Art Theses and Dissertations

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    GEORGE WESLEY BELLOWS' WAR LITHOGRAPHS AND PAINTINGS OF 1918
    (1981-10-19) Wasserman, Krystyna; Johns, Elizabeth; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, MD)
    This thesis analyzes the sources, subject matter and style of George Bellows' seventeen war lithographs, five paintings and five drawings of 1918. Evidence is advanced to prove that the political developments of the First World War were a decisive factor in the creation of the War Series by Bellows who otherwise had no interest in war themes. The development of Bellows' patriotic feelings, culminating in the creation of war lithographs as a response to the changes of United States policy from one of neutrality to one of full involvement in the European conflict and a state of war with Germany in April 1917, is traced in Bellows' art and political statements. For the purpose of analysis Bellows' lithographs and paintings are divided into: scenes of atrocities depicting crimes committed by the German Army in Belgium in August 1914 as described in the Bryce Report published in the New York Times on May 13, 1915; Bellows' illustrations for the war stories published in magazines in 1918; and scenes inspired by war events and war photographs. Thematic and stylistic comparisons with the works of old masters and contemporary European artists are made. The study concludes that Bellows' war lithographs and paintings are not evaluated by modern critics as enthusiastically as most of his other works. It is suggested that one of the reasons why this is so, is the fact that Bellows who painted usually scenes he had known and seen, never went to war, and thus had to rely on articles, correspondence or photographs rather than on personal observations to determine the subjects of his war lithographs and paintings.
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    The Home We Can Never Leave
    (2023) Richardson-Deppe, Charlotte R; Keener, Cy; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Growing up, I performed aerial arts in a circus. In the circus, a web of interdependence keeps you off the ground—the tightness of your grip, the strength of your friend holding you up, the trust in an apparatus to hold your weight. In my own body now, I feel the residual stretch, tension, and ache the circus left in me—remnants of bodies pushing through pain, defying gravity to hold one another up. Via soft sculpture and performance, I negotiate the body as a site of both liberating autonomy and confining oppression.
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    EVERY PLACE WE’VE BEEN
    (2023) Qiu, Elaine; Craig, Patrick; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Combining printmaking and painting, hovering between abstraction and representation, "Every Place We’ve Been" documents the disorienting experiences of the last years on both a collective and personal level. Using images culled from various archival sources, as well as personal snapshots, the installation examines how history becomes a collective embodied memory and draws attention to the boundaries between the personal and the public.
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    Embrace the Wave
    (2023) Shahramipoor, Hosna; Strom, Justin; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    Everything in the universe is made up of waves. "Embrace the Wave" is a journey of self-discovery, in which our own inner waves can resonate with and influence the world around us, dissipate, magnify, and transform.
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    I HOLD YOU CLOSE
    (2023) Mercedes/Greene, Stephanie; Collis, Shannon; Art; Digital Repository at the University of Maryland; University of Maryland (College Park, Md.)
    I Hold You Close articulates the precarious emotions of being queer in a society riddled by violence. Using steel, melted weapons, sound, and motors, this installation reflects on my own experience of queerness and queer love. Rather than framing vulnerability as a weakness, these works invite the viewer to consider vulnerability as a weapon.