Tag: Art History

Princess Mononoke: A Masterpiece of Japanese Animation

Presenter: Annabel Winningham – Art History

Faculty Mentor(s): Alexandria Nanneman

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Comics, Classics and Analysis

Hayao Miyazaki’s films are renowned for their fantastic visual complexity, cohesiveness, and heart- warming narratives. Miyazaki is able to unite oil-painting-like backgrounds with a great sense of depth and super-flat styled character to create playful, mystical, and breathtaking atmospheres. Although his art style is child-like and charming, the narratives of his work have very serious themes, and like much Japanese art post World War II, are highly influenced by westernization, industrialism, and the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In Princess Mononoke, he portrays a sense of nationalism with an appreciation for the traditional Japanese way of life, yet detests the influence that the modern world has had on Japanese culture, especially as it contradicts many of the basic morals of the central religion of Japan, Shinto. The focal theme of the film is environmentalism, but he dives into the complexity of this issue by also portraying the benefits that have come with western industrialization. The film depicts a seemingly unresolvable conflict between the animals and spirits of the forest versus humanity, yet by the end of the film, Miyazaki beautifully displays the harmony that can be achieved, but only after devastating conflict and disaster. The film is a warning. The final battle is suspenseful and action-pact, but the movie concludes on a deeply pensive and hopeful note. My essay is a visual, historical, and contextual analysis of Princess Mononoke.

Emasculation of the Other: Meiji Ukiyo-e War Prints and Japanese Identity

Presenter: Eun-Jai Shin – Art History

Faculty Mentor(s): Akiko Walley

Session: (Virtual) Oral Panel—Read, Speak and Act

The Meiji Restoration of 1868 was one of the most monumental moments of East Asian history, featuring Japan’s rise as an imperial power. Rigorous nationalistic development helped it achieve its first victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). However, these feats were not without insecurities, and Japan as the new ‘Empire of Asia’ necessitated validation of its reformed identity and influence. Ukiyo-e, woodblock printing from the Edo Period, was revitalized during this time and served as a new form of reportage, providing a popularly consumable and replicable source of current events. Furthermore, its realist agenda- assured credibility- enabled it to become an ideal platform for propaganda. This presentation will focus on marginalization- specifically the emasculation– of subaltern others during the First Sino-Japanese War- and how its compositional, figural and symbolic depiction of China and Korea assisted in the Japanese assertion of superiority and dominance.

Unremembered: The Misattributions of Clara Peeters and Judith Leyster

Presenter: Morning Glory Ritchie – Art History

Faculty Mentor(s): Maile Hutterer

Session: (In-Person) Oral Panel—Herstory Rediscovered, Poster Presentation

Clara Peeters and Judith Leyster were still-life painters prominent during the 17th-century. These still-life genre paintings were of a popular Dutch style which included painting of the interior domestic household and food items. During this era, women faced extreme challenges to receive an art education and to enter the market. Often, these women would have to have a male family member, such as husband or father, be the one to give the art education. These artists have all had a lack of recognition in art historical scholarship, with several of their works misattributed to other male artists of their time. Several 17th-century works created by women were often misattributed to men. Works by female painters were also attributed to their husbands or fathers, as was the case for several works by Judith Leyster who was unknown for almost three centuries. Many still-life works from this period also lack clarity and evidence for attribution leaving many works without name. Several women artists were extremely prominent and successful with their still-life compositions during the 17th-century. Therefore, it is time to start the search for women painters in order to better understand Early Modern culture and the impact of women in the arts. When not much is known about the life of a female artist due to restraints of the women’s role in the domestic household during the 17th-century, their legacy, reputation and contributions to the art world and history eventually fade away.

Interdependent Parts of the Whole: Edward Weston’s 1925 Studio Nudes Art History

Presenter: Laura Barton, Art History

Panel: Art & Popular Culture

Mentor: Kate Mondloch, Art History

Time: 1:15pm – 2:15pm

Location: Alsea Room

Photographer Edward Weston has long been hailed as one of the heroes of modern photography and has been praised for his stunning approach to landscapes, nudes, and still-lifes. This paper examines his treatment of the nude female form and examines the relationship that his photographs establish between the human body and the natural world. Through a series of in-depth visual and formal analyses of his early nudes and still-lifes, this paper shows that Weston un-animated the human body, while animating the vegetables, shells, and landscapes that he photographed. Thus, he created not a vertical hierarchy where humans are placed above the natural world, but instead created a horizontal plane where all natural forms are equalized. This approach differs from most of the pre-existing scholarship on Weston, which has long interpreted his work using either the biographical method or feminist theory, both of which serve primarily to either maintain or reject Weston’s heroic status; this paper attempts instead to explain how the photographs themselves serve to create meaning.

Perspectives on Czech Art of the 1970’s and early 80’s: Framing an Understudied Period

Presenter(s): Jacob Armas – The History of Art and Architecture, International Studies

Faculty Mentor(s): Jíří Ptaček, Sara Brock

Oral Session 4O 

Research Area: Art History/ Humanities

Funding: Gloria Tover Lee Scholarship in Art History
Judy Fosdick Oliphant Scholarship in International Studies
UO Summit Scholarship
GEO Map Your Future Scholarship
SIT Study Pell Grant Match
SIT/ UO Scholarship

This paper is an exploration of how different generations of art historians, art writers, and curators think about, approach and frame Czech art of the Normalization era between the 1970’s and early 1980’s. While not always representing generational differences, differing personal and professional orientations among people interviewed allows for a fuller picture of this period, which is understudied in the Czech, and indeed International art historical discourse. In the latter case, this is because key texts have yet to be translated or are not readily available and, there is not a broader understanding of the artistic activity that took place during this time. Six structured interviews were conducted based on a standard set of questions developed from relevant secondary sources in English. This data was then analyzed in an attempt to see if and how the interpretation

of the period’s art has changed with succeeding generations. The paper makes the preliminary conclusion that with more historical distance comes more willingness to reevaluate the period and interpret its art in new contexts, but also finds some understandings are not affected by generational difference. Further interviews would provide a more defined frame with which to view the period.

‘All Surface and No Soul’: John Singer Sargent’s Portraits of Modern Mannequins

Presenter(s): Katelyn Jones—Art History

Faculty Mentor(s): Nina Amstutz

Session 1: Oh, the Humanities!

This research analyzes the popular late nineteenth century society portraitist, John Singer Sargent, and his portraits of women, primarily those of which critics have noted a unique postural tension
in the sitters . This nervous tension has been up to this point considered by art historians to be a visual tactic deployed by the artist to create a dynamic and attractive composition . I argue that this tension goes beyond just clever compositional structure and rather can be contextualized through
an understanding of changes in the contemporary fashion industry . From the memoirs of sitters to critical reviews, Sargent’s women are often compared to inanimate objects . One object in particular that is repeated often is that of the mannequin, whose commercial use emerges alongside the need of department stores at the end of the nineteenth century .Through formal analysis of key portraits in Sargent’s oeuvre and contemporary document analysis, I draw connections between the visual presentation of female sitters and their dummy counterparts, as well as how the two worked similarly within their respective sales environments; the gallery and the store . Ultimately, this research seeks to understand the shifting role of art in the beginnings of mass international consumerism, providing a background to how viewers of the 21st century understand the industries of commercial design, art, and fashion .

Silent Slaves: Reconstructing slave perspectives on the Grave Stele of Hegeso

Presenter(s): Alexis Garcia—Art History and Cultural Anthropology

Session 4: Cultural Considerations—The Other

The Grave Stele of Hegeso (400 BCE) depicts a ‘mistress and maid’ scene and preserves a valuable insight into elite iconography and exploring the experience of wealthy Athenian women in their social roles and domestic spaces . The slave attendant, if discussed at length, primarily functions for academia as a method of contrast and comparison to her elite master . While this is a valuable interpretation for studies of gender and class in fifth century Athens, more can be done in regard to examining the slave attendant on the stele, and as a byproduct, examining slave figures in all Greek art . Slaves made up a sizeable portion of fifth century Athenian society, and were present in both elite and poor households . However, due to a lack of material and literary evidence, the field of classics has not engaged with exploring the concept of Greek slavery to its full extent . In addition, what little does remain to modern scholars was commissioned or written by elite voices, who were biased against slaves . This paper explores potential reconstructions for slave perspectives and narratives on the Grave Stele of Hegeso by drawing upon the trope of the Good Slave and Bad Slave in Athenian theater and Homeric epic . This paper also discusses the relationships between masters and slaves, household slave dynamics, and what constitutes the idealized Athenian slave .