Modern Art and Architecture Commons^™

Art History Zine, Estelle Artus

Open Educational Resources

Open Assignment

Ever-Present: Exposing The Complex Emotions We Try To Hide, Madison Porter

Honors Projects

Through large brushstrokes and bold colors, my paintings are a culmination of who I am and how I see myself in the world. To explore my sense of self, I learned to process my insecurities through intentional compositional choices and experimental color palettes. This series is as authentic as I can be, depicting raw, emotional figurative work, following in the footsteps of my modern artist predecessors.

Initial Type Craft, Micah Angelus

Theses and Dissertations

What kinds of objects can still think when the self-contained aesthetic object can no longer be taken for granted? The historical ruptures that have placed painting under crisis have also brought into view the fallacy of artistic autonomy, raising questions about how value, contemplation, and meaning persist under conditions of deconstruction.

Tainted Love: Examining Romantic Obsession And Relational Tragedy In Modern Art, Caelyn R. Anderson

Visual Studies | Senior Theses

Many viewers are drawn to the period of modern art, as so many unique artistic movements arose under its umbrella. From Cubism to Expressionism, the freedom with which artists experimented with personal styles during this time period resulted in the creation of many remarkable works. This artistic freedom often extended into the social lives of artists, as many of them adopted unconventional bohemian lifestyles. The four couples discussed in this essay: Unica Zürn and Hans Bellmer, Francis Bacon and George Dyer, Oskar Kokoschka and Alma Mahler, and Jeanne Hubertene and Amedeo Modigliani, all had relationships that were fraught and strange, …

Photographic Perceptions: Reconstructing The Life And Career Of Dody Weston Thompson, Virginia Carroll

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis reconstructs the life and career of photographer Dody Weston Thompson (1923-2012), presenting a narrative that has been absent from photographic history. Dody trained beneath significant figures like Edward Weston and Josef Albers, exhibited among some of the most canonical figures in photographic history, and served as a founding member of Aperture magazine—one of the foremost photographic journals to this day. Despite this, there has been no academic scholarship on Dody’s life or career, leaving her largely absent from the art-historical record.

Through the analysis of The Dody Weston Papers at the Ella Strong Denison Library and photographs held …

Queerform/Ing, Matthew Solon-Lee Weimer

Art Theses and Dissertations

My artwork is situated within and around vessels and the Queer Homoerotic World and explores sexuality as a Demisexual within them. This is accomplished through the two processes of my creation, Minivague and Queerform/ing: balancing sexual tension and explicit expression, while subverting traditional norms and stereotypes with queerness to distance oneself from stereotypical Gay Art. Altering/emphasizing makes the artwork more romantic, lighter, whimsical, softer, and tender than the figure/s and the situations actually are. The process is also emphasizing what one sees or wants to be seen. The Pink Boy becomes a celebration of intimacy of any form. I discuss …

The Hospitality Of Doubt, Ian Grieve

Art Theses and Dissertations

This paper discusses the last two years of research toward a Master of Fine Art in Studio Art. I mainly address my painting practice, but while in the program, I have worked in collage, ceramics, intaglio printmaking, and sculpture. My paintings are thick, multilayered, and often contain ambiguous narratives. The pictures develop through engagement, openness, and response within the work. I seek and embrace connection with viewers of the work. The spectator ‘completes’ the art and enhances or alters the artworks meaning by observing it and applying their individual perspectives. I seek to incorporate a sense of nostalgia and familiarity. …

“You Will Never Touch My Roots”, Zari Apodaca

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Zari Apodaca ’23
Major: Studio Art
Faculty Mentor: Professor Judd Schiffman, Art and Art History

An Exhibition of ceramic objects reflecting on genocidal trauma and cultural bereavement in Armenian culture. Through her art, Zari asks questions about the intergenerational effects of exile and persecution. In Zari’s words: “Through multiple ceramic copies of face plaques and head sculptures, I work to understand who I see myself to be, despite feeling so disconnected. I communicate my inner thoughts concerning identity and society through text carved into clay and broken up pieces of faces to better understand the missing gaps in myself.”

The Beehive, The Favela, The Castle, And The Ministry: Race And Modern Architecture In Rio De Janeiro, 1811–1945, Luisa Valle

Dissertations, Theses, and Capstone Projects

This dissertation deploys a multidisciplinary and decolonial framework to investigate the architecture of cortiços, the Favela Hill, the Castelo Hill, and the Ministry of Education and Public Health (MES) building as constitutive of the history of modernization and modernity in the Centro (city center) of Rio de Janeiro, 1811-1945. The first three chapters investigate the distinct geographies, formal and material qualities, and populations of cortiços, the Favela Hill, and the Castelo Hill, as well as their racialization and essentialization by the “unsanitary” and “degenerate” labels bestowed upon these landscapes by the state. Traditional narratives and practices of modern architecture and …

Architecture In Anime: Miyazaki's Motifs, Jack Collins

Honors Projects

Internationally known, celebrated, and respected, director Hayao Miyazaki has become a household name by transforming an industry through his films. This research focuses on Miyazaki’s process and the similarities he shares with architects, both in and out of his works. By initially examining his background, the three motifs of architecture, inspiration, and sustainability are explored through works like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Princess Mononoke and more. The results of this research are to inform fans of both architecture and anime about the connection between someone who designs and builds the world, and one who designs and builds …

Painting Outside Of The Lines: How Race Assignment Can Be Rethought Through Art, Giovanni Mella-Velazquez

Gettysburg Social Sciences Review

For centuries art has been used to make us think about our own human experiences. Unfortunately, works usually reflect the era which they were painted in; this has led to various artists showing, maintaining, and therefore reinforcing racist thoughts in our cultures. Art can be used to create a new narrative for our race assignments and their meanings. The idea of loving one's roots has been prevalent in many cultures, but in art form a disconnect between history and the everyday experience can arise which could miss the mark in helping us redefine our own race. Therefore, artwork which empowers …

Art And Aids: Viral Strategies For Visibility, Stephen Baylor Pillow

Honors Theses

“Art & AIDS: Viral Strategies for Visibility” examines the complex relationships between social stigma, healthcare, homophobia, and mortality, and how these impacted the lives of Western artists and manifested in their works. Most of the art discussed in this thesis was produced during the height of the AIDS crisis (late-1980s to mid-1990s). During this period, gay artists and their allies employed new strategies in their work to inspire activism, and convey intense emotions –– predominantly frustration, grief, and anxiety –– associated with HIV/AIDS. In the U.S., the inaction of the Reagan administration was largely due to widespread homophobia kindled by …

Consumer, Catherine Romsey

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art and Art History

Race To The Finish: An Obstacle Course With A Biological Twist, Kayli Fagan

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Business Management and Studio Art
Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art and Art History

The Button Bash: A Minigame, Miranda Balossi Ventre

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Psychology
Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art and Art History

The Last Prisoners Of War: How Nazi-Looted Art Is Displayed In U.S. Museums, Monica May Thompson

Geifman Prize in Holocaust Studies

How art museums approach NLA is important today because much of the public relies on museums for their education. NLA cases are especially controversial because they are not only legal battles, but ethical ones so museums have to be extra careful approaching them. Even if the museum has won the legal battle the public may not see them as winning the ethical one therefore they might want to avoid displaying this information to the public. However, as we can see with the previous websites, it actually looks worse for museums not to be open and honest about their NLA pieces …

Paper Making: Finding The Scaffold, Tino Ward

Art Theses and Dissertations

Paper making combines my proclivity towards using found materials and the need to produce my own painting supports. This first part of this thesis chronicles the reasons I arrived at paper as my chosen medium, the objects I began to produce, and the projects that stemmed from those early experiments. The second half outlines my final work, a 1:4 scale model in paper of the 1966 exhibition 10, held in New York at the Dwan Gallery, which showcased the early minimal works of Carl Andre, Jo Baer, Dan Flavin, Donald Judd, Sol LeWitt, Agnes Martin, Robert Morris, Ad Reinhardt, …

Requisitioned: American War Art Of The Second World War, Spenser Carroll-Johnson

War, Diplomacy, and Society (MA) Theses

The United States requisitioned artists to assist with military objectives and servicemen requisitioned art as a form of rhetoric. This research reexamines the role of “official artists” and thereby extends its definition to include the multitude of art they produced during the Second World War. The underpinnings of this thesis reside during the economic crises of the 1930s that brought about American emergency relief initiatives for artists under the direction of Holger Cahill and, by extension, Edward Bruce. For the first time in history, the American public engaged with state-sponsored art. Due to a symbiotic relationship that formed between the …

Digital Landscapes Of The Mind, Ashley M. Dicaro

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Health Policy and Management
Minor: Italian and Studio Art
Faculty Mentor: Professor James Janecek, Art & Art History

For my independent study, I used Photoshop extensively. The software allows me to use digital imagery to maintain a specific color palette that translates to the time of day. This color theme is extracted from my personal photographs of favored landscapes, after which I build in layers to create whimsical landscapes. They are whimsical for their non-uniform distortions of perspective and viewing angle, a combination that is amplified by the painterly application of color. Technology allows me to paint, cut, collage …

Mid 20th Century America Through The Words And Lens Of Allen Ginsberg, Lily M. Conover

Art & Art History Student Scholarship

Major: Art History and American Studies
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Deborah Johnson, Art and Art History

Allen Ginsberg began producing provocative poetry in 1955 when he first devoted his life to writing. There was even a court case in 1957 to decide whether or not his most famous piece, Howl, should be banned for its content. All of this press made Ginsberg a famous poet; however, he also had what he called an “amateur hobby,” his photography.

In the same way he wrote, Ginsberg photographed the world around him: members of the Beat Movement, his friends, lovers, etc. Most of the …

Fore And Aft: Abstraction In Tolkien’S “Ishness” Designs, John R. Holmes

Journal of Tolkien Research

Though Tolkien's artwork tended toward the figural, there was a period during his undergraduate years in which he created abstracts under the name of "Ishnesses." This essay examines the nature of abstraction, how it relates to medieval concepts of art, and how it relates to Tolkien's "visionary" painting of subjects not in the primary world but in the Middle-earth of his vast imagination.

Fore and Aft: Abstraction, Vanishing Point and Symmetry in Tolkien’s “Ishness” Designs

Reworking The White-Masculine Ideal, Steven H. Gonzalez

Art Theses and Dissertations

This text functions as an exploration of self through artistic practice, a designated space for reflection on contemporary Queer experience. In looking specifically at the permeation of the idealized-white-masculine figure as found within Western visual culture, social media and gay pornography become isolated as sites where these figures are commonly found. This line of inquiry defines how the ideal is reified through these differing digital platforms and the social implications the homogenized male form has on raced individuals. In addition to determining the image of the perfect masculine physique through research, this text expands on how its' imaged representation becomes …

Constraint And Control, Patricia Ayres

Theses and Dissertations

I have long considered themes of the body. Drawing on my knowledge as a fashion designer, I bring materials and hardware from the fashion industry into my artwork transforming and rendering them non-functional. My sculptures relate to stories of isolation, separation, and confinement. The following pages will analyze how the United States penal system controls, constrains and restricts the body through physical and psychological wounds. Furthermore, they will examine how the Catholic Church controls people’s minds and behavior through a ritualistic belief system.

Enacting The Glastonbury Pilgrimage Through Communitas And Aural/Visual Culture, Kathryn R. Barush

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

The sacred sites of Glastonbury in Somerset, England have long been places of pilgrimage, connected to the legend of the journey of Joseph of Arimathea to the British Isles, and have fired the imagination from the Middle Ages to today - inspiring the Arthurian legends, folk-stories and song, and visual representations. In response to the question ‘What is Pilgrimage,’ this essay seeks to explore the conjunction of artistic representations and geographic journeys to and among the ancient topography and mysterious structures of Glastonbury, with a particular focus on how sacred travel, and especially an experience of communitas, can be engendered …

The Commodity Club: Commodity Fetishism In Modern Art And Tattoos, Shelby Maiden

Undergraduate Honors Theses

The current culture of commodity fetishism that surrounds both modern art and tattoos are disproportionately a part of the perpetuation of an artificial sense of society and community. It promotes the notion that by simply by inking the deeper layers of their skin or by spending millions on a painting that somehow one becomes elevated and enters an elite space, or club, of people like them.

In-Between: The Spaces Of Modernity, Elisa Fabris Valenti

LSU Master's Theses

During the past three years as a graduate student, I have experienced loneliness. Having recently emigrated from Italy, I have often asked myself why I am experiencing such hard times adjusting to a different country. My thesis explores this question. Referring to Marc Augé’s idea of non-place, I have chosen a geographical and spatial starting point to approach my work. Italian cities are built around the central piazza where social, political, and economic life revolves. In my thesis, I depict American spaces that lack specific location and create solitude within the urban corridors. Private feelings, such as loneliness, are paradoxes …

Entartete Kunst: The War Against Modern Art In The Third Reich, Zeynep Kazmaz

Honors Projects in History and Social Sciences

In July 1937, the Nazi Party exhibited a collection of modern artwork confiscated from museums throughout Germany. This display, entitled the “Degenerate Art Exhibition,” was organized to ridicule the artwork being presented. The events that led to such a breaking point had started forming around the early 20th century. In Germany, after the First World War, the blossoming of modern art had coincided with the forming of a racist ideology. Meanwhile, Hitler was also discovering his own racist views and dislike of modern art. An artist who delved into politics, Hitler integrated his artistic views into his political ideologies. Eventually, …

Captive Body, Free Mind: Euphrosinia Kersnovskaia, The Gulag, And Art Under Oppression, Laura G. Waters

Student Publications

This paper examines the art of Euphrosinia Kersnovskaia (1907-1994) as it relates to both the larger experience and narrative of the Soviet Gulag and to the survival of the artist. Larger trends of art made under oppression are used to find reason for such seemingly insignificant acts, and art therapy frameworks provide analytical bases for approach. By looking at such deeply subjective forms of memory and its transcription, individuality and humanity is returned to an inhuman penal system.

Material Poetics, Ellen G. Reid

Masters Theses, 2010-2019

quench: /kwen(t)SH/

a : put out, extinguish

b : to put out the light or fire

c : to cool suddenly by immersion

d : to cause to lose heat or warmth

e : to bring to an end typically by satisfying, damping, cooling, or

decreasing

f : to relieve or satisfy with liquid

This is often how projects begin, a haunting idea, word, or experience inundates my consciousness and sub-consciousness. How could the body directly relate to an experience of quenching? This provoked the idea of the extreme sport: freediving. To adequately depict the definition of quenching, any …

Dinner, Daniel Reuben Baskin

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Dinner is an interactive exhibition which presents appropriated works of art collected and hung in a clustered salon style, as well as a fully realized recreation based on a 16th century Dutch banquet still-life, which presents guests with meats, cheeses, fruits, vegetables, breads, and wine to share and imbibe. Dining ware is provided for guests at the entrance to the exhibit, as are suggested topics of conversation, which are presented on slips of paper for guests to carry with them throughout their time in the space. Within the collection of wall-mounted works are references to ancient Greek and Roman marble …