Thesis (Ph. D.)--North Texas State University, 1986. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (p. 367-404).

The purpose of the thesis is to reflect upon the female nude imagery in the counterculture publication London Oz 1967 - 1968, with the retrospective understanding that the alienation involved had a profoundly detrimental effect on my art practice at the time. My aim is to interrogate the past with a view to informing creatively my present work. My thesis is a body of paintings accompanied by an exegesis and a catalogue, from the shed to the dining room and back, 2002, as a work in progress of the MVA. / Thesis (MVisualArts)--University of South Australia, 2005.

Thesis (MA--Art and Design) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2004. / Also held in print (46 leaves, ill., 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection (T 778.923 RAD)

M.A . / The nude is generally approached as a historical and cultural product of specific societies, while a generic conception of the nude as a genre of gendered art (Gill Saunders, 1989), rather than as form (Kenneth Clark, 1956) is more vaguely perceived in underlying assumptions in texts on the nude, and the works themselves. The tradition of the nude is extremely varied, and complex. My purpose is not to unify or simplify this tradition. Any nude is never one thing alone, but is subject to interpretation. The nude, largely through recent feminist interpretations, has come to fulfil the role of trustee for alterity (Lynda Nead, 1992). By considering the main typologies in which the nude has been studied and interpreted, I hope to show the importance and significance of gender in art, aesthetics, and finally, philosophy. The significance of this thesis is to confront the antagonism between traditional and contemporary feminist issues and that of the standard patriarchal tradition. In this regard the nude is an interesting and rewarding genre of the expression of gender, as it deals with the delicate concerns of this category. The central problematic of the research is the question of gender. On an epistemological level, feminism 'introduces' the category of gender, which subverts and challenges all previous conceptions of the human subject. While I wish to bear in mind the history of oppression through the neglect and negation of the category of gender, I also recognise the vital importance of moving beyond this structure by proposing the celebration of plurality through more life-affirming readings of nudity in art. Although femeneutics may sound idiosyncratic, I propose to use the term as shorthand for feminist studies combined with a hermeneutic approach.

The creative project, which focused in painting and print making was the conclusion of my graduate program in studio art. I executed eleven oil paintings and eleven woodblock prints which demonstrated my development as a twodimensional artist.Although oil painting is the primary medium that I worked in for this project, I expanded my visual vocabulary to include woodblock printing. These paintings and prints were exhibited at the University Theater Gallery on Ball State University's campus in April of 1992.Painting is a vehicle to express my ideas to others. It is also a vehicle for my personal discovery' Being Japanese (Eastern) living in America (Western) has created a cultural duality in my life, which is the main focus of this creative project. The emotional content of each piece is expressed through visual metaphors.This project involves the exploration of the female figure as a self-portrait, rendered in an environment that visually represents my emotional state of mind. It is a visual diary which started out with the creation of small black and white woodblock prints. I created the images of the four seasons with a female figure surrounded by decorative patterns. This idea expanded as I worked on the oil paintings, which are larger in format (human scale). My intention was to provide a stimulus for emotional response while gaining a greater understanding of how colors, shapes, and other elements operate expressively. For example, in most of the images I intentionally positioned the figure so that the face is turned away from the viewer and not portrayed. This allowed the viewers to project their own feelings onto the work.Along with the creation of the paintings and the prints, I researched past and contemporary artists who shared my ideas and concerns. These artists include the post impressionists--Van Gogh and Paul Gauguin; the Nabis--Pierre Bonnard and Edouard Vuillard; the Fauves--primarily Matisse; German Expressionists; and a contemporary English artist, Howard Hodgkin. / Department of Art

The place for Charles Wheeler’s nudes in Australian art history has not been adequately gauged by art historians. He was one of Australia’s most notable painters of the nude, not perhaps because his vision was particularly inventive or original, but rather because he was an important, conservative conduit of that European tradition. Wheeler was very popular with the buying public over many decades, but success with his nudes was fundamentally a critical one. The positive response to Wheeler’s nudes, paintings which combined elements of the academic tradition and more fashionable conventions, presents an intriguing reflection on the nature of art criticism in Australia. The style of Wheeler’s discourse is indebted not only to late nineteenth century British models, as it was represented in the writings of critics such as R.A.M. Stevenson, who was primarily concerned with technique, but also to current debates about art and morality. One of the determining characteristics of this discourse was an interest in defining the limits between naked and nude. Critics were particularly concerned to protect the nude as a genre against moral attack by refusing to engage in a discussion of its sensual aspects. While the public was keen to debate the moral problems associated with the nude, the critics were anxious to avoid these issues. They felt that questions of morality were not central to artistic merit, and sensed that by engaging in discussion of this kind, the nude was on danger of being brought into disrepute.

Thesis (MA--Art and Design) -- Auckland University of Technology, 2004. / Also held in print (40 leaves, col. ill., 22 x 30 cm.) in Wellesley Theses Collection. (T 704.9421 JAN)

Thesis (MA)--University of Stellenbosch, 2001. / ENGLISH ABSTRACT: A spectacle denotes an impressive or deplorable sight, and necessarily involves the power and politics of viewing. The female body exists as a sexualised object of these processes of looking within Western culture, not only in high art, but also in discourses such as medicine and science. In both art and medicine the female body has been treated as a passive object to be studied, analysed and classified. Power relations and patriarchal ideologies have played a great part in the resulting objectifying representations, firmly locating images of the female body within the realm of the spectacle. Bodily perceptions, in terms of the female body, have changed much, particularly through the reinterpretation of sexuality through feminist theory. Modem culture and technology have opened up many new possibilities for the redefinition and understanding of the body. Modem bodies seem to be under as much close surveillance and scrutiny as their nineteenth century counterparts. This study explores these ideas through a wide range of examples from painting, photography and performance art, and non-art objects such as anatomical objects and medical illustrations. Central to the construction of the body as spectacle, are issues of looking and viewing. Chapter 1 examines ideas around the gaze; the politics and processes of vision, objectification and fetishisation are explored in relation to the functioning of the medical and aesthetic gaze. The concept of spectacle is also elaborated upon in terms of ideas around the nineteenth century carnival and freak show, and in terms of societal taboos and transgression. Aspects of aesthetic and medical discourse focus on the display and scrutiny of the female body. Chapter 2 examines the way in which these discourses attempted to reveal the female body by rendering it in highly visual terms. The dominant ideologies informing both discourses played an instrumental role and resulted in representations that defined the female body in normative standards and ideals of beauty and health. Pornography is considered as a modem discourse in which the female body is defined and displayed as an object of scrutiny. Feminist theory challenged exclusively male representations of the female body and the subversion of traditional forms of representation of women is studied by examining the work of Annie Sprinkle and Cindy Sherman. Many representations of the female body by feminist artists are considered highly disturbing and transgressive, precisely because they traverse traditional and acceptable representations of it. The idealised nude forms the epitome of contained ideals of health and beauty, and the work of Orlan and Cindy Sherman is examined within these terms in Chapter 3. These artists' representations of the female body are in direct opposition to such norms, rather settling for an open-ended, unconfined and abject representation. However, such transgressive cultural images produced by women artists are often regarded as pathological acts, and dismissed in terms of deplorable spectacle. The research concludes with a commentary on the candidate's practical work, which in dealing with the representation of the human body explores some issues of visuality, spectacle and fragmentation. / AFRIKAANSE OPSOMMING: 'n Spektakel kan op 'n indrukwekkende of betreurenswaardige skouspel dui; gevolglik betrek dit die politiese en magseienskappe van besigtiging. Die vroulike liggaam bestaan as 'n seksuele objek van só 'n proses van besigtiging binne die Westerse kultuur - nie net in kuns nie, maar ook in diskoerse soos geneeskunde en die wetenskap. In beide kuns en geneeskunde, is die vroulike liggaam beskou as 'n passiewe objek vir bestudering, analisering en klassifisering. Magsverhoudinge en ideologieë het gevolglik 'n groot rol gespeel in die uiteindelike objektifiserende representasies, en gevolglik is die uitbeelding van die vroulike liggaam in terme van spektakel vasgelê. Liggaamlike persepsies, veral in terme van die vroulike figuur, het noemenswaardige veranderinge ondergaan - veral deur die hervertolking van seksualiteit deur feministiese teorie. Moderne kultuur en tegnologie bied verdere moontlikhede vir die herdefiniëring en begrip van die liggaam. Die moderne liggaam word onder streng bewaking en betragting geplaas - net soos sy negentiende-eeuse ewebeeld. Hierdie studie ondersoek dié idees deur die bestudering van 'n verskeidenheid voorbeelde vanuit skilderkuns, fotografie en 'performance' -kuns, asook objekte soos anatomiese objekte en mediese illustrasies. Kwessies van besigtiging is sentraal tot die konstruksie van die liggaam as spektakel. Hoofstuk londersoek dus idees rondom besigtiging - onder andere die politiese en magseienskappe, en die gevolglike objektifiserende effek daarvan - in verhouding tot die funksionering van die mediese en die estetiese blik. Die konsep van spektakel word verder uitgebrei in terme van die negentiende-eeuse karnaval, asook in terme van taboes en sosiale oortreding. Sekere aspekte van estetiese en mediese diskoerse fokus op die vertoning en besigtiging van die vroulike liggaam. Hoofstuk 2 ondersoek die wyse waarop hierdie diskoerse die vroulike liggaam in hoogs visuele terme uitgebeeld het. Beide diskoerse is gemotiveer deur dominante ideologieë, wat gevolglik 'n instrumentele rol gespeel het in die uitbeelding van die vroulike liggaam. Sulke uitbeeldings is dikwels gemotiveer deur standaarde en ideale van skoonheid. Gevolglik word pornografie in hierdie hoofstuk bespreek as 'n moderne diskoers wat georganiseer is rondom die vertoning en besigtiging van die vroulike liggaam. Feministiese teorie skep 'n positiewe ruimte waarin sulke eksklusiewe, manlike definisies en uitbeeldings van die vroulike liggaam uitgedaag kan word. Die omverwerping van tradisionele metodes van uitbeelding word hier ondersoek deur die werk van Annie Sprinkle en Cindy Sherman te bespreek. Die herdefiniëring van die vroulike liggaam deur feministiese kunstenaars word dikwels beskou as onstellend; waarskynlik omdat dit tradisionele en aanvaarbare uitbeeldings van die liggaam oortree. Die werk van Orlan en Cindy Sherman word in terme van sosiale oortreding in Hoofstuk 3 ondersoek. Die klassieke naakfiguur stel die ideale van skoonheid en stabiliteit voor. Hierdie kunstenaars se uitbeeldings toon egter 'n doelbewuste verontagsaming van sulke ideale, deurdat hulle eerder 'n oop, onstabiele en gefragmenteerde figuur uitbeeld. Oortredings van kulturele norme deur vrouekunstenaars word dikwels beskou as patalogiese aksies; en dit word dus maklik afgekeur as 'n spektakel. Die navorsing word afgesluit met 'n bespreking van die kandidaat se praktiese werk, wat die uitbeelding van die menslike liggaam ondersoek. Gevolglik word kwessies van besigtiging, spektakel en fragmentasie verder ondersoek.

This research surveys ideology and iconology in the presentation of the autobiographical and biographical female nude as envisioned by American women artists in the painting, drawing and printmaking media from 1969 to 1983. Contemporary dialogue by critics, artists and feminists on the definition of feminine content led to the articulation of the undraped nude torso as the central icon of the study. This static icon was pushed through a variety of styles into multi subtleties of iconology. The female nude by women artists is autobiographical even in biography emphasizing self-identification and authenticity. General constraints were placed on the survey the definability or explicit articulation of the female torso as opposed to suggestive imagery, the time frame in which the nude was created, and the chosen media for study. Art historical methodology was employed to descriptively examine image and intent of the nude presentations in references through time as well as visual traditions of symbology. This survey began at the turn of the century for historical background to emphasize the greater proliferation of the nude from 1969 to 1983. There were limitations specifically associated with the earlier time frame (1900-1969)--the lack of art educational opportunities for the female student, the socio-political climate dealing with the acceptability of the nude, and a very general lack of attention from the publishing market towards women artists. Six artists were identified: Lillian Genth, Romaine Brooks, Margarite Zorach, Isobel Bishop, Louise Nevelson and Louise Bourgeois. The coalescence of socio-political circumstances around 1969, allowing for the greater incidence of the female nude occasioned the selection of 1969 as a perimeter of research. Within 19 69-1983 a greater number of artists and a far greater number of works were evident, seventeen in all, including Alice Neel, Marisol, Mary Frank, Nancy Spero, Joan Brown, Sylvia Sleigh, Martha Mayer Erlebacher, Mary Beth Edelson, Joan Seminel, Jillian Denby, Daphne Mumford, Juanita McNeeley, Martha Edelheit, Shirley Gorelick, Janet Culbertson, Anita Steckel, and Pat Steir. The amazing diversification of the work presented is united by the female nude icon which by subtle visual manipulation and compositional placement offers ideology which expands the Twentieth century definition of female.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Chicago, Department of Art History, 2001. / Includes bibliographical references. Also available on the Internet.