Thesis (M.S.)--West Virginia University, 2001. / Title from document title page. Document formatted into pages; contains vi, 46 p. Vita. Includes abstract. Includes bibliographical references (p. 29-30).

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The research question explored in this exhibition and dissertation was to review the conventional notions of craftsmanship and the use of the specific medium of oil paint with reference to the art of Rembrandt and Damien Hirst. The subject matter is flesh. This study foregrounds the involvement and acknowledgment of the corporeal body, the hand of the artist, and of the organic material reality of our existence and the objects that surround us. The paintings reflect a series of interventions that resulted in abstracted images based on photographs of meat. Once a detail had emerged that emphasised the fleshiness of the selected image, it was printed by a professional printing company. These details were then translated into oil paintings. What is explored is the specific material qualities of the binding mediums traditionally associated with the use of oil painting to create expressive paintings. In the creation of the series of paintings, I prepared binding mediums consisting of wax, stand oil, damar varnish, zel-ken liquin and acrylic paste medium mixed with manufactured readymade oil paints. Consequently the choice and exploration of the material possibilities of a specific medium becomes content, using art to explore the idea of art. Paint becomes flesh-like, having congealed over the surface of the technical support. These paintings propose an internal and an external reality simultaneously referenced through the flesh-like surface, pierced and cut to reveal multiple layers created on the supporting structure (wood and canvas) with the use of a specific medium, oil paint, combined with a variety of other binding mediums. The edges of the unframed paintings play an important role assuming a specific physical presence, enabling them to define themselves as boundaries, both of the paintings particular field of forces and of the viewer’s aesthetic experience. They are no longer edges or frames in the conventional sense, but become other surfaces that are of equal significance in the reading or viewing of the work. Finally, the notion of an exhibition site being neutral or given is contested and, as a result, the contemporary artist needs to be mindful of site specificity in relation to the exhibition of the artworks. This series of paintings is intended to communicate as a body of work, reflecting an individual vision: a recurring, introspective process that is always unfolding. The body is constantly recreated by each individual viewer, and the context or site of display. The artist’s intention is to activate the viewer’s heightened awareness and response to the conscious arrangement of the collection of canvases, as each one represents a fragment or detail of a flayed carcass.

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Art (History of Art), October 2017 / Jeff Wall interferes with the traditions and viewing habits associated with documentary photography. This is primarily achieved through destabilising the status of the documentary photograph as an objectively recorded fact and through invoking the traditions of Western image making in painting. In alluding to suffering and implying violence, Wall alienates a viewer from an automated response and complicates familiar ways of viewing photographs. By impeding meaning making, he restores mystery and uncertainty to the viewing process. / XL2018

A research report submitted to the Faculty of Humanities, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in (History of Art), 2017 / This research aims to examine how the organisation of a biennial and its content could influence the modelling of an independent art centre. Using the concept coined by Arjun Appadurai, ‘grassroots globalisation’, this research unpacks the establishment of Picha art centre through its project Rencontres Picha, Biennale de Lubumbashi (2010-2013), a case study, in examining how specificities of the global south geopolitics may encourage alternative art institutions to emerge. By studying the first three years of Picha through the project Rencontres Picha, Biennale de Lubumbashi (2010-2013), this research investigates how the art centre was created as a tool to position the organisation within the global art discourse whilst maintaining its local relevance in Lubumbashi. It is located at the intersection of three areas of study: Biennial culture, alternative institution models, and global South strategies and politics. / XL2018

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This thesis centres on the debates informing the progress of three public art galleries in South Africa between 1990 and 1994. This was a period of great change in the country, spanning from the unbanning of left-wing political parties and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison, to the first democratic elections which resulted in his inauguration as President of South Africa. The study focuses specifically on the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the South African National Gallery, and the Durban Art Gallery, delineating the events and exhibitions held, the programmes initiated, and the artists represented by these galleries during this post-apartheid/pre-democracy phase of the country’s history. The debates relevant to these galleries linked to those prevalent in the arts, museology, and politics at the time. Many contemporary South African artists called attention to apartheid oppression and human rights abuses during the 1980s. After 1990, with these pressures alleviating, there was a stage of uncertainty as to the role, responsibility, and focus of visual art in a post-‘struggle’ context, however there was also an unprecedented upswing in interest and investment in it. On a practical level, the administration of the arts was being re-evaluated and contested by both independent and politically-aligned arts groups. Public art museums and sponsored art competitions and exhibitions made increasing efforts to be ‘representative’ of South Africans of all races, cultures, creeds, sexes and genders. The many conferences, committees, and conventions created during this transitional era focused on the creation of policies that would assist in nation-building; historical and cultural redress and regeneration; and the education and representation of previously disadvantaged groups. This coincided with a revolution in museological discourses internationally, from the theorization of a museum as a place of commemoration and conservation, to a forum for discussion and revision between both academic and non-academic communities. With the sharing of the process of constructing history and knowledge, came the challenging dynamics involved in the representation of identity and history. In all of these groups - the arts, museology, and South African politics - the predominant issue seemed to be a negotiation between the bid to open up control to more parties, and the reluctance of some parties to relinquish control. While the emphasis is on significant changes that were implemented in the transitional period, the study locates the changes at the Johannesburg Art Gallery, the South African National Gallery and the Durban Art Gallery within their historical, geographical, and socio-political context. Various artists working in these locations during this era are also discussed, as the changes in their status, and the progressions in their subject matter, materials, and concerns are interesting to examine more nuanced definitions of the ‘political’, probing the politics of identity, sexuality, gender, race, geography, and belief systems. Some artists also focused specifically on post-apartheid preoccupations with territory, trauma, conflict, memory and freedom. This kind of artwork was assiduously acquired during the early ‘90s by public art galleries, whose exhibitions and collecting focus and policies were undergoing considerable revision and redress. This thesis examines these changes in light of their socio-political contexts, as well as in light of shifting national and international imperatives and conceptions of museums and museum practice.

At the turn of the twentieth century, as Japan expanded its territory by colonizing other Asian nations, the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was signed in 1910 and Korea lost its sovereignty. In political turmoil, the formation of national and cultural identity was constantly challenged, and the struggle was not argued in words alone. It was also embedded in various types of visual cultures, with narratives changing under the shifting political climate. This thesis focuses on paintings exhibited in the Joseon Mijeon (조선미술전람회 The Joseon Fine Art Exhibition) (1922-1944), which was supervised by the Japanese colonial government and dominated, in the beginning, by Japanese artists and jurors. By closely examining paintings of ‘local color (향토색)’ and ‘provincial color (지방색),’ which emphasized the essence of a “Korean” culture that accentuated its Otherness based on cultural stereotypes, the thesis explores how representations of Korea both differentiated it from Japan and characterized its relationship with the West. In order to legitimize its colonial rule, politically driven ideologies of pan-Asianism (the pursuit of a unified Asia) and Japanese Orientalism (the imperialistic perception of the rest of Asia) were evident in the state-approved arts. The thesis explores how the tension of modern Japan as both promoting an egalitarian Asia and asserting its superiority within Asia was shown in the popular images that circulated in the form of postcards, manga, magazine illustrations, and more importantly in paintings. Moreover, this project examines both the artists who actively submitted works to the Joseon Mijeon and the group of artists who opposed the Joseon Mijeon and worked outside of the state-approved system to consider the complexity of responses by artists who sought to be both modern and Korean under Japanese colonial rule. / published_or_final_version / Fine Arts / Master / Master of Philosophy

A thesis submitted in fulfilment of requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY of FACULTY OF HUMANITIES, UNIVERSITY OF THE WITWATERSRAND, JOHANNESBURG July 2015 / This research project explores the role of art exhibitions in bringing the work of African artists, in this case ‘rural’ South Africa artists, to the attention of the contemporary world. Broadly it seeks to explore questions that arise from the construction of the category of ‘African art’, its canonisation, representation and precarious transition from ethnology to art. By examining the conditions under which the work of black ‘rural’ artists in South Africa was included in major national art exhibitions of South African art during the 1980s, an inquiry is made as to why some or most of these artists have since disappeared and slipped away from the mainstream. There appears to have been very little written about these artists, with the exception of a handful, in the context of these exhibitions. As a result this study proposes a review of the content and contexts of these exhibitions so as to determine their role in generating written commentary and critiques that established the differentials that I will argue were at play in the ways in which ‘rural’ black artists were included, received and have ultimately disappeared from view in the high art arena

The International Exhibition of Industry, Science and Art held in Edinburgh in 1886 was the first universal international exhibition to be staged in Scotland. This thesis examines the event as a reflection of the character and social structure of its host city and as an example of the voluntary organisation of an ambitious project. The background to the Exhibition is located in the progress of large-scale exhibitions in Victorian Britain, in competition between cities, and in Edinburgh’s distinction as an administrative and cultural centre and a national capital. The Exhibition’s organisers are situated within the city’s networks of power and influence and its circles of commerce, industry and municipal government. The space created to host the Exhibition is examined as an ideal depiction of Edinburgh as both a modern and a historic city. The origins of the exhibitors populating the Exhibition space are analysed, and their motivations and exhibiting strategies are scrutinised. The composition of the visitors to the Exhibition is considered and the development of the event as a venue for popular entertainment and spectacular display is discussed. In conclusion the chaotic aftermath of the project is examined, together with its influence on subsequent British exhibitions.