Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Texas at Austin, 2006. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references.

The dissertation studies sixteenth-century German artists' manuals (Kunstbüchlein), a new kind of book that addresses certain types of artistic practices. The Kunstbüchlein testify to and shape transformations of knowledge in early modern Europe. Disseminating practical knowledge in printed form, they endowed craft know-how with a form of authority until then reserved for the liberal arts. They aimed also to reconcile theoretical and practical knowledge, what Albrecht Dürer (the crucial forerunner to the authors of the Kunstbüchlein) termed respectively Kunst and Brauch. Authors Sebald Beham, Heinrich Voghterr, Heinrich Lautensack, and Erhard Schön sought to provide accessible, useful knowledge. Focused on a limited set of topics, they pretended to be closer to practice and to respond more effectively to the needs of their apprentices than Dürer and others in their publications. In fact, the Kunstbüchlein did not mediate Brauch, but show instead what their authors understood Brauch to be. Emphasizing the hands-on acquisition of knowledge through looking, reading, and doing, the Kunstbüchlein placed the printed image, whether as schematic diagram or finished illustration, at the core of the didactic process. / History of Art and Architecture

Diss.--Münster. / Bibliography: p. [93]-98.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.

Thesis--Freiburg i.B. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (p. 576-606).

Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis / Gabriele Münter (1877-1962) was a primary member of the twentieth-century German Expressionist group Der Blaue Reiter (The Blue Rider). This thesis examine the stylistic intersection between avant-garde French Fauvism and German Expressionism in Gabriele Münter's substantial oeuvre. Her body of work demonstrates an unmistakable affiliation with modern French aesthetic inclinations, a distinctive characteristic that confirms Münter's intrinsic comprehension of innovation artistic principles in creative communities across Europe. To contextualize the analysis of Münter's stylistic experimentation, this thesis illuminates the development and maturation of German feminine artistic culture from 1900 to 1933.

The value of the type of musical analysis presented in this study is based on the assumption that the more thorough an understanding the performer has of his repertoire, of both musical and non-musical elements, the more authentic the performance will be. A knowledge of the wishes of the composer and of the historical period, added to an analysis of poetry, melodic contour, harmony, rhythm, accompaniment, and texture, provides the performer with the necessary background to form his interpretation of a song. The interpretation of "Wo die schonen Trompeten blasen" depends upon an accurate execution of the various rhythmic patterns in both the vocal line and the accompaniment. The sometimes opposing rhythms (two against three) between the voice and accompaniment should be carefully observed. Another important interpretive aspect is the portrayal of both characters in the poem (the soldier and his sweetheart). Character differentiation is primarily achieved through the singer's vocal color, intensity, and general deportment. The singer must thoroughly understand the poetry and have formed a definite personality for each character. In "Das irdische Leben" the individuality of each character in the poem is even more essential. The three characters are musically differentiated by the three individual patterns of vocal melody and rhythm. These three types of vocal melodies help determine the vocal color for each character. The chromatic and ever-moving accompaniment helps build the tension of this macabre tale, but the most outstanding feature of this song must be the vocal color and characterization supplied by the singer. The light, yet ironic, humor is the most important element of "Des Antonius von Padua Fischpredigt." The tonal painting of the accompaniment creates the proper atmosphere for this fish tale. To project the poetry's humorous descriptions of the various fishes, the singer must pay special attention to vocal inflection and syllabic stress of the text. Careful attention should be given to the rise and fall of dynamics, which help depict an image of water movement. These three early songs of Mahler were chosen to provide the listener with a variety of mood, style, key, and musical harmony and rhythm. If the performers (both singer and accompanist) study the various musical and non-musical characteristics of the songs, the result should be a more authentic and meaningful presentation.

Thesis (M.A. (German)) - Rhodes University, 2009

Rosemarie Trockel: The Problem of Becoming is a theoretical investigation of the artwork of contemporary German artist Rosemarie Trockel (b. 1952). Although Trockel is best known for her knit canvas works made throughout the 1980s, she has a remarkably large oeuvre which utilizes almost every artistic medium possible – from video and film work, to public monuments, painting, earthworks, sculpture, drawing, installation art, book-making, photography, and even robotics. Trockel’s artwork is constantly changing stylistically and thematically, which makes her work difficult to write about but is also what makes her work unique. By opening up a multiplicity of readings that refuse a fixed symbolic order, her art represents a continuous state of becoming other. Ultimately this project claims that Rosemarie Trockel’s artwork exemplifies a ‘virgulian’ subjectivity and an aesthetics of becoming. This project reads Trockel’s art through the philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari, as well important feminist and queer theorists such as Griselda Pollock, Teresa de Lauretis, Marguerite Duras, Simone de Beauvoir, and Monique Wittig. It also uses the theoretical construct of the virgule as an alternative to common art historical methods such as gender, culture, biography, historicity, or intentionality. The virgule is a theoretical construct (representing both an aesthetic mode or style and a form of subjectivity), which is, ultimately, a new way of reading works of art and literature. Each chapter of this thesis demonstrates different ways in which the virgule operates within Rosemarie Trockel’s artwork. Chapter one, ‘BB/BB’, centres on Trockel’s vitrine work ‘The Bardot Box’ (1993), in which Trockel combines Brigitte Bardot and Bertolt Brecht. These two figures are used to explore concepts of myth, fandom, the rhizome, and adolescence. Chapter two, ‘Mermaid/Angel’, looks at Trockel’s sculpture Pennsylvania Station (1987), which is usually read as relating to the Holocaust. Here, instead, the work will be looked at in relation to fairy tales and mythological creatures. It will also demonstrate Trockel’s fascination with the history of art and how women’s bodies are constructed throughout that history. Chapter three, ‘Domestic/Violence’, discusses how Trockel’s work can relate to historical German events (namely, the activities of terrorist Group the Red Army Faction). It also demonstrates her interest in uncovering forgotten histories and people. Chapter four, ‘Body/Machine’, explains how Trockel’s sculptural machine Painting Machine and 56 Brushstrokes bridges the divide between mechanical production and the handmade. This chapter also discusses the very different ways in which Trockel’s work portrays bodies (visceral versus clinical). The concluding chapter of Rosemarie Trockel: The Problem of Becoming, ‘Across the/Continental Divide’ places Trockel’s video work ‘Continental Divide’ (1994) in dialogue with Monique Wittig’s novel Across the Acheron, to show how the virgule operates as a subject position, and to demonstrate the limits of a virgulian subjectivity.

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