Partant du constat de l'importance du sujet pour le peintre futuriste a une epoque ou les avant-gardes europeennes tendent a l'abstraction, la presente etude demontre que la ville fut un theme capital dans l'elaboration de l'esthetique futuriste. En effet, les peintres italiens ne cherchaient pas tant a depeindre l'apparence, l'aspect visible de la ville qu'a apprehender de facon conceptuelle les idees-forces qui en emanaient. A travers l'entite "ville", ils revelerent les concepts inherents au monde moderne et en etablirent les equivalents plastiques. / Ainsi, c'est a travers le sujet de la ville que s'expriment les idees-forces les plus originales du mouvement, telles que la modernolatrie, le dynamisme universel, la vitesse, le devenir, la transformation, l'unanimisme et le simultaneisme, illustres dans trois chapitres intitules 'La ville montante', 'La ville electrisee' et 'La ville simultanee'. Geux-ci demontrent comment certains motifs recurents du cadre urbain comme les echafaudages des chantiers de construction, les lampadaires, les foules ou les bolides sont transcendes par ces idees-forces. La representation de la ville par les futuristes ne releve pas simplement de la description mais d'un programme d'abord politique puis esthetique: l'avant-garde italienne a cree une nouvelle conception du beau, a revele la beaute de la ville moderne et des valeurs qui lui sont inherentes.

This thesis begins with a consideration of the contributions of modem and contemporary ideas to the field of aesthetics. Out of these contributions, selected theorists from the Independent School of British Psychoanalysis are applied as a contemporary understanding of the practice and intent of Modernist art as seen in the work of the New York School of painters and specifically to the paintings 'On the Theme of Woman' by Willem de Kooning exhibited in 1953. More recent psychoanalytic formulations of aggression, self and subjectivity are put forward as a reinterpretation of the issues surrounding these selected works. The main focus here is on the role of aggression which is reformulated as a search for subjectivity and separateness. In offering these reinterpretations, this thesis draws on the theories of Donald Winnicott and Christopher Bollas. Bollas' notion of the 'transformational object', the work of the unconscious, which he terms 'cracking up' and the idiom of the self in process, is used as a basis for a newer understanding of Modernist art's methodology and interest in the unconscious and self. The final chapter applies Winnicott's concepts of maternal functions and 'object usage' to de Kooning's 1953 Woman paintings. This reinterpretation is offered as an alternative to the more negative interpretations that prevailed at the time of this exhibition which emphasised a negative approach to the female as subject. Instead, it is argued that these works offered the artist a creative arena in which to explore psychological struggles involving self and other in a safe and adaptive way. / Thesis (M. Fine Art)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Pietermaritzburg, 2005.

This dissertation considers the aesthetic strategies and ethical implications of contemporary earth art. Drawing from feminist and ecological critiques of phenomenology, it posits that an ethical preoccupation with the earth is identifiable in works that stage the artist's inability to condense natural phenomena into an intelligible art object thereby evidencing the earth's excess beyond the field of perception. Contemporary earth art has the paradoxical goal of evoking the sensorial plenitude of the earth without representing it as such. The first chapter analyzes Robert Smithson's monumental sculpture, the Spiral Jetty (1970), and suggests that the artist deploys the emblem of the whirlpool to express the artwork's constitutive rupture from the earth, a loss that the artwork subsequently discloses in its textual modes, including an essay and a film that document the construction of the sculpture. Chapter two examines the recurrence of the whirlpool motif and other anagrammatic shapes such as black holes, tornadoes, shells and nests, in earth art from the last three decades. In contemporary practices the whirlpool allegorizes an ethical attentiveness to the earth's alterity; not only does it thematize the artwork's separation from perpetual natural regeneration, it signals the artist's withdrawal from the attempt to construct a totalizing perspective of the site. Chapter three addresses performance and installation works that feature the contact between the artist's body and the earth, and in particular, the body's role in delineating the point of friction between the earth's sensorial plenitude and its resistance to representation. Earth artists thereby assert the body as a surface that separates itself out from the earth and receives sensation of it as other. The conclusion summarizes the main arguments of the previous chapters through a discussion of a three-part installation by Chris Drury entitled Whorls (2005).

The primary objective of this creative project was to produce a professional grade body of work, which clearly expresses the author's perspective and concerns. The works were executed in the traditional mediums of woodcut, etching, drypoint, and drawing. The second objective was to further explore these mediums and their potential in contemporary art. / Department of Art

This Creative Project documents and explains the significance of the exhibition space known as the Sandbox and its members. The goal was to bring together a cohesive body of work that commemorated the people and events related to the Sandbox gallery. This was accomplished by using a variety of materials and tools including video tape, slides, bronze, paint, silk-screens, and super 8 film, to name a few. / Department of Art

Surrealism is examined through its history and phenomenology. The frame of reference is shifted from the history of art to the history of religions; the premises of modern art historiography examined; and Surrealism placed within an interdisciplinary context. The conjunction between the Surreal and the sacred is developed through the phenomenological clues of the uncanny, the weird, and the irrational--popular perceptions of the Surreal. The Surreal is seen as the transition between the ordinary and the extra-ordinary: as the threshold of the sacred. The origins of the Surrealist impulse to "transform life" are traced to occultism, alchemy, and hermetic philosophy, that attempt to create "the union of opposites". Historically, Surrealism stems from this heterodox tradition of archaic, occult, and daemonic elements in European cultures, yet it radically opposes them to the accepted religion and conventional mentality. In so doing, Surrealism creates a new orientation based upon the power of contradiction and ambivalence.

xii, 128 p. : ill. A print copy of this thesis is available through the UO Libraries. Search the library catalog for the location and call number. / Beginning in the early decades of the nineteenth century, British artists became increasingly fascinated by the Alhambra palace complex in Granada, Spain. This thesis examines the prints of three such artists who traveled to Granada, James Cavanah Murphy (1760-1814), John Frederick Lewis (1805-1876) and David Roberts (1796- 1864), in order to shed light on their shifting attitudes and approaches to the Alhambra. A comparison of Murphy's publication of 1815 and the works of Lewis and Roberts, published in the 1830s, will reveal a shift from an attempt to accurately and methodically record Granada's palace complex, to an increasingly subjective and emotionally-based approach. The social and cultural context of Britain and Spain in the early nineteenth century, and the role played by the accompanying text in these publications will also be considered. / Committee in Charge: Dr. Andrew Schulz, Chair; Dr. Kate Mondloch; Dr. Elizabeth Bohls

Orientador(a): José Paiani Spaniol / Banca: Sérgio Romagnolo / Banca: Marco Garaude Giannotti / Resumo: Esta dissertação enfoca a Lousa como objeto artístico na obra de Joseph Beuys, procurando uma aproximação com o observador, captando seu interesse na direção dos caminhos sensíveis propostos pelos rabiscos. Pretende conduzir a sensibilidade do espectador para expandir a vivência de valores humanistas. Como suporte, revela-nos o empenho do artista por uma arte viva. A pesquisa se oferece como um fio condutor a quem se interessa pela ampliação do conceito de arte, e, ao mesmo tempo, se propõe a evidenciar, através do mergulho em alguns símbolos, as direções e paisagens do pensamento do artista / Abstract: The present study focuses on the Blackboard as an artistic object in the work of Joseph Beuys and aimes an aproximation with the observer. It wants to capture the interest of the spectator for the sensible paths proposed by the scribbles. It intends to drive the sensitivity of the spectator in order to expand the experience of humanistic values. As a support, the blackboard reveals the artist's commitment to a living art, to life. The research offers itself as a guiding thread to those who are interested in the expansion of the concept of art. At the same time, it aims to evidence, through an immersion in some symbols, the directions and landscapes of the artist's thought / Mestre

Orientador: Claudete Ribeiro / Resumo: Este trabalho tem como princípio básico estudar alguns aspectos da visualidade da obra Guernica, de Picasso, indicando uma relação de significados que vão compor a gramática do pensamento visual deste artista , descrita numa análise de alguns dos esboços para a confecção do mural, utilizando como base científica os estudos gestálticos de Arnheim. Ainda estão incluídas nesta abordagem algumas breves considerações sobre a atualidade da obra através da presença de sua imagem nos meios multimidiáticos nos últimos dois anos. Apesar de ter a visualidade da própria obra como foco central, os aspectos ligados a vida pessoal do artista e os acontecimentos históricos pelos quais passava a Europa na ocasião da pintura do mural serão abordados, por serem, em minha opinião, de suma importância, nos levando a ampliar a compreensão do universo simbólico e dos sentimentos que Picasso poderia estar vivenciando naquela época, contribuindo no entendimento por exemplo, dos possíveis motivos da documentação da obra em nove fotografias que foi feita por Dora Maar, sua amante na ocasião. Deste modo, esta dissertação oferece aos interessados na obra Guernica uma nova reflexão acerca de sua imagem e aos interessados na vida de Picasso uma visão da ligação entre sua vida e esta que foi uma das mais simbólicas do conjunto de sua obra. / Abstract: Este trabajo tiene como principio básico estudiar algunos aspectos de la visualidad de la obra Guernica, de Picasso, indicando una relación de significados que van a componer la gramática del pensamiento visual de este artista, descrita en un análisis de algunos de los bocetos para la confección del mural, utilizando como base científica los estudios gestálticos de Arnheim. Están incluidas también en este abordaje algunas breves consideraciones sobre la actualidad de la obra a través de la presencia de su imagen en los medios multimediáticos en los últimos años. A pesar de tener la visualidad de la propia obra como foco central, los aspectos conectados a la vida personal del artista y los acontecimientos históricos por los cuáles pasaba Europa en la ocasión de la pintura del mural serán abordados , por ser, en mi opinión, de suma importancia, llevándonos a ampliar la comprensión del universo simbólico y de los sentimientos que Picasso podría estar vivenciando en aquella época, contribuyendo en la comprensión por ejemplo, de los posibles motivos de la documentación de la obra en nueve fotografías realizada por Dora Maar, su amante en el momento. De este modo, esta disertación ofrece a los interesados en la obra Guernica una nueva reflexión acerca de su imagen y a los interesados en la vida de Picasso una visión de la conexión entre su vida y la que fue una de las más simbólicas del conjunto de su obra. / Mestre

Orientador: José Paiani Spaniol / Banca: Agnus Valente / Banca: Marcos Rizolli / Resumo: Este texto é um relato sobre duas experiências realizadas durante minha permanência no Programa de Pós Graduacão do Instituto de Artes da Universida de Estadual Paulista, onde pude desenvolver dois trabalhos práticos e relacionados com disciplina ministrada por meu orientador: Práticas Contemporâneas da Instalação e Site Specific. No primeiro, um projeto de Site Specific tendo como referência as paisagens litorâneas do pintor Benedicto Calixto. Já no outro trabalho, uma Instalação apresentada na Galeria do Instituto de Artes e que homenageia o artista plástico Nelson Leirner. Ambos são resultado de minha pesquisa sobre apropriação, citação e autoria na arte, e estabelecendo conexões poéticas com a História da Arte. / Abstract: This paper is a report on two experiments performed during my stay in the graduate program of the Art Institute of São Paulo State University, where I developed two projects and related subject taught by my mentor: Contemporary Practices Installation and Site Specific. In the first, a draft site specific with reference to the landscapes coastal painter Benedicto Calixto. In the other work, an installation presented at the Institute of Arts Gallery and honors the artist Leirner. Both are the result of my research on ownership, citation and authorship in art, poetry and establishing connection with History of Art. / Mestre