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- Banér, Anne, 1946-
(author)
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Uppkäftiga ungar och oförargliga barn : Barn i svensk skämtpress 1894-1924
- 2006
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Drawings and anecdotes involving children in the two satirical magazines Söndags-Nisse and Strix during the years from 1894–1924 constitute the material. The main aim of this thesis has been to study how children are portrayed and what roles have been assigned to them. A secondary aim has been to highlight the relationship between text and pictures. In connection with this, the cartoonists’ contributions in the satirical press have been analysed. The third aim is to put the jokes in a humour theory perspective to obtain an answer to the question of what type of joke occurs in the magazines.The material has been analysed in seven groups on the basis of the characteristics assigned to the children: “the revealing child”, “the truth-telling child”, “the cheeky child”, “the clever and inventive child”, “the mischievous child”, “the wicked child” and “the naïve child”. In the first four groups, it is a strong and rebellious child who appears in the pages of the magazines: a child who dares to go against the adult world and stand up for itself. These children reveal a great deal about the period in which they lived. These drawings and jokes have been analysed in relation to the contemporary context.In the other groups the child created is not distinguished by such strong characteristics. Here, a joke is made of the child’s wickedness, stupidity or naivety: more general concepts. It has not, therefore, been possible to put these anecdotes into a contemporary context to the same extent.Throughout, it is the adults asking the questions and the children answering them. This has been interpreted as an expression of the power of the adults vis-à-vis the children.The seven groups represent two types of joke. The research shows that, in the satirical jokes, the role of the children is, in the first instance, to inform about contemporary circumstances while the role of the children in the amusing jokes is principally to entertain the adult readership.
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| 4. |
- Dahlgren, Anna, 1967-
(author)
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Fotografiska drömmar och digitala illusioner : Bruket av bearbetade fotografier i svensk dagspress, reklam, propaganda och konst under 1990-talet
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The aim of this dissertation is to study what effects computer-based technology for altering photographic images had on the photographic medium and visual culture in general. The aim is also to describe the expectations and conceptions of photographic alterations and digital technology in the 1990s. The study is based on a quantitative analysis of altered photographs in the Swedish daily and weekly press, interviews with artists, artdirectors and picture editors at the five largest daily papers in Sweden, as well as a systematic survey of Swedish photography journals. The dissertation comprises a historic survey of the use of photographic alteration from the mid 19th century to 1989, and a detailed account of the 1990s in Sweden. The quantitative analysis shows that the quantity of discernibly altered photographic images in the daily press and advertising increased in Sweden in the 1990s. This analysis also reveals that the daily papers subjected to the study did not follow their own guidelines concerning the marking of altered photographs and the frequency of labelling was generally low. Three thematic Twentynine images are presented with more comprehensive image analyses. The first theme is the paradoxical photograph, which means that they present a paradoxical relationship between representational techniques and that which is represented. These kind of motifs are interpreted as an expression of an initial fascination with a new technology. The second theme is the perfect photograph, which concerns altered photographs that does not appear to be altered. The third, an last theme, the transgressive photograph, deals with photographic images that transgress the photographic medium by appropriating appearances and functions from other forms of signs and image techniques. The transition to computer-based image alteration did not only affect the character and extent of altered photographs, it also produced effects on the photographic medium and visual culture in general. As technical tools for alterations of photographic images enabled a higher degree of perfection, there was for example a reaction in the form of an increased interest in the imperfect. The uses of altered photographic images also show how questions of authenticity, reality and representation were brought to the fore by the use of image alteration in photography during the 1990s. This study problematise technology-based definitions of photographic images and show how altered photographs contribute to an increased awareness of the arbitrary character of photographic images.
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| 5. |
- Elmqvist Söderlund, Inga, 1967-
(author)
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Taking possession of astronomy : Frontispieces and illustrated title pages in 17th-century books on astronomy
- 2010
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The thesis is a survey of 291 frontispieces and illustrated title pages in European books on astronomy from the 17th century. It is a quantitative and qualitative survey of how motifs are related to consumption, identification and display. Elements in the motifs related to factual content as opposed to those aimed to raise the perceived value of astronomy are distinguished.The quantitative study shows that astronomical phenomena (90 per cent) and scientific instruments (62 per cent, or as much as 86 per cent if only titles with illustrations occupying an entire page are considered) are the most common motifs to inform the reader of the genre. Besides these, a wide range of depicted features indicate the particularity of each title. Different means for raising the value of astronomy and its attributes are identified. The interplay of “real” or “credible” elements with fictional ones was used to attract attention, create positive associations and promote acquisition and reading. The motifs mainly promote delectation and erudition, although some attract attention through their deliberately enigmatic design and a few through fear. The survey determines prevalent settings (palaces, the theatre, gardens, the wilderness and the heavens), activities (skilful use of instruments, conversations or disputes), references to the ancients and heraldic components. They present both the self-image of astronomers at the time and ideal components that contain connotations of an enhanced reality. This self-image also contributed to the definition of normative values for astronomers in the 17th century. The affinities between painters and astronomers are examined.In addition, an analysis of descriptions of frontispieces is undertaken, which shows that the user of the book was expected to devote considerable time to the frontispiece in order to understand all of its particular features and that the illustrations were suitable for display and learned digression.
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- Hedström, Per, 1963-
(author)
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Skönhet och skötsamhet : Konstnärliga utsmyckningar i svenska skolor 1870-1940
- 2004
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis is about the permanent artistic decoration of Swedish school buildings during the period 1870–1940. Its main aim is to examine the ideals and values which the works installed can be said to convey. It takes its starting point in the major movement for the decoration of schools in Sweden that began around 1900, and that was part of a broader recognition of the importance of public art in the country.The thesis analyses the basic thinking behind the move to install art in schools. In Sweden, discussion on the subject was initiated by the writings and lectures of Carl G. Laurin and Ellen Key. The most important argument for the artistic decoration of schools was the general ennobling influence of art. Art represented beauty, and was thus associated with goodness and truth.The study covers some eighty permanent schemes, or individual works, in Swedish schools, created between 1877 and 1940. They are discussed, first, in a thematic section, with a focus on the different types of subject matter represented, and second, in a number of case studies. Among the subjects dealt with in the thematic analysis are characteristic themes such as sport and outdoor recreation and scenes reflecting school activities. Many of the works portray well-behaved children and young people, who are held up as good examples.The nine case studies analyse individual schemes in greater depth. They include examples that reflect the specific cultures and ideologies of, for instance, higher public grammar schools and girls’ schools. An important aspect of the case studies is their analysis of the reception of the schemes. The reviews examined include discussions of what types of subject were appropriate in art for children and young people.One conclusion drawn in the thesis is that a broader aim of the artistic decoration of schools seems to have been to mould a sense of identity. The images created depict children and young people themselves, regional landscapes and regional and national history.
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- Hinners, Linda, 1971-
(author)
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De fransöske handtwerkarne vid Stockholms slott 1693–1713 : Yrkesroller, organisation, arbetsprocesser
- 2012
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- The thesis deals with French sculptors and painters active around 1700 at the Royal Palace in Stockholm. They were summoned from Paris by the architect Nicodemus Tessin the younger (1654–1728). This study analyses the Frenchmen’s professional roles, how Tessin organised their work and the working methods applied in the decoration of the Gallery of Charles XI and the adjoining parade rooms. It also involves questions concerning the artist’s roles and the status of artistic professions at the early modern period.The artisans were a group of some fifteen sculptors, painters, founders and a goldsmith. Several of them were accompanied by family members, some of whom were active in the workshop. In France these sculptors and painters had worked in the Bâtiments du Roi and particularly at the Gobelins. Although they were not part of the artistic elite at the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture they had vital knowledge in classical pattern/design, le bon goût and drawing. The artisans were also members of the guild system and were thus permitted to accept private commissions.My aim has been to clarify the artisans’ background in Paris and the recruitment undertaken by the diplomat Daniel Cronström (1655–1719). With regard to their activities in Sweden, it has been important to clarify their conditions in the building organisation at the Royal Palace, including social contexts such as their family situation and the possibility to practise their Catholic faith. Equally important is the professional relationship between the Frenchmen and Tessin, who was appointed Superintendent in 1697. Through detailed archival studies, the working practices and the creative process are analysed, especially the collaboration between Tessin and the painter Jacques Foucquet and the sculptors René Chauveau (1663–1722) and Jacques Foucquet (1639–1731).
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- Holdar, Magdalena, 1970-
(author)
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Scenography in Action : Space, Time and Movement in Theatre Productions by Ingmar Bergman
- 2005
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- Developments in technology and new aesthetic idioms in the past decades have changed the preconditions for the scenographer’s work in the theatre. Therefore, it has become problematic indeed to describe scenography as the sum of costume and set, although this continues to be the common definition of the concept. This study focuses on the interaction of different features in a theatre performance, such as scenography, actors, light and sound. The aim is to show that scenography, as opposed to set and costume, cannot be separated from the live performance, i.e. the context for which it is created.By investigating scenography from the parameters space, time, and movement, the thesis demonstrates that the art is anything but stable. On the contrary, it continuously changes shape, size, and appearance. The actors in particular play an important role in the organization of the space, thus exposing the instability of scenography in action.The analytical chapters in the thesis discuss four different movements, or transformations, in scenography, appearing in eight theatre productions staged by Swedish director Ingmar Bergman between 1984 and 1998. The first chapter, "Expansion," discusses how scenography incorporates new spaces, either through the actors’ movements or by quoting architectonic details from other parts of the theatre building. "Revolution" shows different ways of revolving scenography without the aid of technical devises such as the revolve stage. "Perforation," the third chapter, analyses the effects of a perforated set and its consequences for the spectators’ apprehension of scenography. The last chapter, "Metamorphoses," highlights actions that undermine the definition of some central concepts in performance, such as “performers,” “props,” and “spectators,” all of which are intertwined in the analysed productions.A concluding part of the dissertation elaborates on the effects of these movements and transformations in scenography, in particular as related to the physical and mental relationship between actor and audience.
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| 9. |
- Kollnitz, Andrea, 1970-
(author)
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Konstens nationella identitet. : Om tysk och österrikisk modernism i svensk konstkritik 1908-1934
- 2008
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This dissertation investigates the reactions to German and Austrian modernism in Swedish art criticism between 1908 and 1934. It analyses the rhetoric of art-critical texts and examines the persuasive strategies and powerful verbal imagery of art criticism as well as its national interests. Earlier perceptions of a generally negative Swedish reaction to German art are revised. The analysis reveals a strong Swedish commitment to German art, which has been neglected or ignored by previous Francophile narratives in the writing on Swedish art history.In interpreting and defining German and Austrian art as both product and evidence of national character and as an antithesis to French art, Swedish art criticism is indirectly defining and manifesting Swedish art identity. Dramatic and metaphorically loaded descriptions of modern German exhibitions in Sweden present Swedish art identity as split between its racial and mental closeness to “Northern” German culture and “brutal” vigorous expressionism on one side, and its longing for the “beauty” and moderate harmony of “Southern” French and classicistic art on the other. The critics’ ambivalent feelings toward German modernism also hide a crucial conflict between modernizing and internationalizing tendencies versus conservative and nationalistic tendencies in the Swedish artworld. The textual analyses thus show a complex interaction between modernistic and nationalistic ideas, not least concerning the artist’s rôle. In case studies on the Swedish reception of German and Austrian expressionists – Emil Nolde, Egon Schiele, Oskar Kokoschka, Gabriele Münter, Die Brücke and Wassily Kandinsky amongst others – the avant-garde artist is revealed as not only striving for autonomy and international openness, but also as nationally bound and dependent on a national audience and nationalistic legitimation.
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- Lindkvist, Evert, 1950-
(author)
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Gotlands romanska stenskulptur : Visuella budskap i sten
- 2015
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Doctoral thesis (other academic/artistic)abstract
- This thesis aims at a new understanding of the Romanesque stone sculpture of Gotland. The stone reliefs and their treatment are seen as an eye-opener to our ability to observe and perceive meaning in images. The historiographic analysis shows how these images have played a key role in the forming of Swedish art history as an independent academic discipline. As objects from another time, the images came to some extent to change values by being measured against modern art concepts and then sorted as more or less artistically designed, with more or less correct Christian dogmatic content. In the critical analysis of earlier stylistic research, the style relationships prove to be exaggerated and the evidence for them clearly derives from connoisseur assumptions, in an ambition to construct: "a logically arranged context" in order to obtain a "continuous line of development”. The results in such paradigmatic studies tend to be an elegant, systematic sorting and grouping of material. In this thesis the aim is rather to seek an understanding of the images as components of a structuring of a new world concept. My study of the images will not attribute works to anonymous masters, but regard the images as stylistically interrelated within style groups without showing a personal style. As the role of the individual artist is not emphasized, it allows the works to have a greater chronological dispersion than the time limited by the active period of a specific person.The thesis accentuates how Romanesque pictures often serve to create notions of significant dichotomies. The images appear in my research to be aimed at clarifying the state of liminality, a kind of "threshold standing" that arises between different phases of a ritual transition like the Christian baptismal ceremony as a border crossing. Image positions in portals, on fonts and church facades, suggest that they accentuate borders and characterize possible passages, thus also attaining a performative meaning.
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