This essay is a comparative study of two sculptures with the same motive and title, The Dance, by Ellen Roosval: a freestanding sculpture created in 1925 and a relief sculpture from 1933. The essay has two objectives: to analyse these works of art and to highlight the artist Ellen Roosval as an example of a female artist in the early 20th century. Roosval’s reworking of the free-standing sculpture into a relief generates multiple transformations. The research questions in the current study are: how the reception of the works relates to the viewer; how typology, site and material affect the design and expression; and how the two sculptures relate to the interwar period aesthetics, dance and the motive. In the analysis of both works aspects of their meaning in relation to the beholder’s experience have been crucial. The applied method of analysis originates from Wolfgang Kemp as developed by Jessica Sjöholm Skrubbe, with particular emphasis on the beholder’s movements, the meaning of the term site-specific and the impact of the base. The study begins with a general background on the situation for female sculptors in the early 20th century, the artist Ellen Roosval, and dance. The dance section also introduces the dance company The Swedish Ballet (1920-25) that the two versions of The Dance were a tribute to. Then follows a contextualized analysis of the works focusing on the formal elements, the different sites, bases and the beholder’s movements. Next follows an analysis of typologies, materials and stylistic expressions as well as the shaping of the human body, nudity and movements. Roosval’s The Dance 1933 is compared both to the relief The Dance by Antoine Bourdelle from 1912 and to the Swedish Ballet performances. The analysis concludes with a discussion of how the site relates to the choice of materials and how aesthetics and dance relate to the period 1920s. The results demonstrate aspects of various transformations in relation to the beholders experience. The final discussion concludes on Roosval’s norm-breaking achievements, which inspired the title of this essay: The Resistance of Time.

This is a monograph on the South African artist Diek Grobler. The aim is to contextualise the artist‟s oeuvre up to 2009 and to explore the visual metaphors in his art. Grobler has a fascination for stories. He blends tales of traditional Western mythology, African mythology, Christian religion, folklore and magical realism into narrative artworks. Through visual metaphors the artist comments on the everyday human dramas that surround him – be they political, social, psychological or cultural. Furthermore, he adds an element of surprise to his sketches of human drama, by infusing them with irony and humour. My research reflects the diverse nature of Grobler‟s oeuvre as it investigates works from various artistic genres such as painting, sculpture, illustration, performance art, avant-garde theatre and animation. It also examines a blend of different artistic media such as ceramics, oil paint, gouache, pastels, scraperboard, earthenware, 2D computer animation, puppetry, and stop-motion animation. / Art History, Visual Arts & Musicology / M.A. (Art History)

This is a monograph on the South African artist Diek Grobler. The aim is to contextualise the artist‟s oeuvre up to 2009 and to explore the visual metaphors in his art. Grobler has a fascination for stories. He blends tales of traditional Western mythology, African mythology, Christian religion, folklore and magical realism into narrative artworks. Through visual metaphors the artist comments on the everyday human dramas that surround him – be they political, social, psychological or cultural. Furthermore, he adds an element of surprise to his sketches of human drama, by infusing them with irony and humour. My research reflects the diverse nature of Grobler‟s oeuvre as it investigates works from various artistic genres such as painting, sculpture, illustration, performance art, avant-garde theatre and animation. It also examines a blend of different artistic media such as ceramics, oil paint, gouache, pastels, scraperboard, earthenware, 2D computer animation, puppetry, and stop-motion animation. / Art History, Visual Arts and Musicology / M.A. (Art History)