Visually, Baldessari’s art mirrors the schoolroom chart, the cinematic storyboard, the Surrealist collage, the sensationalist graphics of the tabloid, and the grid format of the textbook. Black and white photography, performance, collage, bright prints, film, drawing, and painting: Baldessari has done it all. The artist has consistently demonstrated an inventiveness and sense of play in his work, and it is unlikely that he would stick to any one mode of artmaking for an extended period of time. It is probable that the explicit critique of contemporary Conceptualists of the text paintings mellowed because Baldessari had moved on to new questions. While he continues to examine the trope of the artistic outsider despite his commercial success, it is always with a wink. As Baldessari’s use of his own image in Portrait (Self) demonstrates, he has encouraged his audience to interrogate any artistic self-representation as a purposeful construct. Unlike the majority of his fellow Conceptualists, Baldessari’s serious goals are couched in a selfmocking attitude and in the colorful, playful style he has made his own.

This study of the single artists museums using the Clyfford Still Museum in Denver, Colorado and the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe, New Mexico aims to compare these institutions to each other in terms of organizational practice and design as well as to the broader museum industry.

The artistic is always political, even if not overtly so—each work carries with it the histories of the artist, the means of production, the subject matter, and the many art historical precedents that overlap and diverge to constitute the theoretical circumstances surrounding it. Since I began translating my lived experience into artworks, I have become interested in the ways in which my personal politics have affected the choices I have made in material and narrative substance. This is a deconstruction of the politics of representation as a method for better understanding the art historical context in which contemporary materials- and performance-based art work exists and to conceptually develop the work I want to produce in the future.

There are two principle arguments in this thesis. First, this thesis will show that Félix Bracquemond had a profound impact on late-nineteenth-century and early-twentieth-century ceramics in America. Second, this thesis will illustrate how John Ruskin’s principle that pottery is “more permanent than the Pyramids” encouraged reform of the ceramic arts and shaped the Art Pottery Movement of the late nineteenth century. After this thesis introduces Bracquemond as an innovator in ceramic decoration and the dissemination of Ruskin’s principle, the thesis will examine two instances in the American Art Pottery Movement in which Bracquemond’s and Ruskin’s influence can be detected. The first is Theodore Davis’s 1879 design for the Haviland-Hayes Service, the White House dinner service for Rutherford B. Hayes. The second case study is the Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati, which represents the apex of Bracquemond’s influence in America and Ruskin’s principle of the permanence of pottery.

This dissertation examines six major points: 1) it argues that Jefferson is an architect of the United States Capitol, having direct and final say over its design; 2) it asserts that Jefferson set two nationally influential models of architectural taste as part of his movement to reform American architecture, first in Richmond as the Virginia State Capitol and second in Washington as the United States Capitol; 3) it explores those models to define what Jefferson called “cubic” and “spherical” architecture; 4) it suggests that Jefferson used his political appointments to maximize his influence over the design of the United States Capitol in order to ground the building in classical sources; 5) it surveys the sources Jefferson looked to for inspiration, both printed texts and images as well as extant buildings in Europe and America; and 6) it proposes that Jefferson and B. Henry Latrobe worked hand in hand to execute a design for the United States Capitol that subdued and at times even replaced the official plan adopted from William Thornton’s winning design. This dissertation starts with the idea that Jefferson’s architectural reform consisted of conjoining vernacular building custom with architecture of the classical tradition. Most of what Jefferson knew about classical architecture came from books. Chief among them are Claude Perrault’s 1684 French translation of Vitruvius’ Ten Books on Architecture and the three London editions of Giacomo Leoni’s versions of Andrea Palladio’s Four Books of Architecture in English translation. Using these print sources, Jefferson reinterpreted many of the standard public buildings of Virginia into temple forms. In addition, Jefferson’s plan to reform public architecture rested on two overriding principles: erecting buildings with masonry and organizing those buildings using the classical orders. Furthermore, this dissertation proves that, like the ancients, Jefferson wanted to build on a monumental scale. Jefferson’s own plan for a national capitol shaped like the Roman Pantheon, long misunderstood, clearly reinforces this interpretation. Finally, this dissertation demonstrates that Jefferson and B. Henry Latrobe worked in concert to execute a design for the United States Capitol that subdued the official plan adopted from William Thornton’s winning design.

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Through the analysis of Judy Baca's mural, The Great Wall of Los Angeles, Baca's reevaluates muralism to create her revisionist take on the Mexican tradition of muralism. The piece combines different cultural and historical perspectives that convey the diversity of California, and bring people together through shared experiences. In addition to portraying the histories of minority races, ethnicities, religions and sexuality, the piece was created by a diverse team of community members who each contributed their own viewpoints to the piece. Unlike the traditional practice of muralism, Baca works with community members to create a mural that includes a varied sense of identity so as to facilitate social change and foster community.

This thesis examines a selection of American newspaper comic strips from approximately 1930 to 1960. At the height of their runs, many strips appeared in upwards of a thousand newspapers in the United States alone, and syndicates crafted and adjusted the content of these strips according to their image of the average American. This work discusses the pop cultural significance of these strips as well as the traditional American values revealed through each of them. Three strips in particular are the focal point for this thesis: Blondie, created by Chic Young in 1930, Little Orphan Annie created by Harold Gray in 1924, and Li’l Abner created by Al Capp in 1934. The first chapter, focusing on the relationship between Blondie and Dagwood Bumstead, will discuss how power within the family hierarchy is predicated on moral character, as well as how the recurring theme of punishment develops through Dagwood’s personal failures. The second chapter will look at the idea of cultural regularity in Little Orphan Annie through an examination of Daddy Warbucks. It will also deal with themes of leadership and legacy as communicated by the relationship between Annie and Warbucks. The third and final chapter will discuss how the satirical strip Li’l Abner responded to Blondie and Little Orphan Annie in terms of its rejection of traditional family hierarchy, specifically relating to male-female relationships. Ultimately, this thesis seeks to illustrate how a selection of comic strips expressed certain moral values, and the way in which they placed the characters at the mercy of following those values.

This Capstone Project encompasses two videos, each representing different ways to visually structure the experience of “the city”. The first video, "My Way or the Highway", is a 5 minute piece examining Los Angeles Transportation systems. Through observational footage and a poetic editing style, I compare and contrast the experience of traveling via public and private transportation. Through this video I aim to encourage the viewer to consider their own transportation options whether it is in Los Angeles or anywhere else around the world. The second is a 12 minute video, titled "A Correspondence" structured as a correspondence between Seattle and Los Angeles as if they were personified discussing what it means to be a developing/growing city and the responsibilities it entails. Visually I present a combination of footage from L.A. and Seattle to create an "impossible city" making the viewer second guess from where the footage originates, emphasizing the difference between learning about a city from others and learning about a city through experience. In "A Correspondence" I aim to provide an experience that forces the viewer to realize their own interactions with cities and how their view is shaped by their specific experiences, making everybody's view of a city subjective.