History of Art and Architecture Theses and Dissertations

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For more information about the Department of the History of Art and Architecture, visit the web site at: https://design.uoregon.edu/arthistory

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Browsing History of Art and Architecture Theses and Dissertations by Author "Amstutz, Nina"

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    Critiquing the French: The Satirical Monuments of James Gillray and George Cruikshank
    (University of Oregon, 2016-11-21) Bounds, Chyna; Amstutz, Nina
    In eighteenth-century England, general anxieties towards the unchecked and excessive British power and authority were caricaturized in images depicting France and its people. Extensive literature has been published on the representations of French individuals and symbols in satirical prints, yet scholars have neglected the role of monuments in satirical imagery. This thesis looks at James Gillray’s Siege de la Colonne de Pompée—Science in the Pillory (1799) and Design for Naval Pillar (1800) and George Cruikshank’s A view of the grand triumphal pillar (1801) to unveil how British printmakers utilized satirical monuments to warn viewers of both Napoléon Bonaparte’s threat to the European continent and the harmful actions of their own British governmental figures. The role of monument culture, victory culture, nationalism and print distribution is also analyzed to highlight the affect of these prints on the British, and larger European, publics.
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    Performing Upon Her Painted Piano: The Burne-Jones Pianos and The Victorian Female Gender Performance
    (University of Oregon, 2017-09-06) Anderson, Amelia; Amstutz, Nina
    This thesis centers around three pianos designed and/or decorated by the Victorian artist Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones: the Priestley Piano, the Graham Piano, and the Ionides Piano. I read and interpret the Burne-Jones pianos not only as examples of the artist’s exploration of the boundaries of visual art and music, but also as reflections of the Victorian era female gender performance. Their physical forms and decorations, both designed and executed by Burne-Jones, enhance the piano as an instrument and accentuate their respective female performers. The music emanating from these pianos and the domestic space in which they inhabit prompt and contribute to the Victorian female performance of gender.
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    Situating the Field-based Artist Residency: An Ecocritical and Art Historical Analysis of Signal Fire
    (University of Oregon, 2020-09-24) Schoenfelder, Cassidy; Amstutz, Nina
    This thesis analyzes Signal Fire, a Portland-based arts organization founded in 2008. The organization produces extended, reading-intensive, and practice-oriented backpacking artist residencies in wild places. My own participation as both artist and researcher in a summer 2019 program called “Waiting for Salmon” informs my analysis of specific artworks made by fellow participants in order to situate and contextualize the residency. I focus on Signal Fire’s pedagogical framework the organization’s ecologically-driven public lands advocacy and collaboration with tribal communities and Indigenous perspectives. Signal Fire adheres to certain aspects of the American wilderness ideal and preservationist environmentalist ethics while simultaneously engaging with the tensions between settler colonial and decolonial approaches to the landscape. By observing Signal Fire, this thesis aims to provide an ecocritical and art historical framework for assessing the significance of other site-specific residencies within contemporary art, environmental humanities, and decolonial studies more broadly.
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    Sublime Views and Picturesque Embellishments: Westward Expansion and “Progress” in Gilded Age Guidebooks Illustration
    (University of Oregon, 2019-09-18) Hernandez, Carolyn; Amstutz, Nina
    In this thesis I apply literary analysis to railroad guidebook illustration (1880-1890) to argue that the framing and decorative embellishments aided the nineteenth century reader in imagining an idealized version of the Western landscape. Although rail travel was quick and removed from the physical experience of the landscape, guidebook illustrations highlight the picturesque aspects of the Western environment and supplement the rail travel experience by guiding the viewer through a contemplative and romantic reading of the landscape. Guidebooks immersed the reader in the progressive narrative of the guidebooks. The authors utilize language that assumes the readers are riding along the transcontinental path as they read, and the imagery serves to engage the readers’ imaginations and guide the viewers in viewing the picturesque and idealized version of the Western landscape.