The Presence of Words in Visual Art from Surrealism to Conceptualism

Without a doubt, one of the biggest changes that affected XXth century art is the introduction of words into paintings and, in more recent years, in installations. For centuries, if words were part of a visual composition, they functioned as reference; strictly speaking, they were used as a guideline for a better perception of the subject represented. With the developments of the XXth century, words became a very important part of the visual composition, and sometimes embodied the composition itself. About this topic, American art critic and collector Russell Bowman wrote an interesting article called Words and images: A persistent paradox, in which he examines the American and the European art of the XXth century in almost its entirety, dividing it up in six “categories of intention”. The aforementioned categories are not based on the art history timeline, but on the role that language played for specific artists or movements. Taking inspiration from Bowman's article, this paper is structured in three chapters, respectively: words in juxtaposition and free association, words as means of exploration of language structures, and words as means for political and personal messages. The purpose of this paper is therefore to reflect on the role of language in contemporary art and on the way it has changed from artist to artist.

Das Aussehen Christi in der deutschen Bildkunst des 19. Jahrhunderts : Wandlungen des Christusbildes

Bei der vorliegenden Arbeit handelt es sich um ein Überblickswerk zum Christusbild, dem Aussehen Christi in der deutschen Bildkunst des 19. Jahrhunderts und dessen Wandlungen. Grundlage der Arbeit bildet eine von der Autorin zusammengetragene Materialsammlung und deren Auswertung, basierend auf der Kenntnis von Originalen sowie der Sichtung von Literatur (insbesondere von Lexika, Museums- und Ausstellungskatalogen, Werkverzeichnissen sowie maßgeblichen deutschen Kunstzeitschriften des 19. Jahrhunderts). Das hieraus resultierende systematische Bildverzeichnis umfasst 1.914 Werke in Form von Staffeleibildern, Druckgraphik, wandgebundenen Gemälden (und auch Skulpturen); davon sind 729 mit Abbildungen in der Arbeit dokumentiert. In alphabetischer Reihenfolge abgefasst, enthält das Verzeichnis zu jedem Eintrag Kurzinformationen zu Werk und Künstler, sowie Literatur- und ggf. Abbildungsnachweise. Auf dieser Basis geht die Untersuchung über den bisher relativ kleinen Kreis einschlägig bekannter Christusbilder weit hinaus und gibt erstmals einen umfassenden und für das 19. Jahrhundert repräsentativen Überblick.rnDer auf dieses Material gestützte Hauptteil befasst sich mit der eingehenden Betrachtung der „Grundtypen“ des Christusbildes, womit das Aussehen Christi (Physiognomie, Gesamtgestalt, Gewandung, Habitus und Gestik) gemeint ist. Schwerpunkte der Arbeit bilden zunächst das an der Renaissance (insbesondere an Raffael) orientierte „milde“ Christusbild des Klassizismus und die „inniglich-schöne“ Idealgestalt der Romantik (variiert auch mit altdeutschen Elementen), aus der schließlich das bis in die Gegenwart verwendete, kitschig-süßliche Devotionalienbild resultierte. Eine historisierende, ethnologische Rekonstruktion eines „jüdischen“ Jesus, erschien besonders in der „Orientmalerei“ seit den vierziger Jahren des 19. Jahrhunderts. Die Ablehnung und Abgrenzung der Orientmalerei führte zu einer „historischen Reformationsmalerei“ mit altdeutschen Elementen und auch teilweise zu einer Tendenz der „Germanisierung“ des Bildes Jesu mit genrehaften Zügen. Zum Jahrhundertende hin wurden außerdem vielfältige Versuche beobachtet, den Gottmenschen Jesus in „zeitgenössischem“ Aussehen volksnah in die Gegenwart der Gläubigen einzubinden. Im Symbolismus traten hingegen heroisierende Tendenzen auf bis hin zu einer „Entwirklichung“ der Gestalt Christi. Zusammenfassende Beobachtungen zu den häufig verwendeten und „beliebten“ Themen der Christusdarstellung im 19. Jahrhundert runden die Arbeit ab, in der eine bislang ungekannte Differenzierung und Vielfalt der Darstellungsmöglichkeiten Christi in der religiösen Kunst des 19. Jahrhunderts aufgezeigt werden konnte.

Visuell-mediale Landschaftskonstruktionen als Bild-Raum-Diskurse

Durch die massenmediale Zunahme von statischen und bewegten Bilder im Laufe des letzten Jahrhunderts vollzieht sich unsere lebensweltliche Wirklichkeitskonstruktion zu Beginn des 21. Jahrhunderts zunehmend über Visualisierungen, die mit den neuen Formen der Digitalisierung noch an Dynamik zunehmen werden. Mit diesen omnipräsenten visuell-medialen Repräsentationen werden meist räumliche Vorstellungen transportiert, denn Räume werden vor allem über Bilder konstruiert. Diese Bildräume zirkulieren dabei nicht als singuläre Bedeutungszuschreibungen, sondern sind in sprachliche und bildliche Diskurse eingebettet. Visuell-mediale Bild-Raum-Diskurse besitzen zunehmend die Fähigkeit, unser Wissen über und unsere Wahrnehmung von Räumen zu kanalisieren und auf stereotype Raumstrukturen zu reduzieren. Dabei verfestigt sich eine normative Ordnung von bestimmten machtvollen Bildräumen, die nicht genügend kritisch hinterfragt werden. Deshalb ist es für die Geographie von entscheidender Wichtigkeit, mediale Raumkonstruktio- nen, ihre Einbettung in diskursive Bildarchive und ihre essentialistische und handlungspraktische gesellschaftliche Wirkung zu verstehen.rnLandschaften können vor diesem Hintergrund als visuell-medial transportierte Bild-Raum-Diskurse konzeptionalisiert werden, deren gesellschaftliche Wirkmächtigkeit mit Hilfe einer visuell ausgerichteten Diskursanalyse hinterfragt werden sollte. Auf Grundlage einer zeichentheoretischen Ikonologie wurde eine Methodik entwickelt, die visuell ausgerichtete Schrift-Bild-Räume angemessen analysieren kann. Am Beispiel der Inszenierung des Mittelrheintals, wurde, neben einer diachronischen Strukturanalyse der diskursrelevanten Medien (Belletristik, Malerei, Postkarten, Druckgrafiken und Fotografien), eine Feinanalyse der fotografischen „Rheinlandschaften“ von August Sander der 1930er Jahre durchgeführt. Als Ergebnis zeigte sich, dass der Landschaftsdiskurs über das Mittelrheintal immer noch durch die gegenseitige Durchdringung der romantischen Literatur und Malerei in der ersten Hälfte des 19. Jahrhunderts und die historischen Fotografien in den ersten Jahrzehnten des 20. Jahrhunderts bestimmt ist, nicht zuletzt forciert durch die Ernennung zum UNESCO-Welterbe 2002. Der stark visuell ausgerichtete Landschaftsdiskurs trägt somit zum einen positiv konnotierte, romantisch-pittoreske Züge, die die Einheit von Mensch und Natur symbolisieren, zum anderen historisch-konservatorische Züge, die eine Mythifizierung zu einer gewachsenen, authentischen Kulturlandschaft evozieren.

I know what I like: Stability of aesthetic preference in Alzheimer's disease

Two studies explored the stability of art preference in patients with Alzheimer’s disease and age-matched control participants. Preferences for three different styles of paintings, displayed on art postcards, were examined over two sessions. Preference for specific paintings differed among individuals but AD and non-AD groups maintained about the same stability in terms of preference judgments across two weeks, even though the AD patients did not have explicit memory for the paintings. We conclude that aesthetic responses can be preserved in the face of cognitive decline. This should encourage caregivers and family to engage in arts appreciation activities with patients, and reinforces the validity of a preference response as a dependent measure in testing paradigms.

Pond-Women Revelations: The Subaltern Registers in Maithil Women's Expressive Forms

Ponds are ubiquitous in the Maithil region of Nepal, and they figure prominently in folk narratives and ceremonial paintings produced by women there. I argue that in Maithil women's folktales, as in their paintings, the trope of ponds shifts the imaginative register toward women's perspectives and the importance of women's knowledge and influence in shaping Maithil society, even as this register shift occurs within plots featuring male protagonists. I argue further that in the absence of a habit of exegesis in their expressive arts, and given the cross-referential, dialogic nature of expressive practices, a methodology that draws into interpretive conversation the multitude of expressive forms exercised by Maithil women enhances analytical access to Maithil women's collective perspectives on their social and cosmological worlds.

Stability of Art Preference in Frontotemporal Dementia

We examined aesthetic preference for reproductions of paintings among frontotemporal dementia (FTD) patients, in two sessions separated by 2 weeks. The artworks were in three different styles: representational, quasirepresentational, and abstract. Stability of preference for the paintings was equivalent to that shown by a matched group of Alzheimer's disease patients and a group of healthy controls drawn from an earlier study. We expected that preference for representational art would be affected by disruptions in language processes in the FTD group. However, this was not the case and the FTD patients, despite severe language processing deficits, performed similarly across all three art styles. These data show that FTD patients maintain a sense of aesthetic appraisal despite cognitive impairment and should be amenable to therapies and enrichment activities involving art.

The Work and Workshop of the Master of the Rajhrad Altarpiece

The main aim of this project was to verify the possibility raised in the publication of new archival data in 1980 that the group of panel paintings attributed to the Master of the Rajhrad Altarpiece and his workshop were not created before 1420, as earlier academic opinion held, but in fact only around 1450. It included a detailed analysis of the 21 panels forming the group, including infrared reflectography research. This helped identify the highly personal underdrawing style of the "Rajhrad Master" as common to all the panels in the group, proving that they really form a coherent whole. Questions of the painter's education and the nature of Bohemian society around 1450 were also considered, as. Bartlova felt these had been neglected in earlier studies. She concludes that the Master studied in Prague in the late 1430s and then continued studying in Vienna and Munich from 1440. The new dating of the group of panels connected with this anonymous master and his workshop throws new light on Bohemian artistic production during the late Hussite period (c.1430-c.1470). It was generally thought that artistic activity moved out of Prague after the outbreak of the Hussite wars in the 1420s, but this research revealed considerable activity there throughout the period. Numerous painters listed in the Book of the Prague Painters' Guild for this period can now be linked with extant panels, although most of these have survived outside Prague, principally in South Bohemia. These findings have broad implications for studies of Bohemian art in this period.

Idiomatic Différance: Reflections on Intranslatability in the Works of Gerhard Richter

Translatability of a work of art, according to Walter Benjamin, is an essential ability to allow a translation to take on »a specific significance inherent in the original« so that it will retain a close relationship to the original. In contrast, Gerhard Richter's photo-based paintings show such an auratic significance of the original in its innate deficiency or intranslatability. As Rosemary Hawker puts it, the striking effect of blur in his paintings represents itself at once as a unique photographic idiom and a distinctive shortcoming of photography which impedes the medium from providing viewers with clearly perceivable images; the blur creates a site of différance in which both media come to a common understanding of one another’s idioms by telling what those idioms always fail to achieve. In this short essay, I will examine ways in which Richter’s photographic and pictorial works, including early monochrome paintings and recent abstract works based on microscopic photographs of molecular structures, attempt to untranslate photographic idioms in order to see painting’s (in)abilities simultaneously. In doing so, I intend to observe in the artist’s pictorial practice an actual phenomenon that the image can designate certain facts or truths only through its inherent plurality, faultiness, and partiality.

Idiomatic Différance: Reflections on Intranslatability in the Works of Gerhard Richter

Translatability of a work of art, according to Walter Benjamin, is an essential ability to allow a translation to take on »a specific significance inherent in the original« so that it will retain a close relationship to the original. In contrast, Gerhard Richter's photo-based paintings show such an auratic significance of the original in its innate deficiency or intranslatability. As Rosemary Hawker puts it, the striking effect of blur in his paintings represents itself at once as a unique photographic idiom and a distinctive shortcoming of photography which impedes the medium from providing viewers with clearly perceivable images; the blur creates a site of différance in which both media come to a common understanding of one another’s idioms by telling what those idioms always fail to achieve. In this short essay, I will examine ways in which Richter’s photographic and pictorial works, including early monochrome paintings and recent abstract works based on microscopic photographs of molecular structures, attempt to untranslate photographic idioms in order to see painting’s (in)abilities simultaneously. In doing so, I intend to observe in the artist’s pictorial practice an actual phenomenon that the image can designate certain facts or truths only through its inherent plurality, faultiness, and partiality.

Hochwasser-«Katastrophen» in Basel vom 13. bis 21. Jahrhundert Rekonstruktion, Deutung und Lerneffekte

Magnitudes of peak discharges of 43 non-instrumentally measured Rhine river floods at Basel were reconstructed. The methodology is based on a range of different historic sources, containing flood information (including traditional urban inundation reference points from flood reports of medieval and early modern period chroniclers as well as 19th century journalists, flood marks, paintings and drawings, town maps, longitudinal and cross profiles etc.). These traditional pre-instrumental “flood information systems” still existed in the 19th century, when in 1808 the first instrumental hydrological measurements started. They thus could be calibrated with instrumental measurements in the 19th century overlapping period. The result is a 743 year long quantified Rhine river flood series. Floods of both periods (pre-instrumental as well as instrumental) can thus be directly compared for the very first time. The long-range consequences of rivers Kander and Aare deviations in 1714 and 1878 are reflected in a distinct change of magnitudes of peak discharges in Basel. A clear flood “disaster gap” appears in the 20th century. The lack of any extreme floods for such a long time is completely unique during the 743-year period of analysis. This result will influence the statistical assessment of once-in-a-century events, which might be of great interest for insurance campanies.

Collecting the Painted Netherlands: The Art Collection of Ernest of Austria in Brussels

The (art) collection of Archduke Ernest of Austria (1553-1595) is widely unknown when it comes to early-modern Habsburg collections. Ernest, younger brother of Emperor Rudolf II (b. 1552) and educated at the Madrid court, was appointed Governor-General of the Netherlands by King Philip II of Spain, his uncle, in summer 1593. Ernest relocated his court from Vienna to Brussels in early 1594 and was welcomed there with lavish festivities: the traditional Blijde Inkomst, Joyous Entry, of the new sovereign. Unfortunately, the archduke died in February 1595 after residing in Brussels for a mere thirteen months. This investigation aims to shed new light on the archduke and his short-lived collecting ambitions in the Low Countries, taking into account that he had the mercantile and artistic metropolis Antwerp in his immediate reach. I argue, that his collecting ambitions can be traced back to one specific occasion: Ernest’s Joyous Entry into Antwerp in June 1594. There the archduke received a series of six paintings of Pieter Bruegel the Elder (1525/30-1569) known as The Months (painted in 1565), hanging today in separate locations in Vienna, New York and Prague. These works of art triggered Ernest’s collecting ambitions and prompted him to focus mainly on works of art and artefacts manufactured at or traded within the Netherlands during the last eight months of his lifetime. Additionally, it will be shown that the archduke was inspired by the paintings’ motifs and therefore concentrated on acquiring works of art depicting nature and landscape scenes from the 1560s and 1590s. On the basis of the archduke’s recently published account book (Kassabuch) and of the partially published inventory of his belongings, it becomes clear that Ernest of Austria must be seen in line with the better-known Habsburg collectors and that his specific collection of “the painted Netherlands” can be linked directly to his self-fashioning as a rightful sovereign of the Low Countries.

Extreme River Floods in Western Switzerland and the Lake of Constance Region in the Period Prior to Instrumental Measurements

The floods that occurred on the Aare and Rhine rivers in May 2015 and the mostly successful handling of this event in terms of flood protection measures are a good reminder of how important it is to comprehend the causes and processes involved in such natural hazards. While the needed data series of gauge measurements and peak discharge calculations reach back to the 19th century, historical records dating further back in time can provide additional and useful information to help understanding extreme flood events and to evaluate prevention measures such as river dams and corrections undertaken prior to instrumental measurements. In my PhD project I will use a wide range of historical sources to assess and quantify past extreme flood events. It is part of the SNF-funded project “Reconstruction of the Genesis, Process and Impact of Major Pre-instrumental Flood Events of Major Swiss Rivers Including a Peak Discharge Quantification” and will cover the research locations Fribourg (Saane R.), Burgdorf (Emme R.), Thun, Bern (both Aare R.), and the Lake of Constance at the locations Lindau, Constance and Rorschach. My main goals are to provide a long time series of quantitative data for extreme flood events, to discuss the occurring changes in these data, and to evaluate the impact of the aforementioned human influences on the drainage system. Extracting information given in account books from the towns of Basel and Solothurn may also enable me to assess the frequency and seasonality of less severe river floods. Finally, historical information will be used for remodeling the historical hydrological regime to homogenize the historical data series to modern day conditions and thus make it comparable to the data provided by instrumental measurements. The method I will apply for processing all information provided by historical sources such as chronicles, newspapers, institutional records, as well as flood marks, paintings and archeological evidence has been developed and successfully applied to the site of Basel by Wetter et al. (2011). They have also shown that data homogenization is possible by reconstructing previous stream flow conditions using historical river profiles and by carefully observing and re-constructing human changes of the river bed and its surroundings. Taken all information into account, peak discharges for past extreme flood events will be calculated with a one-dimensional hydrological model.

Room for Experiment: The Countess of Arundel’s "Site of Medication"

The so-called Dutch Pranketing Room of Alethea Talbot, Countess of Arundel, at Tart Hall was a site of domestic experiments, courtly splendour and global ambition. Lady Arundel, the probable author of a famous recipe book, would have used Tart Hall for cooking and experiments as well as for impressive dinner parties, and she would have used large amounts of sugar to create intricate imitations of meat and vegetables to astonish, entertain and delight her guests. Linking household practice with global trade as well as artistic creation, Lady Arundel’s banquets are situated not only between a national tradition of cooking, as it appears in Markham’s manuals, and the new possibilities the arising global trade provided, but also played with a mismatch between taste and sight. This mediating role could be compared to that played by the artists the Countess employed. Within this context it is worth noting that a series of paintings displayed in the building’s gallery showed still lifes, markets, and a cook. The inventory of Tart Hall gives an insight into the world of the widely travelled collector and patron of Van Dyck and Rubens, but raises also a number of questions. In my talk I would like to explore the Countess’ Pranketing Room as a site of mediation between alimentary and painterly experiments, considering the use of recipes, experience, invention and transformation

Verification of the clinical implementation of the respiratory gated beam delivery technique with synchrotron-based proton irradiation

The clinical advantage for protons over conventional high-energy x-rays stems from their unique depth-dose distribution, which delivers essentially no dose beyond the end of range. In order to achieve it, accurate localization of the tumor volume relative to the proton beam is necessary. For cases where the tumor moves with respiration, the resultant dose distribution is sensitive to such motion. One way to reduce uncertainty caused by respiratory motion is to use gated beam delivery. The main goal of this dissertation is to evaluate the respiratory gating technique in both passive scattering and scanning delivery mode. Our hypothesis for the study was that optimization of the parameters of synchrotron operation and respiratory gating can lead to greater efficiency and accuracy of respiratory gating for all modes of synchrotron-based proton treatment delivery. The hypothesis is tested in two specific aims. The specific aim #1 is to assess the efficiency of respiratory-gated proton beam delivery and optimize the synchrotron operations for the gated proton therapy. A simulation study was performed and introduced an efficient synchrotron operation pattern, called variable Tcyc. In addition, the simulation study estimated the efficiency in the respiratory gated scanning beam delivery mode as well. The specific aim #2 is to assess the accuracy of beam delivery in respiratory-gated proton therapy. The simulation study was extended to the passive scattering mode to estimate the quality of pulsed beam delivery to the residual motion for several synchrotron operation patterns with the gating technique. The results showed that variable Tcyc operation can offer good reproducible beam delivery to the residual motion at a certain phase of the motion. For respiratory gated scanning beam delivery, the impact of motion on the dose distributions by scanned beams was investigated by measurement. The results showed the threshold for motion for a variety of scan patterns and the proper number of paintings for normal and respiratory gated beam deliveries. The results of specific aims 1 and 2 provided supporting data for implementation of the respiratory gating beam delivery technique into both passive and scanning modes and the validation of the hypothesis.

Belmiro, o realismo e a fotografia ou a significaçâo da insignificancia

El ensayo apunta a pensar los cuadros realistas de Belmiro de Almeida a la luz de las teorías de Jacques Rancière, para quien el realismo literario del siglo XIX produce las condiciones de posibilidad para la fotografía y el cine. De este modo, se desplaza el foco de los análisis de la máquina (fotográfica o cinematográfica), más allá de reposicionarse el realismo como punto de articulación del régimen poético al régimen estético.