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 Subject "Abstract Expressionism"

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    The Indeterminacy of Abstraction: Philip Guston 1947-1951
    (University of Oregon, 2014-09-29) Keast, Lindsay; Mondloch, Kate
    Many scholars exclude New York painter Philip Guston (1913-80) from the artistic tradition of Abstract Expressionism due to his absence from New York City during the group's early formative years. This thesis asserts, however, that Guston's role in Abstract Expressionism can be firmly established through his unique interpretation of the formative influence of surrealist automatism. Though never engaging with the surrealists directly, Guston explored automatist ideas upon meeting New York School experimental music composers John Cage and Morton Feldman. This trio's engagement with the Zen Buddhist concepts of unimpededness and interpenetration influenced Guston to create compositions through chance operations, a process Cage would call "indeterminacy." My aim is to enrich an understanding of Guston's idiosyncratic relationship to Abstract Expressionism and, ultimately, to offer a more expansive definition of Abstract Expressionism in general, allowing for a broader understanding of the formation of American modernism.
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    Toward the Open Lattice: Ibram Lassaw within Abstract Expressionist Sculpture, 1945-1953
    (University of Oregon, 2012) Taylor, Sarah; Taylor, Sarah; Simmons, Sherwin
    This thesis focuses on Ibram Lassaw's open-lattice works by first discussing works from 1945 to 1950 to outline the conceptual and formal themes that contributed to the later style. The open-lattice form presents a complicated interplay between geometric and biomorphic forms, heaviness and lightness, tangibility and remoteness, and openness--which creates a partial boundary whereby the viewer is able to visually penetrate the form, while still being removed bodily. This thesis attempts to root Lassaw's open-lattice works and his metallic accretion process within the Abstract Expressionism movement by comparing the similar bodily experience of viewing Lassaw's works to those of Jackson Pollock's, for example, with a focused attention on material characteristics. This embodied approach offers a new and highly-appropriate language by which to discuss Lassaw's textural open-lattice works. A video of Lassaw's sculpting process is included with this thesis as a supplemental file.