Theory and Criticism Commons^™

Neither Innocent Nor Illicit: Breaking The Gaze In Lisa Yuskavage’S Candy-Colored World, Kristin Kiley

MA Theses

This thesis examines the evolution of Lisa Yuskavage’s female nude. Drawing on theorists such as John Berger, Lynda Nead, and Laura Mulvey, this study explores how varying perspective dictates the very meaning of nudity in conjunction with sex. Through a deep analysis of Yuskavage’s oeuvre, tracing her progression from the submissive, Kewpie-like sex babies of the 1990s to the introspective multi-figure compositions and studio scenes from the 2000s up until the 2020s, the audience discovers that their ultimate discomfort with sexually engaged women positions them as antagonists in Yuskavage’s candy-colored world. From the 1980s to the present day, this thesis …

Beyond Recognition: The Surrealist Strategy Of Face Concealment In The Portraits Of René Magritte And Ewa Juszkiewicz, Darina Kravchenko Eldridge

MA Theses

This dissertation investigates the evolution of the Surrealist strategy of face concealment from a modernist device of perceptual estrangement into a contemporary tool of feminist and postcolonial critique within portraiture. By obscuring the most recognisable marker of identity, it evokes a complex and unsettling emotional response in the viewer, transforming the act of looking at another person into an encounter with absence. The study situates this transformation within broader aesthetic and ideological discourses, drawing on feminist art history as articulated by Linda Nochlin and Griselda Pollock, alongside John Berger’s Ways of Seeing, Jacques Derrida’s hauntology, the Zeigarnik effect and Guy …

Echoes Of A Country In Question: Visualizing And Constructing Lebanese Identity Through Contemporary Artistic Practice At The Venice Biennale, Anoush Manoukian

MA Theses

Historically (and presently) riven by sectarianism, struggling with massively degraded infrastructure, and seething with starkly apparent class divisions, Lebanon has long been tied up with bloody postwar politics, paralyzed by innumerable crippling setbacks on its path to recovery. During war, images of conflict have been plastered across media stations, firming the country’s place in the global conversation and imagination; everyone had heard about Lebanon, and people from the art world were attracted to the work being produced in Beirut: a localized body of work that was thematically interesting, formally unique, aesthetically neoconceptual and allegorical in approach. Unresolved conflicts have long …

The Categorisation Of Different Periods In Indian Art & The Market’S Role, Devashi Jain

MA Theses

When one thinks of Indian art, a broad spectrum of types of art & periods come to
mind. Each period is marked by distinct differences in style, influence, medium and
more, yet a significant number of these periods are grouped together, despite the
differences. Indian art is traditionally seen on the market under the Antiquities, or
Modern & Contemporary category in spite of the distinguishable differences in the
aesthetic, and cultural context. These categories inform market perceptions, value of the works as well as preferences of the collectors, and hence it is imperative to have well defined categories. This paper …

Take Shrigley’S Word For It, Mary Gurley

MA Theses

This essay investigates the complexities of text-based art and contemporary conceptualism by focusing on David Shrigley’s work. By exploring the origins, evolution, and function of language-based practices, Take Shrigley’s Word for It emphasizes the artist’s use of text across various mediums, all of which occupy textual fields, blurring the line between commercial and fine art. Despite Shrigley’s extensive career, limited scholarship exists on his eccentric pairing of words and visuals, as well as his abundant spaces dedicated to sales. This paper also considers how Shrigley transformed the practice of text-based art by making it accessible and relatable to wide ranging …

Artistic Interventions In The Public Sphere: Keith Haring & Jenny Holzer, Matilde Sirolli

MA Theses

This thesis investigates the intersection of art and the public sphere in late 1970s and 1980s New York, a period characterised by significant socio-political and cultural transformations. Grounded in Jürgen Habermas’ conception of the public sphere, the study examines how the unique historical phenomena of the period yielded unprecedented opportunities for artists to intervene in the public sphere. The research provides a comprehensive analysis of the period’s political, economic, cultural and sociological landscapes. It then delves into case studies of Keith Haring and Jenny Holzer, exploring their distinct approach to public engagement: Haring’s blend of art, commerce and populism, and …

Digital Reproduction: The Degradation Of Art Viewership, Zoe Wallis Weingarten

MA Theses

This thesis explores the impact of the ease of photographic reproduction on the
/="/">experience of contemporary art viewership. This study establishes historical precedent and explains the phenomenon of the serial photographic reproduction of works of art by contemporary audiences. In doing so, the thesis identifies the implications of reproductions on the original work of art they replicate as well as the consequences of such reproduction. The photographic duplication of artworks in the museum allows the viewer to recommodify the artwork, become its quasi-possessor, and alter its meaning and function. This study is centered around the argument that this widespread …

Warhol Uncovered: From Byzantium To Pop, Kassandra Ibrahim

MA Theses

Despite being one of the most extensively researched artists of the twentieth century, Andy Warhol’s identity as a Carpatho-Rusyn Byzantine Catholic is often omitted by a majority of sources. Inspired by the 2020-2021 exhibition Andy Warhol: Revelation, this thesis examines the aesthetic influence that the artist’s religious upbringing had on his oeuvre. By examining Eastern Christian icons and church interiors, I define key characteristics of the Byzantine aesthetic — gold grounds, stylized frontal figures, flattening of depth, seriality, excessive decoration, etc. — and identify its usage in Warhol’s Pop Art. I also explore the Carpatho-Ruysn folk art tradition of pysanky …

Paths To The Abstraction: Kandinsky And Rothko, Vera Schueler

MA Theses

This thesis explores the artistic journeys of Kandinsky and Rothko, focusing on underlying motivations that led them towards the realm of abstraction. Kandinsky and Rothko played pivotal roles in the development and advancement of abstraction in the art world. They shared the belief that only non-figurative art had the power to convey deep meaning and evoke profound emotions, going beyond mere representation of the physical world. Despite their divergent artistic paths, artists were united by the idea of the transformative power of artistic expression and aimed to transcend to the viewer the energy and concepts of their vision through delving …

“How Did Guernica Become The Important Painting And The Universal Symbol It Is Today?", Or Lebel

MA Theses

This thesis explores the intriguing journey that propelled "Guernica" from the initial obscurity of a commissioned artwork to its current status as a globally recognized symbol. The research unravels the multifaceted processes that have contributed to the transformation of a relatively overlooked artwork into an important painting and a universal emblem of protest, antiwar, and hope. The research addresses the fundamental question of how "Guernica" evolved into an important and universally recognized painting. Answering this question allows me to explore and explain how "Guernica," despite its lack of immediate recognition, grew to possess an enduring significance. The research also tackles …

Spirituality And Abstract Art, Hao Zheng

MA Theses

Through a close analysis of abstract art and metaphysics (ontological and psychical), the paper examines how metaphysics might be related to abstract art, as well as the early emergence of abstract art in diverse cultures around the world, and its development from the 19th to the 20th century in the modern art world. The paper conducts an examination of some modern abstract art pioneers, as perceived by general public, such as Wassily Kandinsky and Agnes Pilton, who
experimented with the art form in the 19th and 20th centuries, and their intentions based on metaphysics: spirituality and mythology are included in …

On Curation: A Hermeneutical Approach, Elisabeth Yumin Kröber

MA Theses

Starting point of this paper is the philosophical field of hermeneutics.
/="/">Hermeneutics was established to account for different conditions of understanding
/="/">and how they shape our interpretative processes. As different times constitute
/="/">different conditions, the goal of the discipline essentially is to bridge the temporal
/="/">gap between the creation of a work and its perception at a given point in time.
/="/">Whereas traditionally, understanding was a matter of analyzing the historical
/="/">tradition of author/artist and reader/viewer, nowadays, the perception and
/="/">interpretation of art is shaped by another instance, the curator. Under the premise …

The Artist As Surveillant: The Use Of Surveillance Technology In Contemporary Art, Claire O'Neill

MA Theses

Artists have long been called observers, voyeurs, and watchers, and with a
/="/">particular interest in human behavior and society, they frequently use unknowing
/="/">passersby as their subjects for works. Curators and scholars explored how artists put citizens under surveillance with photography and videography, which dates back to the early 1900s, years before governments deployed surveillance systems. Since the 1980s, artists have explicitly explored surveillance technology and theory to alert viewers to the rise of surveillance. Today, this genre is called artveillance, a term coined by Andrea Mubi Brighenti in 2010 to categorize art that explicitly deals with surveillance. …

Contemporary Textiles: Unraveling White Feminist Discourse, Meredith Friedman

MA Theses

In recent decades, attention to textile art has flourished. The growth of contemporary studies committed to revising fiber’s hierarchical categorization represents a discursive turn heavily weighted within feminist inquiry. The interrelation between textile techniques and constructs of femininity and domesticity was at the base of a robust interdisciplinary field of feminist theory developing around the 1970s in the US. Often referred to as the second wave of feminism, this era experienced scholars and artists proposing the medium’s capacity to counter the elusive genre’s marginalization and, by extension, presenting textile’s ability to subvert notions of gender difference. This analysis aims to …

On The Fluidity Of Honey And Fugitivity Of Sound In Trauma, Ecstasy, And Black Radical Tradition, Evgenia Grant

MA Theses

From Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenological perspective to Derridean postructuralist view, to an intersectional force traversing somatic, social, political, and cultural, sound, in its non-linear epistemology, breaks barriers between forms and escapes any structured definitions. Like the insidious stickiness of honey, sound’s viscosity invaginates, spreads onto the interior, and, by triggering memories and the somatic, threatens the very totality of our identities. At that rupturing moment, we are not the ones subjecting sound to be known as an object; instead, in its fugitive protest and agency, sound flips the roles of the knower and the known and establishes new possibilities of relating to …

“Whose Utopia?” Kimsooja & Bottari Utopia, Younghee Kim Wait

MA Theses

This thesis will explore the progressive evolution of utopia and utopianism in order to answer the question: “Whose utopia?" in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on people who were already marginalized, disadvantaged, and discriminated against.

I will first review the writings of Sir Thomas More, Ernst Bloch, Michel Foucault, Edward Said, Owkui Enwezor, and Jose Estaban Muñoz tracing the progressive evolution of utopian ideals. I will then introduce and survey the artist, Kimsooja’s oeuvre in relation to salient features from my review of utopia's progression, and gradually revealing her aesthetics of making as revealing utopian …

Thoughts Around The Psychological Attributes Of Fascist Aesthetics, Carolina Mimi King

MA Theses

This paper aims to outline a series of thoughts around the topic of fascist aesthetics. In 1981, Benjamin Buchloh argued that the revival of representational forms after abstraction signaled a political regression toward authoritarianism. It is the hope of this analysis to expand on Buchloh’s argument in light of the recent claims of fascist revival, particularly in the United States. Looking at aesthetic examples of definitive fascism from the early 20th century as well as the aesthetic culture from the latter part of the 20th century around the time Buchloh was writing, this project can function as a lens through …

Land Art : True Capitalist Art, Annie Gustafsson

MA Theses

Land art is known to exist in remote locations, are immense in scale, are site specific and are incredibly costly to create. All of these traits make Land artworks inherently resistant to conservation and the secondary market.

If these artworks do not present an obvious investment opportunity, how then can an art movement like Land art even exist? What is its role in a capitalist driven society, if it cannot perform as a financial asset? Where then does the value in Land art lie?

This paper will attempt to explore the cultural effects on the movement, the subsequent methodologies developed …

Contemporary Methods Of Preserving Land Art: A Case Study Of Robert Smithson's Spiral Jetty, Samara Johnson

MA Theses

The preservation and conservation of Land art has become an increasingly complex and urgent issue as important Earthworks created in the late 1960s and early 1970s continue to age. They present a variety of challenges—both physical and philosophical—to those tasked with maintaining them. Using Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty (1970) as a case study, I have outlined four key guidelines for maintaining and preserving works of Land art. In order to survive, the artist’s intention intact, these works require collective stewardship, an interdisciplinary approach, the promotion of responsible visitorship, and an extension of the museum model. Today, social media has presented …

How Do You Depict The Life Of A Soul?: Word And Text In And As Image In Soviet Nonconformist Art, Matthew Blong

MA Theses

Visual artworks by Soviet nonconformist artists, especially those associated with the Moscow Conceptualist and Sots-Art movements of the mid-1960s to mid-1980s, prominently feature experimentations with word and text—both in and as image—for a wide variety of reasons that have been studied by scholars of Soviet and Russian art.

In this paper, a formal and conceptual analysis of nearly thirty text-and-image artworks by nonconformist artists of the period traces the motivations and inspirations for this highly creative and generative practice. Beginning with the desire to resume where the historic Russian avant-garde had left off, these artworks challenge notions of language as …

The Capitalist-Marxist Dichotomy Within The Hudson River School: Conceptualizing American Property Through The Career Of Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910), Astrid Tvetenstrand

MA Theses

The Hudson River School artistic movement has been regarded as one of the foremost examples of American painting. These images of landscape have embodied the spirit of the United States and its perpetually changing relationship with nature. While these nineteenth-century paintings are consistently analyzed through the lenses of Romanticism and Idealism, there is a lacuna in the narrative which accentuates economic and political philosophies as important influencers of these works. The impact of capitalism and Marxism is identifiable through not only the country’s economic system, but also the nation’s artistic movements. These theories are well-defined by paintings highlighting northeastern agrarianism …