Browsing by Author "Saltzman, Lisa"

Now showing 1 - 8 of 8
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    Afrosurreal: Behold the Invisible Worlds of Ringgold and Kentridge
    (2024) Hannah, Cole; Saltzman, Lisa
    Afrosurrealism is not just a movement or a genre. Afrosurrealism is the manifestation of African and African American scholars, writers, and artists who have devoted countless years and resources towards capturing the lived, contemporary Black experience on paper and canvas. Ralph Ellison, Jean Paul Sartre, Amiri Baraka, and now D. Scot Miller have all built their own interpretations of Afrosurrealism through the words of previous accounts. However, as definitions and guidelines for Baraka’s abstraction evolved after the release of each new published paper, the growing exclusivity of Afrosurrealism became antithetical to its function as an artistic genre. Hence, my use of Afrosurrealism as a framework. In performing an Afrosurrealist reading of Faith Ringgold’s Jo Baker’s Bananas and William Kentridge’s Monument, I was able to unearth and answer questions revolving around race, gender, and identity within both pieces. The Invisible World of Afrosurrealism not only conceals our bodies, our fears, and our secrets, it also functions as the key from which Black expression can passionately and unapologetically flourish.
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    Experiencing the Void: Architectural Representation of the Trauma of the Holocaust
    (2014) Kandel, Allison; Hein, Carola; Saltzman, Lisa
    Different countries have a different relationship to the Holocaust, and as such, represent their relationship in varied ways. These relationships have produced levels of trauma that differ across countries and across generations. Different museums around the world work to interpret and represent these relationships with regards to that country's national identity and relationship with the Holocaust. Daniel Libeskind's Jewish Museum Berlin in Germany uses a dark, eerie void-–Holocaust Tower-–to represent the irreplaceable loss of 80,000 Jews to Berlin. In Jerusalem, Yad Vashem, designed by Moshe Safdie employs two different architectural spaces, the Hall of Names and the viewpoint of Jerusalem, to remind visitors that there are Jews who currently thrive in Israel, asking visitors to plant themselves in the future. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum on the National Mall in Washington DC, designed by James Ingo Freed, has a hexagonal, airy, spiritual hall called the Hall of Remembrance, which allows visitors to sit with the horror of the Holocaust but also inspires unbridled remembrance or reflection. No void is "correct" or serves as the "model" for all other voids. Nor is there a particular element that must be used for a void to be considered done right. It must allow for recognition of an emptiness, but this does not mean necessarily being empty.
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    Lithographic Interiority: Reading Odilon Redon with Walter Benjamin
    (2012) Rockwell, Alethea; Saltzman, Lisa; Levine, Steven Z.
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    Modernity in the Metropolis: Portrayals of Symbolic Structures in New York City and Paris
    (2012) Cantor, Franklyn; Saltzman, Lisa; Cast, David, 1942-
    In New York City and Paris, two well-established cities with rich histories, new technology and ideas at the turn of the 20th century brought a new spirit and significant energy. Scientific progress in construction, manufacturing, and design enabled the development of the urban metropolis, which constituted a drastic change from the old world cities that preceded them. Many artists chose to depict the changing cities, employing different techniques and subject matters to portray the world around them. Two such painters are Robert Delaunay and Joseph Stella, who utilized innovative technological structures as vehicles for their opinions and expressions concerning modern life and the changing image of the city. Delaunay and Stella focused almost exclusively on the Eiffel Tower and the Brooklyn Bridge, which became both beloved symbols of the specific cities and independently venerated technological accomplishments. The worship of such structures, and more inclusively, all things modern, was denoted “modernolatry,” a term borrowed from the Italian Futurists.
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    Painting the War: Picasso's Genre Works During the German Occupation of Paris
    (2005) Irvine, Zoe (Laura); Saltzman, Lisa
    Picasso spent the years of the German Occupation in his apartment and studio in Paris painting still lifes and portraits. Bracketed by such distinctly political works as Guernica of 1937 and The Charnel House of 1945, the question of the artistic politics of Picasso's genre works of the war years is unavoidable. In this thesis I argue that the genre, subject, and style of Picasso's works during the Occupation are inextricably linked to the war torn times in which he was working. I make no claim that through painting still lifes and portraits Picasso was crafting some sort of political manifesto. Rather, I intend to demonstrate that, despite the seemingly mundane thematic choices, these works are expressive vehicles of human suffering, which potentially operated as private, even subconscious, acts of resistance against the oppressive and destructive forces of war. After contextualizing Picasso and his painting within the sociopolitical climate of Paris, I intend to show, through a close examination of several of the works he painted during the Occupation, that Picasso was indeed 'painting the war'. Though the genre works of the war years avoid any obvious narration of the war or depiction of specific events, they are powerful for the ways in which they capture and evoke not only the suffering of an artist, but the suffering of an entire country crumbling under the weight of war.
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    Reweaving Ann Hamilton's Habitus
    (2017) Cohen, Emma; Saltzman, Lisa
    My thesis focuses on contemporary artist Ann Hamilton’s recent project entitled habitus, a multi-site, multimedia installation that was presented in Philadelphia in the fall of 2016. Consisting of an exhibition at the Fabric Workshop and Museum as well as an installation of billowing fabrics at Municipal Pier 9, habitus provided visitors with a highly interactive and sensorially rich experience. Drawing primarily on the work of Walter Benjamin, as well as contemporary theorists of art, media, and geography, I analyze the unconventional, often non-linguistic ways in which Hamilton’s project creates meaning and structures social interactions. Ultimately, I argue that through rhythm, tactility, and the promotion of hyper attention, habitus creates a contemporary auratic experience that allows for an empathetic interaction between bodies, objects, and their histories.
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    The Experiential Sublime: Perception, Conception, and Emotion in Mark Rothko’s Classic Color-Field Paintings
    (2008) Bromberger, Bianca; Saltzman, Lisa
    Rather than being simple studies of abstract color and form, Mark Rothko's color-field paintings are argued to evoke intense emotional experiences. An investigation into how light is visually perceived and subsequently conceptually and emotionally experienced reveals how planes of color become catalysts for an internal experience of the Sublime when encountered by a viewer.
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    Waiting for Thunderbird Immolation
    (2017) Lau, Courtney; Saltzman, Lisa
    Caught between arrest and spectacular motion, bodies of color often face a problem with movement. From the Middle Passage to the impact of contemporary laws, such as Florida’s Stand Your Ground legislation, movement by people of color, particularly black movement, has been limited and policed. When black movement is not stifled, it is rendered spectacular. My project explores the politics of movement, performance, and race through William Pope.L’s Thunderbird Immolation. In 1978, William Pope.L, a black man from Trenton, New Jersey, threatens to set himself on fire in a performance called Thunderbird Immolation. During the performance, the artist douses his body in Thunderbird wine within a circle of kitchen matches. After the artist prepares for self-immolation, he simply sits still with his legs crossed and eyes closed in a meditative pose. By examining Thunderbird Immolation, I investigate how Pope.L’s stillness challenges the problem of movement faced by people of color. More precisely, I argue that the artist’s stillness is not an act of passivity, but rather, a willing and conscious act, which reimagines the relationship between blackness and movement.