The Great Plains are prevalent among the literature of the nineteenth century, but receive hardly a single representation among the landscapes of the Hudson River School. This is certainly surprising; the public was teeming with interest in the Midwest and yet the principal landscape painters who aimed to represent and idealize a burgeoning America offered hardly a glance past the Mississippi River. This geographical silence is the result of a tension between idealistic and empirical representations of the land, one echoed in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Prairie, Washington Irving’s A Tour on the Prairies, and Margaret Fuller’s Summer on the Lakes, in 1843. Margaret Fuller’s more physical and intimate Transcendentalism unifies this tension in a manner that heralds the rise of the Luminists and the plains-scapes of Worthington Whittredge.

Cette étude a pour objet l’ensemble de l’oeuvre de l’artiste afro-américaine Kara Walker, de 1994 à 2009. Fondé sur une approche pluridisciplinaire qui fait intervenir les Études américaines, les Études afro-américaines, l’histoire de l’art et l’esthétique, ce travail met au jour la récurrence de la violence dans l’oeuvre. Mettant en concurrence les propos de l’artiste et ses créations, il tente de dégager les constantes et les évolutions d’une oeuvre qui s’appuie sur une esthétique de la cruauté, et repose sur l’équilibre fragile entre la beauté et l’horreur. L’oeuvre de Walker ayant fait l’objet d’une controverse qui a joué un rôle important dans l’exégèse prolifique produite sur les créations de l’artiste, les tenants et les aboutissants de cette réception polarisée sont examinés. Compte tenu du succès immédiat de Walker, devenue en quelques années seulement une star sur la scène artistique établie, il était nécessaire de réfléchir aux conditions et aux causes de ce succès. À partir de la notion de stratégie figurative, ce travail se concentre sur les différentes manières dont l’artiste explore les représentations produites et relayées par la culture dominante. Les œuvres du début de sa carrière, ses installations de papiers découpés, sont ainsi analysées comme la mise en question du principe même de représentation. Utilisant la figure humaine et l’histoire comme des trompe-l’œil pour souligner la persistance de ces représentations dans l’imaginaire collectif et particulier, les installations jouent sur l’écart entre le désir d’interprétation du regardeur et sa frustration constante. Au milieu des années 2000, un infléchissement de l’oeuvre de l’artiste se produit ; il nous paraît particulièrement saillant dans les créations réalisées dans le sillage de la rétrospective de milieu de carrière de Walker (2007-2008). Il se traduirait par une réflexion sur la possibilité de représenter la violence exercée contre des disparus réels sans la transformer en spectacle. En conséquence, la construction du corps noir en tant que site spectaculaire dans la culture occidentale, ainsi que certains exemples de réponses, de ripostes émanant de Walker et d’autres artistes contemporains, sont envisagés dans ce travail. Ce dernier aboutit à l’examen des oeuvres où la figuration est mise en crise par le risque du spectacle ou compensée par l’incorporation de l’artiste, dans des oeuvres à la fois exceptionnelles et emblématiques du parcours de Walker, lequel atteste une tension constante entre la conscience du gouffre entre les sphères artistique et sociopolitique, et la tentative de créer un art politique. / This work presents a survey of the work of African-American artist Kara Walker, from 1994 to 2009. Based on a multidisciplary approach conjoining American Studies, African-American Studies, art history and aesthetics, it underlines violence as a recurrent feature in Walker’s work. Confronting the artist’s statements and her works, we try to expose the constant threads and the evolutions of a work grounded within an aesthetics of cruelty, and precariously balanced between beauty and horror. Because Walker’s art has been the object of a controversy, which significantly impacted the prolific exegesis on her work, the tenets of such polarized reception are analyzed here. Given Walker’s immediate success – she became a star on the mainstream art scene in but a few years – a reflection on the conditions and causes of her success were also required. Starting from the notion of figurative strategy, this work focuses on the different ways in which the artist has explored representations produced and circulated within dominant culture. Her early works – her paper cutouts – are thus analyzed as questioning the very notion of representation. Using the human figure and history as illusionistic devices in order to expose how such representations endure within the collective and particular unconscious, Walker’s installations work within the gap between the viewer’s desire for interpretation and its constant frustration. In the mid-2000s, a new orientation within Walker’s work may be witnessed – most obviously in the pieces made in the aftermath of her mid-career retrospective (2007-2008). According to us, such a turn shows through a reflection on the possibility of representing violence as perpetrated on the bodies of actual beings without turning it into a spectacle. Thus, both the construction of the black body as a spectacular site in Western culture and the responses and counterstrategies from Walker as well as other contemporary artists to that issue, are also the objects of our investigation. This enables us to understand how the specter of the spectacle looms over some of Walker’s pieces between 2007 and 2009, throwing figuration into crisis. Both emblematic of and discrepant within Walker’s general practice, those pieces testify to the way her work evinces a constant tension between the awareness of the gap between the realm of art and the sociopolitical sphere, and the attempt to make political art.

The release of the Monument Avenue Commission Report in July, 2018 was the culmination of over one year of research and collaboration with community members of Richmond, Virginia on how the city should approach the contentious history of Monument Avenue’s five Confederate centerpieces. What the monuments have symbolized within the predominately rich, white neighborhood and outside of its confines has been a matter of debate ever since they were unveiled, but the recent publicity accorded to Confederate monuments has led to considerations by historians, city leaders, and the public regarding recontextualization of Confederate monuments. Recontextualization of the monuments should not only consider the city’s current constituency, but also the lives, testimonies, and representations of Richmond’s African- American residents as the monuments were built. A comparative case study of photographs from various institutional archives in Richmond, Virginia, depicting late- nineteenth and early twentieth-century scenes from the city’s history reveals that while Monument Avenue and its Confederate celebrations benefitted the city’s upper-class white constituency, its messages extended far beyond Richmond and its Confederate veterans. By bringing to light images and testimonies from the archive that highlight African-American presence, a counter-narrative emerges detailing the construction of power in post-Reconstruction Richmond through Monument Avenue.

One of the most compelling contemporary Native artists whose work challenges assumptions about Native art is Bob Haozous, who has been creating socially conscious art since 1971. He is known for his monumental steel structures; simplified visual language, controversial subject matter, and ironic humor that engages and sometimes enrages the viewer. Haozous faults contemporary American Indian art as a commodity for the dominant consumer culture, stating, "Indian artists are just glorified interior decorators." This statement reflects the market norm that Native art must embody meaningless stereotypes of Indian culture and must function in the art and culture system in order to be commercially viable.Haozous's work challenges these assumptions about Native art and, for the most part, operates outside of this system. Most of Haozous's work offers the viewer a cultural critique, one that some might consider ideologically dangerous: dangerous because it questions the status quo, dangerous because it exposes the dominant culture from the point of view of the margin, and dangerous because it is in a permanent state of ambiguity, perpetually liminal. Often his work demonstrates borders, borderlands, or liminal places, both ideological borders and physical borders. The emotional affects of Haozous's art on the viewer range from discomfort to anger, from indifference to infuriated. Given the fact that much of his work is public art, it is broadly seen and many viewers can not ignore the dialogue that takes place in his art.I examine how Bob Haozous's art depicts and critiques issues such as cultural assimilation, Indian identity, genocide, loss of language, and destruction of the earth, using humor and irony or trickster discourse, as a part of his visual language. What I propose in this dissertation is that Haozous's concept of "indigenous cultural dialogue," as expressed in his art, using visual and written language with trickster traces, provides a critical language with which to discuss Native art, cross culturally. Furthermore, that the recognizable element that can be use in the critical discussion or examination, is tricksternot trickster in corporeal form, but in subtle or obvious uses of humor or irony or in trickster's reversal of ideas.

Made available in DSpace on 2014-06-11T19:26:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2012-08-03Bitstream added on 2014-06-13T18:30:51Z : No. of bitstreams: 1 souza_ccr_me_sjrp.pdf: 1040702 bytes, checksum: a573de64b7a05adb9b394d110a516835 (MD5) / Conselho Nacional de Desenvolvimento Científico e Tecnológico (CNPq) / Antônio de Alcântara Machado e Norman Rockwell são figuras representativas da produção artística das sociedades em que viveram. Machado engajou-se no modernismo brasileiro e inovou a narrativa do conto. Já Rockwell representou a cultura norte-americana por quase todo o século XX, sem utilizar, contudo, formas tão inovadoras como fez Alcântara. Esta dissertação de mestrado pretende analisar a existência de relações formais e temáticas entre os autores, ainda que haja poucas ligações artísticas, sociais ou econômicas entre eles. Valendo-se da teoria da intermidialidade e das funções da linguagem de Jakobson, busca-se estruturar um quadro comparativo e aumentar as possibilidades de leituras relativas a cultura e literatura expostas em parte da obra de Alcântara Machado e da de Norman Rockwell / Antônio de Alcântara Machado and Norman Rockwell were representative figures when we think about Brazilian and American artistic production. Machado was engaged in the Brazilian modernism and innovated the narrative structure of short-stories. Rockwell, on the other hand, represented the American culture on his canvases for almost the entire twentieth century, without using, however, the same innovative way of production as Alcântara did. This dissertation aims to analyze the existence of formal and thematic links between those artists, even with few artistic, social or economic connection between them. Drawing on the theories about Intermidiality and Jakobson’s functions of language, our intent is to structure a comparative panel and to increase the possibilities of readings related to culture and literature exhibited in the artistic production by Alcântara Machado and Normal Rockwell

This study's purpose was to examine and compare pedagogical opinions and suggestions regarding teaching American art-songs recommended as suitable for beginning voice students. Specific problems were to determine 1. The ten American art-songs most recommended by voice teachers for beginning students, 2. Pedagogical opinions and suggestions about these art-songs, 3. Voice teachers' general opinions and suggestions regarding teaching American artsong, 4. Ways in which their opinions and suggestions were similar and 5. Ways in which their opinions and suggestions were dissimiliar.

Made available in DSpace on 2016-12-08T16:18:54Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 1 120345.pdf: 1877151 bytes, checksum: 78e7e779cce4f234a12d9d945db6091f (MD5) Previous issue date: 2014-07-29 / Coordenação de Aperfeiçoamento de Pessoal de Nível Superior / This research is part of the "Observatory of Arts Teacher Education: comparative studies between Brazil and Argentina" and was developed in the line of research Teaching of Visual Arts (PPGAV / UDESC), on the subject of initial teacher training in arts, which usually precedes the work as teachers. The object of this research is the proposed curriculum of graduate s courses. We intend to identify how the contents on Latin America are included in the initial training of teachers in terms of curriculum matrices. We develop a case study that includes two neighboring realities: the Brazilian and Argentine, and results in a comparative study that parts from the question: "How content on Latin America are included in the undergraduate curriculum of visual arts in Brazil and Argentina?". The courses were analyzed are the three Brazilian state universities: the University of the State of Santa Catarina (UDESC), University of São Paulo (USP) and the State University of Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), and two Argentine federal universities: the National Institute of Arts (IUNA) and the National University of La Plata (UNLP), in order to deepen our reflections on a Brazilian and an Argentine reality, respectively, USP and UNLP. The selection of the five courses refers to universities whose teachers participate in the Observatory. Two hypotheses follow the first steps of this research: the first is that the content related to Latin American context rather appear in the curriculum of undergraduate education in visual arts, and when this occurs is through curriculum adaptations, since they were not planned to meet this demand; the latter is that the Argentine reality inserting content about Latin America is higher than in the Brazilian reality. Among the results, we emphasize that authors and Latin American artists permeate the initial training of arts teachers in both countries, but in both cases, insertion of such content constitutes a small portion of the curriculum. / A presente investigação é parte integrante do Observatório da Formação de Professores de Artes: estudos comparados entre Brasil e Argentina e foi desenvolvida na linha de pesquisa Ensino das Artes Visuais do PPGAV/UDESC, tendo como tema a formação inicial de professores de artes, a qual antecede, a princípio, a atuação destes sujeitos como educadores. O objeto de estudo desta pesquisa é a proposta curricular dos cursos de licenciatura. Objetivamos, aqui, identificar de que maneira os conteúdos sobre a América Latina estão inseridos na formação inicial dos professores no tocante às matrizes curriculares. Desenvolvemos um estudo de caso que engloba duas realidades vizinhas: a brasileira e a argentina, e resulta num estudo comparado que parte da seguinte questão: Como os conteúdos sobre a América Latina estão inseridos no currículo das licenciaturas em artes visuais no Brasil e na Argentina? . Os cursos analisados correspondem a três universidades estaduais brasileiras: a Universidade do Estado de Santa Catarina (UDESC), a Universidade de São Paulo (USP) e a Universidade Estadual do Rio de Janeiro (UERJ), e duas instituições federais argentinas: o Instituto Nacional de Artes (IUNA) e a Universidade Nacional de La Plata (UNLP), de modo a aprofundarmos nossas reflexões sobre uma realidade brasileira e uma argentina, respectivamente, a USP e a UNLP. A seleção dos cinco cursos refere-se às universidades cujos professores participam do Observatório. Duas hipóteses acompanham os primeiros passos dessa investigação: a primeira é que os conteúdos referentes ao contexto latino-americano pouco aparecem nos currículos das licenciaturas em artes visuais e, quando isto ocorre, é por meio de adaptações curriculares, uma vez que eles não foram planejados para atender a essa demanda; a última é que, na realidade argentina, a inserção de conteúdos sobre a América Latina seja maior do que na realidade brasileira. Dentre os resultados obtidos, destacamos que autores e artistas latino-americanos permeiam a formação inicial dos professores de artes dos dois países, mas, em ambos os casos, tal inserção de conteúdos constitui uma pequena parcela do currículo.

Dès l’apparition du Pop art autour de 1962, l’iconographie de l’illustration et de la publicité indique l’émergence d’une véritable esthétique graphique. La rencontre du Pop art et du dessin se révèle particulièrement intéressante car suivre les productions réalisées dans cette discipline éminemment manuelle permet de réexaminer les différentes positions des artistes vis-à-vis de la culture de masse et d’aborder des questions tant matérielles qu’iconographiques. Partant du constat que les formations artistiques sont à l’origine du va-et-vient entre options manuelles et mécaniques dans l’économie du Pop art, le propos débute par l’examen des conditions d’émergence du dessin. L’examen des relations entre dessin et culture de masse ne saurait être complet sans évoquer la réponse d’artistes qui s’engagent dans la recherche d’un dialogue avec un public croissant (par des stratégies de classe, l’iconographie de logos de produits, la prise en compte des possibilités de l’estampe etc.). Non seulement l’œuvre naît du parcours de la main, mais le dessin pop dépasse le seul processus créateur pour exister dans un corpus d’œuvres autonomes, qui s’écarte de tout schéma finaliste. Cette présence souligne ce que peuvent avoir de critique l’image et l’action du corps. De même que Claes Oldenburg et David Hockney opposent une tension manuelle aux expressions mécanisées dans la société – et là réside le double sens de la notion d’engagement autant physique que politique dans le dessin pop –, le réinvestissement du corps sous la forme du portrait et du nu affirme sa solidarité avec les combats pour la libération sexuelle à l’aube des années soixante-dix. / By 1962 with the beginning of Pop art, the iconography of illustration and advertising points the development of an art founded on graphics. Interestingly, the relations between Pop art and drawing allow to follow how the handmade practices reassess the artists’ positions towards mass culture and deal with material issues (such as manual involvement) and the meaning of iconography (counter-culture, return of the figure). Starting from the point that artistic pop economy of art owes its back and forth mouvement between manual and mechanical options to its protagonists’ artistic education, this dissertation opens with the study of drawing’s emergence in a pedagogical context. The study of the relations between drawing and mass culture wouldn’t be fully led without assessing the answer of the artists who involve in the claim for a bigger audience (with a class strategy, an iconography full of mass products and the possibilities of prints). Moreover, not only the graphic works stem from the hand, but pop drawing overwhelms the solely issue of creation processes to exist in an autonomous corpus of works, which doesn’t fall into the finalist schema. This presence points how critical may be the body, through drawing, as an image and as an action. Similary to Claes Oldenburg and David Hockney who oppose a manual tension to the social mechanized expressions – and there lay the double sense of the very notion of involvement which is to be understood in Pop art in the same time on a physical and a political level – the reinvolvement of the body by way of portrait or nude shows its solidarity with the fights in the wake of the sixties, fight for sexual liberation, or women rights.

The purpose of this study was to describe the implementation, structure, content and outcome of an art-centered unit developed for 5th grade students. This unit was designed to be an example/model of specific tools and procedures that teachers can use in the art and general classroom to promote critical cultural consciousness, which is the ability to analyze both the covert and overt elements of a culture with the purpose of developing a holistic viewpoint that values the cultural heritages of self and others. The participants selected for this study were all the students in three 5th grade classes. The art-centered unit focused on three artists-Romare Bearden, Elizabeth Catlett and Charles White-under the theme "Respect and Homage." The research methods used in this investigation were qualitative. This study was written in a style that described the research design with its origins, organization and implementation. The implementation of the curricular unit developed for this study took place in the art and general classroom. Of particular interest in this study was the framework and structure of the art-centered unit, designed around two specific strategies utilized to promote critical cultural consciousness. One strategy in this unit was the identification of art-related or art-centered micro-cultures as an organizing framework for promoting critical, aesthetic inquiry of the selected works of art. Another important curricular strategy examined in this study was the utilization of personal and cultural value orientations for their role in developing cultural consciousness and critical aesthetic inquiry into works of art. Value orientations are common general issues or questions that we as people and as cultures apply various ranking patterns. Evidence of students' development of critical aesthetic inquiry into the focused works of art was documented and discussed, along with evidence of students' expanded understanding of art and culture. That evidence, added to students' personal, reflective ideas exhibited in the context of their personal art making, provided the record of students' growth in critical cultural consciousness used in this study.

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) / In the late nineteenth century, the American art world was highly competitive as artists vied with each other and more established European artists for a small pool of patrons. A few recognized the power of mass media to create celebrity and financial success. They tread carefully into the arena of self-promotion, striking a delicate balance between advertising and maintaining Gilded Age ideas about the purely artistic motivations of a great painter. In 1878, the largely unknown artist William Merritt Chase arrived in New York with the idea that an elaborately decorated studio could potentially make his name in the art world. The plan worked. His Tenth Street Studio was a harmony of color created through his masterful arrangement of bric-a-brac and art objects. It soon attracted media coverage and public attention. Chase quickly realized, however, that the writers who gushed over his studio were more interested in the space than the artist who created it. While the studio had achieved celebrity, its creator had not. In order to attract patrons, Chase needed to garner press coverage of the studio that would refer back to himself as the artist. His solution was a series of paintings of the studio interior itself. Chase depicted wealthy visitors looking at prints, conferring with the artist, even contemplating a purchase of work right off the walls – messages intended to advertise his availability to these potential patrons. These painted “advertisements,” created in the 1880s, redirected public attention from the studio to its creator and solidified his celebrity. In 1890, Chase painted one of the most famous events to ever occur at the Tenth Street Studio – the performance of the Spanish dancer known as the Carmencita. While encapsulating the bohemian atmosphere of the studio, Chase’s portrait of the dancer displayed no trace of the studio or its contents, only a plain muted background. He no longer needed to advertise himself as artist-for-hire because he had already succeeded in this endeavor. His painted studio advertisements had worked. Chase was a bona fide Gilded Age celebrity and a permanent addition to the canon of great American artists.