The problem being considered in this paper is the alienation of the general viewer from contemporary art. Modern art has become less understandable than ever before to the non-art audience because it has, in many cases, ceased to deal with human-oriented subject matter, and has become detached from life. This paper examines ways in which modern art might be made more accessible to the world through the artists' use of emotion, intuition, intelligence, and other Humanistic elements as content for paintings. It contains a four-part proposal of what Humanist art is. The basic form is the use of rhetorical questions about modern art, leading one to more questions and to a broader, more open-minded attitude toward modern art.

Thèse--Université de Paris. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 295-317) and index.

This thesis is a comparative study between Michelangelo Buonarroti's ceiling frescoes in the Sistine Chapel and John Milton's Paradise Lost. The parallels discussed arise out of the Renaissance humanism shared by both of these artists and expressed their works of art. Beginning with Michelangelo, I will establish the relation of Renaissance humanism to the Sistine Chapel ceiling decoration and define Michelangelo's specific conception of the theories associated with this movement. Subsequently, the same critical approach will be applied to Milton's Paradise Lost, which will be revealed to be notably humanistic despite its positioning at the end of the Renaissance in a Protestant country. After exploring the individual works of Michelangelo and Milton separately, I will then consider the views shared by these two in their treatments of the myth of the Fall of humanity: both artists believe in the ultimate dignity and freedom of humankind, and portray both Adam and Eve as free and autonomous individuals; the Sistine ceiling frescoes and Paradise Lost likewise emphasize the regenerative rather than the damning aspect of the Fall of humanity, expressing the humanistic insistence on the value of human experience; finally, the humanistic notion that art, both literary and visual, instructs its audience while entertaining it, provides the governing artistic theory behind the works of both Michelangelo and Milton. Although the commonalities between Michelangelo's Sistine ceiling and Milton's Paradise Lost are extensive, I will not attempt to claim that Milton was specifically influenced by Michelangelo's frescoes. However, my study will reveal the potential for interart analogies to provide greater insight into the individual works of art and literature being analysed.

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Link to dataset: https://doi.org/10.25399/UnisaData.14152106.v1 / The work of Bruce Nauman can be understood as an enquiry into the absurd. His work is a critique of art, the artist and society, and is in part viewed as a mediation of stereotypical ‘truth’. The absurd is defined and analysed to elucidate the nature of art and human behaviour by means of literary comparison, in particular of Camus, Sartre and Wittgenstein. This research focusses on Nauman’s subversive performance- based work and analyses how he simulates a particular work of Duchamp. I propose that Nauman espouses human activity into the functionality of objects, such as fountains. My artworks expand on Nauman’s interrogation of the concept of a ‘true artist’ by embodying an absurd fountain as a Sisyphean construct. In contextualising my work in relation to incessant duty, insecurity and double negatives, I offer a regenerative vigour against idolisation of success through contemplation of the artist’s doubt and the absurd. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Visual Arts)