Thesis (M.A.) -- Central Connecticut State University, 2005. / Thesis advisor: Matthew Warshauer. "... in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art, Department of History." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 156-169). Also available via the World Wide Web.

<p>For what secular purposes did Spanish artists absorb into Marian Immaculate Conception devotional art the attributes of the Apocalyptic Woman from the Book of Revelation? In this absorption of a traditionally active Apocalypse motif into a traditionally inactive Marian motif, were artists and patrons responding to religious, political, and cultural turmoil of multi-faith Iberian societies? I argue that a shift in Marian iconography paralleled consolidation of Castilian national identity in the late-fifteenth and early-sixteenth centuries. This consolidation manifests in the Virgen Abridera at the Convent of the Concepcion de las Madres Agustinas, dated 1520 in Toledo, Spain. This mutable sculpture, also called a Shrine Madonna, Triptych Virgin, or Vierge Ouvrante, is an example of the tota pulchra Immaculate Conception motif, the absorption of Apocalyptic Woman imagery, and the transference in narratives from the Joys of Mary to the Sorrows of Mary?all the products of contemporary Franciscan and Spanish worldviews.

<p> This paper examines the cultural and material history of early Modern Britain as demonstrated through the art acquisitions and art and architectural commissions of the Earls of Pembroke at Wilton House in Wiltshire.</p><p> By examining the collection of the 4^th Earl, it is demonstrated that the cultural authority was firmly in the hands of the monarchy. With the Civil War and subsequent execution of Charles I in 1649, the previously held power of the monarch as central artistic authority was diminished. This is demonstrated in the collection of Philip&rsquo;s grandson Thomas, 8^th Earl of Pembroke. The nature of Thomas&rsquo;s collection and role in the scientific enlightenment in England suggest that cultural authority has shifted away from the monarchy to science and the academy.</p><p> The examination of the primary source materials for this project is supported by the usage of Omeka, a web based archiving and presentation tool used by archives and museums field of digital humanities.</p><p>

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<p> This paper is a review and discussion of the career of French runway photographer, Guy Marineau. It specifically explores his tenure at Fairchild Publications between the years 1975-1985, contextualized by his personal experience and the history of the fashion show. Prior to shooting the runway, Marineau photographed conflicts in Portugal and Israel. Traumatized by war, Marineau, decided to realign his career towards capturing beauty.</p><p> Fashion shows emerged around the turn of the century, and press coverage of them has been long fraught with complications due to the threat of copyists reproducing unlicensed designs. During the mid-1950s John Fairchild tirelessly challenged the strict embargo set by the <i>Chambre Syndicale</i> that restricted the immediate release of images taken at couture shows. Yet by the 1960s, the demise of the haute couture was imminent, and couturiers resorted to licensing to keep their houses afloat, which in turn, reestablished their relationship with the press.</p><p> Since his start at Fairchild Publications, Marineau approached runway photography through the eyes of a war photographer. Marineau's work improved vastly as he grasped how to shoot fashion shows and was one of the first to challenge the established protocol by leaving his editor for the end of the runway. His photographs kept pace alongside his continuously evolving subject, the fashion show, and with advancements to camera technology. Relatively unknown, Marineau's work remains an undiscovered wealth of fashion history. His photographs are a testament to the once-diverse genre of runway photography that is slowly being replaced by the standardized runway photographs now linked with fashion websites.</p>

<p> Shigeru Mizuki (1922-2015) is one of the most sophisticated and accomplished of modern manga artists. His work synthesizes ancient and modern Japanese visual artistic methods with contemporary tropes from Western graphic art to tell profound and complex stories that reflect major themes of war and the supernatural world. This thesis argues that Mizuki&rsquo;s work should be reevaluated as a valuable contribution to modern art based on the following three qualities: technical mastery and innovation in visual art; socio-political and philosophical depth of content; and his impact on other contemporary Japanese artists. Such study is significant because of the popularity of manga and other graphic art in shaping both popular culture and the view of art adopted by younger generations. Thus, studying Mizuki has implications for our understanding of art and its intersection with popular culture, and raises questions regarding whether popular media like manga should be considered seriously by art historians. </p><p>

As we all know, there are multiple stories of art. But even in the West, each country has its own story, especially when it comes to the visual arts in the second part of the twentieth century. The stories told by the French, the German, the Italian, and the American textbooks and museums differ greatly. Yet, the American story is usually regarded as the standard account: the common Western story against which we mentally contrast the Non-Western stories. Without aiming at writing the true story of contemporary Western art, this dissertation tries to uncover alternative stories, interpret the differences, and explain how one particular view came to prevail as the story. Concretely, it examines four contentious issues on which the standard account is particularly challenged by other stories, namely the fracture of the Second World War, the shift of the artworld’s center from Paris to New York, the domination of American art in the 1970s, and finally the European comeback of the 1980s. Analyzing the different national interpretations of these events and confronting them with empirical data (place, date, participant, etc.), the dissertation uncloaks enduring myths and reductive explanations. It highlights above all the role of dealers, collectors, curators, critics, and government officials in the way art is produced, received, and remembered. It also demonstrates how the shifting historical, economic, and institutional contexts continuously reshaped the story, the canon, and the viewers, so that what art historians have traditionally seen as stylistic shifts and artistic leadership appears rather as the result of forces that extend beyond the artistic creation. Stories with less international recognition should not be dismissed in favor of an official story that would erode all differences and present us with a single -- and thus deficient -- perspective. Only through the consideration and analysis of multiple cultural and national perspectives can we understand the complexity of the artworld’s dynamics. Ultimately, I propose a comprehensive yet critical art historical approach rooted in cultural history that would offer a solution to writing art history in an age of globalization that purports to eschew previous assumptions of nationalism and creative genius. / text

published_or_final_version / abstract / Buddhist Studies / Master / Master of Philosophy

This dissertation reexamines the art-into-life narrative of the historical avant-gardes through an analysis of a set of experimental life practices established by artists across Dada, Orphism, and Surrealism. Focusing on Tristan Tzara’s performances of identity, Sonia Delaunay’s fashions and self-branding, and the collective endeavor to open and operate the Surrealist Research Bureau, my project proposes a broader envisioning of avant-garde material culture to examine the ways in which artists creatively produced an “art of living” in relation to the normative types of “lifestyle” produced contemporaneously in France during the years 1910-1930. Rooted in original archival research and interdisciplinary in focus, my discussion of these artists is centered on three distinct sites within material culture (the manifesto, advertising, the office) and reveals how these activities at times challenge and at times replicate various dominant discourses. The first chapter examines how Samuel Rosenstock became the Dadaist Tristan Tzara. Specifically, I focus on Tzara’s elaboration of himself through the delivery and subsequent publication of his manifestos, Sept manifestes dada (1924), which performatively cite and repeat his name throughout. Discussed alongside additional publications and events throughout Paris Dada, I detail how Tzara’s well known critique of language is geared toward a production of subjectivity that refuses to cohere to the types of categorical identity dominant within France at the time, including those of national, racial, and ethnic classification, particularly as they circumscribed the artist within the popular press. In the second chapter, I consider Sonia Delaunay’s early simultaneous dresses (1913) and the development of her commercial fashion business, Maison Delaunay (1924-1931), analyzing in particular the ways in which Delaunay deliberately intertwined her image with her business practices of publicity, from branding and advertisements to fashion photography. Elaborating the ways in which these practices evolved within the gendered constraints of the artist’s own everyday life as well as the broader feminization of the decorative arts, I argue that Delaunay strategically negotiates normative forms of marketing and commercialism in order to gain visibility and ultimately recognition as an artist. My third chapter provides the first in-depth material history of the Bureau de recherches surréalistes, which operated in Paris from October 1924 to April 1925. Focusing on the Bureau’s daily Cahier de la permanence, its promotional photographs, and press announcements, I detail the ways in which the Bureau became a site of debate among the Surrealists for issues concerning office labor and governance. Elaborating the tensions between the Surrealist pursuit of revolutionary action and the need for workplace leadership and control, I position how the daily procedures of the Bureau overlap with the rise of standardized office practices as outlined in contemporaneous trade journals and management theories. Together, these creative, material practices offer a new narrative of the avant-garde endeavor to merge art with life. Here, Dada becomes an identity, Orphism becomes a business, and Surrealism becomes a workplace, each with its own political uncertainties, each simultaneously challenging and upholding varying historical norms, each serving as an alternative to both pure critique and pure affirmation. Within this discussion, the traditional concepts of an avant-garde politics (revolution, utopia, and anti-capitalism) give way to a greater consideration of ethical practices of self-making. “The Art of Living in the Historical Avant-Garde” thus reveals the integration of art and life as neither utopian pursuit nor historical failure but rather as a series of actual life practices ambiguously enmeshed within a terrain marked by nationalism, consumerism, and bureaucracy.

This thesis aims to point out primarily the layered meanings behind Taiping art. It will provide an overview of the art made by the Taipings, and thereafter show how different political parties in post-Taiping China have manipulated the images and values of the Taipings to their advantage. A discussion of each party’s ideology will also be included. The contextual approach adopted by this thesis intends to illustrate the relationship between art and the Taiping Rebellion over time. The visual materials discussed in this thesis are the murals and wood engravings of the Taipings, a series of paintings made in 1886 as part of an imperial project and Shanghai lithographic illustrated publications in relation to the project, and the visual propaganda of Nationalists and Communists of the twentieth century which embody the two parties’ own interpretations of Taiping history. In view of the complexity of the subject, this thesis is primarily an information collecting exercise, offering a wider academic perspective, and revealing the characteristics of the visual works related to the Taipings, so that there can be more interpretations of the nuances of the Taiping Rebellion in the study of Chinese art history. / published_or_final_version / Humanities / Master / Master of Philosophy