Student Number : 8546313 - PhD thesis - School of Arts - Faculty of Humanites / This thesis interrogates the extent to which the façades of, and decorative programmes in, selected South African public and commercial buildings erected during the decade 1930 – 40 may be understood as important indexes of the various ideological, social and historical concerns underpinning the construction of an imaginary of national belonging during this period. In the context of rapid urbanisation, burgeoning industrialisation, and rampant capitalism that characterise the period, issues of nationalism and political power are brought into sharp relief, with three political agendas competing for dominance: Afrikaner nationalism at one extreme and British imperialism at the other, with, from 1933 to the end of the decade, the insipid ‘South Africa First’ nationalism of the Smuts-Hertzog ‘fusion’ government occupying a highly contested space somewhere between the two. I argue in this thesis that the rhetoric of ‘unity in diversity’ that informs the fusion politics of the 1930s, and particularly its expression in the decorative programmes of public buildings provides for a more nuanced reading of the political and cultural landscape of 1930s South Africa than has been the case to date, where the focus has tended towards deconstructing the cultural nationalism of the 1930s in terms of the rise of Afrikaner nationalism. Moreover, it also serves as a compelling reference point against which to assess contemporary South African attempts to re-narrate notions of nationhood, and the extent to which difficult arguments around ethnicity, autochthony, and the construction of imaginary new ‘publics’ are articulated in post-apartheid public architecture. Chapter 1 is a review of the literature that informs this thesis; both as regards the art historical discourse on South African inter-World War art and architecture, as well as theoretical issues arising from writing on nationalism, national identity, and the role that art and architecture plays in evolving the nation code. In Chapters 2 and 3, I consider the ways in which the notions of identity arising from fusion politics are played out in the decorative programmes of two significant public buildings, South Africa House in London (1933) in Chapter 2 and the Pretoria City Hall (1935) in Chapter 3. I argue that both these buildings are classic examples of the manifestation in architectural terms of the hybrid identity being forged by the centrist ‘South Africa first’ ideologues, in so far as their decorative programmes express an uncomfortable alliance between the entrenched values of British imperialism and a burgeoning Afrikaner nationalism. In Chapter 4, I contrast the decorative programme of the headquarters of the new Afrikaner insurance companies SANTAM and SANLAM (1932) with that of the new corporate headquarters of the Commercial Union Assurance Company (1932), a British owned firm that had had a presence in Cape Town since 1863. The differences in effect of the decorative programmes of these two buildings serve to illuminate the extent of the ideological posturing of volkskapitalisme and its construction of a ‘modern African/Afrikaner’ identity within the imperialist heartland of Cape Town. These debates are brought into sharp relief by the third example discussed in this chapter, the Old Mutual building (1940), the decorative programme of which effectively conflates these concerns with modernity and nationalism in order to construct a hybrid ‘South Africanism’ that neatly elides Boer and Brit imaginings. In conclusion, I show in Chapter 5 how the post-apartheid South African situation presents an interesting case study in terms of constructing an imaginary of national belonging rooted in similar notions of ‘unity in diversity’. Examples here include important national architectural commissions like the legislature buildings for the newly constituted provinces of Mpumalanga (1999) and the Northern Cape (2003), as well as the new Constitutional Court in Johannesburg (2004). In this chapter, I interrogate these debates, and conclude by pointing to parallels with the case studies from the 1930s. The post-1994 examples in question have been widely celebrated as exemplary of a new and appropriate response to the challenges of public building in democratic South Africa. I suggest, however, that the lessons of the 1930s should serve as a reminder that the ostensible dichotomy between ‘good’ (civic) and ‘bad’ (ethnic) nationalism is perhaps not as natural and obvious as it may appear, and that both are equally problematic.

Cette étude cible la reconstitution de la collection du marchand amateur Frédéric Spitzer, avec son milieu social, culturel, politique dans une perspective qui était européenne au XIXe siècle et qui est aujourd’hui devenue globalisée et participative. Vendue aux enchères en 1893, cette collection constitua un cas exemplaire parmi les collections de son époque, caractérisée par des liens très étroits entre collection, étude, nouvelle production d’objets d’art, communication et divulgation. Forcément abordé selon une perspective multidisciplinaire et transnationale et des sources documentaires largement inédites, la microstoria de Spitzer a été réécrite dans le sillage de la multiple identité, de ses nombreux déplacements dans le cadre européen et de ses relations avec les principaux représentants du milieu culturel européen. Sa collection et les objets d’arts qui la composaient ont été ici étudiés avec leur scénario d’origine, c’est-à-dire l’hôtel particulier où ils étaient installés et les rites sociaux et la vie privée dans les salons de réception se prolongeaient dans les salles du musée, en affichant référence à l’esprit de la Renaissance italienne dans une sorte de Gesamtkunstwerk. Un inventaire raisonné a été finalement rédigé à fin de reconstituer l’unité d’origine de la collection et d’accéder d’une manière objective et consciente aux possibles lectures et interprétations du projet unitaire à vocation encyclopédique et taxonomique conçu par Frédéric Spitzer, en devenant un possible support pour la valorisation du patrimoine culturel et de la mémoire collective actuelle. / This study focus on the reconstruction of the collection of the art dealer Frédéric Spitzer (1815-1890), by reconsidering the role of his collection within the 19th century European frame and its meaning in the present culture within contemporary cultural dynamics at a global scale. Auctioned in 1893, his collection was considered an exemplar model of his era, marked by strong links between collection, studies, new production of art, communication and disclosure items. Reconsidered according to a multidisciplinary and a transnational perspective and based on unpublished documents, the Spitzer’s microstoria has been rewritten in the wake of his multiple identity, his European travels and his relations with the key figures of the European cultural world. His collection and his art’s objects have been studied here within their original frame, being on display in Spitzer’s mansion in Paris where social rites and private life in the reception rooms were extended into the museum, showing reference to the spirit of the Italian Renaissance in a kind of Gesamtkunstwerk. A reasoned inventory was finally compiled in order to rebuild the lost unity of the museum according to the Spitzer’s encyclopedic and taxonomic spirit in order to contribure and understand its complexity as a research support tool and as a device of information for the cultural heritage and the present mémoire collective.

Key pattern is a type of abstract ornament characterised by spiral shapes which are angular rather than curved. It has been used to decorate objects and architecture around the world from prehistory onward, but flourished in a unique form in Insular art (the art of early medieval Britain and Ireland, c. AD 600-1100). Ornament of many kinds was the dominant mode in Insular art, however, key pattern has remained the least studied and most misunderstood. From the 19th century, specialists mainly have relied on simplified, line-drawn reproductions rather than original artworks. These 'correct' hand-made details, isolate patterns from their contexts, and in the case of Insular key pattern, de-emphasise its important physical structures. This resulted in misunderstandings of key pattern's structure and an inability to recognise evidence for medieval artists' working processes. Postwar art historians and archaeologists then largely abandoned study of ornament structure altogether, in critical reaction to this earlier method. For two centuries, academics have overlooked the artists' role in pattern-making, and how their creative agency is reflected in patterns' internal structures. In response, this thesis presents a new, artist-centred method for the study of Insular key pattern, which adapts Michael Brennan's pioneering approach to Insular interlace (a different pattern), to suit key pattern's distinct structure. Close examination of objects and monuments, rather than idealised 'types', has revealed how Insular artists themselves understood key pattern and handled it in the moment of creation. The core of the thesis is an analysis of key pattern's structural properties, i.e. its physical parts and the abstract, often mathematical concepts that Insular makers used to arrange and manipulate these parts, in order to fix mistakes, fulfill specific design goals, or invent anew. Case studies of individual artworks support this analysis and demonstrate how key pattern is a vehicle for accessing Insular artists' thought processes, as they improvised with the pattern's basic structures for maximum creative effect. For the first time, this thesis also places Insular key pattern in its global context, via comparative analyses of key patterns from other world art traditions. This investigation has confirmed key pattern's origin in prehistoric basketry and weaving technologies and explains why Insular key pattern's geometric complexity remains unparalleled. The adaptation and expansion of this new analytical method for key pattern also proves its applicability to any type of ornament from any culture, making it immediately useful to art historians and archaeologists. This thesis therefore represents a larger paradigm shift that brings ornament study into the 21st century.

This thesis deals with the life and artwork of sculptor Čeněk Vosmík (1860 - 1944). Thesis contains an overview and evaluation of his artworks in the context of his time. Vosmík's artistic creation is followed from the beginning, which he spent studying in Vienna, through the period of the first successes and early artwork to the stage of his later artworks, when he devoted himself primarily to the religious art. Besides of the religious art thesis deals also with the allegorical, decorative and portrait work as well as restoration works. They are not neglected nor his unrealized proposals of works of art. Is especially emphasized Vosmík's early period of arts and his most important sculptures - The reprobate, The shepherd with bull and The Christ in the desert. Thesis also includes a comprehensive inventory of his art work. Keywords Čeněk Vosmík, sculpture, religious art, allegorical and decorative arts, portraits

Throughout their careers the Impressionists demonstrated a strong, but rarely examined, interest for decoration. A careful examination of both archival material and well-known artworks produced between 1870 and 1895 shows that Pissarro, Degas, Cézanne, Monet, Renoir, Morisot and Caillebotte never ceased to explore the values of decoration and the decorative. Set in the context of the Third Republic’s passion for monumental decoration and deep interest in the decorative arts, the Impressionists’ experiments range from ceilings to ceramic tiles, and from never achieved projects to ambitious realisations (although none remain in their original location). One painter among those surveyed also engaged with theoretical thinking: Renoir wrote for the press and drew up the drafts of a Grammar mainly focused on the decorative arts. Along with a number of artworks explicitly designated as decorative that were predominantly exhibited at the Impressionist shows, the Impressionists further produced more than twenty decorative ensembles made for the interiors of amateurs who then became patrons. Renoir, who started his career as a painter on porcelain, worked in the 1870s for the Parisian homes of a Romanian aristocrat, prince Bibesco, and of a leading publisher, Georges Charpentier, but also for the country house of Paul Berard. Monet, in a similar fashion, painted for the department store magnate Ernest Hoschedé in his property of Montgeron. Initially publicised by the painters in the 1870s, the decade on which this thesis focuses, the Impressionists’ decorative works were subsequently undertaken more quietly though continuously. Morisot painted a chimney trumeau for her own salon, to which Monet gave a pendant (they were eventually used as overdoor panels). Monet and Renoir also painted door-panels for Durand-Ruel. None of these later schemes were actually promoted towards a wide public, showing how the Impressionists’ commitment to painting decorations went from a strategic (and partly commercial) vision to embody a deeper reflection on the essence of painting and its relation to the wall – a reflection that the larger dissertation submitted to the Université de Bourgogne embraces. The critics’ attention, however, went the opposite way. It grew from a relative but highly meaningful disinterest to making the decorative key to their approach at the turn of the century, but in all situations, mocking or praising, their comments shed a crucial light on the Impressionist’s enterprises and their relations to the society’s concerns. An analysis of the Impressionists’ decorative experiments and their critical reception encourages, as this thesis aims to demonstrate, a reconsideration of our vision of Impressionism, for its development drew much more from the decorative than has so far been discussed.

This thesis surveys the ninth-century metallic threads decorating silks discovered at Famen temple in Shaanxi province, China. In this research, metallic threads decorating Famen silks have been studied and documented in detail in order to understand how they were produced and how they were applied. Samples of metallic threads were selected and optical microscope and SEM/EDS were used to determine their morphology and composition. Problems regarding the current terminology used to describe metallic threads are briefly considered, and a systematic renaming of different types of metallic threads is suggested. Analysis results show that most Famen metallic threads were made of gold strips without substrate wound around a fibrous core, and that very few are silver strips without substrate wound around a fibrous core. Silver strips with paper substrate wound around a fibrous core are found among Famen silks, providing very early examples of this type of metallic thread in the world. Technical evidence demonstrates that the Famen metallic strips were cut from hammered metallic foil. It was found that metallic threads of different metal composition with different physical characteristics were selected according to the decoration techniques used and the function of the silks. The use of metallic threads with different grades of evenness in dimension and morphology for different decoration techniques was also found. The gold contents of these gold threads are all very high, and the thicknesses of the gold strips are large. All these characteristics are probably related to the function of Famen silks as objects of Buddhist worship that had been donated to the temple by members of the Tang imperial family and other high-ranking people. Technical investigation into the manufacture of modern traditional Chinese metallic threads was carried out in this research. Combined with analysis of the morphological, structural, and material nature of Famen metallic threads, the key technical characteristics of modern traditional metallic threads were found, which provided important evidence for deducing the manufacturing techniques of Famen metallic threads. Successful reconstructive experiments that produced metallic threads similar to Famen metallic threads were carried out in the laboratory by the author. The use of other known related techniques to produce Famen metallic threads was eliminated on technical grounds. With the above evidence, the manufacturing of Famen metallic threads, especially how the metallic strips were wound around the fibrous core, are reasonably deduced here. By investigating a number of currently accessible Chinese historical metallic threads from other periods, the evolutionary principles of Chinese metallic threads are concluded. The special characteristics of Famen metallic threads, the reasons determining these characteristics are better understood, and their role in the development of Chinese metallic threads is assessed.

A continuing interest in the relationship between the 'decorative' and the 'technological' is a key area that underpins the author's artistic practice. This paper surveys the historical links between the production of applied and decorative art and the emergence of associated technologies as it relates to the author's Art practice. The focus is on Asia's influence on European applied and decorative arts as resulting from the trade relationship evolved over many centuries. Particular emphasis is placed on the period between 17th-19th centuries and with specific reference to textiles. This trade relationship affected European taste, the supply and demand of luxury goods, and introduced technological developments, which in turn had a marked effect on the European social and cultural environment. A brief comparison is made with contemporary trade and production relationships between the West and developng nations, particularly in the East-looking at parallels in trade patterns and systems, which were laid down during 17th-19th century period and are still present today. / Master of Arts (Hons) Contemporary Art

Doctor of Philosophy / ‘Out of the Mould: Contemporary Sculptural Ceramics in Vietnam’ is a study of the current practice of sculptural ceramics in Hà Nội, Vietnam and its historical antecedents within Vietnam and in the West. It examines the transition from a craft based practice to an art practice in some areas of ceramic practice in Hà Nội during the twentieth and early twenty first century. The theoretical basis for the thesis centres on Alőis Riegl's writings, especially Stilfragen (Problems of Style), 1893, in which he makes a close chronological examination of stylistic changes in various media, while intentionally disregarding any hierarchy within artistic disciplines. This is considered an appropriate model for the study of Vietnamese ceramics as the thesis proposes that, in recent years, ceramics has once more resumed its place as one of the major art forms in Vietnam. This status is in contrast to its relegation to a 'decorative', as opposed to a 'fine art', form in the discourse of the French colonial era. As background, the thesis examines the history of sculptural ceramics in Vietnam and discusses what is currently known of ceramic practice and the lineages of potters in particular villages famous for their ceramic works in the area around Hà Nội. The transition in ceramics practice is discussed in terms of the effect of changing conditions for the education of ceramicists, as well as the effect of other institutional structures, the economic changes as reflected in the art market and exhibitions structure and sociological changes. The role which ceramics has played in the emergence of installation art in Vietnam is also examined.

Thesis (M.A.)--State University of New York at Binghamton, Department of Anthropology, 2006. / "This dissertation is a compound document (contains both a paper copy and a CD as part of the dissertation). The CD requires the following system requirements: Adobe Acrobat"--ProQuest document view. Includes bibliographical references.

The Canadian firm of Jacques & Hay was in business for fifty years, during which the company, if The Globe (Toronto) is to be believed, furnished the Province of Canada. This was a stunning and largely undocumented success. Jacques & Hay was one of the largest employers in the province and dominated the cabinet-making trade from 1835 to 1885. In 1871, Jacques & Hay employed 430 men and 50 women in a vertically-integrated operation that included a sawmill, two factories and a showroom. Jacques & Hay produced abundant furniture at reasonable prices. The availability of such household furnishings greatly enhanced domestic life in nineteenth-century Canada, providing scope for a more elaborate social life and allowing more people to achieve a greater sense of comfort and decency in their living arrangements.