The James A. Garfield National Historic Site in Mentor, Ohio includes numerous structures of mid 19th century Victorian Era architecture. After the grounds became a national landmark in 1945, all new additions conformed to the existing historic style. This Thesis proposes that the existing visitors center be relocated from the carriage house to a new structure on site. This new visitor center is sensitive to the existing however, visually different. This architectural position is contradictory to previous additions in the past 50 years. Therefore, to draw a parallel and in an effort to allude to the past, the contemporary visitor center contains the same philosophical ideals of the Victorian reform Aesthetic Movement. Three of those ideals that are present in the visitor center include horizontality, dynamic space and honesty of structure. For the Aesthetes, horizontality was an influence from Japanese design, while the creation of dynamic space was meant to create an emotional response. Honesty of structure meant that a building should posses a clear and evident expression of its structural system and materials. In other words, using materials for their own sake. Even though over one hundred years have passed since the beginning of the Aesthetic Movement, this thesis is an exploration and continuation of those main ideals into contemporary architecture. / Master of Architecture

This work examines the complex relationship between gender and the work of women artists associated with the Neue Sachlichkeit. The critical 'realism' of the Weimar Republic has become best-known through the work of artists such as Otto Dix, George Grosz and Christian Schad, but a number of women artists also engaged with the aesthetic, including Grethe Jurgens and Gerta Overbeck. Jurgens and Overbeck were part of the Hanoverian regional variation of the Neue Sachlichkeit which flourished between 1925 and 1938. In this thesis, the works of Jurgens and Overbeck are examined with particular reference to the gender politics of the Weimar Republic. Rather than rely upon masculine-normative practices which privilege individual artists and biographical techniques, this thesis explores four themes in the representations of the artists within the wider context of gendered cultural ideology. The first chapter takes as its theme the asymmetrical situation of men and women with respect to the concept of the 'artist' and evaluates the ways in which women realists of the period produced strong, artistic identities through their art. Chapter Two explores the pervasive association of domesticity with women in terms of the representations produced by Jurgens and Overbeck. The third and fourth chapters turn toward the public sphere and examine the ways in which gender conditioned the responses of the artists to the subjects of other women and politics. This work is vital for three reasons. First, it provides information about the work of a number of artists hitherto under-researched and under-valued. Second, the work attests to the active role of gender in the Neue Sachlichkeit and exposes the male-centredness of the movement. Third, it combines theoretical ideas and practice meaningfully; it is an example of feminist praxis in the study of women artists.

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This thesis is an examination of the concept and the term "superflat" as it is elaborated by the Japanese artist Murakami Takashi in his writings, in the exhibition he curated under the same name, and in his own art. / Its aim is to contextualize Murakami's project on one hand in terms of a similar attempt to define a Japanese national aesthetic in the early 20 th century, and on the other in terms of the 1990's tendency to return to Edo Japan to find the "origins" of Japan's postmodernity. / Murakami's own art is then turned to in order to both elaborate on and test the aesthetic of Japanese art he calls the superflat. This examination of Murakami's art permits the formulation of an aesthetics of Japanese contemporary art and animation even as it will afford an understanding of the "cultural logic" of the digital age that informs Murakami's argument. / Questions important to this project are: Is the articulation of a local aesthetics possible in this globalizing age? What are the aesthetic traits of the digital age? How should the superflat---as both idea and project---be interpreted?

This dissertation looks at some of the most famous structures by talented and cryptic American architect Louis Sullivan (1856-1924) for fusions of Aesthetic Movement surfaces and two-part Classical Monumentality. For architects, the Aesthetic Movement allowed for a greater amount of freedom when it came to sources, massing, and ornament, which resulted in the creation of more highly textured surfaces than ever before. Under raking light, this texture produces some scintillating effects. Sullivan used this textural freedom throughout his career, creating some surfaces that sparkle. It will also be demonstrated that Sullivan changed his drawing style to better articulate his textural visions to others. The second way in which this dissertation looks at Sullivan’s architecture is through the lens of Classical monumentality, specifically that used in Donato Bramante’s Palazzo Caprini (constructed ca. 1512), which is better known today as the House of Raphael. Composed of a basement surmounted by a major order, Bramante’s venerable two-part pattern spawned legions of descendants. This dissertation will demonstrate that Sullivan applied lessons from derivatives of this structure’s facade to a range of building types. Visual analysis of select building facades will demonstrate that Sullivan kept combining these two themes throughout his career.

Textbooks teach architecture as conveniently divided into styles and periods, but in reality styles overlap. At the turn-of-the-twentieth century there were three major architectural and decorative movements in the United States: the Aesthetic Movement, the Arts and Crafts Movement, and the American Renaissance Movement. This thesis shows how superficial stylistic labels can be by comparing two very different-seeming houses of the early twentieth century: The Hapke-Geiger House of ca. 1912 in Chesterfield, Virginia, based on a Gustav Stickley Arts and Crafts design, and the Hunton House of 19 14 in Richmond, Virginia, designed in the American Renaissance style by Noland and Baskervill. These homes are very different from one another, but they have three major similarities: They each use an established plan with no essential connection to the building's supposed style, they mix styles, and they have similar kinds of porches. This thesis will pursue these issues to go beyond the superficial stylistic labels and examine how the three major movements of the time are interrelated.

This thesis deals with the selected topics and themes in the work of John William Waterhouse and its aim is to define the influence of classical tradition in his work, which has not been independently scrutinised. The second and the third chapter discuss the history of research of the work of J. W. Waterhouse, the specific problems associated with research, the aim of the thesis and artist's curriculum vitae. The core of the thesis is in the fourth chapter and consists of selected topics and themes from the work of J. W. Waterhouse: scenes from everyday life, dolce far niente, historical painting, water myths and ancient love myths. Their selection is based on the fashion preferences of displaying the antique motives in the 19th and early 20th century. In particular subchapters of fourth chapter the artist's paintings are compared with the works of his contemporaries and successors in Victorian England and partly in continental Europe. Comparison shows the differences in processing of subject matter, in used techniques, in linkups to the trends in art and in other elements. The end of each subchapter contains the summary of the results obtained from the comparison with the emphasis on the J. W. Waterhouse's contribution to the topic. The final chapters summarize the overall picture of the work of...