my own opinion, provided something of a landmark in the history of art. These works, in all their stark, flat, geometric nakedness denied both "form" and "content." They bare no illusions, no mythology, …

The Photograph And Superrealism, Christopher Stokes

Masters Theses

In 1968 an exhibition entitled "Realism Now" was held at Vassar College under the direction of Linda Nochlin, a noted art historian and professor at the school. The exhibition sought to present a cross-view of recent American painting in the realistic mode. Included in the catalog were twenty-five artists including Jack Beal, Robert Bechtle, Richard Estes, Alex Katz, Alfred Leslie, Malcom Morely and Philip Pearlstein, as well as many other artists who, at the time, were relatively unknown. The exhibition generated a great deal of attention, not only because of its recognition of contemporary representational painting as an influential movement, …

Homosexuality In Art, Julian P. Wade-Salisbury

Masters Theses

Homosexuality in art is nothing new. It has existed for centuries. This paper traces, via relative examples, homosexual themes in art from the ancient Greek vases to the twentieth century. The paper is divided into four sections: Greek Homosexuality, Christian Traditions, 19th and 20th Century Art, and My Work and that of other Artists. Examples from these chapters have been taken and are discussed, with special reference to the titles.

In chapter one there is an emphasis on homosexual imagery found on ancient Greek pots, and the almost relaxed way in which the Greeks portrayed and lived with homosexuality. They …

Cezanne, The Unknowing Father Of Modern Art, David Thomas

Masters Theses

In this paper, Cezanne's life and work are discussed with emphasis on his influence on the Modern Movement in Art. Questions are raised concerning the interpretation of his work both by art historians and artists. This, in turn, casts doubt on some of the premises of Modernism. It is important to realize that Cezanne had a great respect for the art of the old masters and, had he lived, would probably have been abhorred by modernist developments.

To understand Cezanne's complex attitude, his background is extensively dealt with in a biographical section. His relationship with the realist novelist Emile Zola …

Three Essays On The Reality Of Art, Brent A. Sparlin

Masters Theses

Three essays make up the main body of the thesis. The essays, “Can Art Really Be Real?,” “The Artist's Role” and “The Artist's Role in Society, Part II; Silence,” each deal with specific subjects which when combined, explain the thesis' title, The Reality of Art.

The first essay, “Can Art Really Be Real?” is an attempt to clarify what is real from what is unreal in art. The essay deals first with representational realism (such as is found in the work of Thomas Eakins), and defines artists who strive for exact renderings of objects as being illusionistic and not …

The Three-Dimensional Image Of Chance, Calvin Alexander Mcfarlane

Masters Theses

In order to create a work of art that has, for an unknown observer, as great a variety of meanings and interpretations as possible; the work must be of the sort that will allow any random observer to project their own experience into the work as its meaning and/or interpretation. The work of art created must present to the viewer a rich experience of mutually exclusive associations. For the work to be unlimited in associations, it must be free from any intentionally representative imagery on the part of the artist. In other words, the work should be abstract to the …

Objectivity And New Realist Painting, Jacky Palman

Masters Theses

This thesis describes the methods of New Realist painting ( also known as Sharp-Focus Realism, Photo-Realism, Super Realism and Hyper-Realism ) and its philosophy of objectivity behind the photographic approach and the choice of subject-matter. It also points out that this aim for total objectivity is ultimately unattainable.

A definition of New Realism in painting follows in Chapter One, which also deals with the factors separating it from other photographically realistic styles - the primary distinction being the constant striving of New Realism for complete objectivity.

Chapter Two deals with the influences responsible for the emergence of New Realism. Pop …

A Philosophy Of Art, Robert Erickson

Masters Theses

There is no universally accepted concept of the nature of art. Many are contented in believing that it is just some mystical quality. However, I believe that art is a basic human trait which has evolved over millions of years. This paper shall explain my own belief as to the evolution of art and how it is used by myself and other artists.

That which we believe to be true is a product of our individual experiences. In technology, religion, and in art there are no universal truths. All human beings percieve the world in different ways.

Two billion years …

The Inevitability Of Abstract Expressionism In America, Brenda Hawtin

Masters Theses

Although a non-figurative, non-realistic art had been invented and developed in Europe during the early part of the Twentieth century, it was inevitable, due to innumerable circumstances, that abstract art should culminate in its absolute expression in America, in the form of Abstract Expressionism, during the 1940's.

The combination of these events - large scale works being executed, the awareness of the innovational developement of European art, the changing attitudes from Americans who had experienced other cultures - put American artists at the point where they were ready to invent their own new style of painting. The large abstract paintings …

David Hockney, Brian Bartlett

Masters Theses

David Hockney is generally recognised as the most talented British artist of his generation. In my thesis I trace his development from his childhood until the present as a figure lionised by the establishment. Hockney has become highly respected, a Van Dyck of contemporary polite society.

I show his place in a line of tradition in English painting, a tradition where painters stress the anecdotal above a purely visual language England has a commanding tradition of literature from figures such as Shakespeare, Bacon, Byron, Tennyson, Keats and Dickens, to name only a few. Due to this English society insisted on …

Surrealism And Abstract Expressionism, Michael R. Robins

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Pottery Industry Of Tazewell County, Illinois, Alice Ann Reif

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

A Comparative Analysis Of Selected Twentieth Century Watercolorists, Bonnie L. Ferguson

Masters Theses

My objectives in writing this paper were to research selected watercolorists whose work I admire and whose work bears a relationship to my own, and to make a comparative analysis. In the process of research, I found that not all of the work of the artists I had chosen related totally to my own, but there was at least one of the basic elements that did apply. I wanted to learn from looking at their work and reading about their philosophies. That I did; and it has stimulated in me many thoughts and plans, wishes to try some of their …

Eight Teacher-Potters, Bob Daugherty

Masters Theses

This paper presents a survey of statements and the works of eight teacher-potters in Illinois. The works range from simple functional ware to funk art objects. The firing temperatures range from low fire white ware to high fire salt. The styles of the work are many; the philosophies of the work varied; and techniques of the work are diversified; but common to each work is its creation from idea to actuality by the teacher-potter. Beyond depicting the work, the paper attempts to establish the teacher-potter who created the work by showing photographs of him and by presenting his ideas and …

Tradition In American Realism, George L. Ganley

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Edvard Munch: Motifs And Motivations, Gordon Moffett

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Interrelationship Between Pop Art And Advertising, John Edward Pajkos

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Symbol Of The Bull As An Art Form, Gary L. Noffke

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Musical Motif In Painting, Jerry A. Martin

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Communism On The Art Of Soviet Russia, Wilma Dell Tipsword

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

Social Implications Of Picture Writing In Modern Society, Charles T. Lowe

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.

The Use Of The Found Object In Dimensional Painting And Its Application To The Elementary, Secondary, And College Art Programs, John Robert Lindstrom

Masters Theses

No abstract provided.