Post-structuralist theories of literary criticism such as deconstruction have provided useful tools with which to analyze "texts" but have also contributed to (and are symptomatic of) the widening gap that is experienced today between reader and "text," between "real life" and aesthetic experience, between interpretive practice and critical theory. Many contemporary theorists and teachers interested in bridging this gap are searching for new critical and pedagogical methodologies, for alternatives to deconstruction. A careful examination of Sartre's "progressive-regressive" method in terms of its potential for application in aesthetic theory and criticism will provide a valuable contribution to current discourse on relevant textual and socio-cultural issues. / Sartre's progressive-regressive method enacts a fusion of Marxist sociology and existential psychoanalysis. Sartre employed this method as a tool for both socio-historical and psycho-biographical research. The progressive-regressive method has three dialectical stages: (1) phenomenological description, (2) regressive analysis, and (3) progressive synthesis. / My purpose in this dissertation is to extract and modify those aspects of Sartre's method which might be applied in critical discourse on aesthetic experience. To achieve this goal, I employ the progressive-regressive method as the organizing principle of my investigation. / Part One of my study is devoted to theory and includes (1) a phenomenological description of the origins and purposes of Sartre's method, (2) a regressive analysis of Sartre's own development and implementation of the method as a tool for socio-historical and psycho-biographical research, and (3) a progressive synthesis as I impose the necessary modifications upon Sartre's method that are required for the project at hand. Part Two is devoted to practical demonstration: here I implement the progressive-regressive method as a tool for critical discourse on aesthetic experience in three practical demonstrations (1) on Samuel Beckett's novel How It Is, (2) on Simone Martini's Annunciation Altarpiece, and (3) on a theme in the literature of the Marquis de Sade. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-11, Section: A, page: 3938. / Major Professor: E. F. Kaelin. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

Mixtec codices are sacred books folded like accordions and composed of strips of deer hide or fig-tree bark that visually narrate activities of deities, supernatural culture heroes, and the actions and genealogies of historical Mixtec kings and queens who wanted to emulate them. Recorded in a pictographic writing system, Mixtec codices are cultural artifacts that offer the viewer glimpses of the complex and layered representations of a specific people from particular places during the Postclassic epoch of Mesoamerica. A salient part of these visualized narratives is the act of travel. In Mixtec codices, travel typically begins with the physical act of emergence of a substance, being, or historical figure. Emergence is a visual point of departure for various narratives that pulsate with ongoing movement that we are here defining as travel itself, as the itinerant traversing of place, as the formation of visual trails in the landscape and in the narrative display and reading of the pages in Mixtec codices. Travel is repeated as a conceptual, visual, and performative trope throughout Mesoamerica in various media produced by distinct ethnic groups and communities with various levels of power in the wider webs of Mesoamerican praxis. Travel in the Mixtec codices connects to the incipient founding of community, to the contemporary people, place, and cultural rhythms of communal, ritual life. Through the visual narratives recorded in the codices, an understanding of Mixtec identity, memory, and therefore history is linked to specific places through specific actions such as emergence from and travel to points of origin. By examining such visually codified narratives, this dissertation posits that Mixtec ethnogeographies of travel form part of recording a community’s identity and its connection to place. / A Dissertation submitted to the Department of Art History in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. / Fall Semester 2017. / October 9, 2017. / Codices, Geography, Mesoamerica, Mixtec, Place, Travel / Includes bibliographical references. / Michael D. Carrasco, Professor Directing Dissertation; Andrew Frank, University Representative; Paul Niell, Committee Member; Stephanie Leitch, Committee Member.

Poète proche du surréalisme, écrivain autobiographe et ethnologue africaniste, Michel Leiris (1901-1990) fut aussi l'ami des plus grands artistes du XXe siècle - André Masson, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Wifredo Lam ou bien Francis Bacon. Les rapports amicaux, affinitaires et électifs entre l'écrivain et les peintres et sculpteurs ont épousé des formes diverses et ont suscité, chez le premier, l'écriture de nombreux commentaires sur l'œuvre des seconds. Dévoilant des exercices d'écriture divers - le poème, l'article de revue, la préface ou l'essai -, les écrits sur l'art expriment une singularité commune, incarnée par la profonde subjectivité à partir de laquelle Leiris témoigna de sa vision sur l'œuvre de ses amis artistes. Il s'agit donc, dans cette thèse, d'interroger la sensibilité artistique singulière du poète dans le cadre de l'histoire de l'art. Moins spécialiste de l'art qu'amateur d'art, au sens strict du terme - celui qui aime -, Michel Leiris a fait de son écriture, un lieu d'expérimentation et de quêtes à l'égard de la création artistique de son temps. En retraçant les circonstances des rencontres avec les artistes, puis, en étudiant les amitiés entretenues avec ces derniers, il pourra être démontré en quoi Leiris incarne une personnalité singulière et emblématique, dans le champ spécifique de l'histoire de l'art. Son écriture sera, en outre, reliée aux expériences toujours plus nouvelles, auxquelles l'écrivain participa durant tout le XXe siècle - le surréalisme, l'ethnographie ou l'engagement politique. L'expression de sa sensibilité pourra ainsi être replacée au centre des débats épistémologiques de l'histoire de l'art et des sciences humaines et sociales. Il s'agira, en effet, de questionner les quêtes de " présence ", de réalisme, de modernité, de beauté, de sacré ou la figure de l'altérité dans l'art, au prisme des problématiques inhérentes à la discipline de l'histoire de l'art, tout en considérant le rapport sensible et subjectif de Leiris aux œuvres. / A poet close to surrealism, an autobiographer and an Africanist ethnologist, Michel Leiris (1901-1990) was also the friend of the greatest artists of the twentieth century - André Masson, Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti, Pablo Picasso, Wifredo Lam or Francis Bacon. The relationships between the writer and painters or sculptors gave rise with the former to the writing of numerous commentaries on the work of the latter. Revealing different writing exercises - poem, review article, preface or essay -, the writings on art express a common singularity of the poet within the scope of art history. Less an expert in art than a lover of art, Michel Leiris has made his writing a place of experimentation and quests towards the artistic creation of his time. By relating the circumstances of the meetings with the artists, then, by studying the friendships maintained with the latter, it can be demonstrated how Leiris embodies a singular and emblematic personality in the specific field of art history. Moreover, his writing will be linked to the ever renewed experiments in which the writer participated throughout the twentieth century - surrealism, ethnography or political commitment. Thus, the expression of his sensitivity can be placed at the centre of the epistemological debates of art history and the Humanities and Social Sciences. Actually, it will be a matter of questioning the quests of "presence", realism, modernity, beauty, sacred and the figure of the otherness in art, through issues inherent in the discipline of art history, while considering Leiris's sensitive and subjective link with the works of art.

<p> The Grand Cameo for France is the largest cameo surviving from antiquity. Scholars have debated who is portrayed on the stone and what its scene means for centuries, often, although not always, limiting their interpretations to this narrow area and typically only discussing other causes in passing. This pattern can and should be broken, allowing the stone to be what all objects truly are: windows to the lives that that objects have lived, just as all physical things are; evidence of an experience part of the world went though, whose meanings have and continue to be part of a wider network of object-meanings. The underlying purpose of this thesis is to use the Grand Cameo to prove this point. It does so by asking why the Grand Cameo came into being using Aristotle's four-part fragmented "Why" to widen this meaning broadly enough to expand the scope of what cause means from the vernacular use of the term to include material, formal, efficient and final causes. This allows for a sufficiently satisfactory exploration of many elements of the ancient world. </p><p> This thesis comprises an introduction, five chapters, and a conclusion. The first chapter discusses the material sardonyx itself, its possible origin points and how it would have been seen and used in its time in both the India and the west. It discusses the development of trade routes through the Indian ocean and Hellenistic and Egyptian ties to the east which were later taken over by Rome, as well as the Ptolemies, who they replaced. The second chapter discusses the relationship between Rome and Egypt, how their imagery and materials were usurped, and how this connects to the cameo, a medium that became Roman. Chapter three discusses Rome's absorption and reuse of Hellenistic kingdoms, their people and their culture to see how these influenced images of Roman Rulers in the transition from the Republic to the Julio-Claudians. The fourth chapter details the nature of Julio-Claudian power in Rome, the roles the family took over, and how they made themselves essential to the state, especially in how this relates to imagery from the Grand Cameo. Finally, the fifth chapter allows for the exploration of final cause by using a process of elimination based on living number of family members to establish a coherent narrative for the stone's scene, allowing an interpretation of message and intent. It seems most likely to be justifying the handing over of power to Emperor Claudius as intended by the heavens regardless of the plans of his relatives. </p><p> A roughly chronological understanding of this stone's role from being plucked from the ground to the imperial court is presented by assessing available material. The expansive nature of the question "Why?" allows for an explanation of the stone both broader and more satisfactory than the intentions of one emperor alone, however interesting. The Grand Cameo intersects with the highly international and interactive dynamics of the ancient world as well as specific elements therein which earlier interpretations do not allow for room to explore. </p><p>

No description available.

<p> Ceramic technologies of Myanmar and South China were analyzed in order to determine characteristic traits and technological origins. Given Myanmar&rsquo;s geographically strategic position between China and Southwest Asia, its ceramic history needs to be reevaluated among the distinct traditions of Southeast Asia. The ceramics of Myanmar show evidence of imitation China and Southwest/Central Asia using locally sourced materials, giving support to Dr. Myo Thant Tyn&rsquo;s theory of the convergence of the Chinese and Southwest/Central Asian ceramic traditions in Myanmar. </p><p> Seven ceramic technologies of Myanmar were analyzed: celadons, black-glazed jars (lead-barium and lead-iron-manganese glazes), brown ash glaze ware, green and opaque white-painted glaze ware and turquoise-glazed, coarse-bodied white earthenware. Celadon glazes and brown glazes were made with ash, similar to the Chinese celadon tradition. Green-and-white opaque ware utilized copper-green colorant glaze decoration with tin and lead oxides as opacifying agents on low-fired oxidized bodies. Both these traditions are probably derived from Southwest Asian ceramic and glass traditions. High-soda, copper-turquoise glazes on coarse white earthenware bodies are influenced by Southwest and Central Asian low-fire ceramic and glass traditions. Black-glazed, &ldquo;Martaban&rdquo;-style storage jars were variable in body and glaze technology and are still of indeterminable technological origin. A phase-separated glaze was analyzed that had a similar phase-separated appearance to northern Chinese Jun ware. </p><p> Additionally, two black-glazed ware types from South China with vertical streaking phase separation were analyzed: Xiba kiln of Sichuan and Jianyang kilns of Fujian. The recently discovered and excavated Xiba kiln made experimental and striking stoneware bowls similar to Jianyang &ldquo;hare&rsquo;s fur&rdquo; ware. Reverse engineering the manufacture of Xiba kiln ware determined that Xiba was an innovative site that imitated Jianyang ware aesthetically but not technologically. Xiba and Jianyang do not have any connection to the six Burmese glaze styles, however, future analyses of Southeast Asian ceramics can use the data for comparison and variability research.</p><p>

1 / Natalie McCann

The Natchitoches (Louisiana) Art Colony (1921-1937) was recognized as the first art colony of the South. Founded by Irma Sompayrac (Willard) and taught by Newcomb College (New Orleans, Louisiana) Art professors, Ellsworth Woodward and Will Henry Stevens, the colony was part of the movement to produce southern indigenous art. Originally an en plein air landscape school recognized locally, regionally and nationally, an arts and crafts local orientation resulted in the later (Depression) years. The group influenced the development and spread of other southern art colonies (including Melrose (Louisiana) Writers' and Artists' Colony) and established a public awareness and patronage for arts in the South. This is primarily a study of the background of the colony (in the context of the art colony concept) and the colony itself (founders, instructors, students, publicity, history); and not an evaluation of the few paintings (reproductions are included) found / acase@tulane.edu

In the 1920s a new generation of Cuban artists broke with the Academia de Bellas Artes de San Alejandro (Academy of San Alejandro) in Havana, and initiated a movement which adapted modern European art and theories to the artistic interpretation of their native land. This study focuses on the work of the so-called vanguardia (vanguard) artists and on their synthesis of modernism and nationalism to affirm a sense of personal and collective identity. / The first part of the dissertation introduces the artists, defines their period of activity (1920s-1940s), and reviews the state of research on early modern Cuban painting. A review of the literature reveals that critics and art historians have emphasized the influence of the School of Paris on the vanguardia painters' styles, and the impact of Cuba's natural and cultural environment on their subject matter. However, the all important relationship between modernism and nationalism in modern Cuban art has not been fully addressed. Moreover, recent interest in the vanguardia painters has concentrated on the work of the individual artists, at the expense of examining their collective contribution to Cuban art and culture. / The main body of the dissertation analyzes the relationship between the art of the vanguardia painters, European modernism, and Cuban nationalism in the second quarter of the twentieth-century. It explores such a relationship in the context of Cuban history and culture, generational ideology, and artists' biographies. The study concludes that the vanguardia painters consciously re-casted and/or invented lasting, if mythical, symbols of national ethos. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 53-03, Section: A, page: 0648. / Major Professor: Robert Hobbs. / Thesis (Ph.D.)--The Florida State University, 1992.

<p>This dissertation focuses on the architecture and the artistic decoration within Swedish cinemas during the period 1915–1939. The cinema is considered to be one of the many new building types from the 20th century. The era of the purpose-built cinema in Sweden began around 1910. </p><p>The aim of this dissertation is to deal with the cinema as a building type and to discuss the cinema as a setting for the filmgoer.</p><p>The examples of the 1910’s and 1920’s are characterised by their integrated exterior; the manner in which the cinema merges into the cityscape. In the evenings, when audiences gathered at the cinemas, the differences between contemporary theatres and concert-halls became evident. Upon entering the cinema, one’s passage towards the auditorium took one through a sequence of rooms, including the booking office, the cloakroom, and the foyer. The spatial dramaturgy of the cinema is that of the concert hall and the theatre. The artistic decoration of the cinemas of the 1910’s and 1920’s is characterised by attempts at an iconography of motion pictures, in contrast to the established symbols of the theatre. </p><p>The examples from the 1930’s are characterised by the cinemas’ distinct imprint on the city. Neon-lights, canopies, doors and walls of glass within the cinemas led the way. Artistic decoration within the cinemas of the 1930’s is scarce. Attempts on creating an iconography of the cinema are few. Instead, the foyers are decorated with the posters and photographic portraits of movie-stars.</p><p>A common feature of cinemas from the 1930’s is that the passage to the auditorium is short. A vestibule is the only space the visitor passes. The spatial dramaturgy of the cinema is different from contemporary concert-halls and theatres. This dissertation demonstrates a substantial shift concerning the cinema as a building type. When one considers cinemas to be composed of a sequence of rooms for the visitor to pass through in comparison to concert halls and theatres, important differences stand out. Thus, the cinema presents itself as a building type with specific functions as well as a specific spatial dramaturgy. </p>