Art History & Archaeology Theses and Dissertations
Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://hdl.handle.net/1903/2744
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Item Competing Constructivisms: Modern Architecture and Design in Japan and Korea, c. 1925-1940(2015) Kim, Suzie; Mansbach, Steven A.; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation focuses on a set of dynamic Japanese and Korean architects and artists who, during the interwar period, actively adopted and transformed the principles of Russian Constructivism, the Bauhaus, and International Architecture into their own artistic style. This study provides the first comprehensive study of the multifaceted connections between Europe, Japan, and Korea to explore the richness of this relatively underrepresented, but decisive, modern aesthetic impulse. Prior to and during the period of the activities of the two major architectural groups in Japan, Bunriha Kenchikukai (1920-1928) and the Sousha (1923-1932), Yamaguchi Bunzo (1902-1978), the leader of the Sousha, demonstrated a strong commitment to Marxism and promoted gorishugi kenchiku (rationalist architecture), which acted on his vision of social transformation through a rationalist and functional approach to architectural design. In contrast, Yamawaki Iwao (1898-1987) enjoyed a rather socially neutral perspective of Constructivism and searched for a synthesis between the principles of the Bauhaus style and traditional Japanese interior designs of private houses. Furniture designer Kurata Chikatada (1895-1966), the leader of Keiji Kobo (1928-1940), employed the idea of standardization derived from the Bauhaus workshops, and tried to find a way to mass-produce handcrafts. Whereas Yamaguchi, Yamawaki, and Kurata used Constructivism to open up a wide field of modernist opportunity and inventiveness, Korean architects and artists, who worked under circumstances defined mostly by the colonial status of the nation, embraced the international movement only in a rather informative and redemptive way--a "local" way to assert a suppressed national dynamism. The first generation of Korean architects, which included Park Gil-ryong (1898-1943) and Park Dong-jin (1899-1981), suggested a way to incorporate the qualities of Constructivist style into Korean homes. Korean artists Lee Sun-seok (1905-1986) and Yoo Youngkuk (1916-2002), who studied in Tokyo during the 1930s, adapted the Constructivist style to suit the local customs and artistic conventions of Korea after they returned to their homeland. This comparative study will provide new insights into the history of modern architecture and design in Japan and Korea and a reassessment of the significance of these architects and designers who, from the mid-1920s, contributed to make Constructivism internationally recognized.Item THE ARCHITECTURAL VESSELS OF THE MOCHE OF PERU (C.E. 200-850): ARCHITECTURE FOR THE AFTERLIFE(2010) Wiersema, Juliet Benham; Pillsbury, Joanne; Venit, Marjorie; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This dissertation investigates sculpted representations of ritual architecture produced by the Moche (C.E. 200-850), a complex and socially-stratified society occupying Peru's north coast centuries before the formation of the Inca Empire. My study focuses on a single artifact type--the Moche architectural vessel--a portable fine ware ceramic container with a stirrup-shaped handle and straight spout which supports a miniature modeled building. Moche architectural vessels mimic the form of structures and features identified in full-scale Moche architecture. When discovered archaeologically, these objects accompany elite burials found within or in close proximity to Moche ritual architecture, or huacas. For art historians and archaeologists, these portable artifacts constitute one of the most important sources of data on Moche ritual architecture and as such, permit us a more nuanced understanding of ancient ceremonial structures which have been compromised by centuries of erosion, treasure hunting, and cataclysmic events. While Moche architectural vessels have been considered simple and somewhat generic representations of temples or temple complexes, my study suggests these objects instead relay explicit information about geographically, temporally, or ideologically specific ritual structures. In this dissertation, I propose a practical method for "decoding" these objects and demonstrate that, once deciphered, Moche architectural vessels can elucidate the original form, function, and ideological significance of Moche ceremonial architecture. My research draws upon several disciplines including art history, anthropology, ethnography, and ethnomusicology. Important contributions include the assembly of the first Moche architectural vessel corpus (169 vessels), the creation of a detailed 10-type Moche architectural vessel typology, a new method for visualizing these objects, and the discovery that several vessels are additionally acoustic artifacts. My study presents a new investigative model, applicable to other areas in the ancient Andes and Mesoamerica, where, for millennia, ceramic representations of architecture formed an important part of burial ritual. Moche architectural vessels also engage in a cross-cultural dialogue with architectural representations made for burial by other ancient cultures around the globe, including Han Dynasty China, Middle Kingdom Egypt, Iron Age Italy, Ancient West Mexico, and Aztec Mexico. They also illuminate the rich potential of ceremonial objects made by advanced societies without text-based histories.Item Function versus Form in Czech Cubism: Architecture and Furniture Design(2010) Bratton, Lyndsay; Mansbach, Steven A; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)This thesis seeks to negate the idea, prevalent among scholars in the field, that form became more important than function in the works of Cubist applied artists and architects. Cubist theory flourished in these sectors of the arts among young Czech artists who rejected the rationalism of their teachers, Otto Wagner and Jan Kotera. The work of Pavel Janák, Vlastislav Hofman and Josef Gocár provides the case study by which I argue that Czech architects during the Cubist movement from 1911 to 1925 were not only concerned with the utility of their works, but they also applied new functions to architecture and the applied arts--functions entirely different from mere practical concerns. These included the expression of the artists' own inner visions and spirituality through formal design, the conveyance of the possibilities of dynamic movement of mass through the creation of space and its outer shell, and, after World War I, the articulation of nationalism through the synthesis of Rondocubist form and decorative folk elements.Item Slithering Serpents and the Afterlives of Stones: The Role of Ornament in Inka-Style Architecture of Cusco, Peru(2005-11-22) Trever, Lisa Senchyshyn; Pillsbury, Joanne; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Serpent reliefs and other pre-Hispanic motifs occasionally appear on the façades of early colonial Inka-style masonry buildings in Cusco, the former capital of the Inka empire, although similar carvings are only rarely seen on earlier Inka architecture. This research demonstrates that while some ashlars were reused from pre-Hispanic Inka walls, the reliefs were likely carved during the colonial era. Central to this analysis is the premise that the breakdown of Inka state iconoclasm allowed native masons greater decorative license. The appearance of Andean motifs on houses built for the city's Spanish inhabitants reveals the complexity of early colonial attitudes toward indigenous culture. The carvings provide an opportunity to investigate the shifting meanings of Andean symbols during the early years of the Spanish presence in Peru. Indeed, these motifs, carved after the Inka imperial collapse, have since become iconic of "Inka-ness" and are replicated in Cusco's twentieth-century municipal architecture.Item "A New Unity!" The Art and Pedagogy of Josef Albers(2004-08-10) Adler, Esther D; Mansbach, Steven A.; Art History and Archaeology; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)Josef Albers had an extensive and prolific career, both as an artist and a teacher. He was a crucial member of the faculties of the Bauhaus, Black Mountain College in North Carolina, and Yale University, producing a varied and ground-breaking body of his own work simultaneously. Albers's pedagogical philosophies were remarkably consistent throughout his teaching career, and all of his artwork reflects these philosophies to some degree. However, the artist's early engraved glass works, created while at the Bauhaus, and his later, architecturally-based sculptures were by far the most successful in communicating his message of the orderly, reasoned world he hoped transform through his art. Josef Albers was intent on challenging his viewer's "way of seeing," and he was able to accomplish this through his works with underlying architectural connections. These works allowed him to control the way they were perceived, and, by extension, the world seen figuratively through them.