Cette thèse se propose d’étudier le surréalisme bruxellois durant les années 1940, à travers le prisme de l’objet. Les termes d’héritage, de poncif, de génération, d’avant-garde et de scandale en façonnent le cadre. Le poids des événements historiques s’y fait continuellement ressentir. Particulièrement peu unifiées sur le plan politique et artistique, les années 1940 sont synonymes d’intenses turbulences pour le surréalisme, officiellement lancé en 1924. Les jeunes poètes qui entament leur parcours à cette époque sont pratiquement nés au même moment que le mouvement dans lequel ils s’insèrent. La rencontre entre ces surréalistes débutants et un mouvement ayant ses principaux coups d’éclat derrière lui crée une dynamique à laquelle l’énergie de ces années difficiles est en grande partie redevable. Divers phénomènes sont observés : la constitution d’une « deuxième génération » surréaliste, une interrogation sur la pertinence et les moyens d’action du mouvement, des modifications dans les relations avec les surréalistes parisiens. Enfin, l’instabilité politique force chaque membre du mouvement à repenser ses rapports au réel. L’utilisation de l’objet par les surréalistes est intimement liée à ces soubresauts continuels. Suivant un déroulement chronologique, la thèse aborde quatre épisodes de l’histoire du groupe surréaliste bruxellois durant cette décennie, en suivant plus particulièrement le parcours de Marcel Mariën, Christian Dotremont et René Magritte. Elle s’ouvre à la veille de la Seconde Guerre mondiale ; la deuxième partie est consacrée à l’Occupation. La troisième partie étudie l’année 1945 et en particulier une exposition organisée par René Magritte en décembre 1945 et janvier 1946, dans laquelle les objets sont présents en nombre. La quatrième partie se consacre aux dernières années de la décennie. Christian Dotremont quitte le surréalisme via la création du surréalisme-révolutionnaire et de Cobra avant de réaliser une exposition d’objets en été 1949. L'étude de cette décennie dans sa globalité permet plus largement de donner un éclairage inédit sur cette partie de l'histoire du surréalisme. / Doctorat en Histoire, histoire de l'art et archéologie / info:eu-repo/semantics/nonPublished

This Master thesis with a title of "The Art Scene in Zlín in Sixties" considers Zlín's culture of the era on the institutional level. It consists of three main parts including the issues of (1.) the Regional Gallery of Fine Arts in Zlín (called Gottwaldov during the era of communist regime in Czechoslovakia from 1949 to 1989), (2.) The Gallery Dílo Gottwaldov, a branch of ČFVU (the Czech Archive of Art), and finally (3.) The Design Competition for Theater of Workers. This thesis aims to describe foundation, development, work and exhibition activities for both galleries. The chapter about the Regional Gallery also pursues acquisition activity of the Institution. A part of the thesis dealing with a competition to decorate Theater of Workers describes development of the competition since its manifestation, follows the announcement of a winning designs and considers the official opening of the building as well. The competition was launched for the construction of monumental sculpture in front of the Theater, the monumental mosaic for the front lobby of the Theater, sculpture in the fountain in a park behind the Theater and decorative textile curtain for the stage.

‘Becoming Animal’: Motifs of Hybridity and Liminality in Fairy Tales and Selected Contemporary Artworks serves as a theoretical examination of the concept of the hybrid. My research unpacks the liminal aspect of hybridity, locating the hybrid in the imaginative world of popular fairy tales, folk lore and mythology. In my accompanying MFA exhibition, Becoming(s), I explore these motifs through an installation of mixed-media sculptures which are based on the hybrid creatures that populated the fantasy world of my childhood. The written component of my MFA submission will relate directly to my professional art practise, developing it further and situating it within a relevant context. In my mini-thesis I will consider the liminal in relation to the ‘animal turn’ in contemporary art, with a particular focus on relevant artists working with the motifs of hybridity, such as Nandipha Mntambo, Jane Alexander and Kiki Smith. The ‘animal turn’ is a term used by Kari Weil (2010: 3) to describe a contemporary interest in issues of the nonhuman, and in the ways that the relationship between humans and nonhumans is marked by “difference, otherness and power”. Of key concern to my research will be Giles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s concept of ‘becoming animal’. Rather than describing a transition from one stable state to another, ‘becoming animal’ suggests a radical dissolution of boundaries – not just between species (such as ‘human’ and ‘animal’) but between any essentialising binaries. As such, ‘becoming animal’ suggests a conception of identity as being fluid and mutable, rather than stable and fixed.

Elève à l’école des Beaux-arts de Paris, premier prix de Rome à l’âge de 23 ans, Théodore Ballu (1817-1885) prolonge sa formation à l’Ecole française de Rome, et en Grèce, avant même l’ouverture de l’Ecole française d’Athènes. Sa carrière d’architecte, longue d’une trentaine d’années, est exceptionnelle. Auteur d’un quart des églises parisiennes construites sous le Second Empire, de l’Hôtel de Ville de Paris en collaboration avec Deperthes, et de plusieurs édifices ou monuments civils, il est un représentant majeur de l’éclectisme architectural. Ses édifices religieux auront une influence sur ses contemporains et sur la jeune génération d’architectes. Formé par son père et par Auguste Magne, Albert Ballu (1849-1939) a une carrière multiple et internationale : auteur du palais de justice néo-classique de Charleroi et de celui plus éclectique de Bucarest, il adapte ses autres productions aux techniques architecturales du tournant du XXe siècle. Architecte diocésain et architecte en chef des monuments historiques, il s’investit beaucoup en Algérie, jusqu’aux années 1920, où il fouille les grands sites romains, restaure les édifices religieux et construit des édifices variés. Chef de file de la valorisation de l’Algérie romaine et musulmane, il est l’architecte restaurateur de très nombreux édifices diocésains et monuments historiques, spécialement dans les départements des Charentes, en Bretagne et en Corse. Il se spécialise, aussi, dès 1889, dans la construction de pavillons d’expositions universelles. Résultant d’une étude détaillée de la vie et de l’oeuvre de ces architectes, cette thèse évalue leur importance dans la mise en place de modèles architecturaux et dans l’orientation des restaurations architecturales des années 1850 à 1920. / Théodore Ballu (1817-1885) was a pupil at the Ecole des Beaux-arts in Paris who won the Prix de Rome at the age of 23. He continued his studies at the French Academy in Rome and then in Greece, even before the opening of the French Academy in Athens. His thirty year career as an architect was exceptional. He designed a quarter of the Parisian churches constructed during the Second Empire. He was a major representative of architectural eclecticism, collaborating with Deperthes on the Hotel de Ville in Paris and working on several other public buildings and monuments. His religious constructions would influence his contemporaries and the next generation of architects. Albert Ballu (1849-1939) was trained by his father and by Magne. He had a varied international career, including designing the neo-classical Charleroi courthouse as well as the more eclectic one in Bucharest. He adapted his other productions to the architectural techniques at the turn of the twentieth century. As a diocesan architect and chief architect for historic monuments, he was heavily involved in Algeria until the 1920’s. Here he explored the great Roman archaeological sites, restored religious buildings and constructed various others. A leader in the movement to increase the status of Roman and Muslim Algeria, he was the restoring architect of large numbers of diocesan buildings and historic monuments, especially in the Charentes departments, as well as in Brittany and in Corsica. As early as 1889 he also specialised in the construction of pavilions for great exhibitions. The result of a detailed study of the lives and works of these architects, this thesis evaluates their importance in establishing architectural models and the direction of architectural restorations between 1850 and 1920.

En déplaçant les problématiques traditionnelles - celles des analyses strictement nationales - cette thèse propose d'explorer, à l'aide d'une perspective comparative, l'importance donnée au critère moral par la critique, française et anglaise, lors de sa réception de la peinture victorienne. Le corpus de ce travail s'appuie sur l'étude successive des œuvres anglaises présentées tant aux expositions universelles parisiennes (1855, 1867, 1878 et 1889) qu'à la Royal Academy et des commentaires critiques publiés dans la presse spécialisée ou non. Cette démarche révèle la dynamique des échanges interculturels entre les deux pays autour de la question morale et met en évidence l'existence d'une réception nationaliste de l'art par la critique. Dès lors, le jugement porté sur une œuvre par un critique dépend de sa culture, de son goût, mais aussi plus largement du contexte social et des principes propres à sa société. À ce titre, le climat de compétition entre la France et l'Angleterre se retrouve dans les articles et ouvrages publiés de chaque coté de la Manche. De puissants débats critiques mettent en lumière les processus d'appropriation et de rejet participant à la définition des deux cultures artistiques. Ils réunissent art et morale en interrogeant l'existence d'un « grand genre » victorien, l'exposition comme un espace permettant à la critique de circonscrire un art national et de se définir elle-même, ainsi que l'influence moraliste de John Ruskin (1819-1901) sur la société et son art. L'hétérogénéité de la profession de critique d'art associée à la plasticité du mot « morale » permet donc à ce travail de proposer une définition de la peinture victorienne et de ses acteurs. / By shifting the traditional issues - those of strictly national analyses - this thesis proposes to explore, using a comparative perspective, the importance given to the moral criterion by critics, French and English, when receiving Victorian painting. The corpus of this work is based on the successive study of English paintings presented at the “Expositions universelles” in Paris (1855, 1867, 1878 and 1889) as well as at the Royal Academy, and of the critical comments published in the press specialized or not. This approach reveals the dynamics of intercultural exchanges between the two countries around the moral issue and highlights the existence of a nationalist reception of art by critics. Consequently, a critic's judgment of a painting depends on their culture, their taste, but also more broadly on the social context and the principles specific to their society. As such, the competitive climate between France and England is reflected in the articles and books published on both sides of the English Channel. Powerful critical debates highlight the processes of appropriation and rejection that contribute to the definition of the two artistic cultures in relation to each other. They bring art and morality together by questioning the existence of a Victorian “grand genre”, the exhibition as a place for critics to circumscribe a national art and define themselves, as well as John Ruskin's (1819-1901) moralist influence on society and the art it produces. The heterogeneity of the art criticism profession associated with the plasticity of the word “moral” therefore allows this work to propose a definition of Victorian painting and its actors.

The dissertation examines the reception of Czech and European abstract art in Czechoslovakia in the 1920s and 1930s. It assumes that the Czechoslovak cultural milieu was unfavourable for abstract art at that time, yet various forms of its reception were occurring. Thus, the objective is to demonstrate and document opportunities for abstract art public presentation, related critical reactions and theoretical reflection. The reception history perspective followed in the dissertation deals with written sources, and focuses on relationship between viewers and abstract art and on handling particular artworks. Predominantly recipients such as theorists, art critics, editors, artists, and other participants in the arts sector are taken into consideration when exploring contemporaneous exhibiting, evaluation and interpretation of abstract art. The paper includes responses and attitudes to abstract painting and sculpture as well as to abstract photography, film and kinetic art.

The aim of this project is to investigate a cultural history of mushroom collecting in Sweden from the 19th century to the present with a focus on connections between aesthetics and the environment.  Collecting is defined broadly as gathering, storing, and accumulating.  This definition encompasses mycologists, mushroom enthusiasts, botanists, and natural historians documenting and preserving as many species as possible.  But it also includes collecting in the sense of leisurely mushroom collectors taking a part of the environment home with them to eat, store, or learn from. A history of mushroom collecting in Sweden is framed that does not only focus on edible mushrooms or scientific value, but emphasizes their linkages to place, memory, conservation, sociality, and embodied knowledge. Mushroom aesthetics are a starting point for exploring wider human connections to the environment and human perceptions of nature.   Collecting is presented as a process which is argued to be a means for constant dialogue with the environment. The cyclical collecting process is broken into stages that are discussed in designated chapters: Hunting, Identification and Assessment, and Storage and Sharing. Aesthetic aspects of mushroom collecting in Sweden are examined within these stages applying visual and discourse analyses to archival images, questionnaires, historic cookbook recipes, and mushroom identification books. Importance is also assigned to fully immersed aesthetic experiences and specific sensory stimuli that facilitate interconnection with non-human actors. Immersed aesthetic experiences are argued to be significant in their ability to democratize aesthetic appreciation of nature, in contrast to historical associations of aesthetics with taste and high culture. Fluctuating historical judgments are mapped about mushrooms, highlighting the framing of nature as a productive asset. Mushroom exhibitions are shown to be a point of collective meaning making, where aspects of natural time according to mushrooms challenge anthropocentric notions of temporality. This thesis through its focus on aesthetics in mushroom collecting reveals spaces of uncertainty and dynamic fluctuation in human-nature relationships, as well as a sense of value for being physically present and part of environments.

French art in the interwar Czechoslovakia and its influence The Diploma thesis / Šárka Komedová Abstract The aim of the Diploma thesis French art in the interwar Czechoslovakia and its influence is to show a significance of French art for a development of Czechoslovakian art in an interwar period. It will focus on the Czech-French cultural relationships, the French art exhibitions and other French cultural activities in Prague 1918-1938. The main part of the thesis is detailed documentation of French art exhibitions held in interwar Prague. It will also deal with influences of the French art on interwar Czechoslovakian visual art. Keywords Czechoslovakia (1918 - 1939), Prague's exhibitions of French art, French modern art, Czech interwar art, The popularity of French nation

The thesis will focus on the first exhibitions of the industrial goods in Bohemia between the years 1754 and 1836. In every one of the chronologically sorted chapters, including each exhibition, it will focus on themes such as the changeover between manufactures and the industrial production, the role of craftsmen, the role of the emperor and aristocracy supporting the Czech industry, the foundation of Unity for the development of the Bohemian industry. The thesis is also focused on finding the subjects, which were displayed on the first exhibitions.

Connue du milieu érudit des historiens, l’histoire romaine rejoint le grand public au XXe siècle sous diverses formes : cinéma, littérature, éducation et expositions. L’empereur Auguste est important dans cette histoire en transformant le monde romain. Né en 63 avant J.-C. et décédé en 14 après J.-C., Auguste devient le fondateur d’un nouveau régime politique, le Principat, remplaçant la République, et faisant d’Auguste le premier Empereur. Il marque ainsi l’histoire de l’Empire romain jusqu’à sa chute, et influencera encore vingt siècles plus tard tout le monde européen et occidental. En 1937, la Mostra Augustea della Romanità est une exposition italienne organisée sous le régime fasciste célébrant le caractère romain – la Romanità –, et voulant amalgamer Auguste à Mussolini. Cette exposition est analysée en comparaison avec deux autres expositions (Kaiser Augustus und die verlorene Republik, Berlin, 1988; et Augusto/Moi, Auguste, Empereur de Rome, Rome/Paris, 2013/2014). La recherche s’intéresse à la représentation muséale d’Auguste et à l’articulation des expositions relativement à l’historiographie évoluant à chaque exposition. Les catalogues d’exposition constituent la principale source sur les artéfacts exposés, les thèmes, les recherches et la mise en récit. Chaque exposition est remise dans son contexte et comparée à l’historiographie contemporaine, centrée sur des ouvrages marquants de leur époque. Ainsi, ces expositions sont teintées par leur époque, mais influencent à leur tour la culture historique populaire et le milieu académique contemporains et futurs. Le travail muséologique n’est pas seulement une vulgarisation du discours historique pour le grand public, mais aussi un travail participatif à l’historiographie. / Known to the scholarly milieu of historians, Roman history reached the general public during the 20th century in various forms: cinema, literature, schools and museum exhibitions. The emperor Augustus is important in Roman history for his transformative role of the Roman world. Born in 63 BC and died in 14 AD, Augustus became the founder of a new political regime, the Principate, replacing the Roman Republic, and making Augustus the first Emperor. He thus marks the history of the Roman Empire until its fall, and will still influence the entire European and Western world twenty centuries later. In 1937, the Mostra Augustea della Romanità is an Italian exhibition organized under the fascist regime celebrating the “idea of Rome” – the Romanità –, and wanting to amalgamate Augustus with Mussolini. This exhibition is analyzed in comparison with two other exhibitions (Kaiser Augustus und die verlorene Republik, Berlin, 1988; and Augusto/Moi, Auguste, Empereur de Rome, Rome/Paris, 2013/2014). The research focuses on the museum representation of Augustus and on the relation of the historiography still evolving with each exhibition. The exhibition catalogs are the main source for exhibited artifacts, themes, research, and storytelling. Each exhibition is put in its context and compared to their contemporary historiography, centered on outstanding works of their time. Thus, these exhibitions are tinted by their time, but in turn influence contemporary and future popular historical culture and as for academia. Museological work is not only popularization of historical discourse for the general public, but also participatory work in historiography.