American Art and Architecture Commons^™

Asian America And Empathy: Understanding The Chinese American Experience Through The Art Of Flo Oy Wong, Brienne Wong

Master's Projects and Capstones

This capstone examines how the work of Chinese American artist Flo Oy Wong could be an impetus for dialogue for creating empathy for the Asian American experience. The capstone briefly discusses Chinese American history as the Chinese are one of the earliest immigrant groups to the United States and Asian American art history which demonstrates the role of art for Asian Americans. It also describes the importance of empathy in society and how some museums today are trying to apply empathy to serve their communities. Within this framework, I discuss artist Flo Oy Wong whose ability to tell stories about …

The Sea Ranch: Unforeseen Failures And Statewide Successes Of An Ecologically Conscious Coastal Community, Robert Daley

Senior Theses

The term “residential development” or “planned community” brings to mind images of a stereotypical suburbia. The planned community of The Sea Ranch, along the Sonoma County coast in Northern California is a direct challenge to the suburban ideal. Construction of the nearly 1500 homes began in the late 1960s and continues to present day. All of the homes must meet specific design requirements including being ecologically sound and they must fit within the landscape. The strict architectural elements is what provides the distinct look of the community. The construction of a housing development along a ten-mile strip of untouched and …

North American Indigenous Collection And Curation And Its Impact On Market Arts., Adelaide Mccomb

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the history of two North American Indigenous groups, those belonging to the Great Plains and the Arctic, and observes how settler-colonial influence determined the collection and curation of arts and artifacts in these areas. This art includes a mention of pre-Colombian works, but focuses predominantly on works being made after “first-contact” through the contemporary ear. The paper addresses the effect imperialist history has had on the development of Indigenous art markets, and how institutions such as museums may address them through ethical practices, and efforts to decolonize museum spaces.

Compositional Analysis And Cross-Cultural Examination Of Blue And Blue-Green Post-Fire Colorants On Tolita-Tumaco Ceramics, Breanna Fae Reiss

Art & Art History ETDs

Blue and blue-green ceramic colorants are an uncommon occurrence in the ancient Americas. This paper explores blue and blue-green post-fire colorants used by the coastal Tolita-Tumaco culture of ancient coastal Ecuador and Colombia through compositional testing and cross-cultural comparison. Using X-ray diffraction and scanning electron microscopy coupled with energy dispersive spectroscopy, one sample each of blue and blue-green colorants were tested to identify the mineral composition present. Though the colorants were thought to likely originate from copper carbonates like azurite or malachite, or perhaps even similar to other Mesoamerican pigments like Maya Blue, the blue-green pigment, collected at La Tolita, …

Atlanta Housing Interplay: Reinventing The Digital Monograph, Christopher Sawula

Bucknell University Digital Scholarship Conference

This panel will discuss Atlanta Housing Interplay, a new digital art history project in development at Emory University. The project, focused on the first public housing projects built in Atlanta in the 1930s, seeks to provide a model for a published, digital monograph. The talk will explain the origins of Atlanta Housing Interplay, its structure, and how it will bridge the gap between traditional print scholarship and interactive online projects. The panel will explore the issues of platform, publishing, and target audience and talk about striking a balance between academic research and public history.

The City: Art And The Urban Environment, Angelique J. Acevedo, Sidney N. Caccioppoli, Abigail A. Coakley, Chris J. Condon, Alyssa Dimaria, Carolyn Hauk, Lucas Kiesel, Noa Leibson, Erin E. O'Brien, Elise A. Quick, Sara E. Rinehart, Emily N. Roush, Shannon Egan

Schmucker Art Catalogs

The City: Art and the Urban Environment is the fifth annual exhibition curated by students enrolled in the Art History Methods class. This exhibition draws on the students’ newly developed expertise in art-historical methodologies and provides an opportunity for sustained research and an engaged curatorial experience. Working with a selection of paintings, prints, and photographs, students Angelique Acevedo ’19, Sidney Caccioppoli ’21, Abigail Coakley ’20, Chris Condon ’18, Alyssa DiMaria ’19, Carolyn Hauk ’21, Lucas Kiesel ’20, Noa Leibson ’20, Erin O’Brien ’19, Elise Quick ’21, Sara Rinehart ’19, and Emily Roush ’21 carefully consider depictions of the urban environment …

Modern Arts And Pueblo Traditions In Santa Fe, 1909–1931, Elizabeth S. Hawley

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation examines art produced in and around Santa Fe, New Mexico during the early twentieth century, putting the works of Pueblo artists who lived in the area into dialogue with the works of Anglo-American modernists who traveled there. I take as case studies three artists whose practices are linked by both circumstance and agenda: Maria Martinez, a famed Pueblo potter; John Sloan, a leading member of The Eight and the Ashcan School; and Tonita Peña, a Pueblo watercolor painter. Weaving together Anglo-American and American Indian art history – which are too often bifurcated into separate accounts, omitting rich histories …

Art Of The Harlem Renaissance, Joshua I. Cohen

Open Educational Resources

The Harlem Renaissance of the 1920s and 1930s, known during that time as the Negro Renaissance, affected a sea change in literary and artistic production. Whereas the early-20^th-century avant-gardes in Europe had looked to black culture only as “primitive” inspiration, Harlem Renaissance practitioners asserted their status as agents of modern history and creators of black modernism. This important and tumultuous transformation can be tracked in the artistic expressions of the period, and in relation to key texts that shaped the movement. Planned visits to Harlem sites and collections, as well as to timely exhibitions elsewhere in New York, …

Design Guidelines: A Practical Guide To Preserving The Historic, Cultural, And Architectural Heritage Of Gladewater, Texas, Conor Herterich

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In October of 1930, Columbus Marion Joiner’s oil rig, “Daisy Bradford No. 3,” blew a gusher of oil high into the East Texas sky. The subsequent storm of economic activity that resulted from the discovery of the East Texas oilfield irrevocably changed the built environment of many small towns in the region, including Gladewater, Texas. Oil money that flowed into the city funded a flurry of building projects in the 1930s and 1940s that left an indelible mark on the landscape of Gladewater’s downtown area. Unfortunately, a lack of oversight, planning, and guidance has since led to the deterioration of …

Public Art And Patronage: A Collective Study Of Four Of Buffalo, New York's Early Monuments, 1882-1907, Drew C. Boyle

Museum Studies Theses

The goal of this paper is to investigate the motivations of the patrons behind four of Buffalo, New York’s early monuments. These are the Soldiers and Sailors Monument (1882), the Lincoln, The Emancipator Monument (1902), the Red Jacket Monument (1890), and the McKinley Monument (1907). Each section contains historical context regarding the time period, critical events that influenced the monument, comparisons to similar monuments in the United States, and the narratives of the monument’s dedication and ceremonies. When grouped together, the historical context provided for each monument essentially plays into the motivations behind why each monument was erected. Lastly, the …

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 …

In God We (Dis) Trust: George Washington In The Capitol Rotunda, Josef Riccio

Art Journal

No abstract provided.

Counter Institution: Activist Estates Of The Lower East Side [Bibliography], Nandini Bagchee

New York State City & Regional

In the midst of current debates about the accessibility of public spaces, resurfacing as a result of highly visible demonstrations and occupations, this book illuminates an overlooked domain of civic participation: the office, workshop, or building where activist groups meet to organize and plan acts of political dissent and collective participation. Author Nandini Bagchee examines three re-purposed buildings on the Lower East Side that have been used by activists to launch actions over the past forty years. The Peace Pentagon was the headquarters of the anti-war movement, El Bohio was a metaphoric “hut” that envisioned the Puerto Rican Community as …

Art In The Age Of Financial Crisis, Conor Mcgarrigle, Marisa Lerer

Articles

This issue addresses the long financial crisis of 2008 and the nature and diversity of artistic responses to it. This financial crisis is understood as a globalized result of late capitalism that nonetheless is experienced differently at local, regional, and national levels. It is multi- faceted in nature, a phenomenon that has historical roots and precedents that inform contemporary responses. Artists are not restricted to engage with the economy through one specific vehicle of inquiry or one type of medium and message. Therefore, the central question that this issue poses is: what is the artist’s role in finance, crisis, and …

“After-Ozymandias”: The Colonization Of Symbols And The American Monument, H. R. Membreno-Canales

Theses and Dissertations

After-Ozymandias examines the visual rhetoric of American patriotism through its many symbols, including flags and monuments. My thesis project consists of photographs of empty plinths, objects, products and archival materials. Countless relics remain today memorializing leaders and empires that inevitably declined, from antiquity to modern times. Looking back at distant history feels like a luxury, though: the question for our time in America is whether we have the strength of mind as a society to scrutinize our history, warts and all.

Treehouses: Civilizing The Wildness Of Men And Nature, Courtney Mckinney

English Undergraduate Distinction Projects

In this paper, I explore how treehouses operate symbolically in tandem with culture. Through an analysis of British and American print culture, I argue that the treehouse building project became bound to boyhood at the turn of the twentieth century as the naturalist movement spread and youth organizations embraced treehouses as part of their vision for the development of boys. Parents and youth leaders intend for treehouse projects to build self-reliance, independence, imagination, and courage in their boys. Congruously, this activity associated with a child’s personal growth takes place in an actual growing organism. I analyze how treehouses juxtapose humans …

Painting, Geography, And The Body: Charting The First Two Decades Of Mary Corse’S Art, Sarah A. Meller

Theses and Dissertations

Mary Corse has always maintained her position on the periphery, and her work has generally been excluded from art historical scholarship. This study illuminates the ways in which the first two decades of Corse’s practice were in fact in dynamic dialogue with broader impulses and concurrent trends operating at the time.

Profanation, Tsahi Zac H. Hacmon

Theses and Dissertations

This paper attempts to provoke an Israeli American dialogue that comes through profanity of conventional architecture. I am creating this dialogue by displaying two main subjects in proximity to each other: border architecture from Israel and institutional architecture or non-places in New York.

The Romance Novel Cover, Jessica D. Spears

Theses and Dissertations

Romance novel covers dating from the 1980s and 1990s reflect complex and contradictory ideas about gender, power, and sexuality. The covers overflow with stereotypes of what women are attracted to such as enormous pink roses, lush folds of silk, and hair long enough for Rapunzel. To this socially acceptable women’s imagery, the covers add two less reputable aspects: sexual imagery and, occasionally, suggestions of female submission. Since the association of romance and conventional femininity is so strong, the covers make a visual argument that submission and sexuality are things that a conventional woman wants. Readers have to deal with what …

Art For All: The Artistic Journey Of Julia Elizabeth Tolbert, Julie L. Woodson

Student Scholarship

Progressing from a student, concentrating on absorbing foundational skills and techniques to an intentional, expressionistic painter, Julia Elizabeth Tolbert spent twenty years of her life creating art. Using formal educational opportunities as a way to escape the life intended for her, she found art to be a freeing and meaningful endeavor. She experimented greatly in both style and medium, working with movements such as the Ashcan school, Regionalism, and Cubism and creating works in watercolor, oil, encaustic, pencil, clay, and more, all in pursuit of a professional artistic career. Though physical and visual limitations ultimately prevented her longterm success, Tolbert …

Representations Of Mainstream And Marginalized Subjects In The Work Of Diane Arbus, Grace Short

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

This thesis considers the photographs of the twentieth-century photographer, Diane Arbus. In America during the 1950s and 60s, Arbus photographed both marginalized and mainstream subjects including dwarfs, giants, transvestites, nudists, debutants, socialites, and celebrities. At one point in her career, she expressed an interest in family portraiture and, indeed, a number of her images depict families.

Scholars who have written about Arbus, such as Susan Sontag, Carol Armstrong, Anthony W. Lee, and John Pultz, have formulated theories about Arbus’s motivations, although their findings focus on individual features of her work. Sontag argued that Arbus exploited her unorthodox sitters whereas Armstrong …

Architecture Of The San Francisco Bay Area: The Influence Of The 1915 Panama-Pacific International Exposition, Orion Weinstein

Senior Theses

Just hours after the 1906 Earthquake, Jack London arrived in San Francisco and wrote an article for Collier's Magazine, “The Story of an Eyewitness.” He famously reported, “San Francisco is gone...Nothing remains of it but memories.” The earthquake and subsequent fire left most of San Francisco in ruins; commercial buildings, humble residences and grand estates destroyed. The City was a blank slate and in the process of rebuilding, there was the opportunity to utilize new architectural styles as well as create new architecture; significantly, the Panama-Pacific International Exposition of 1915 (PPIE) provided the impetus as well as the art, color, …

The Disjointed Moment : Marking, Mapping, And Making The Real In William Eggleston's Election Eve (1976)., Joel Darland

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis analyzes the photographic book Election Eve (1976) produced by photographer William Eggleston. Eggleston’s photographs represent a complex network of connections between material objects and the potential truth of depiction. The often-nondescript locations that Eggleston photographed in Sumter County, GA in October 1976 appear specific at the outset, but quickly lose their adherence to the supposed realities that they depict. Since his first major exhibition in the mid 1970s, Eggleston’s photographs have presented difficulty because they from often-disparate material sources. Despite of the complexity of Eggleston’s engagement with both art and non-art photography, scholarship continues describe Eggleston’s “snapshot aesthetic” …

Cellist, Catalyst, Collaborator: The Work Of Charlotte Moorman, Saisha Grayson

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

When classically trained cellist Charlotte Moorman (1933-1991) moved to New York City in 1957, she swiftly positioned herself at the intersection of experimental music, performance, video, and the visual arts. She interpreted works by composers like John Cage, collaborated with artists such as Nam June Paik, and founded and organized the New York Avant Garde Festival from 1963 to 1980. This dissertation argues that Moorman’s career sheds new light on what it meant to be an artist in this post-medium-specific moment and proposes that Moorman’s deterritorialization of authorship exerts pressure on traditional art histories. The generative dynamics of her collaborations …

Interpreting San Francisco Identities, Grace Hanford, Grace Hale

Creative Activity and Research Day - CARD

This presentation provides an overview of the exhibition, Interpreting San Francisco Identities, organized by art history students in ART 200 Museum Studies. This exhibition features rare books, photographs, prints, and other material from the collection of the Donahue Rare Book room. It explores how guidebooks, travelogues, world’s fairs, and various print material have shaped and reflected San Francisco’s various identities over the past 150 years. The exhibition is on display in the Donahue Rare Book room beginning Monday, April 30th.

Modern American Cover Art: The Great Gatsby Through Time, Jessica Harrell

Senior Theses

Book jackets and cover art are, more than anything, an advertising tool used to attract consumers, promote book sales, and establish company identity. F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby is a staple in the canon of American literature whose cover art has drastically transformed in the ninety years since its original publication. This thesis traces these changes over time, focusing specifically on publishing history, art history, American culture, and thematic interpretations. In doing so, I found that the most substantial influences on these covers were publishing house identity, design trends, and available artistic techniques. Ultimately, The Great Gatsby’s cover …

The Influence Of Politics On Modern Art: A Curated Exhibit Of Art Reflecting The 2016 Presidential Election, Naama Malomet

Senior Honors Projects

This project explores the ways in which recent politics in America has inspired contemporary artists to engage in the current political climate and use art as a means of expressing political ideals. Art has been, and always will be, used as one of the ways artists express opinions and ideas. Art engages individuals in visual dialogue, creating conversations between the artist and viewer. It has the power to influence and inspire viewers, directing them towards new ideas and opinions as well as new perspectives on social and political issues. Throughout the history of art, politics and social issues have inspired …

Fusing Both Arts To An Inseparable Unity: Frank O'Hara As A Visual Artist, Daniella M. Snyder

Student Publications

Frank O’Hara, a curator at the Museum of Modern Art in New York and a published poet in the 1950s and 60s, was an exemplary yet enigmatic figure in both the literary and art worlds. While he published poetry, wrote art criticism, and curated exhibitions—on Franz Kline, Robert Motherwell, and Jackson Pollock—he also collaborated on numerous projects with visual artists, including Larry Rivers, Michael Goldberg, Grace Hartigan, Joe Brainard, Jane Freilicher, and Norman Bluhm. Scholars who study O’Hara fail to recognize his work with the aforementioned visual artists, only considering him a “Painterly Poet” or a “Poet Among Painters,” but …

Workshop Program

Colby College Museum of Art

No abstract provided.

Bibliography

Colby College Museum of Art

No abstract provided.