During the Russian nationalism movement of the 19th century, composers collected and harmonized Russian folk songs. These collections were the result of ethnomusicological expeditions, "borrowing" from other existing collections, and, in many cases, use of the "popular" versions as were known in the larger Russian cities. This thesis examines Russian folk song melodies from study of three collections by influential, late 19th century composers: 65 Russkikh Narodnykh Pesen by Vasily Prokunin and P.I. Tchaikovsky (PTC)¸ Sborniki Russkikh Narodnykh Pesen by N. Rimsky-Korsakov (RKC), and Sbornik Russkikh Narodnykh Pesen by M. Balakirev (BKC). These were chosen because they were collected, arranged, and known by influential Russian composers/musicologists of the time. Current scholarship does not provide an analytical paradigm appropriate to this music as each system of labeling still leaves ambiguities. The accompaniments found in the collections are testimony to the difficulty of applying CPE norms to music of another era. Standard harmonic progressions make awkward accompaniments to these melodies. Modal analysis, while more appropriately applied here, is inadequate as well. This study seeks to catalogue, as well as articulate, the characteristics of these melodies. A paradigmatic system of analysis, generated by the music itself, has been created which allows the melodies to be considered on their own terms and not forced into the norms of Common Practice Era or modal analysis. After the details of the system are presented, one piece from each collection will be studied in detail so as to illustrate the application of the system and to show its usefulness in better understanding the music.

Recognizing the historical uniqueness and complexity of Marcel Broodthaerss <i>Musée dArt Moderne, Département des Aigles</i> (1968-1972), this thesis examines Broodthaerss fictional museum and argues that it forms the crucial nexus of institutional critique. Institutional critique is a deconstructive praxis aimed at revealing the hidden political and economic mechanisms of the art institution from within the institution. The <i>Musée dArt Moderne</i> was a satirical, critical, and fictional museum created and directed by Broodthaers. Under the title of the <i>Musée dArt Moderne</i>, several compartmental sections, or exhibitions, opened in various places in Europe at different times. Many of the museum sections were set in actual museums and galleries, while some were situated in Broodthaerss apartment. The <i>Musée dArt Moderne</i> used museological strategies to parody museums, causing the museums sections to deceptively appear authentic. By mimicking genuine museum exhibitions, Broodthaers created a deconstructive institutional critique that revealed and criticized art institutions methods of display, economics, politics, and hidden foundations. Specifically, this thesis illustrates that the <i>Musée dArt Moderne</i> extends earlier avant-garde precedents of institutional critique and anticipates the institutional critiques by Broodthaerss contemporaries. The origin of institutional critique is often simultaneously credited to Broodthaers, Hans Haacke, Daniel Buren, and Michael Asher, but by analyzing the critical implications of the <i>Musée dArt Moderne</i> and the historical and political events of the late 1960s, this thesis assesses the distinctiveness of Broodthaerss <i>Musée dArt Moderne</i> and illustrates that it forms the nexus, or link, between the avant-garde precedents and later practitioners of institutional critique.

I have always been attracted to the quality of light, precise colors and big skies of my native Texas and employ them to create a regional sense of place in my work. My representational landscapes often have a narrative, cinematic feel as if the landscape itself is a character in a story. The road trip velocity of being pulled weightlessly through this region raises themes of isolation, loss and of time and how quickly it passes. I want my work to evoke emotion and create a sense of longing and desire -- to be pulled by the force of the land, to be there in that quiet emptiness and simply experience it, see it, hear it, feel it and capture the duality of absence and presence with a vague sense of something eternal. These paintings often show the rapid decay of the man-made in contrast with the primal force of the land. Im fascinated with peoples relationship with the land by what and how they choose to build.

Few female artists have received as much critical reception as New York based artist Sherrie Levine. Her best known works, the After Walker Evans suite, is partially responsible for the increased attention given to issues of originality, authorship, ownership, and representation in art criticism and theory. Levines source for her appropriations has, until now, been given little to no attention by historians and critics. However, it is an important aspect of her work. Furthermore, the book and history of Evanss images provide additional insight into the totality of Levines critiques of ownership, institutional acceptance of male artists, and commodification. This thesis is an attempt to demonstrate that the source of Levines appropriation is an important detail of her work. It involves a discussion of numerous issues in Levines After Walker Evans suite, such as the difference between readymades and appropriation, the history of Evanss Farm Security Administration photographs, a focused section dedicated to the issue of auratic works, and ownership and representation.

The late-twentieth-century emergence of the term post-Chicano art requires an evaluation of the terms meaning and implications. This essay seeks to explore the utility of the designations of Chicano art and post-Chicano art, focusing specifically on an exploration of post-Chicano art. Chicano art is specifically concerned with the identity of Mexican Americans engaged in the quest for visibility, equality, acceptance, and representation, while post-Chicano art is specifically tied to its practitioners own contemporary social climate and personal aspirations, fundamentally different from those of Chicano artists yet still dedicated to the original goals of giving a voice to an underrepresented ethnic group and creating a positive narrative of Chicano history and culture. Post-Chicano art initiates a dialogue with its Chicano predecessors, a critical undertaking that could not be accomplished without the significant gains made by earlier Chicano artists, who facilitated national recognition for the Mexican American community. In post-Chicano art the essential Mexican American has been abandoned, as the united community required of the Chicano movement has fractured and split, in the best sense of the terms. Through humor, exaggeration, critical appropriation, and studied reflection, post-Chicano artists have cracked open the Chicano community, allowing all varieties of experience to spill out before us. Post-Chicano art undermines our conception of the Chicano identity, forcing a more dynamic and varied understanding of Americans of Mexican descent, where both these components of identity (Mexican and American) exert influence and inform sensibilities.

This thesis discusses the context and iconography of the Italian artist Federico Baroccis (1528-1612) painting Madonna del Popolo (Uffizi, Florence). Commissioned by the Pia Confraternità dei Laici di S. Maria della Misericordia for their chapel in Pieve di Arezzo, Barocci develops the moralizing scene into an inventive iconographic depiction that includes acts of almsgiving and the visiting of prisoners to stand in for the Seven Corporal Acts of Mercy, outlined in Matthew 25:31-46. This thesis provides an introduction to confraternities, the religious brotherhoods that flourished in central Italy, and a discussion of the Aretine confraternal patrons of the Madonna del Popolo. It addresses Baroccis extensive preparatory process for this work in light of previous models for the subject and with regard to the tightening of iconographic regulations that took place in the wake of the Counter-Reformation, arguing that Baroccis innovative interpretation was particularly suited to the nature of the commission. Finally, this paper provides a discussion of the artists prolific activities as a draftsman; a complete listing of the approximately ninety extant preparatory drawings for the painting appears in the appendix.

Joseph Havel: The Bronze Drapes and The Viewer's Experience offers an analysis of the Houston artist Joseph Havels series of cast bronze sheets, curtains, and tablecloths, produced from 1998 to the present. In the catalogue to Havel's 2006 exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Howard Singerman relates Havel's drapes to both Postminimal art and Baroque sculpture. In this thesis, the author contrasts Baroque theatricality to Minimal and Postminimal theatricality based on the viewer's relative experience of each as well as argues Minimal and Postminimal theatricality as precedents for Havel's approach to the bronze drapes and the viewers experience with them. The author gives a personal account of her experience with one of Havel's bronze drapes, briefly imparts information concerning Havel's career, and characterizes the viewer's relative experience of Baroque sculpture, Minimal objects, and Postminimal forms. Havel's bronze drapes are set in relation to each style or movement.

Wayne Shorters compositional style has helped to define many of the techniques in jazz writing since his career began in the late 1950s. In this thesis, I will explore a number of Shorters most innovative and historically important compositions and arrangements over the course of his career spanning from his time with Art Blakeys Jazz Messengers, Miles Davis, Weather Report, and his own groups. These pieces will be analyzed melodically and harmonically as well as their structurally and texturally. Throughout each musical era of jazz over which Shorters career extended, each piece will illustrate several significant qualities in his writing including unorthodox harmonic changes, melodies that incorporate scales more common in improvisation, and structural variation. The later pieces discuss the aural effects of his critically panned music as the introduction of electronic instruments into jazz music and its subsequent blending of elements from popular styles greatly impact the sound and form, but not necessarily the complexity of the music. Most importantly, by including discussions of Shorters life, philosophy of music, and his inspirations for a number of the works presented, we can begin to understand the compositional process of a musician who even in his own circles exudes an air of an eccentric genius. While the music studied presents only a microcosm of his total output, the analysis of the selected pieces combined with the musical interpretation of the composer will establish Shorters place in the pantheon of jazz composers.

This thesis project is formatted as though it were an exhibition catalog of fourteen horse and rider photogravures from the personal collection of artist, Cynthia Brants. Brants (1924-2006) was a prolific painter, sculptor and printmaker who exhibited with a group of local artists known as the Fort Worth Circle. An avid rider since her youth, the equestrian subject was particularly personal to the artist and frequented many of her prints. As she searched for a style and medium, Brants works varied from rudimentary linear works, to abstraction, and finally resulted in a unique combination of photogravure and Japanese paper folding, known as origami. By bringing the photogravure technique to level of fine art and incorporating the art of Japanese paper folding into the process, Brants produced a style that is innovative and sculptural, while simultaneously calling attention to a printing process that had fallen to the wayside.

John Singer Sargent was optimistic about his career until a setback at the 1884 Paris Salon that made securing potential commissions in Europe difficult left him feeling uncertain about his future. Three years later in the fall of 1887, with his career still flagging, Sargent made his first professional trip to America. In Boston, Massachusetts, he executed portraits of wealthy friends and family, while in New York City his most affluent patrons were the Vanderbilts. The opportunity to paint portraits of three women from that family boosted Sargent's professional ambitions and advanced the well-to-do family's social capital