Showing 1 - 10 of 29 Items
Bridging the Bergschrund: Depictions of Glaciers in the Berner Oberland and Wallis Regions of the Alps and the ‘American Alps’ from the late 18th-century to the Present This record is embargoed.
- Embargo End Date: 2027-05-19
Date: 2022-01-01
Creator: Lily Poppen
Access: Embargoed
Brutal Encounters: Primitivity, Politics, and the Postmodern Revolution
Date: 2021-01-01
Creator: Archer Thomas
Access: Open access
- The switch from late modernism to postmodernism in Western aesthetic theory and criticism took place in the mid-to-late 20th century, radically changing the face of cultural criticism. Much has been written on how postmodernism broke from modernism, but what factors paved its way in the decades following the Second World War? This paper argues that postmodernism represents both a reaction to and a necessary evolution of late modernism, specifically as it manifests in architecture, politics, and the politics of architecture. It focuses on the crisis of confidence among Western left-wing circles following the upheaval of the Second World War and posits that, because of this upheaval, primitivism came to dominate the epistemology of a renewed modernism led by figures such as Clement Greenberg, Reyner Banham, and the practitioners of “the New Brutalism.” The paper then explores how the Western left-wing reaction to developments like decolonization and postwar modernization challenged primitivity’s newfound importance, resulting in a shift towards a “postmodern populism” in aesthetics and politics by the 1960s as described by Jean Baudrillard, Fredric Jameson, Robert Venturi, and Reyner Banham.
A "Peculiarly American" Enthusiasm: George Bellows, Traditional Masculinity, and The Big Dory
Date: 2014-01-01
Creator: James W. Denison, IV
Access: Open access
- A “Peculiarly American” Enthusiasm: George Bellows, Traditional Masculinity, and The Big Dory investigates the portrayal of masculinity in the oeuvre of the much-lauded yet enigmatic American painter George Bellows (1882-1925). Rather than relying on Bellows’ urban works for source material, a significant portion of this investigation is conducted via a case study of Bellows’ 1913 panel The Big Dory, a scene of fishermen pushing a boat into the North Atlantic off Monhegan Island, Maine that the artist painted during a sojourn on the island in the months after his involvement in the landmark Armory Show in New York. The paper situates The Big Dory within the greater context of the history of the depiction of Maine through the lens of the heroic fisherman. Bellows achieved a heroic effect by forcing the viewer to focus on the labor of the fishermen via their positioning in the near middleground and by echoing the hues and forms of the men elsewhere in the painting, giving the work a sense of visual unity. I argue that these strategies highlight Bellows’ interest in tradition rather than modernism. Armed with this knowledge, Bellows’ other works come more sharply into focus. I reveal that the traditional heterosexual mode of white male identity Bellows represented in The Big Dory was not simply echoed in Bellows’ personal comportment, but in fact pervaded his oeuvre; such masculinity was a reaction by patriarchal American society against the perceived growth of other influences in the early twentieth century. The portrayal of such masculinity is then established as the key underlying feature of the sense of “Americanism” which has traditionally dominated reception of Bellows’ art.
Under the Surface: Surrealist Photography
Date: 2014-01-01
Creator: Andrea Rosen
Access: Open access
- "Accompanies an exhibition of the same name at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art, February 27 through June 1, 2014." Foreword by Frank H. Goodyear III; essay: Conceal and reveal : layering techniques in surrealist photography by Andrea Rosen.
After Atget: Todd Webb Photographs New York and Paris
Date: 2011-01-01
Creator: Diana K. Tuite
Access: Open access
- Catalogue of an exhibition held at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art Oct. 28, 2011 through January 29, 2012. Essay entitled: Signs of the city / by Diana Tuite.
Modernism at Bowdoin: American Paintings from 1900 to 1940
Date: 2011-01-01
Creator: Joachim Homann
Access: Open access
- The catalog of the exhibition includes works drawn from the collection of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art and selected paintings on loan from the Yale University Art Gallery. Exhibition held in the Boyd Gallery, Jan. 12-June 26, 2011.
The Disembodied Spirit
Date: 2003-01-01
Access: Open access
- Exhibition catalog: Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Sept. 25-Dec. 7, 2003; Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art (Kansas City, Mo.), Mar. 5-May 23, 2004; Austin (Texas) Museum of Art, Sept. 11-Nov. 28, 2004 Includes essays by Tom Gunning and Pamela Thurschwell.
Picturing Creativity: Portraits of Artists, 1860-1960
Date: 1998-01-01
Creator: Laura B. Groves
Access: Open access
- Exhibit organized by Laura B. Groves.
Certain Uncertainties: Chaos and the Human Experience
Date: 1996-01-01
Creator: Justin G. Schuetz
Access: Open access
- Accompanies an exhibition held at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art from April 17 through June 2, 1996. "This brochure is published with funding from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation."--Colophon
Meaning at the Crossroads: The Portrait in Photography
Date: 1994-01-01
Creator: Justin P. Wolff
Access: Open access
- Exhibition catalogue from the Bowdoin College Museum of Art.