Modern Art and Architecture Commons^™

Essential Caretaking For Artists With Disabilities: Exploring The Overlooked Histories Of Hazel Knapp And Grandma Moses, Bryan P. Martin

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores the intersection of disability studies and art history, addressing the underrepresentation of disability in scholarship, especially concerning medical sociology and caretaking. Focusing on two early-twentieth-century self-taught American artists, Hazel Knapp (1908–95), who fell into obscurity, and Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961), best known as Grandma Moses, this is a comparative analysis of how disability influenced their artistic practices and shaped their divergent career outcomes. Knapp was born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, and fell into obscurity due to a lack of support for her condition, but experienced a promising start to her career that included patronage …

Artist-Scholar: Tradition And Modernity In The Work Of Tseng Yuho, Jennie Tang

Theses and Dissertations

Chinese American artist-scholar Tseng-Yuho (1925-2017) developed an original, modern style called dsui hua based on her extensive knowledge of traditional Chinese ink art and scroll mounting techniques, Chinese and Western art history, and experiences living in or travelling to mainland China, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Paris, Hawai‘i, and New York.

The Portrait And The Pedagogical Object: Art, Advertising, And Commerce In The Works Of Marcel Broodthaers, 1968-1971, D'Arcy Blake

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis examines the opposition of language and object and the roles of art, poetry, advertising, and commodity in Marcel Broodthaers’s van Laack ad (1971). Through a theoretical analysis of Broodthaers’s works from 1968-1971, this study situates the enigmatic van Laack ad as one of the Belgian artist’s most significant, yet overlooked artworks.

Satirical Dissent: The Subversive Messaging Of Ad Reinhardt’S 1946 And 1961 Art Comics How To Look At Modern Art In America, Julie A. Schumacher

Dissertations and Theses

Through a close analysis of Ad Reinhard's 1946 and 1961 art comics "How to Look at Modern Art in America,” examined in the context of their times, this paper will argue that Reinhardt’s idealist view and involvement with abstraction, as he saw it in its “purest” form, was intrinsically formed and shaped by his Marxist anticapitalistic perspectives in response to his concurrent time. When these works are examined through the lens of Reinhard’s socialist politics, a parallel narrative surfaces where “pictures artists” also signifies capitalism and its capacity to harmonize and contaminate.

Of Homespun Opulence: An Analysis Of Jane Freilicher's Pastoral Abstraction In Parts Of A World, Grace Wolfe

Anthós

During a period of bold abstraction and American individuality, Jane Freilicher’s landscape and still-life paintings stand out for their figurative nature. Her use of color and tone to conjure the simple pleasure of life at home enrapture the viewer in a simultaneously universal yet personal experience. Upon closer inspection of her work, it becomes clear that although figurative in nature, Freilicher’s paintings abstract the pastoral to express identity in an urban environment. This essay examines Freilicher’s 1987 work, Parts of a World, in context with pastoral works throughout art history to understand the ways in which Freilicher both reflected …

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 …

Artists' Genres: A Brief Introduction To Post-Medieval Western Art, Robert Jensen

Art and Visual Studies Faculty Book Gallery

Artists' Genres is a brief introduction to the history of post-medieval Western art organized by the major genres. The book is designed as a basic textbook for high school- or introductory college-level courses or for individuals simply looking for an interesting guidebook into the art of this period and geographical region.

This is the revised edition of Artists' Genres: A Brief Introduction to Post-Medieval Western Art, which was released in 2018.

Ilya Repin In Paris: Mediating French Modernism, Allison Leigh

Department of Visual Arts

This article explores the development of a singular painting by Russia’s most famous realist painter, Il’ia Repin. First exhibited under the title Un café du boulevard, the work was conceived during Repin’s stay in Paris from 1873-75. Repin himself described the work as “the main types of Paris in their most typical place,” but what he produced proves a departure for the young artist not only in terms of its Parisian subject matter. Careful analysis of Repin’s letters and the work itself show him searching for a stylistic language that had universal translatability in this moment, one that he importantly …

Men's Time: Pavel Fedotov And The Pressures Of Mid-Nineteenth-Century Masculinity, Allison Leigh

Department of Visual Arts

For seven weeks in the spring of 1835, the Russian painter Pavel Fedotov kept a journal. He was, in these months, still an officer serving in the Finland Regiment of the Imperial Guards in St. Petersburg, but he was ultimately to become known as Russia’s most celebrated early realist painter. The journal preserves in unusual depth of detail the monotony and perpetual sameness which characterized life for the nineteen-year old officer as he grew his painterly skill. Examining it, along with a small cluster of the artist’s paintings and drawings, shows that the repetitiousness found in the journal also characterized …

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.

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 …

Art 55 History Of Modern Art, Deborah Lewittes

Open Educational Resources

No abstract provided.

Circulations, Resémantisations. Le Palimpseste Aporétique, Béatrice Joyeux-Prunel

Artl@s Bulletin

Pourquoi trouve-t-on si peu d’études sur les resémantisations à l’œuvre dans les circulations artistiques ? Pourquoi dispose-t-on encore moins de théorie générale pour comprendre ces resémantisations ? Ce papier, s’interrogeant sur les questions que lève une approche circulatoire de l’histoire de l’art, passe en revue les méthodes et les sources qui peuvent contribuer à y répondre. Qu’est-ce qui porte le sens d’une œuvre d’art ? Comment le sens se constitue-t-il et évolue-t-il selon les temps et les lieux ? Quels sont les facteurs qui le font changer ? Quelles sont les conséquences possibles d’une resémantisation artistique ? Y a-t-il des …

Anxiety Through Art, Brianna Mclean

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Artists Louise Bourgeois, Salvador Dalí, and Francisco de Goya were all successful artists who used their varying degrees of anxiety or fear to aid their work. In a survey of their lives, and a brief exploration of their work, one will come to understand the personal events that contributed to the fear-inducing tones of their art. Their willingness to air their personal grievances has given them credibility in the art world to this day.

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.

Women Surrealist Photographers And Their Response To The Objectification Of Women In Male Surrealist Art, Lois X. Nguyen

UROP Posters

Objectification of women in Male Surrealist art depicted the male gaze in its darkest form, through the ideas of the uncanny, fetish, and convulsive beauty. Women were treated as objects throughout Surrealist photography and painting instead of as human subjects. Their femininity and beauty were valued to the extent of held belief that a woman’s destiny is to be beautiful and be present for the male gaze. Women Surrealists have gained notoriety in the last sixty years for their presence in the Surrealist movement and for their diligence in providing the female perspective in opposition to the male perspective.

This …

George Barbier And The Art Deco Era: A Love Story, Elly Vander Kolk

Academic Symposium of Undergraduate Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Art Is Dead?: A Criticial Analysis Of Arthur Danto's End Of Art Theory, Laura M. Ginn

Honors Theses

The idea of art as a reductive process is not new within the art world. In 1953, Robert Rauschenberg created the piece "Erased DeKooning" for which he erased a painting by DeKooning and displayed the end product (a blank canvas). The author found herself considering the way in which art has changed over the course of the twentieth century. The 20th century could be viewed as a time in which the main purpose of art was to destroy all artistic conventions and redefine art. Some would say art has come out unfocused and without a purpose. The author explores the …

Entropy And Dialectic: The Signatures Of Robert Smithson, Gary Shapiro

Philosophy Faculty Publications

It has been the fate of a number of twentieth-century artists that the stronger their attacks on the history and traditions of art, the more joy is taken by the guardians of that history and tradition in demonstrating that their work and thought can be incorporated within it. This can be illustrated briefly by juxtaposing Robert Smithson's apparently radical rejections of art history, humanism, biologism and formalism, with some recent attempts to recuperate his work for a tradition. Smithson, you will recall, sought alternatives to museum culture in a series of actual and projected works that aim at effecting a …