Browsing by Subject "Contemporary art"
Now showing 1 - 20 of 25
- Results Per Page
- Sort Options
Item A long and boring story (illustrated)(2021-05-06) Riley, Magdalena J.; Sutherland, Dan, 1966-A collection of thoughts assembled between October 9, 2020 and April 27, 2021 regarding the art-life of Magdalena Jarkowiec.Item An ecstatic collapse : a re-thinking of Faig Ahmed's Carpet series(2016-08) Hoffman, Kelsey Savannah; Mulder, Stephennie F.; Smith, CheriseThis thesis engages with the critical dialogue surrounding Azerbaijani artist Faig Ahmed’s series of sculptures titled the Carpet series. Offering up a re-thinking of the series, this thesis shapes a nuanced phenomenologically-centered viewing of the Carpet series in order to understand how Ahmed is accessing humor, beauty, and a personal aesthetic that intentionally plays with or critiques standard binary conceptions of contemporary art from the Middle East and historically Islamic countries.Item Bound together : being-with gay and lesbian leather communities and visual cultures, 1966-1984(2012-12) Campbell, Andrew Raymond, 1982-; Reynolds, Ann MorrisBound Together elucidates how gay and lesbian leather communities, in the years between 1966 and 1984, contested and expanded fungible notions of sex, community, and history, mostly through material and visual cultural systems: dress codes such as the hanky code, architectural spaces (bars, bathhouses, private clubs), garments, posters, advertisements, newsletters, films, and performances. In examining visual and material cultures, procedures of archival research, as well as the physical states of key archives associated with historic gay and lesbian leather communities, this dissertation opens out a discussion of a set of visual documents and terms rarely considered within the discipline of art history, or academia at large. Through rigorous rhetorical experimentation Bound Together seeks to propose new ways of writing histories. Long and short chapters are interpolated, telescoping between historical leather communities and key works of contemporary art which reformat 1970s documents and visual sources. Jean Luc-Nancy’s conception of “being-with,” a state of coterminous existence that lies at the foundation of being and subjecthood, provides an ideal framework for coming to terms with the challenges of writing leather histories. Nancy’s notion is one that privileges mutual and relational difference. The structure of Bound Together works similarly, building a set of differential modes of viewing, analyzing and writing. In this way I wish to, in the words of Tilottama Rajan, use “history as the condition for an internal distanciation and for self-reflection on what we do,” and to furthermore present alternatives to a discipline’s often “routinized, even commodified […] repeatable techniques.”Item Br(others) only : Rashid Johnson, class, and the fraternal orders of Afrofuturism(2012-08) Richardson, Jared C. 1988-; Smith, Cherise, 1969-Br(others) Only conceptualizes the wall sculptures of Rashid Johnson as free-standing “altars” that play with different and sometimes divergent brands of black masculinity and classed homosociality. Primarily, I analyze three of Johnson’s sculptures from the late 2000s: I Who Have Nothing (2008); I’m Still in Love with You (2008); and Souls of Black Folk (2010). I argue that, by invoking the history of black renaissance men, gentlemen scholars, and entertainers, Johnson’s work plays with various kinds of black masculinity and homosociality that simultaneously straddle the past and future. By doing so, his art not only enacts a racialized temporality, but it also chips away at monolithic notions of black masculinity by fabricating contradictory amalgams of race, class, and gender. For my analysis of Johnson’s artworks, I utilize Cassandra Jackson’s Violence, Visual Culture, and the Black Male Body (2010) as the chief framework for conceptualizing the waxy coats of Johnson’s sculptures as wounded bodies in an effort to “flesh out” the vulnerability of black men. Theorizing the putrescent surfaces of Johnson’s sculptures as violable bodies allows me to consider the ruptures between seemingly impenetrable black masculinity and the always-present vulnerability of the black male body to violence.Item The collective El Sindicato, 1976-1979 : intervening in conceptualism in Latin America(2011-05) Rodríguez, María Teresa, 1983-; Giunta, Andrea; Tarver, Gina M.Conceptual practices developed in Colombia towards the end of the 1960s and into the 1970s. Even a cursory look at surveys of Colombian conceptual art shows that the collective El Sindicato, active between 1976 and 1979, secured its space in these accounts with its 1978 work Alacena con zapatos, which won the top prize at the XXVII Salón Nacional. However, Alacena con zapatos was neither the only, nor the most significant, contribution of El Sindicato to the development of conceptual practices. The collective’s rich oeuvre, while concise, was nonetheless remarkable in its interventions on public spaces as a means for social change. A number of factors have led to the critical misunderstanding and, ultimately, the historiographical neglect of these interventions. This thesis problematizes these factors in order to reframe and expand El Sindicato’s role within the narrative of Colombian art. To elucidate El Sindicato’s contributions, and taking into account that much of Colombian conceptual art remains unknown in the United States, this thesis also registers Colombia’s artistic field as it stood in the 1970s. In all, my project situates El Sindicato’s practices within the broader narrative of Conceptualism as a means to both enrich our understanding of contemporary art in Colombia and help expand the familiar boundaries of the map of conceptual art.Item Create to live : perceptions of contemporary art in reality TV(2016-05) Macknight, Lauren; Bolin, Paul Erik, 1954-; Bain, ChristinaWithin the field of art education, there has been little to no research into the knowledge afforded by discourses around popular culture, especially those specific to reality television, into how the public conceptualizes contemporary art and artists. This kind of foundational knowledge is critical to our own development and evolution as a field as we learn how to most effectively reach our students and advocate best for the value of arts in education. Through an investigation of the television program Work of Art: The Next Great Artist, I asked: is the perception of contemporary art and practice altered by the lens of popular culture and, specifically, the reality television format? Is this an entryway to a broader dialogue about art’s value in the 21st century and to young individuals’ lives and careers? Results from this study were threefold. First, results pointed to a pattern of progressively nuanced insight and descriptive talk, indicated alternative access to art’s interpretability through the lens of popular culture. Talk in the focus groups functioned as a way for participants to perform access to interpretive authority over subjects of contemporary art to varying degrees of success, whether that meant adopting art terminology or modeling the language of judges and artist-contestants. Secondly, analysis displayed the discursive work involved in the meaning-making around understanding the artist as a figure, as a myth, and as a profession. Participants’ interactional speech performed a balancing act between critically examining the competing discourses of the artist—as contestant and creative laborer—and an understanding of who they are and their own identity in relation to the character of the artist. Lastly, analysis uncovered situated meaning of art and its value, where participants conducted a critical negotiation of what is and what was not art unfettered by lack of art historical knowledge of access to art’s interpretability.Item Creative catalysts : a narrative investigation of pivotal learning experience through conversation with six contemporary artists(2010-08) Curry, Kendra Wynne; Bolin, Paul Erik, 1954-; Mayer, Melinda M.This thesis is a narrative study that examines significant life experiences of six living artists that were pivotal in their decision to pursue careers in the arts. Although the examples found in these conversations are not exhaustive—many factors play into the individuals sense of identity and agency—they serve to give voice to the multiplicity of the learning experience, underscoring that creative education occurs in the home, the community, and among social groups as frequently as it does in the classroom. Through direct, open-ended conversations with artists, research explores the setting of upbringing and education, the pivotal experiences—catalysts—that propelled these individuals into art careers, and impact of their experience on both creative practice and notions of art learning. Interviews encompass artists whose work is located in public spaces, natural landscapes, and urban environments as often as it appears in the traditional exhibition settings, whose work is both collaborative and socially constructed. They comprise Rick Lowe, artist and founder of Project Row Houses in Houston, Texas whose community-centered social sculpture expands on our cultural assumptions about the artist and Anne Wallace, a public artist whose early work as a human right activist and bi-cultural experiences translate into videos about the complexities of the United States/Mexico border. It includes Vincent Valdez, a self-described “hyper-realist” who depicts his home city and composite life experiences of his family through allegorical paintings and drawings; Marie Lorenz, an artist explorer whose interest in urban waterways brings her work into the waters of forgotten canals and rivers; of Robert Pruitt, who critiques ever-changing political landscapes, conceptions of history, and globalism through hybrid drawings and sculptures; and Franco Mondini-Ruiz who fuses aesthetics of high and low in installations and creative economy widely accessible to people both within and outside the confines of the art world. Through narrative conversation, this thesis enriches overlapping theories that encompass our understandings of education and learning—mentorship, experiential learning, the aesthetic experience, place-based learning, communities of practice—through lived example, underscoring learning as a socially constructed phenomenon. Experiences of learning, unique and wholly individualized, contribute to a one’s sense of self and agency; in the case of the six artists featured in this study, creative experiences contribute to their identity as “artist” and motivated their pursuit of lifework and career.Item Divisions, inversions and the Southern Cross : Cildo Meireles, 1969-1970(2004-12-18) Sánchez, Annie Laurie; Barnitz, JacquelineThis thesis presents an investigation of five works made by Brazilian artist Cildo Meireles in 1969 and 1970. During these years, the artist experienced increased international recognition, coupled with a strenuous political situation in Brazil. The five works discussed here address issues of political and cultural geography that the artist never examined before or since. The thesis posits that the source for the artist’s exploration of these topics is precisely the conflict between his increased acclaim and the contemporary reputation or stereotype of BrazilItem Eko o ni baje (may Lagos be indestructible) : lens-based representations of transformation in Lagos, Nigeria, 1990-2001(2017-05) Gant, Kimberli; Smith, Cherise, 1969-; Chambers, Eddie; Okediji, Moyo; Flaherty, George; Clarke, ChristaThis study investigates lens-based depictions of transformations in Lagos, Nigeria. Using archival research, interviews and close visual analysis I examine photographic and filmic narratives of change and evolution throughout the city in 1990-2002. The decade ending the twentieth century and beginning the twenty-first saw scholars and curators interested in Lagos as part of a growing body of research on the physical and demographic expansion of cities in the “Global South.” Nigerian and non-Nigerian artists during this same period were also focusing on Lagos as a muse for representing the specificities of working class, daily life in African urban centers. My project highlights a singular image or scene by three such artists, Akinbode Akinbiyi, Otobong Nkanga, and Rem Koolhaas, who each created a lens-based series of images about Lagos’ continual transition. I argue that Akinbiyi’s Untitled [Woman in a striped dress walking across the sidewalk] (1995), Nkanga’s Tollgate to Ibadan #10 (2001), and Koolhaas’ Lagos/Koolhaas (2001) show Lagos as in a state of constant flux, depicting older spiritual practices adapted for a contemporary setting, citizens modifying the landscape for economic uplift, and historical architecture as physical markers of previous colonial shifts.Item The evaluation of contemporary art with art historical and market criteria : the 3C Model(2011-12) Richter, Till Florian Alexander; Shiff, Richard; Magee, Stephen P.; Barnitz, Jacqueline E.; Rather, Susan W.; Mahajan, VijayFor the most recent contemporary art no art historical or price records exist that can testify of its value. However, the market for contemporary art is enormous and the art historical interest in it is equally important. If we can find out how to evaluate contemporary art, it will further the art historical understanding, the market transparence and the sales of contemporary art thus having an influence also on the creation of art (William Grampp). The art historical verdict and the market verdict are linked. This has been proven by a number of economists (Frey, Galenson, Grampp). The question is how they are linked. Basically, both art history and the market contribute to the creation of value in art. What is it that makes art valuable? What are the criteria used in art history and in the market to evaluate art? The focus is on European and US American art between 1970 and today. Evaluation, be it aesthetic or financial, is a process of decision making. Decisions are based on criteria that must be conscious at least after the decision is made (Clement Greenberg). In the art world, certain decision makers are more influential than others. Therefore the dissertation analyzes the most influential positions in art theory and in the art market and distills the essential criteria used. The dissertation seeks to advance the research on this fundamental question of the evaluation of art through a more comprehensive and interdisciplinary study than those previously undertaken. It presents a model that integrates the most important criteria from both sides and allows a more reliable evaluation of contemporary art. The 3C Model explains the ensemble of Quality-Value-Price through three criteria: Change, Connectivity and Context (Time, Space, People). The 3C Model can be used as a general basis in the discourse on value and quality. It is a structural method that can be applied to almost any art from any period. The model is exercised here using Gerhard Richter, François Morellet, Julian Schnabel, Jeff Koons, Sophie Calle and Pipilotti Rist as examples.Item How do three public school art teachers in Texas use art criticism and discussion to teach contemporary art in the K-12 classroom(2014-05) Garfield, Samantha Rebecca; Bain, ChristinaI conducted a case study to observe three art classes at various campuses throughout Austin, Texas in order to observe how art criticism methods were used to guide classroom discussions about contemporary art. By engaging in art criticism in the classroom, an instructor can ultimately enrich the teaching and learning of art. They can also assist students in learning to subjectively evaluate images from their everyday lives, reinforcing the value placed on thoughtful description through art education. Learning how to turn an evaluation from a judgmental and careless acceptance or dismissal into a thoughtful analysis can suspend indifference and re-invigorate the potential educational aspect of time spent in the art classroom and expand the scope of learning outside the arena of art. The value of using contemporary art for these evaluations, as opposed to more traditionally recognized artists, enables the art lessons to become integrated into a social and cultural context and can integrate social studies, political science, and any number of other concentrations into arts education.Item “I got a tree on my back and a haint in my house” : sonic and supernatural wanderings through the Black Southern landscape(2022-08-05) Mitchell, Morgan C.; Chambers, EddieThis thesis will examine the nexus of sound, spirituality, and ecology that exist across many Black communities of the American South, as reflected by the contemporary visual artists from the region who integrate this thematic matrix into their work. I argue that ghosts, or “haints,” have a presence in the selected artworks in order to bring attention to ancestral memories embedded in the landscape that manifest sonically in the present. To do so, I examine work by Allison Janae Hamilton and Freeman Vines; as both approach traditions regarding sound and the supernatural from various roles and perspectives. These artists share in their acknowledgement of the contemporary sensorial manifestations of a system of beliefs passed through time that remain an important element in the folklore and ecology of the American South. A significant influence on my analysis is the presentation of the work of Hamilton and Vines in the Dirty South: Art, Material Culture, and the Sonic Impulse exhibition curated by Valerie Cassel Oliver for the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts in Richmond, Virginia in 2021. Throughout this thesis, I supplement my exploration of these artists’ works with Toni Morrison’s novel Beloved (1987) as an analytical framework for the study of cultural memory, in which the plot and relationships between characters are intrinsically bound through time by the landscape and a haunting family history. Additionally, I borrow from Sarah Jane Cervenak’s concept of wandering; unrestricted physical and philosophical movement that occurs in resistance to slavery, racism, misogyny, and other systems of sociopolitical oppression. I use examples of both Hamilton and Vines’ work that consists of philosophical wanderings, offering both sonic and the supernatural explorations of the history and ecology of the South. Throughout this thesis, I also consider how literature, music, and the visual arts centered on Black American communities incorporate supernatural figures as couriers of familial memory.Item Just Above Midtown gallery and the Black Radical Tradition(2020-08) Bias, Danielle; Strong, Pauline Turner, 1953-; Stewart, Kathleen C.In 1974, Just Above Midtown gallery, known as JAM, was established by Linda Goode Bryant in Midtown Manhattan on West 57th Street. When Bryant, who had been an educator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Studio Museum in Harlem, opened the doors to JAM, she was clear in her desire to provide a space for black artists who were pushing boundaries in visual and performance art. Today, the impact of JAM and Bryant’s work is gaining long-overdue recognition. And the early work of many Black artists who were part of the JAM community, including David Hammons, Lawrence D. “Butch” Morris, Senga Nengudi, Lorraine O’Grady, Howardena Pindell, Lorna Simpson, and Fred Wilson, has been embraced by the commercial art world and recognized with surveys and retrospectives at international museums. This report considers the work and legacy of Bryant and JAM within the framework of Cedric J. Robinson’s concept of the Black Radical Tradition. Though a constellation of diverse ideas existed within the JAM community, the concepts of collaboration, collectivism, and resistance were consistently a part of the gallery’s programs and exhibitions. Ultimately, I conclude that the emergence and evolution of JAM demonstrates the resilience and resoluteness of the Black Radical Tradition, a tradition that regularly transforms and transcends historical circumstancesItem Looking and listening in the work of Jennie C. Jones(2021-05-11) Lee, Elizabeth Gordon; Reynolds, Ann MorrisI explore in this thesis the “acoustic panel paintings” and sound compositions of sonic and visual artist Jennie C. Jones. Both paintings and compositions address the core concerns of the artist—histories and surrounding discourses of modernism and the avant-garde that have either erased or siloed modern Black cultural production. Jones’s work, in a formally pared down and minimalist visual language and abstract sound compositions, engages specifically with the place of Black music, in particularly experimental jazz, and the ways in which the movement is meaningfully neglected in dominant histories of the avant-garde. Much of the writing on Jones’s work thus far often reproduces the very silences that her work destabilizes and reduces her practice into a project of revisionism. In this thesis, I work through and present an alternative sort of analysis—one that is not trapped within discursive debates that only engage with the racial significations present in her work—but instead grounded in an exploration of how actually engaging with these subtly complicated and functional objects and in turn leads to a more nuanced investigation of Jones’s intent. Relying on a close assessment of my own interactions with the works, I argue that Jones’s paintings in their quiet unsettling and attunement of the viewer to examine their own approach, meaningfully addresses our own practices of looking and listening within exhibition spaces—one that offers a freedom of interpretation and holds great political potential for the present.Item The making of famous and glamorous artists : the role of FILE megazine in the work of General Idea(2011-12) Lamensdorf, Jennie Kathlene; Reynolds, Ann Morris; Smith, CheriseFrom 1972 until 1989, the artist trio General Idea produced FILE Megazine. The first eight issues of FILE, published from 1972 – 1975, are the focus of this thesis. They stand apart from the later issues because their covers hijacked the look and iconic logo of Life magazine. The red rectangle with white block letters attracted the attention of Time Inc. and resulted in a lawsuit. Rather than fight the corporate giant, General Idea changed their logo after the autumn 1975 issue. FILE, like many artists’ magazines, is typically discussed in idealistic language that privileges the subversive or democratic intentions of the publication while neglecting its significance as a device for the promotion of community and collaboration. I argue that General Idea envisioned FILE as a utopian project intended to produce the world they sought to live in. Authors frequently employ FILE as a tool to discuss General Idea’s work, focusing on it as a mirror or archive of a larger project and emphasizing FILE’s humorous, bawdy, and irreverent aspects. In this thesis, I situate FILE in terms of its historical, art historical, and theoretical frameworks. I pay particular attention to General Idea’s early involvement in the mail art network, FILE’s relationship to 1960s and 1970s artists’ magazines and magazine art, the contemporaneous social and political climate in Canada, and General Idea’s investigation and employment of theoretical frameworks culled from Marshall McLuhan’s text The Medium is the Message and Roland Barthes’ book Mythologies.Item Museum visitors' self-efficacy and interest in contemporary art(2015-05) Wilson, Lauren Michelle; Schallert, Diane L.; Patall, Erika AContemporary art can pose a particular challenge for museum visitors to interpret, and psychological literature suggests that such challenge to self-efficacy may lower interest (Hong & Lin, 2013; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Schunk & Usher, 2008). This study sought to explore museum visitors’ interpretive strategies, feelings of self-efficacy, and interest. Factors including prior knowledge, interpretation support (e.g., labels), and challenge of artwork were also considered. Results discuss suggestions for museums when displaying works that may be perceived as challenging or unapproachable. Participants included visitors to the Blanton Museum of Art and students at the University of Texas at Austin who were pre-screened for prior knowledge of museums. Sessions occurred during the fall of 2014 and included completing questionnaires while viewing three works in the contemporary galleries. Students also participated in focus groups. Both quantitative and qualitative results confirmed predictions that interpretive self-efficacy and interest are related. Provision of labels did not show significant difference for self-efficacy or interest, but high prior knowledge of art did show increased levels of self-efficacy. A search for meaning and aesthetic observation and preference typically drove participant interpretations; most were highly personal. With low self-efficacy, participants struggled to interpret works and even considered pieces arbitrary. However, they enjoyed being challenged to interpret the work on their own before viewing the label. Participants responded particularly well to the idea of using interactive interpretive devices as a means of building understanding for works to which they may not otherwise be drawn. Overwhelmingly, low-prior-knowledge infrequent visitors wanted clear explanations of the artist's motive for creating the work and wanted the ability to visualize or even mimic the artistic process for creating each piece. Museums striving to increase interest in contemporary art for visitors should prioritize building self-efficacy through supportive interpretive strategies.Item Pursuing painting as a dissolving nebula(2022-05-10) Pepin, Alexandre; Canright, Sarah; Brauntuch, TroyThis report outlines important ideas that form the philosophical ground of my painting practice. First, Ideas of impermanence, detachment, interconnectedness, and equanimity are investigated through the themes of Defeat, of the Nebula, and of Barthe’s Neutral. Then, material decisions and pictorial strategies are explored and connected to these themes. This report is as much a description of the content of my work as it is a reflection on the intense experience of doing an MFA.Item Reality is having a hard time(2017-05-05) Creeden, Anthony Blair; Canright, Sarah; Smith, MichaelThis report outlines some of the questions, thoughts, and references I have recorded about the paintings made during my time at the University of Texas at Austin. Generally my work relies on a restricted palette of colors and direct mark making, built up in many layers of translucent egg tempera paint. Linked by personal narrative, the history of painting, and an obsession with science fiction, I strive to create a multivalent surface that opens up painting’s long historic role and connects it with today’s global culture of massive image-consumption.Item Sinofemcentrism and its manifestations in art by Yu Hong, Cui Xiuwen, and Xiang Jing(2022-12-02) Min, Chuqi; Chambers, Eddie; Hill, Katie; Shiff, Richard; Reynolds, Ann; Clarke, JohnIn response to the relative absence of contemporary Chinese women artists and their art in art historical discourses and in the art world, this study investigates the marginalization and symbolic annihilation of contemporary women artists and their art and the research conundrum on this neglected subject. This research suggests a new theoretical framework, sinofemcentrism, to facilitate the discussion and investigation of contemporary Chinese art by women, and examines sinofemcentrism’s manifestations in art by three contemporary Chinese female artists: Yu Hong, Cui Xiuwen, and Xiang Jing. Sinofemcentrism is designated to the possibilities of a Chinese-female-centered worldview emerged from a strong sense of agency, self-awareness, and consciousness concerning the world about Chinese women’s race, sex, and artistic ability. All three artists, though their mediums vary, are keen to depict female subjectivity through figurative representation. As a painter, Yu Hong is interested in the perceived minutiae of women’s lives against the grand narrative of Chinese history. Yu Hong’s female subjectivity centers on Chinese women and renders them individual players of the world, who are directly influenced by the history of China and the world. Cui Xiuwen (1967-2018) was a mixed media artist. Interested in Chinese women’s psyche and the social, cultural, and economical implications that contributed to the systemic exploitation of women, Cui Xiuwen’s figurative works since her 2000 video work Lady’s Room continued to show her concern about the sexual violence Chinese women and children endured, but her subjects were rendered gradually more passive, frail, and stationary. Keen to explore the complex internality of human nature, Xiang Jing’s sculptural depiction of the female body embraced signs of age, the diversity of body types, a wide range of emotions, and female intimacy, friendship, and solidarity. This thesis concludes that art by Yu Hong, Cui Xiuwen, and Xiang Jing reflects what I have chosen to call their sinofemcentric stance which is unique to their Chinese-female-centered worldview and personal and professional experience. It is argued that Sinofemcentrism is a suitable theoretical framework to facilitate art historical discourses on the works of Chinese women artists from China, the greater Sinophone areas, and in diaspora.Item Take me in, I am no one(2020-07-24) Calloway, Carolyn Gage; Hubbard, Teresa, 1965-My practice is centered around poetry, installation, sculpture, printmaking, computer programming, and time-based media. My multimedia installations allow for moments of self-reflection, mirroring the feeling of physical disassociation and social detachment we experience online. Having both a dark sensibility and a subtly humorous sincerity, my kinetic sculptures, print, and time-based installations remove common objects, language, sounds, and symbols (i.e. traffic signs, building material, furniture, commercial prints, and technology) from their traditional contexts. This allows viewers to reconsider the ways these elements affect their emotional landscape, speaking directly to the disconnect between the mind and the body.