En genel tanımıyla sanat, yaratıcılığın ve hayal gücünün dışavurumudur. Tarih içinde sanatın ne olduğu ve neyin sanat olduğuna dair tartışmalar devam etmiş, bu anlamda düşünceler ve fikirler ...tartışılmış, her dönem tanım konusunda da farklılıklar yaşanmıştır. Bu tartışmalar ise sanatın uygulama biçimlerinde yenilikler doğurmuştur. 19. ve 20. Yüzyılda da toplumsal ve siyasal gelişmelere bağlı olarak ya da bağımsız olarak değişen ve dönüşen sanat, teknolojinin de gelişmesiyle hızlı bir evrimleşme sürecine girmiştir. Otoriteye bağlı olan geleneksel sanat anlayışına karşı duruş ve tavır sergileyen sanatçılar zaman zaman veya dönem dönem kendi düşünceleri ve fikirleri bağlamında yeni anlamlar yaratmış ve bu hareketlere bağlı olarak avangart kararlar almıştır. Bu kararlar sonunda kimi zaman kiliseye kimi zaman galeriye kimi zaman da müzelere ve jürilere karşı duruş anlamında çeşitli akımlar oluşmuş ve toplum içinde bu hareketler yer bulmuştur. Özellikle 19. Yüzyıl sonu ve 20. Yüzyıl başlarında ortaya çıkan avangart akımlardan Empresyonizm, Ekspresyonizm, Dadaizm, Sürrealizm, Kübizm, Pop-Art ve Kavramsal Sanat akımları otoritenin isteklerinden sıyrılmış sanatçıların duygu ve düşüncelerinin yansımaları ile dolu olan eserler üretmiş ve geleceğe ışık tutmuşlardır. Bu yenilikçi anlayış sanatçıların cesaretini arttırmış ve bazı dönemlerde kitlesel hareketlere dönüşmüştür. Özellikle sanatın malzemesi konusunda büyük dönüşümler yaşanmış, insan duygu ve düşünceleri bile bazı nesnelerle biçimlendirilmiş ve sanatın kendisi haline gelmiştir. Sanatta nesne kullanımına ilişkin kilometre taşı olarak kabul edilen Marcel Duchamp’ın “Pisuar”ı kavramsal anlayışın -ve sonrasında çağdaş sanatın- en büyük ve meşhur eserlerinden biridir. Duchamp ’ın bu yaklaşımı sanatta hazır nesne kullanımı konusunda oldukça önemli bir etki bırakmış ve bu yolculuğun başlangıcı olarak görülmektedir. Fotoğraf Sanatı ise icat edildiği günden sonra inanılmaz bir hızda ilerlemiş, kendisini ispatlamış ve kullanım bakımından belli dönemlerde birçok avangart akımın kurtarıcısı olarak kabul edilmiştir. Hatta bazı akımların eser üretimlerinde baş rolü oynamıştır. Özellikle Dadacı anlayışın eserlerinde direkt ya da başlıca unsurlardan biri olmuştur. Sürrealist eserler üreten önemli sanatçılar fotoğrafın oluşum mantığıyla yeni ve farklı tekniklerle eserler üretmiştir. Fotoğraf, kavramsal anlamda üretilen işlerde çoğunlukla ana unsur olmuş ve anlatımı oldukça güçlendirmiştir. Kavramsal Sanatın ortaya çıkmasından sonraki süreçte Kavramsal Fotoğraf terimi de hayat bulmuş ve birçok fotoğraf sanatçısı duygu ve düşüncelerini hem dış mekânda hem de iç mekânda ve her ‘şey’ i malzeme olarak kullanıp sanat anlayışlarını biçimlendirmişlerdir.Kavramı sanat yoluyla anlatmada şüphesiz en etkili yöntemlerden biri “Metafor” kullanımıdır. Sıradan objeleri bağlamından kopararak ve sanatın merkezine alarak başka anlamlar yaratma çabası metaforlar aracılığıyla gerçekleşebilir. Bu bağlamda ‘kavram’ ve ‘metafor’ birbirlerinin destekçisi ve tamamlayıcısıdırlar. Modern ve Postmodern dönemlerde, görsel ve plastik sanatlarda, avangart akımlarda kavramsal sanat anlayışıyla eser üreten sanatçılar metafor kavramını önemsemiş ve kullanmışlardır. Bu çalışmada modernleşme hareketleri ile birlikte postmodern dönem ve çağımıza kadar kavramsal sanatın başlangıcı ve serüveni araştırılmış, açıklayıcı metafor kavramı ve kavramsal fotoğraf sanatçıları örnekleriyle birlikte “Kavramsal Fotoğraf” disiplini, şahsıma ait özgün çalışmalarla birlikte anlatılmaya çalışılmıştır.
Ce projet de recherche création a pour but d’amener une réflexion et un questionnement sur la citation visuelle comme moyen d’enrichissement de composition et de technique au sein de ma démarche ...picturale et sculpturale. Pour débuter mon étude sur l’utilisation de la citation issue de l’histoire de l’art comme élément d’enrichissement de médium dans le chapitre I, je me baserai sur les ancrages théoriques de deux auteurs : Lynn Bannon, concernant les principes de la citation contemporaine, et Tim Ingold à propos de la matière et de son énergie en interaction durant le moment de la création et de la ligne comme élément d’ensemble structurant. De plus, j’exposerai ma méthodologie basée sur un dialogue entre l’improvisation de la musique jazz et l’approche heuristique. Par la suite, ce cadre théorique sera mis en lien avec l’analyse de trois travaux issus du monde des arts visuels, soit Innocent X (1953) de Francis Bacon, Thyrsus for Autonoe (2010) Elliot Hundley, City Planning 6 : Epicentre #13 (2006) de Franz Ackermann et l’exposition Survivance (2020-2021) de Manuel Mathieu au MBAM. Finalement, au troisième chapitre, j’examinerai et analyserai les laboratoires et mes oeuvres créées durant le déroulement de ma recherche. Dans cette partie, je tenterai de répondre à ma problématique. Comment utiliser la citation visuelle dans une méthodologie inductive et sous forme heuristique, afin d’enrichir et développer ma composition et ma technique à travers mes créations picturales et sculpturales?
Imagery enriches our daily lives, but also brings some confusing information into our lives. What is the relationship between image and political violence? Or what kind of role does the image play in ...such a social environment? In my thesis paper, I use three different aspects to answer these questions. First, I talked about graphic violence in art history. Secondly, I answer how to see images by exploring the reality of photography. In the end, I propose a concept (social camera) according to my personal artistic practice in order to explore how these artists use images to make art work.
Between 1934–36 artist Dora Maar (1907–1997) closely engaged with the Surrealist movement through photography and photomontage. This thesis examines Maar’s photomontage in relation to the problems of ...reality, representation, and the marvelous that were at the center of Surrealist thought. I argue that instead of pitting reality and construction in opposition or in transposition Maar’s photomontage shifts between the real and unreal. My analysis focuses on five key works and elaborates how the artist’s handling of pictorial space and her use of Surrealist signs puts in motion a shifting sense of reality and unreality. This thesis ultimately turns to the recurring motif of the beach or shoreline and considers how the ocean’s edge, particularly its drift, is a conceptual model for Maar’s surrealism.
Overpowered is a temporary installation of a tiled living room, modeled after my own living room in a rental apartment in Fayetteville, Arkansas. It takes its name from a kind of sci-fi electro-disco ...love song released in 2007 by Roísín Murphy, who breaks down romantic attraction into preprogrammed meanings, chemical needs and matching data - and her sense of losing control, succumbing to the overwhelming forces at play.My installation is borne from a similar feeling. It is a continuation of a navigation of daily life under the pressures of external forces exerted by the various systems that underpin society and dictate our actions, thoughts and feelings. It invites viewers inside a minimalistic tiled living room in the United States, and surrounds viewers with imagery in the form of lithophanes. The lithophane is an 18th century French light-activated porcelain technology that commonly depicted genre scenes - ordinary people doing ordinary life activities. As viewers enter the space they are positioned inside an inverted lithophane, joining a genre scene, where select imagery is projected at them: trapped animals, emoji paintings, television advertisements and a glowing window.Expanding upon the cultivation theory - that long term effects of television viewing skews our perspective of reality - Overpowered places particular emphasis on the way digital technologies influence our day-to-day reality. It also considers the roles of monopolization, homogenization, nostalgia, and facade as neoliberal Capitalist strategies of control.The installation reflects a time of all time institutional distrust across the Western world, of accelerating technological advancement and of information overload. It questions the notion of agency, and represents an ongoing grapple with existential considerations. It is both contemporary and foreboding, real and speculative, borrowing from popular television programs like Black Mirror and video games like Minecraft and Candy Crush.
During the time of the Black Death, people were obsessed with their physical health, and they prioritized maintaining good health to avoid the death which surrounded them. Yet, even after the plague ...had subsided, death seemed to continue to occupy the mind like never before. Why was this the case? The Black Death raged through Europe like nothing that had been seen before. Physicians were unable to provide exact medical advice for people to follow, but they were able to give suggestions that they believed aided in maintaining balanced humors, which according to medieval medical treatises, would help to avoid the plague. One medical suggestion that will be examined in this paper is storytelling, which essentially was ‘prescribed’ to occupy the mind with thoughts that were not related to death and misery. Many writers and artists ignored this medical advice and gave into their obsession with death and allowed it to consume the topic of their work. Why does the idea of death become inescapable? Is it a voluntary mindset? Or is it involuntary? I believe the answer to those questions is the death drive, a psychoanalytical theory by Sigmund Freud. The two texts that will be the basis of my analysis are the Decameron (1353) and Respit de la Mort (1376). The related images from the 15th century, Scenes from The Story of Nastigo degli Onesti and various woodcuts in La Danse Macabre, show that once the death drive has been submitted to, it is difficult to escape that mindset. This inescapable mindset it what led to the genre of the memento mori and the danse macabre lasting hundreds of years. The death drive initiated by the Black Death permeated storytelling through literature and art for centuries to come.
Men dominated the photography industry in Latin America throughout the early twentieth century. Though some women did take up photography practices of their own, these artists remain inadequately ...studied. This thesis addresses the gap in research of female photographers and their artistic production. Specifically, I examine the portraiture photography of Lola Álvarez Bravo in Mexico and Grete Stern in Argentina between the 1930s and 1950s. Álvarez Bravo and Stern were progressive female photographers who used their art for a unique social means: to criticize their respective governments and publicize the inequalities faced by marginalized populations. I argue that Álvarez Bravo and Stern employed modernist and avant-garde techniques in their photography to reflect this critique. Specifically, their artwork countered governmental policies such as Indigenismo in Mexico and Peronist reforms in Argentina, positioning Álvarez Bravo and Stern as unique, critical voices in their societies.
This thesis analyzes the life and work of Marisol Escobar, a notable figure in the 1960 New York art scene. Despite her importance and role in the Pop Art movement, along with important artists such ...as Roy Lichtenstein and Andy Warhol, Marisol’s legacy has not been celebrated to the level of her male counterparts. The purpose of the study is to examine the reasons contributing to the removal of Marisol Escobar from art history; it aims to explore different leading expert opinions, along with first hand sources through interviews of close friends, and colleagues.The investigation will begin with a biography of Marisol, spanning all stages of her life. Using evidence and anecdotal references from both first hand, and educated sources. Articles, press, quotes, and important stories will be mentioned which aim to help the reader understand the character behind the art, including her lifestyle, choices and way of thinking which led to her disappearance. Proceeding this, it will delve deeper into the history of the pop art movement, exploring the careers of her peers, and the New York art scene in general in an attempt to understand their success, and the wider scope of the 60s art movement in New York. First hand research such as interviews will be presented forward. Information including literature and press from the time and current will be reviewed and analyzed. Her market in comparison to other important figures of the time will be analyzed in an attempt to understand the current market status for the artist.The thesis aims to answer the question, “Why was Marisol Escobar forgotten from Art History?” This multifaceted question has been of interest to experts and art historians alike, this thesis however differentiates itself by attempting to answer this question from a more personal point of view. With the collaboration of close friends and work colleagues of Marisol, the thesis aims to explore the possible reasons as to Marisol’s disappearance from the history books in a nuanced manner, using facts, and primary evidence. After reviewing all the data, the essay will explore the possible reasons and provide context and weight to each.There are several expert hypotheses which hold weight as plausible explanations for Escobar’s disappearance, commonly historians theorize between four which are the most probable. A combination of these four hypotheses is likely the most probable outcome, A commonly cited reason is due to the fact that Marisol was a woman in a male led pop art movement, the second most cited is the fact that she was introverted and disliked the spotlight, the third reason which is commonly attributed to her disappearance was the fact that she was considered difficult to work with, and finally the fact that she was Latina. The initial hypothesis of this thesis is that Marisol was forgotten from art history due to her difficult and introverted nature.In conclusion, results from this thesis findings suggest that the initial hypothesis was incorrect due to the fact that the most important reason as to her disappearance was originally left out. It is known that Marisol Escobar was at the top of the art world before embarking on two separate hiatuses, the fast paced art world quickly forgot her and it was impossible for her to reclaim those levels of fame.
Between 1953 – 1959, Archibald Motley Jr. took several trips to visit his nephew Willard Motley, who had permanently taken up residence in Mexico in the late 1940s. During these trips, Archibald ...produced several paintings of the Mexican landscape: works like Guanajunto, Mexico (1957) and San Miguel de Allende (1953). These paintings depicted the beauty of the countryside and the lives of those who lived there. Based on such works, scholars who have addressed Motley’s time in Mexico have argued that the paintings he produced there, like the rest of the works in his oeuvre, were unadulterated observations of everyday life. However, one painting from his time abroad casts doubt on the received wisdom of Motley’s purported realism. After Fiesta, Remorse Siesta (1959 - 1960) departs greatly from the other works that Motley created in Mexico. Its illogical subject matter, intense, dream-like color palette, disjunctions of scale, and inconsistent lighting challenge scholars’ categorization of Motley as a realist and suggest a more complex and critical artistic practice. In this thesis, I argue that, in After Fiesta, Remorse Siesta, Motley consciously employed Surrealist tactics to defamiliarize popular representations of Mexico and invite viewers to consider the politics of tourism and its impact on the region. In so doing, Motley exposed the gap between the touristic image of Mexico sold to the American public and the consequences of that false image on the working-class Mexican population. Moreover, I argue that this painting is not as anomalous as it may seem. Instead, I position the work as a pivotal moment in Motley’s growing engagement with Surrealism, which paralleled and reveals his explicit interest in commenting on systemic oppression.
Mississippian cosmoscapes provide a perceived, yet concealed, existence of spiritual realms inhabited by other-than and more-than human-beings who interact, influence, and interfere with the tangible ...landscape through natural and material contexts. To conceptualize the world around them, Mississippian ritual practitioners focused on a tripartite cosmological organization: an Above World, Middle World, and Beneath World realms. Within each of these “worlds”, multiple other-than and more-than-human-beings possessed powers, which allowed them to influence the Middle World of humans and their lived experiences. A duality exists between Earth Mother (Above World), who commands vortexes or tornadoes, and the Great Serpent (Beneath World), who may have wielded power over vortexes or whirlpools. This dissertation investigates how Mississippian people expressed their knowledge of the cosmoscapes through an iconographic interpretation based on a stylistic examination of Mississippian ceramic effigies from the central and southeastern United States. Iconographic methods, which focus on locative, positional, and command symbols are used to identify motifs, elements, and themes associated with the Great Serpent and Earth Mother in controlling the sacred wind. This research also examines the transitional mythologies of Earth Mother, and the Great Serpent, in comparison to Palmer Drought Severity Index data from the research areas.
