This project will explore the artist Leonora Carrington’s Self-portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse, ca. 1937-38) and its relationship to and rejection of the male-centric, sexist ideology of psychoanalysis that governed the Surrealist movement. As outlined in Andre Breton's First Manifesto of Surrealism (1924), Freudian psychoanalysis had a great influence on Breton, the movement's founder (1896-1966). He believed in Freud's tenets and theories regarding dreams and the unconscious as a liberating and radical force that could tear down society’s systems of oppression. Yet there is a willful ignorance in Breton’s philosophy on the deep-rooted misogyny of Freud’s psychology and how the institution of psychoanalysis ignores the realities of female development and existence within inherently sexist societal structures of that period. However, Leonora Carrington rejected psychoanalytic theory as it pertained to her art. She refused to be categorized within sexist ideologies and asserted herself as a creative artist with her own interpretations of her work, positing her own ideologies in the process. She demonstrated her identity through her work and found liberation by developing her own feminist consciousness. Through researching Carrington's work, I want to expand on her ability to challenge the sexist paradigms of Surrealism and to reaffirm how her rejection demonstrates that female nonconformity is not only revolutionary but also necessary for female artistic freedom today. Other scholars have delved into this driving aspect of Carrington’s work but I will be utilizing Helene Cixous’ concept of “ecritutre feminine” in order to demonstrate how Carrington developed a “pictorial language” of her own within her work Self-Portrait (Inn of the Dawn Horse). I will use Cixous’ seminal work, "The Laugh of the Medusa," to expand on this idea and how Carrington developed that language, constituted of her own personal symbols, which is on full display in her self-portrait.
As I have previously shown, Alexandre Brongniart established a coherent science of ceramics. By the mid-nineteenth century, Brongniart had popularised the term "la céramique" as a widely-applicable name for the field of pottery and porcelain making, and other related arts. In the Twentieth Century, ceramic manufacturing became increasingly technical. The inclusive field of artisans and industrialists that Brongniart had once envisioned was fracturing. Voices called for the separation of pottery making from experimental, industrial ceramics and the meaning of the term “ceramics” was hotly debated. Numerous etymologies were traced, but, as the predominant language of science transferred from French to English, none of the twentieth-century authors recognized Brongniart’s key role in the invention of the term. Critically, this language debate coincided with and reflected the global politics, nationalism, and warfare of the first half of the Twentieth Century.
Taking on the task of ordering the sciences related to pottery and clay-based objects, natural historian and porcelainier Alexandre Brongniart sought a new way of describing the ancient practice. Early in his forty-seven-year career as director of the Sèvres Porcelain Manufactory, Brongniart developed a research center for the advanced study of pottery and porcelain making. Brongniart recognized that an inclusive and distinct term for the field was necessary, but it had to be introduced carefully, so that it was welcomed rather than rejected as presumptuous. Through close reading of Brongniart’s writings, as well as contemporary periodicals and the texts of other authors, the development of the word “ceramic” – originally introduced by Brongniart and his associates in French as “la céramique” – can be traced closely. I show that this was a deliberate, methodical, and years-long effort to create a durable, comprehensive term.
The young boy in Francisco de Zurbarán’s (1598-1664) Saint Peter Nolasco Recovering the Image of the Virgin of El Puig (1630) has been suggested to be either Zurbarán’s son, Juan de Zurbarán (1620–1649), or the son of James I of Aragon, Alfonso of Castile (1229–1260). Despite visual dominance, most scholars do not address the boy, and those who do offer conflicting identifications. This paper bridges the gap between these varying opinions, and concretely identifies the most formally important figure in this commission that defined Zurbarán’s career. The argument is built on the writings of Zurbarán scholar Martin S. Soria, as well as a comparison to Zurbarán’s body of work at large, primarily his tendency to create from life, and his suspected self-portrait, The Crucified Christ with a Painter (1650). I conclude that the child in the piece is likely a culmination of Juan and Alfonso and explore the implication of Zurbarán depicting his child in the noble and pious role of James the Conqueror’s son, paying witness to the rediscovery of the Virgin of El Puig. The combined figure of Juan and Alfonso gains significance through an exploration of historical context surrounding the legend of the Virgin of El Puig and its key figures. By drawing parallels between 17th-century Spanish colonialism contemporary to Zurbarán’s time and 13th-century Reconquista depicted in the painting, Zurbarán uses this composite figure to assert a vision of his lineage as triumphant and divinely favoured. Ultimately, this paper continues and expands upon Soria’s writings on the subject, and places Zurbarán within a Baroque tradition of artists, such as Velázquez, who used painting to assert their profession as divinely-inspired, nobel, and distinct from craftsmen.
Until recently, nationally representative survey data has been the primary source of information on the energy performance of buildings in the U.S., relative to their year of construction. The emergence of municipal energy benchmarking ordinances and public availability of benchmarking datasets now makes it possible to explore these relationships at the local level, and to link this data with information about a building’s historic designation status. This paper presents results from an initial statistical analysis examining the relationships between building energy use, year of construction, and historic designation status. First, municipal benchmarking data from six U.S. cities is used to examine local trends in the relationship between building age and energy performance. Second, an exploratory analysis of the energy performance of designated historic compared to non-historic buildings in New York City is presented. The methods described in this paper could be applied more widely to benchmarking datasets from other cities.
An expanded version of "The Future of Conflict: Neurowarfare", both of which discuss emerging neurotechnology, neuroscience, and their implications for war, politics, medicine, ethics, and society.