Illustrations not reproduced. The entire thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file; a non-technical public abstract appears in the public.pdf file. Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on January 25, 2010). Thesis advisor: Dr. Kristin Schwain. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of North Texas, May, 2009. / Title from title page display. Includes bibliographical references.

The subject of this thesis is the circumstances surrounding the emigration of European modern artists to America in the late 1930's and early 1940's, and their initial reception in the city of New York. The primary vehicle of this investigation will be the Artists in Exile show, their first collective exhibition which took place at the Pierre Matisse Gallery in March of 1942. The reason why it is felt that such an investigation is warranted is that while there is a great deal of literature concerned with the Nazis vehement denunciation of modern art and their persecution of its practitioners, little has been written on how these artists actually came to arrive in America. It is I believe, too often assumed that while their voyage may have been a difficult one, they were embraced by a nation that has perpetually proclaimed itself as a defender of democratic freedom and a haven for the oppressed. Contrary to this assumption, it will be asserted that their initial presence was largely met with resistance in America due to a historical period of economic, social, political and cultural isolationism. In Chapter One, an attempt will be made to more clearly define the historical circumstances which gave rise to American isolationism and a resultant anti-alienism, sentiments which had a direct bearing upon the cool reception of the Europeans and their work. Given the existance of such attitudes, it becomes necessary as well to identify the various groups who championed the artist refugees, their motives in doing so, and the specific strategies employed to circumvent native resistance in order to bring these individuals to North American shores. It will be asserted that this support came from a small group of liberals situated within northeastern educational institutions who were alarmed by the fascist threat to freedom of scholary and artistic expression. In addition, they were motivated by what they believed to be an unprecedented opportunity to bring to America and place at its disposal, superior levels of European scholarly and artistic achievement. Chapter Two will undertake an investigation into the reception of the Europeans in New York based upon an analysis of the problematic usage of catagories employed to place them in roles reflective of their circumstances. These terms include refugee, emigré, immigrant, exile, and alien. In addition, it will hopefully be revealed how these new roles had a deleterious effect upon the self perception of the emigres, seriously affecting their critical output as exiles. Chapter Three will be devoted to the Artists in Exile show itself. Specific focus will be on the strategies employed in its manifesto and why for the most part, they were unsuccessful in winning over a viewing public largely resistant to European modern art. In addition, specific works exhibited in the show will be analysed to see how they registered the varied concerns of the artist emigrés at this time in history. Finally, the conclusion will deal with two additional shows of European modern art in that same year; the First Papers of Surrealism, and Peggy Guggenheim's Art of This Century. It will be maintained that the strategies employed in this latter show were to a high degree, largely responsible for the eventual winning over of needed patrons necessary for the acceptance and continuation of European modern art in America. / Arts, Faculty of / Art History, Visual Art and Theory, Department of / Graduate

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Ohio State University, 2005. / Available online via OhioLINK's ETD Center; full text release delayed at author's request until 2007 Nov 22

Despite having produced an impressive body of work and having been well-received in his lifetime, the career of nineteenth-century American expatriate artist Walter MacEwen has received virtually no scholarly attention. Assimilating primary-source materials, this thesis provides the first serious examination of MacEwen's life and career, thereby providing insight into a forgotten episode in American art.

New Zealand expatriate artists working in England, Europe and North Africa in the early twentieth century painted a wide variety of market scenes. The subject features in the oeuvre of Frances Hodgkins, Maud Sherwood, Sydney Lough Thompson, Maude Burge, Owen Merton, Robert Procter and John Weeks and made a significant contribution to their artistic development. Like their contemporaries in the artists’ colonies and sketching grounds of England and Europe, New Zealand artists were often drawn to traditional rural and fishing villages and sought to capture the nostalgia of the ‘old world.’ Early exploratory works by New Zealand expatriates have often been dismissed merely as nostalgic visions of colonials, without any real artistic merit. This research offers a re-evaluation of these works, recognising their value as transitional works which illustrate New Zealand expatriate artists experimenting with early modernist trends, as well as revealing prevalent contemporary tastes among the New Zealand public. This study offers a comprehensive examination of the market theme and highlights the aspirations and achievements of New Zealand expatriate artists. This is reflected in both their choice of subjects and in the way in which these were depicted. A key finding of this research is that New Zealand expatriate artists developed a distinctive response towards the market subject. The vibrant atmosphere and activity of the market and colourful views of canvas booths, awnings and costume provided the perfect means of expression for these artists to explore a variety of painterly concerns and techniques, among them plein-air and impressionist painting, watercolour techniques and a modern treatment of colour and light. The hypothesis of a ‘female gaze’ is explored with specific reference to depiction of the market subjects by Frances Hodgkins and Maud Sherwood. Placed within a wider art historical context of images of female market vendors, their market works offer an original interpretation of the female milieu of the European market. Finally, the expatriates’ vision of the exotic and colourful markets in North Africa and Egypt is investigated. They offered an alternative response to more traditional Orientalist interpretations and their Maghrebian explorations were the catalyst for key stylistic developments in colour and form.

The taste for all things Spanish that swept France in the 1860s had profound, if misunderstood, effects on modern French and Spanish art. French artists were fascinated by both the perceived exoticism of contemporary Spain as well as the newly popular paragons of its art historical past. The lessons of Velázquez and Goya, in prevailing accounts of modernism, were learned best by avant-garde artists like Édouard Manet (1832–1883), whom a contemporary critic went so far as to call the “Spaniard of Paris.” My dissertation contends, instead, with the other Spaniards of Paris, successful expatriate artists who worked between the French capital, Rome, and Madrid. These artists, led by Mariano Fortuny (1838–1874), considered themselves the rightful interpreters of the Spanish tradition. I argue that Fortuny and his circle shrewdly positioned their work in relation to French ideas about Spanish art, both avant-garde and conservative, as well as Spain’s developing national art historical narratives, even though they often lived beyond their nation’s borders. I demonstrate that these artists, whose seemingly unassuming genre paintings were undergirded by a pronounced but hitherto unexamined nationalism, sought to shape the Spanish art historical tradition; present themselves as its inheritors; and influence the collecting of Spanish art, especially in the United States, in the final third of the nineteenth century.