<p> In December 1911, the public exhibition of Kandinsky's Komposition V shattered the world of Western illusionism as audiences knew and understood it - or so the traditional tale goes. Yet the relative abruptness with which abstraction supposedly shocks the art world not only presents a misleading impression; it in effect creates a great riddle. If the Western art world spent centuries organized under a unifying goal of perfecting imitation, why would it now so suddenly turn its back on its institutional underpinnings by challenging, negating, or exploding the principles it had worked so hard to develop? This project responds by rejecting the presuppositions of the riddle and arguing against the traditional narrative, claiming instead that the invention of abstract art in the 1910s was neither abrupt nor unprecedented, but was already being described, theorized, or created in the 19^th century, only in literature rather than painting. Through close reading and literary analysis, I present three moments in the German literary canon in which abstract art is imagined or becomes theoretically possible: Heinrich von Kleist's Empfindungen vor Friedrichs Seelandschaft (1810), Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's poem "Howards Ehrenged&auml;chtnis" (1821), and Gottfried Keller's Der gr&uuml;ne Heinrich (1855, 1879). Composing these moments are three different authors who write at three different decades, speak through three different genres, and conceive three different modes of abstraction, none of which contemporaneously achieved painted form. Connecting these moments is the following argument: each constitutes an example of the invention of abstract art in a 19^th-century literary text prior to the visual actualization of abstract art in the early 20^th century. With such images in circulation well before 1911, this study features the crucial role of literature in foregrounding the cultural developments essential for abstract artworks to "speak for themselves" in the medium of painting by establishing certain preconditions involving need, spectatorship, and the self-awareness of the artist. Thus by conceptualizing abstract images in their writing, these three 19^th-century German authors also produce necessary components of the theoretical grounding required for the 20^th-century birth of abstract art.</p>

<p> This research investigates <i>anusmr&dotbelow;ti</i> (Sanskrit), <i>rjes su dran pa</i> (Tibetan), anussati (P&amacr;li), and considers how this term might serve as a link for finding a commonality in practices in H&imacr;nay&amacr;na, Mah&amacr;y&amacr;na and Vajray&amacr;na traditions. The research was inspired by the work of Buddhist scholars Janet Gyatso, Paul Harrison, and Matthew Kapstein. Each of them has noted the importance of the term anusmr&dotbelow;ti in Buddhist texts and Buddhist practice. Harrison sees a connection between H&imacr;nay&amacr;na practices of <i>buddh&amacr;nusmr&dotbelow;ti </i> and a host of Mah&amacr;y&amacr;na and Vajray&amacr;na practices. He notes that <i>buddh&amacr;nusmr&dotbelow;ti</i> can be seen as a source of later, more elaborate Vajray&amacr;na visualization practices ("Commemoration" 215). Gyatso investigates contextual meanings of the term <i> anusmr&dotbelow;ti</i> and cites meanings that include an element of commemoration and devotion. She notes that varieties of <i>anusmr&dotbelow;ti </i> are considered beneficial for soteriological development and are deliberately cultivated for that purpose (<i>Mirror of Memory</i> 2-3). Matthew Kapstein refers to a type of anusmr&dotbelow;ti that is the palpable recovery of a state of being or affect. This, he says, is not simply the memory of the experience but the recovery of the sense of <i>being </i> in that state ("Amnesic Monarch" 234). Essential to the research were the teachings of Dzongsar Khyentse Rinpoche and Anam Thubten Rinpoche on Buddha-nature and Pure Vision. </p><p> In this study I have coined the terms "Buddha-nature anusmr&dotbelow;ti" and "Pure vision <i>anusmr&dotbelow;ti.</i>" Though these terms do not appear in the literature, they may be seen as useful in investigating core remembrances (<i>anusmr&dotbelow;ti</i>) in the Mah&amacr;y&amacr;na and Vajray&amacr;na traditions respectively. "Buddha-nature <i>anusmr&dotbelow;ti </i>" refers to a key remembrance or commemoration in Mah&amacr;y&amacr;na Tibetan literature and practice. "Pure Vision <i>anusmr&dotbelow;ti </i>" refers to a key remembrance or commemoration in Vajray&amacr;na Tibetan literature and practice. This dissertation cites passages from key texts and commentaries to make the point that these coined terms meaningfully reflect a major aspect of their respective traditions. They describe that which is worthy and important, that which should be remembered and commemorated. </p>

<p> My thesis work, which consists of a series of small scaled, mixed media constructions, is inspired by the beauty and complexity of the natural world in which we live. There is beauty in the harmony and balance found in the intricate arrangements and order of a variety of living systems such as the rising and falling tides, human DNA structures, life cycles of plants, and the orbits and rotations found in our galaxy. Each work is intended to reveal the density and sophistication of these networks through layers of information and intricate detail. Found wooden cases, drawers, wire, reclaimed metals and recycled plastic, found glass objects, thread, monofilament, and mylar are just a few of the materials I work with to create my sculptures or assemblages. </p><p> The beauty and sophistication of the diverse elements in the natural world have inspired me to create these small scale assemblages or microcosms. Using science and nature as a foundation, I allow my interest in the reuse and transformation of found objects to direct the construction of these intimate environments. I hope the size of the work and layers of visual information entice viewers to explore the spaces and consider the numerous associations evident from my unique orchestration of elements.</p>

Focusing on the event-based work of San Francisco dancer and choreographer, Anna Halprin, this dissertation argues that relational art and aesthetics is an integral feature of modernism that can be traced to the emergence of dialogue in art practices of the 1950s and 60s. I argue that John Dewey’s pragmatist aesthetics provided Anna Halprin, and other artists in her circle, with a coexistent experiential site for art’s conception and production. This alternative aesthetic model was based on an embodied, holistic approach to aesthetic experience that was fundamentally different from the Kantian-based formalism articulated by Clement Greenberg. Uncovering this alternative aesthetic model matters, not only because it is a neglected tradition with contemporary theoretical resonance, but because it allows us to see that event-based art produced during the 1960s was not merely deconstructive; it also had a constructive social purpose, namely the modeling of temporary, non-totalizing communal experiences. I analyze this contingent collectivism through an anarchist lens, in order to demonstrate that anarchic principles and models of agency were enacted and kept operational in art communities, networks, and events and, furthermore, were supported by holistic philosophies grounded in concrete experience. / Graduate

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Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2010. / "Graduate Program in Art History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 328-344).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2009. / "Graduate Program in Art History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 354-382).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Rutgers University, 2007. / "Graduate Program in Art History." Includes bibliographical references (p. 287-311).