This thesis explores changing curatorial strategies at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. This is preceded by an assessment of the Museum of Modern Art’s earlier role in systematizing and defining this field throughout the 1930s and 1940s. Three exhibitions of art from Latin America and Latino art will illustrate how the MFAH contributed to shifts in this field proposing parallel and expanded readings to those first introduced at MoMA. Firstly, the Gulf-Caribbean Art Exhibition (1956) was a collaboration with the Pan American Union. This exhibition was framed by Cold War modernist approaches and a re-imagined geographical conception of the Gulf region. Secondly, Hispanic Art in the United States- Thirty Contemporary Painters and Sculptors (1987) sought to include Latino art and reflect the community in Houston within this mainstream institution. This lead to traditional museum practices emphasising the quality of artworks, while the criteria for selection was based on the ethnicity of the artists. Finally, Inverted Utopias- Avant-Garde Art in Latin America (2004) revised curatorial structures that were based upon the geographical and national survey format. Six constellations emphasising nodal connections between movements from Latin America disrupted established narratives of this field. The extensive use of archival documents further aided this historical review. I will answer how political, diplomatic, social, and art historical contexts have influenced the curation of these exhibitions and the outcomes of each. I will argue that through the location of the MFAH in the south of the United States, this institution is able to experiment with curatorial approaches and contribute to reviewed readings of art and art history in the United States.

Modern art owes a debt to Constructivism. In particular, Minimal art owes a debt to Russian Constructivism. In something akin to the suspension of Lenin’s embalmed body, Constructivism has been suspended since its demise. In this thesis I propose that the short-lived phenomenon of Russian Constructivism was revisited and further explored with the Minimal art moment in the West. Minimal artists in the United States were influenced by the works of the Constructivists, but due to the cold war this influence was suppressed. Constructivism in its original form ceased before the ideas and ideological urges of the Russian Constructivists were fulfilled. This form of art, that had a strong connection with a utopian social ideal, by 1932 was replaced by the officially decreed art of the Stalin era; Socialist Realism. The Constructivist moment did not lead into an artistic cul-de-sac because of the death of Lenin in 1924. The Constructivists have had an influence far beyond the years in which they first flourished and I intend to show that Constructivism has been unfairly misrepresented. From my research there is no question that Minimal art in the United States used Constructivist ideas. But the correlation between Minimal art and Constructivism was obscured by cold war politics, by many of the texts which have discussed Constructivism since, as well as by unconvincing curatorial decisions. This situation has led to an unacceptable degree of misrepresentation of the influence that Constructivism has had on Minimal art. Russian and Soviet Constructivism, rather than being seen as a cultural dead-end, should be viewed as a means by which the freedom to follow a non-representational path for abstract art was secured. Constructivism’s influence on Minimal art has been undervalued. This thesis aims to settle the debt.

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Orientador: Claudete Ribeiro / Resumo: Sem o uso da configuração naturalista, Ziraldo narra os problemas de uma cor deslocada no espectro do nosso imaginário. Flicts é uma cor que não está na caixa de lápis de cor, não está nas bandeiras dos países e não está no arco-iris. Seu primeiro exemplar foi lançado em 1969, pela editora Expressão e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro. O livro Flicts tomado como objeto da presente pesquisa, abrange estudos da segunda edição, 1969, à quinquagésima sétima edição, 2005. Os estudos foram apresentados em três capítulos, sendo o primeiro sobre Ziraldo , sua tragetória como autor/artista, o criador da obra estudade; o segundo para apresentação e análise da obra propriamente dita, Flicts, no seu projeto gráfico original e as reedições modificadas ao longo do tempo, como a palavra e a imagem constroem a significação da obra, e sobre a abtração das formas naturais e sua geometrização, resultando uma simplificação num nível profundo de caracterização do mundo não figurativo, mas figural; e o terceiro destinado ao regbistro da percepção e percursos do leitor, o seu primeito contato e a reflexão do desenvolvimento perceptivo das oficinas de criatividade. / Abstract: Without the use of natulalistic configuration, Ziraldo tells the problems of a dislocated color of the specter of our imaginary. Flicts is a color is not in the box of color pencil, is not in the flags of the contries and is not in the rainbow. Its first unit was launched in 1969, for the publishing company Expressão e Cultura, Rio de Janeiro. Taken de Flicts book as object of the present research, encloses studies of second edition, 1969, fifty seventh edition, 2005. The studies has been presented in the chapters, being the first one on Ziraldo, his trajectory as author/artist, the creator of the studied work; as for presentation and the analysis of the work properly said, Flicts, in its original graphical project and the new editions modified troughout the time, as the word and the image construct the meaning of the work, and on the abstraction of the natural forms and its geometry, resulting a simplification in a deep level of characterization of the world not figurative, but figural; and the third destined to the register of the perception of the passage of the reader, its first contact, and the reflection of the development of the children in creativity workshops. / Mestre

This study attempts to explore and elucidate the nature of the Diaghilev Ballets Russes' production of Le Pas d'Acier, (1927). Its focus is the contribution of the Russian artist and scenic designer, George Jakulov. The thesis is accompanied by a model through which the study has undertaken a practical exploration of Jakulov's designs for Le Pas d'Acier, and the problems and possibilities of their reconstruction. Focussing on Jakulov's set design, this study explores the problems involved in the historiography of Le Pas d'Acier, producing a `natural history' of the research process. The study considers Jakulov's designs, concept and approach through locating and analysing primary source material. Presenting some previously unpublished materials, it explores the chronology of the design process and the nature of Jakulov's designs and concept. It identifies two distinct phases in the ballet's development; the production of the first scenario in 1925, (produced by Jakulov and Serge Prokofiev along with the music and designs), and the ballet's realisation in 1927. By comparing source materials relating to these two phases, the study identifies and explores the production's adaptations to the 1925 concept and designs. It then seeks to draw conclusions as to the significance of developments and departures. Locating, analysing and then using a variety of source materials, including contextual study of Jakulov's oeuvre and review descriptions, the study explores theoretically, and practically via the model, problems and possibilities in reconstructing the set design.

This dissertation seeks to explore how national identities were manifest in eighteenth-century Scottish art. Understanding national identity to be a cultural and political phenomena, it considers symbols of national identity and examines in aesthetic and economic terms how the fine arts were both implicated in, and capable of expressing, the significant changes in national identity apparent in Scotland following the ’Forty-Five. The first chapter concerns itself with the issue of art and identity in Scotland between cl750 and 1800, and surveys the relevant literature, before introducing other significant issues pertinent to this research: the Enlightenment and Improvement. Chapter two recognises that previous studies of Highland portraits have examined them from an ‘external’ perspective. It investigates the implications of this for the viewer, and proceeds to analyse them from an ‘internal’ perspective intended to reveal the sitters’ motivations, to conclude that they are aristocratic images of authority, and its loss. The construction of the myth of the Highlands is thus expounded visually. If these symbols offer little evidence for an identity in flux, it is questionable whether individuals’ portraits can express national identity. Yet such a claim, it will be argued in chapter three, can be made through the desire to collect and order portraits by nation, and its relation to the Enlightenment discourse of the role of the individual in forming civil society. In this context, in chapter four, the aesthetic qualities of Allan Ramsay’s 1753-4 portraits will be argued as having been of particular significance to their Scottish sitters, being formed by Ramsay’s participation in Enlightenment Edinburgh society. Evidence for this position will be adduced through his paintings and writings, though the influence of physical setting is also considered. Finally, in chapter five, a study of Edinburgh art markets in comparison with those of English provincial cities addresses the question of whether Scotland was a nation, or province of England. The synthesis of existing literature and an original survey of art-related newspaper advertising reveals the Edinburgh market to be distinctive, though increasingly reliant upon London. The co-existence of local and national culture is found to be an important dialectic in the market, just as the dialectic between Scottish and British culture was found to be so generally in this dissertation. In conclusion, chapter six argues that while Scottish art must be considered as part of the history of British art, the desire amongst Scots to be part of a British nation was a significant force in shaping Scottish visual culture.

This thesis examines the works of three ‘forgotten’ British artists, working from the late nineteenth century and well into the 1920s. In a period which saw momentous changes associated with the onset of modernity, artworks appeared to speak of revivalism, tradition, even nostalgia, rather than the new. Thomas Cooper Gotch, Robert Anning Bell and Frederick Cayley Robinson shared an interest in the spiritual, the unseen and immaterial, which they expressed through representations of women, placing faith, broadly, in ‘the feminine’ as synonymous with humanity’s neglected ‘spirit’ in the modern, materialistic world. The eclectic and contradictory nature of the artworks examined, their complex and ambiguous representations of womanhood and female spirituality were expressive of the condition of modernity in its rich, varied forms. These artworks are analysed in the context of an important historical moment for the feminist movement, since all three artists addressed the explosion in female agency related to contemporary feminism, the ‘gender crisis’ and the Suffragette movement. By placing artworks in this context, I have attempted to bring women, their presence in the public sphere and visual culture, their discovery of a ‘feminist voice’ in this period, into the frame. Women imagined invigorating movements, from the confines of the domestic interior into the airy heights of mountain tops, using languages of righteousness and joyous expectancy, and the artworks examined provide visual analogues and commentaries on these feminist possibilities and new imaginative aspirations. While all three artists mediated the visual ‘types’ of womanhood available within art languages, they created quite distinct images of women. Representations range from Gotch’s female Messiah, where woman’s spiritual power originates in her innocence and purity, Bell’s images of Amazonian strength allied with a closer female relationship with nature, to more occult versions in Cayley Robinson’s paintings, related to theosophy. The artworks participated in a tremendous moment of hope for women in their endeavours toward autonomy and fulfilment. In presenting women’s spiritual role as humanity’s redeemer, these paintings reveal how art may envisage intangible forms of spirituality and emancipatory possibilities.

This thesis will seek to illustrate the social and cultural role which the European Fallow Deer has played in the period 6000 BCE – 1600 CE by investigating cultural depictions of the animal. These cultural depictions take various forms, in material culture, iconography and literary works as well as in its conceptions and classifications. Taking specific examples of practices throughout the eras, each will be examined in regard to the historical, cultural and ecological contexts and the fallow deer itself. Although many depictions, especially from earlier eras would appear scant, and later depictions are very geographically and culturally specific, the perception of the deer by cultures is a worthwhile and meaningful exploration. This present work gives particular attention to the ancient Greeks, the Thracians, the Romans, and the medieval British, who all appeared to invest heavily in the species and in its cultural depictions and movements. Depiction of fallow deer will be discussed from the Neolithic period, through the medieval until the 17th century at around the time the medieval emparkment and sovereignty systems ended. Whilst fallow deer has become a staple for the many deer parks of Europe, and has been introduced across the world, historical research into the human approaches and efforts shown towards the animal by species and classifications has been minimal. As part of an AHRC funded project, this species of deer has been subject to intensive study. It is hoped that this research will complement the project’s work and that a better understanding of the human perception and efforts regarding the animal may be attained.

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The topic of my research is the irrational and the ways it was accommodated through the visual arts of the modern era. In particular, I explore this theme through the relationship between Dionysos and Apollo. Ever since Nietzsche's 'Die Geburt der Tragodie' (1872), the polarity of the two gods has been codified in Western culture. Yet while their discrepancy as opposites has been widely discussed, they are two sides of the same coin, sharing similar traits since Antiquity. Beginning with an introduction on the cultural climate of the nineteenth-century, I argue that Nietzsche's principles had been anticipated by the exponents of German Romanticism and found earlier sources in the Humanism of fifteenth-century Italy, when Plato's writings in praise of 'madness' were rediscovered. While investigating significant aspects of Western cultural heritage, I trace the sources of Nietzsche's ideas, confronting these with examples from the visual arts. To this end, I first re-consider the ancient Dionysos and his transformation in the Middle Ages. I then analyse which aspects of the god were favoured in the Renaissance and which Dionysian narratives were re-produced. Within this framework, I assess the multifaceted character of the god and the meanings he acquired according to different periods, places and requirements. `Bacchus, id est vinum' recites a popular formula, but from Michelangelo to Caravaggio and beyond, this was not the only Dionysian guise to be known in the modern era. While often represented as a merrymaking god of nature, either alone or participating in Bacchanals and his Triumphs, darker aspects could be chosen to represent his world. It is the madness and disorder, as well as the reasons for their revelation (or omission) in specific contexts that I explore, in the belief that they provided the roots for Nietzsche's dualistic formulations and many a modern coniunctio oppositorum.