Jezebels, Mammies, and Matriarchs… These labels signify racialized and gendered social constructions that transnationally pervade the lives of black women. By contextualizing black women’s artwork as visual responses to social subjugation and objectification, one can discern the (literal) materialization of black feminist epistemology through artistic production and the aesthetic concerns that drive expressive work. This thesis therefore analyzes black Brazilian artist Rosana Paulino’s work as a visual form of resistance to three major “controlling images” of black women in Brazil as sexually promiscuous, domestic laborers, and unfit mothers. Her work represents not only the Brazilian black woman’s experience; it broadens and deepens the conversation on black women’s art in Africa and its diasporas, where similar stereotypes exist. Several of Paulino’s personal statements and artworks address subjects that parallel those made by black women artists--María Magdalena Campos-Pons, Lorna Simpson, Zanele Muholi, and Wangechi Mutu, to name a few--whose artwork is also considered in this paper. Articulated to an international community of black women artists, Paulino’s artwork contributes to the development of a space in art history for the representation of black Brazilian women that enriches understandings of other established areas, be they social, artistic, medical, sexual, cultural, political or economical. / text

This thesis brings together women artists art practices situated in five key periods of Cyprus socio-political history: British colonial rule, anti-colonial struggle, 1960 Independent, the 1974 Turkish invasion and its aftermath of a divided Cyprus, which remains the case in the present day. Such study has not been done before, and for this, the current thesis aims to provide a critical knowledge of the richness and diversity of Greek Cypriot women's art practices that have frequently been marginalised and rarely been written about or researched. As the title suggests, this thesis engages in rethinking the history of Cypriot art by focusing on the art produced by women artists in Cyprus. By focusing primarily on the work of Greek Cypriot women artists I am interested to explore the conditions within which, through which and against which, women negotiate political processes in Cyprus while making art that is predominantly engaged in specific politicised patterns. The meeting point for the artists is their awareness of being women artists living in a colonised, patriarchal country under Greek Cypriot nationality. While these artists assumed very different positions in their experience of the several phases of Cyprus history, they all negotiate in their practice territorial boundaries and specific identity patterns. Significant to my thesis are a number of questions that I discuss in relation to women artists professional careers and private lives: nationalism, militarism, patriarchy, male dominance, social and cultural codes, ethnic conflict, trauma, imposed displacement through war, memory and women's roles, especially as mothers, in modern and contemporary Cyprus. Thus, I address questions of how women artists in Cyprus experienced such phenomena and how these phenomena affected both their lives and their art practices.

In the years between 1960 and 1975 in NSW there emerged a loosely connected network of women interested in modern or creative embroidery. The Embroiderers' Guild of NSW served as a focus for many of these women, providing opportunities for them to exhibit their work, and to engage in embroidery education as teachers or as learners. Others worked independently, exhibited in commercial galleries and endeavoured to establish reputations as professional artists. Some of these women were trained artists and wanted embroidery to be seen as 'art'; others were enthusiastic amateurs, engaged in embroidery as a form of 'serious leisure'. They played a significant role in the development of creative embroidery and textile art in NSW and yet, for the most part, their story is absent from the narratives of Australian art and craft history. These women were involved in a network of interactions which displayed many of the characteristics of more organised art worlds, as posite d by sociologist Howard Becker. They produced work according to shared conventions, they established co-operative links with each other and with other organisations, they organised educational opportunities to encourage others to take up creative embroidery and they mounted exhibitions to facilitate engagement with a public audience. Although their absence from the literature suggests that they operated in isolation, my research indicates that there were many points of contact between the embroidery world, the broader craft world and the fine art community in NSW. This thesis examines the context in which creative embroiderers worked, discusses the careers of key individuals working at this time, explores the interactions between them, and evaluates the influence that they had on later practice in embroidery and textiles in NSW.

L'étude conduite nous donne une lecture non canonique de l'activité de Leonor Fini en tant que costumière de théâtre, avec un regard spécial sur les spectacles réalisés entre Rome et Paris de 1944 à 1969, tout en essayant de développer un itinéraire interprétatif non ordinaire sur ce aspect peu exploré de l'art finian.En fait, l'axe de l'enquête s'est précisé à partir de la détermination des tendances travesties de l'artiste, que l'on retrouve à Trieste - où elle absorbe une pluralité de stimulus intellectuels jusqu'à son tendre âge, pour aborder la définition du travail comme costumière. L'objectif que nous avons dû affronter dans cette étude, fut celui de donner une lecture organique, de décrire un chemin ordonné et raisonné qui du travestissement conduit de manière univoque et extraordinaire à la pratique du costume théâtrale, laquelle doit être encadrée comme une moitié désirée.Il y a donc l'analyse de aucun maquettes de costume réalisés au sein des productions italiennes et d'autre parte, sur ceux de productions français. Beaucoup de ces maquettes sont inédites et certaines ont été, précédemment, victimes d'imprécisions sur leur datation ou sur le théâtre de la première mise en scène.Grace à la construction d'un parcours organique sur l'essence existentiel-identitaire de la production costumière d'une artiste controverse comme elle, la contribution que cette étude tente de conférer à la littérature finienne c'est interprétatif, autant que chronologique et récognitif.L' étude parle donc, d'interconnexions et de frôlements entre différents domaines de recherche touchés par cet artiste éclectique, cosmopolite et magnétique, cultivée et raffinée pour laquelle la pratique du costume fut une nécessaire destination à rejoindre. / The study conducted gives us a non canonical reading about the Leonor Fini's activity as theatrical costume designer, with a special view to the shows performed between Rome and Paris from 1944 to 1969, while trying to develop a non-ordinary interpretive trajectory on this little explored area of her art.In fact, using the artist's travesties trends - which have been found in Trieste, city where she absorbed a plurality of intellectuals stimulus from the earliest age- as a starting point, the axis of the survey has arrived to the definition of her work as costume designer. The aim was to give an organic reading, to describe an orderly and reasoned development that, starting by transvestism, guides to theatrical costume's creation -which should be considered as a desired purpose- in an uniquely and extraordinary way.Therefore, an analysis of some costume design sketches made for Italian productions and, on the other side, those for some French productions, has proposed. Many of these sketches are unpublished and, on previously studies, they have been victim of mistakes about the dating or the premiere's theatre.Thanks to the building of a systematic itinerary on the existential essence in the costume design production, the contribution that this study attempts to give to finienne literature is interpretative, as far as chronological and recognitive .Therefore, this study is about interconnections and touches between various research fields encompassed by this eclectic, cosmopolitan and magnetic, cultured and refined artist for which the costume's creation was a necessary goal to reach. / Lo studio condotto mira a conferire una lettura non canonica dell'attività di Leonor Fini come costumista teatrale, con uno sguardo preferenziale sugli spettacoli andati in scena a Roma e Parigi fra il 1944 e il 1969, sviluppando un itinerario interpretativo non ordinario su questo aspetto poco esplorato della sua arte.L'indagine ha preso il via a partire dalla determinazione delle tendenze travestitive dell'artista, rintracciate a Trieste -città ove la Fini assorbì una pluralità di stimoli intellettualifin dalla tenera età, per arrivare poi alla definizione del lavoro in qualità di costumista.L'obiettivo fronteggiato in questo studio è stato quello di dare una lettura organica, di descrivere un cammino ordinato e ragionato che dal travestimento ha condotto, in maniera univoca e straordinaria, alla creazione del costume teatrale il quale deve essere considerato come una meta a lungo perseguita.Sono stati quindi analizzati alcuni bozzetti di costume realizzati in seno a produzioni italiane e, inoltre, alcuni destinati invece a produzioni francesi. Molti di questi risultano inediti, e oltretutto alcuni di essi, sono stati in passato vittime di errori riguardo la loro datazione o il teatro della prima messa in scena.Grazie alla costruzione di un percorso organico sull'essenza esistenziale-identitaria della produzione costumistica di un'artista controversa come lei, il contributo che questo studio tenta di conferire alla letteratura finiana è di tipo interpretativo come anche cronologico e ricognitivo. Lo studio parla quindi di interconnessioni e sfioramenti fra differenti territori di ricerca toccati da quest'artista eclettica, cosmopolita e magnetica, colta e raffinata, per laquale la pratica del costume fu una necessaria destinazione da raggiungere.

The thesis deals with the formation of the canon of Czech modern art during the 20th century based on the analysis of art groups Osma, Skupina výtvarných umělců and Tvrdošíjní and their time. Every artist becomes an object of interest of art historian right after he creates an artwork. The art historians are trying to classify him and put him into the story of art history. The concrete interpretation of the artist and his artwork depends on different circumstances and always reflects the period, when it has been created. It is affected by social and political situation, preferred art historian approach, possibility of artworks reproduction, used terminology and stereotypes. Osma, Skupina výtvarných umělců and Tvrdošíjní has been chosen because their activity is connected with the origins of Czech modern art and the activity of their members is often reflected in the art historian literature. The chase of social-political situation during the 20th century allows naming also other topics that have influence on the form of the Czech modern art. The thesis analyses important exhibitions held between the years 1935-1998 and the survey literature written in the same time. Based on the analysis it introduces the concrete changes in the canon of Czech modern art. Keywords Canon of modern art, Cubism,...

This dissertation is devoted to a monographic processing of the work of sculptress Maria Bartuszová (1936, Prague - 1996, Košice). Methodologically, it is mainly based on the compilation and evaluation of knowledge from the in-depth research of the first list of works of M. Bartuszová "Catalogue Raisonné 2012-2018", Collection of drawings and photographs from the Archive of M. Bartuszová, biography, exhibitions and bibliography. It is divided into four chapters, in which it deals with the sculpture of M. Bartuszová, its transformations in the period of her ceramics studies at the Academy of Fine Arts, Design and Architecture during the 1950s in Prague, continues by tracking her sculptural beginnings since 1961, and it deals with the circumstances of her relocation to Košice where she lived most of her life. It tracks her work during the normalization period of the 1970s until the end of the 1980s, when the totalitarian regime ended with the Velvet revolution. It explores the reasons why her work was little exhibited and also why it was little known and reflected by the professional circles. Based on the process of assembling parts of the organism of her oeuvre reconstructs technological experimental procedures, original terminology of the sculptor, creative intentions, dating of works and their...