Modern Art and Architecture Commons^™

Collaboration Revisited: The Performative Art Of Claude Cahun And Hannah Weiner, Phillip L. Griffith

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

In its most common usage in the artistic context, collaboration refers to a practice of creation in which two artists work together to produce a single artwork or object. Collaboration Revisited: The Performative Art of Claude Cahun and Hannah Weiner focuses on the nexus of photography, writing, and performance in the work of six female avant-garde artists from the transatlantic twentieth century, informed by the important place of surrealism in that history, to reconsider this understanding of collaboration. Instead of the notion of collaboration as founded in the experience of two artists working together in each others’ presence, I examine …

On London Ground: The Landscape Paintings Of Frank Auerbach And Leon Kossoff, Lee Hallman

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation is the first critical analysis of the parallel, seven-decade-spanning urban landscape oeuvres of British painters Frank Auerbach (b. 1931) and Leon Kossoff (b. 1926). Since the post-World War II era of widespread political, geographical, and psychological displacement, when the practice of observation-based landscape painting had all but disappeared from international advanced art, Auerbach, who came to England in 1939 as a German-Jewish child refugee from the Nazis, and Kossoff, a first-generation Londoner of Ukrainian-Jewish heritage, have obstinately pursued an art of place. As art students in London, the two simultaneously developed laborious painterly processes of accumulation and scraping …

A Corpus In First-Person: Weegee And The Performance Of The Self, Emily Annis

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the varied platforms that the Austrian-born New York photographer Weegee engaged with to perform his public self-fashioning from the beginning of his career as a news photographer in the mid-1930s through the publication of his first two photo-books, Naked City (1945) and Weegee’s People (1946).

The Possibilities Of The Video Game Exhibition, Elizabeth Legere 2762328

Theses and Dissertations

This paper is an examination of video games as an artistic medium, and of their current presentation in art museums like the Museum of Modern Art in New York, as well as an attempt to come up with better modes of presentation for them within a museum space. Using a general understanding of video game theory and aesthetics, it might be possible to begin to look at solutions to the issues posed by current methods of presentation and interpretation, and to examine whether video games’ complicated aesthetic and artistic importance can be better highlighted by a new mode of display …

Ludic Conceptualism: Art And Play In The Netherlands, 1959 To 1975, Janna Therese Schoenberger

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation, the first extended study on art in the Netherlands in the 1960s and ‘70s, investigates the phenomenon of ludic art, taking its lead from Johan Huizinga’s definition of ‘ludic’ in his seminal Homo Ludens (1938). According to Huizinga, the ludic is characterized by masquerade, freedom, and purposelessness, to which I add my own theoretical contribution—absurdity. I argue that the key instantiation of Huizinga’s ideas is found in the utopian project New Babylon (1959­–74) by Constant Nieuwenhuys. In the 1960s, ludic art was deployed as a strategy of social critique that attacked from an oblique angle, sometimes effectively­, but …

Open Works: Between The Programmed And The Free, Art In Italy 1962 To 1972, Lindsay A. Caplan

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation historicizes and theorizes a group of Italian artists who were among the first to use computers and cybernetics to make artworks, developing the genre of Arte Programmata, or Programmed Art. It argues that the artists of Arte Programmata (Bruno Munari, Enzo Mari, and collectives Gruppo T and Gruppo N) turned to the generative, interactive, and probabilistic aspects of early computers not simply as new media for making art but as platforms for radically altering what it means to be a participant in an increasingly mediated and networked world. This is apparent in how each of their works deploys …

Left And Right: Politics And Images Of Motherhood In Weimar Germany, Michelle L. Vangen

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Art historians and cultural critics have long debated the aesthetic and political implications of the stylistic shift in Germany from pre-war experimentations with abstraction and expressive distortion to more clear-cut figuration in their paintings during the years following World War I. They have questioned whether this shift represents a regressive return to tradition or a new artistic direction and if it should be associated with a reactionary or progressive political stance. This dissertation broadens our understanding of German interwar realism, commonly referred to as Neue Sachlichkeit, by examining representations of mothers, a popular theme in the realist painting of …

I Like America: Painting In The Expanded Field, Isaac Aden

Theses and Dissertations

Using Structuralist theory, Krauss created a Klein group diagram. the diagram included site sculpture, construction, marked sites, and axiomatic structures.Could the same strategy be applied to painting? As I attempted to engage painting from a critical perspective, I formed of a body of work entitled Painting in the Expanded Field.

The Deprivatization Of Art: Dan Graham As An Art Worker, Jordana Cotilletta

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

Public Art Between Authoritarianism And Democracy (The Case Of The Maidan Protest In Ukraine), Asia Bazdyrieva

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the spatial organization and public art of Kyiv’s Independence Square to address broader social and political realities after the Maidan protests of 2013-14. Using theories of power and ideology, this study demonstrates how the discourse on public art reflects the political situation of post-revolutionary Ukraine, and how public engagement with urban space signals a paradigmatic shift in the developing country’s process of self-identification. The purpose of this thesis is threefold: first, to identify the Soviet ideological approach embedded in the spatial organization of Kyiv’s administrative center (including the Maidan); second, to examine artistic interventions at the site …

Gertrudes Altschul And The Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante: Modern Photography And Femininity In 1950s São Paulo, Paula V. Kupfer

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents the work of German-born Brazilian photographer Gertrudes Altschul, who developed a body of modernist photography within the Foto Cine Clube Bandeirante (FCCB) in São Paulo in the 1950s. It underscores her female and immigrant perspective during the transition from Pictorialist to modernist photography in the postwar years.

Provisional Capital: National And Urban Identity In The Architecture And Planning Of Bonn, 1949-1979, Samuel L. Sadow

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation explores the physical transformation of Bonn in the postwar period, with a particular focus on the 1960s and 1970s, as the city accommodated the West German federal government. Bonn’s long campaign in the 1960s to redraw its municipal borders and the federal government’s construction of several high-rises in the city and its neighbor, Bad Godesberg, were the most concrete markers of Bonn’s evolution as a capital city in this period. The complex political processes and sometimes bitter conflicts behind each of these developments paralleled the gradual and successful entrenchment of democracy in the Federal Republic of Germany. At …

Dag Hammarskjöld And Modern Art: An Inquiry Into The Aesthetic Values Of The Second Secretary-General Of The United Nations, Shantala M. Dugay

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis presents original research and previously unpublished information that breaks new ground in the legacy of United Nations Secretary-General Dag Hammarskjöld. By providing a new historical perspective of Hammarskjöld’s aesthetic values, this study forges a place for him in art history as a patron and collector of modern art.

The Artist And The "Information" Machine: Conceptualism, Technology, And Design In 1970, Jeremiah William Mccarthy

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the dialectical relationship between conceptualism and design in the year 1970, by focusing on Kynaston McShine’s landmark exhibition Information, held at the Museum of Modern Art. Specifically, it centers on the understudied “information machine,” a film apparatus designed by Ettore Sottsass, Jr., for use within the exhibition.

Magazine Politics: Edgardo Antonio Vigo’S Diagonal Cero And Hexágono ‘71, Francisco Javier Rivero Ramos

Theses and Dissertations

This research looks at the magazines Diagonal Cero (28 issues, 1962 – 1968) and Hexágono ‘71 (14 issues, 1971 – 1974) edited by Edgardo Antonio Vigo (La Plata, Argentina 1928 – La Plata, 1997) in order to examine the forms of political commentary incorporated into the magazines.

Photographing The "Uncelebrated" Truth: The Newspaper Pm, New York 1940-1942, Nancy Wechter

Theses and Dissertations

The left-liberal NYC newspaper, PM, used photography with unprecedented transparency as a crucial element in its mission to inform ordinary working people, teach them to be literate about the photographic message, and encourage them to be a participating audience during the tense period just before World War II.

David Alfaro Siqueiros’S Pivotal Endeavor: Realizing The “Manifiesto De New York” In The Siqueiros Experimental Workshop Of 1936, Emily Schlemowitz

Theses and Dissertations

The Siqueiros Experimental Workshop, initiated by David Alfaro Siqueiros (1896–1974) in 1936, is often considered a pivotal moment for the artist. This thesis unveils new documentation about the Workshop, illuminating heretofore-unobserved aspects of the group’s governance, political aims, and theoretical framework put forth by Siqueiros in his critical “Manifiesto de New York.”

Response And Responsibility: The War Veterans’ Art Center At The Museum Of Modern Art (1944–48), Laurel Humble

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

From 1944–48 the Museum of Modern Art, New York (MoMA) offered free art classes to World War II veterans through an experimental educational initiative called the War Veterans’ Art Center. This project was run by Victor D’Amico, who served as the museum’s first Director of Education from 1937–69. Building on an existing institutional ethos of experimentation and civil service, D’Amico and his colleagues explored the role of creative engagement in facilitating the transition from military service to civilian life. As they experimented with new pedagogical approaches, they also worked to articulate and share their innovative methods with other professionals and …

Shadows And Light. Ernie Gehr Exhibitions At The Museum Of Modern Art, Sean M. Fuller

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This thesis examines exhibitions and media installations of Ernie Gehr’s work at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), beginning with the pivotal 1970 show Information, which presented four films by Gehr. Wait (1968), Transparency (1969), Reverberation (1969), and History (1970) were screened alongside work by other avant-garde filmmakers and video artists in a circular viewing booth in the gallery space, in a show featuring works now considered masterpieces of conceptual art. It also considers the two site-specific video works, MoMA on Wheels (2002) and Navigation (2002), which Gehr created for the lobby space at MoMA QNS, …

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 …

The Bauhaus Wall Painting Workshop: Mural Painting To Wallpapering, Art To Product, Morgan Ridler

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

The wall painting workshop at the Bauhaus was established in fall 1919, the first semester of the famed and influential German school of art, architecture, and design. Over the course of the next thirteen years, the workshop experimented with many techniques, philosophies, and strategies for painting, coloring, and covering wall surfaces. This dissertation analyzes the evolving approaches of the Bauhaus wall painting workshop. Early Masters of Form, Oskar Schlemmer and Wassily Kandinsky, oversaw abstract and figurative murals like those developed for the 1923 Bauhaus exhibition, and the student wall painters used color to form and mold architectural spaces in, for …

Modernism Contested: Gego's Grids And The Aesthetics Of Temporality, Victoria L. Fedrigotti

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis traces Gego’s contestation of art historical modernism through examining her relationship to the modernist grid and to her modernist genealogy of Constructivism, Geometric Abstraction, and Kineticism. These two nonlinear developments subvert the teleological conception of progress presumed by Greenbergian modernism, and bring forth Gego’s own aesthetic conception of temporality.

The Politics And Aesthetics Of American Art During The Cold War: Commissions For Philip Johnson’S New York State Pavilion At The 1964-1965 World’S Fair, Alexandria Valera

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis explores the social and cultural climate surrounding the art commissions for Philip Johnson's New York State Pavilion at the 1964-65 World's Fair. The research presented herein examines how the economic and cultural climate of 1960's America affected the architectural landscape at the World's Fair and how Johnson's Pavilion was integrated into it. Finally, this thesis examines how artworks by John Chamberlain, Ellsworth Kelly, Roy Lichtenstein, Andy Warhol and others responded to the commercial premise of the fair itself. This thesis argues that ultimately the artworks presented used the language of commercial art to critique the Fair and the …

Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press And Fluxus, Meghan A. Dellacrosse

Theses and Dissertations

"Archival Enactment, Retelling 'The Big Book': Alison Knowles, Something Else Press and Fluxus," positions Knowles’ Big Book (1966) as a case study of historical methodology and interdisciplinary artistic practice in the post-war period. This comprehensive analysis of Big Book, a work of art no longer extant, contextualizes its publisher, Something Else Press through Dick Higgins’ concept of “intermedia,” and important lesser-known junctures relevant to Fluxus and the group’s leader George Maciunas are illuminated. Knowles' early and lesser-known silkscreen paintings are also examined.

Book Review Of A. Victor Coonin, From Marble To Flesh: The Biography Of Michelangelo’S David, Sandra Cheng

Publications and Research

Beginning of Book Review:
“What makes an icon?” is the underlying question of A. Victor Coonin’s book dedicated to Michelangelo’s statue of David. The larger-than-life-size David has a status akin to Leonardo’s Mona Lisa. Its image, whether whole or fragmented, is instantaneously recognizable, making it difficult to look at it afresh, but Coonin manages to reflect on well-trodden ground in a captivating manner. This study demonstrates how the David is more than an embodiment of masculinity but a statue imbued with multi-faceted symbolism that continues to resonate with viewers today.

Preserving The Historic Garden Suburb: Case Studies From London And New York, Jeffrey A. Kroessler

Publications and Research

The garden city or garden suburb was a response to the social and environmental ills of cities at the turn of the twentieth century. Letchworth Garden City, Hampstead Garden Suburb, and Welwyn Garden City were built outside London in the early 1900s, and each remains a highly desirable place of residence today. From the start, each was tightly regulated, and remains so a century later. By protecting the appearance and enhancing property values, the strict application of historic preservation principles contribute to the long-term sustainability of each place. Similar garden suburbs were built in the borough of Queens in New …

Bridging Modernities In Brazil: Progress And Violence In The Work Of Rosangela Renno, Francine Kath

Dissertations and Theses

No abstract provided.

The Socialist Design: Urban Dilemmas In Postwar Europe And The Soviet Union, Elidor Mehilli

Publications and Research

Taking a cue from two books—Stephen Bittner’s account of the “many lives” of the Soviet Thaw and Greg Castillo’s study of the Cold War as a series of battles in design and the domestic sphere—as well as a recent explosion of interest among historians in the Khrushchev era, “spatial history,” material culture, and East–West exchanges, this article addresses the paradoxes of the Thaw as exemplified in urban form. It argues for the interconnected nature of domestic, international, and Eastern bloc- level dynamics by viewing processes of the Thaw simultaneously from the angles of neighborhood, city, and empire. These angles capture …

The Customer At The Brothel: Student Enlightenment Through ‘Degenerate Art, Cheryl Hogue Smith, Maya Jimenez

Publications and Research

This article explores how community college students learned to engage with art and succeed in a learning community class comprised of first-year composition and art history.

The Museum Of Modern Art's "What Is Modern?" Series, 1938-1969, Jennifer Tobias

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

Between 1938 and 1969, the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) poses the question of What Is Modern? (WIM) in a series of books, traveling exhibitions, and a symposium. This dissertation argues for the WIM project as a sustained if minimally effective effort to influence popular American perceptions of modern art, architecture, and design, at the same time embodying tensions inherent to the museum and its notions of that modernism.

MoMA is an unquestionable influence on modern art history. WIM is a significant component of this influence, yet scholarship on the series is minimal. Hiding in plain sight, the series offers …