Inventions and industry in the art of Howard Finster

This paper examines Finster’s collection of Inventions of Mankind and his paintings of American industrial icons such as Henry Ford and Eli Whitney. Additionally, this study explores Finster’s compulsive artistic productivity and his experimentation with mechanisms designed to create self-sustaining energy. By providing a comprehensive overview of Howard Finster’s fascination with inventions and industry, this paper serves to provide new insight and dimension into the often over-generalized interpretations of his extensive body of work

“Let the American potter be a professional amateur" Laura Anne Fry and the American art pottery movement

"Artist Laura Anne Fry blended the concepts of professional and amateur, and helped raise the merit of ceramics in the United States. Fry influenced American art pottery with her contributions to Rookwood Pottery of Cincinnati—changing the course of the company. Her successful experiments with decorating techniques helped Rookwood become a national leader in art pottery, and eventually led to over a decade of controversy between Fry and Rookwood"

All the rest is merely exploitation and perseverance : the poster art of Frank Kozik

"The history of poster art tends to focus on the art of Henri Toulouse-Latrec, Jules Cheret, and Alfonse Mucha, while leaving out or barely mentioning the work of artists such as Wes Wilson, Stanley Mouse, and Alton Kelley. The aim of this thesis is to widen the gaze of poster art by centering on a contemporary rock poster artist: Frank Kozik. By focusing on formal and sociological analysis ofa number of Kozik's posters, I illustrate how he not only fits in with the arc of poster art development, but also influences it into the next century"

Art influences on Mark Z. Danielewski's House of Leaves and Los Angeles's influence on Johnny Truant

"...is a novel that combines literature and art to create a unique postmodern object. It was published just over a decade ago, and in that time numerous scholars and students have written papers and articles on it. Within these articles, the themes are usually about deconstruction, the house as a digital object, the house's lack of homeliness, or characters who claim authorial presence. Danielewski distance himself from that role. The house and its impossible labyrinth are the central feature of the book. A house should provide stability, but this house shifts its rooms and walls at random. A house should protect its occupants, but this one kills people. This house links itself into an infinite amount of information through its use of the internet as an influence and a stylistic device, but it has nothing but an absence in its very foundation, an empty labyrinth with an unseen monster."

The Museum/School Partnership: A New Role for Art Museums in K-5 Art Education

For nearly thirty years, the arts have been poorly represented in public school classrooms due to tight budgets, state mandates, and a belief that the arts are not essential to education. In this paper, I will investigate the absence of focused art education curriculum in K-5 classrooms across the United States’ public school system, explain the advantages of reinstating art as a basic subject in the classroom curriculum, and advocate for a more active art museum role in public school elementary art education. The art museum may be in the ideal position to help develop and facilitate programming in K-5 classrooms. By placing teams of art museum professionals in public school classrooms, art museums can establish a prominent role in the museum/school relationship and can help ensure that children have adequate access to art education. The outcome would be children who have greater academic and personal successes throughout their lives.

John La Farge as collector of Japanese art : motivations and reflections

Throughout his lifetime, American artist John La Farge (1835-1910) amassed an enormous collection of art and books. La Farge’s study of art and culture encompassed several genres and aesthetic elements. La Farge has been credited as the first American artist — even prior to James Abbott McNeill Whistler (1834-1903)— to integrate visual elements and cultural awareness of the Far East within his own Western-trained art. Although many scholars have studied La Farge’s art and life from various perspectives, including his interest in Asian art, the object of the present study is solely focused on La Farge’s collecting of Japanese art.

Discovering a history : the school of art at the University of Denver

Discovering a History: The School of Art at the University of Denver explores the early history of art education in Denver, and the significance of visual art education at the University of Denver within that history beginning in 1865, when the first classes in art were offered, and ending in 1929 when the University acquired the Chappell School of Art—an independent art school—and appointed Vance Kirkland as director. This paper also explores competing art institutions, which at times posed great hindrances to the University. Further, it illustrates how the artists who taught at the University of Denver School of Art, such as Ida De Steiguer, Preston Powers, Emma Richardson Cherry, and Henry Read, were amongst the great contributors to Denver’s burgeoning artistic culture.

Graveyards to Glamour : Development of Sexualized Angel Imagery in American Art and Advertising

Images of female angels in American art and advertisements have been sexualized in the late twentieth and early twenty-­‐first centuries. Companies such as Victoria’s Secret have appropriated the image of female angels, which first appeared at the beginning of the nineteenth century, and clothed them in lingerie in order to sell a product. This Masters Research Paper explores the evolution of female angelic imagery in the United States in order to understand how and when the image of angels began to be sexualized and used in advertising. Angels in art have been studied extensively; however, there has been no work done which examines how the angels in art and advertising have been sexualized. Nor has any work been done to map the evolution of female angelic imagery in American art. This Masters Research Paper will fill that gap in scholarship.

Blurring the lines : how Japanese American internment camps re-defined art and religion's relationship

After the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor during WWII, anyone of Japanese descent living on the West Coast was placed in internment camps scattered throughout the country. Life inside the camps included many different activities to make life as normal as possible. This study will focus on two intersecting day-to-day activities in particular, the practice of religion within the camps, as well as the creation of art. Art created in the camps was influenced by multiple religious traditions. An analysis of artworks created by professional and amateur artists, interviews and an examination of existing scholarship demonstrates that internment camps created a unique environment for the creation of art. The values of internees reflected the seamless coexistence of Christianity, Buddhism and Shinto in internment camp art.