In this paper, I examine the development of the second stage of Chicano muralism and compare it with the first stage of the Chicano Mural Movement that was born out of the Civil Rights Movement. I then discuss the different aspects of the first stage in relation to the birth of institutionalized public art and question how Chicano murals influenced public art and, conversely, how mainstream public art transformed some of the attitudes and practices of Chicano muralism. Chicano murals initially functioned as a political mouthpiece for Chicano’s human rights and as a tool to recover the Chicano people’s cultural pride and legacy. However, the murals gradually developed into public art projects supported by the city or federal governments, who regarded them as an economic way to effectively communicate with the community. In this process of institutionalization, muralists became increasingly concerned with aesthetic quality and began to work more systematically. For example, amateur artists or community participants who produced the earlier murals were transformed into mural experts. Chicano essentialism and the politically volatile themes used previously were phased out and the new murals began to incorporate diverse subjects and people, for example, native culture, Blacks, and women. This phenomenon reflected the changing emphasis on multicultural understanding. This kind of institutionalization did not always draw positive results. Inadequate funds were the primary concern over the actual subject and creation of the mural work. Artists reduced the strong political metaphors and aestheticized the mural forms. However, their work was productive as well: thorough research on wall conditions and painting techniques was conducted and new processes and designs were developed. This paper examines the murals created for the 1984 Los Angeles Olympic Games, Judy Baca’s works, and the Balmy Alley Mural Environment project in San Francisco’s Mission District. Works by Las Mujeres Muralistas in Mission District, in particular, show case colorful patterns and the Latin American indigenous culture, exploring new interpretations of old icons and design. They challenged the stereotypical depictions of females and presented alternative visual languages that revised the male-centered mural aesthetics and elaborated on the aesthetics of Rasquachismo.

Focused on the performance of interactivity in the appreciation of media art, this study is associated with the continually changed art texts and a participator's physical reactions to savor the art. Digital works of art emphasizing interactivity usually decentralize and disperse the responsibility and the central role for creating and producing the art works. Proper procedure of the work is generated by actions such as clicking the mouse, controlling the joy stick or actual movement of anticipators' bodies. The art works are influenced by participators' interactivity, which makes the leading roles and the responsibility for creating art scattered and divided. These features are similar with those of the ‘Rhizome’ which Gilles Deleuze(1925~1995) and Félix Guattari(1930~1992) have discussed. In their argument, ‘Rhizome’ is an interval or being ‘between’, which keeps changing. ‘Rhizome’ is a state in which the individual and the work of art never reach the conclusion, only a phenomenon of eternally altering. Like ‘Rhizome’, this sort of art work has the decentralized system, opens for several directions, and activates the system which is changeable as linked items increased or decreased. These works stimulate the individual to perform and act while appreciating the art piece. In terms of processing and preceeding, interactivity is the important equipment and catalyzer. Through these procedures, the pieces can be the ‘floating work of art’ combined and condensed with the whole participators' reactions. The ‘floating work of art’ is neither the expression of an individual nor that of one particular group. Multidimensional influence of the web is the web which is constantly reorganizing and producing in its connective state. This connective state is activated by interactivity. The Rhizomatic system embodies the floating work of art process. Due to each individual perceiving art in individualistic terms, there is no dominating powers or central points. I regard this art works possessing above traits as the work of art with Rhizomatic system. The work of art with the Rhizomatic system is embodied through interactivity and because physical action activates the process of appreciation, a participator can actually experience and practice the philosophy. Ultimately the Rhizomatic speculation occurs during the interactivity of appreciating the Rhizomatic art pieces. The Rhizomatic system penetrates into the intuitive area beyond our recognition and thoughts, as we are engaged in the connective process. With the methods and manners of interactive art, we can possibly reconsider the system as a tool in which the participator is directly able to link experience and theory to the philosophies of Deleuze and Guattari.

The Bauhaus educational method gave the strong influences on Modern Japanese art and design education. In the 1920s and 1930s, Japan allied with Germany and Italy politically and tried to receive German system to be modernized. The reception of the Bauhaus and Moholy-Nagy's photographic theory was one of those activities at that time. Japanese intellectual class went to the Bauhaus and studied there; Ishimoto Kikuchi, Nakata Sadanosuke, Mijutani Takehiko, Yamawaki Iwao and Yamawaki Michiko(Yamawaki Iwao's wife). Especially, Yamawaki Iwao studied about the architecture at the Bauhaus, but his interest moved toward the photography and the photomontage based on Moholy-Nagy's theory. He studied at the photography workshop of the Bauhaus presented by Peterhans irregularly. Even though Yamawaki Iwao was an architect, he wanted to be admitted as an expert for the photomontage that he particularly studied at the Bauahus as a Bauhaus member. He had presented many articles about the photomontage at the photography magazines in Japan in order to introduce it to Japan since he returned in 1933. Thus, Yamawaki Iwao is the important person when we look back the Modern Japanese design and art history. In Japan, the art and design systems are managed by the Bauhaus educational system until now, and it has become a kind of cultural legacy in Modern Japan; The university of Tama and The university of Tsukuba are the representative educational systems which are based on the Bauhaus legacy. However, Yamawaki Iwao had been concealed as a photographer in Japanese design and photography history until the retrospective discuss named by ‘Bauhaus syashin(Bauhaus Photographies)’ at the photography magazine, Deja-vu in 1995 and the retrospective exhibition titled as ‘Bauhaus syashin(bauahustofografie)’ in 1997. This study rethinks of Yamawaki Iwao's historical position while looking at the term as ‘Bauhaus Syashin(Bauhaus Photographies)’ used in Japan. It is very important to bear in mind Moholy-Nagy's wide variety of approaches to photography at the Bauhaus, but it is impossible to name it ‘Bauhaus style’. ‘Bauhaus style’ is the international style in architecture, but that was never a Bauhaus style in photography. Eugene J. Prakapas indicated that the vague term of ‘Bauhaus Photographies’ in his article in 1985 as well. This study considers the historical background for the mistake of the term of ‘Bauhaus Syashin(Bauhaus Photographies)’ in Modern Japanese history, while looking at Yamawaki Iwao's photomontage faintly entering on the historical stage again to discuss the reception of the photomontage from him. In particular, Some of Yamawaki Iwao's photomontage presented as the wall photography in Japan during the Second World War, that was related to the propaganda of Japanese government. It had not been known well in the modern Japanese art and design history because it was related to a declaration of the Second World War by Japan. However, the historical position of his photomontage is very important for Japanese history when we rethink of the reception of the Bauhaus and Moholy-Nagys' photographic theory to build up the Japanese modern history. In the result, this study wants to discuss that the mistake of the term of ‘Bauhaus syashin(Bauhaus Photographies)’ in Japan is related to the interpretation for the the historical position for Yamawaki Iwao's photomontage in the reception of Bauhaus and Moholy-Nagy's photography in Japan.

This study is about Yoo Young-kuk's early works which show constructivism, especially focus on his debut painting, <Rhapsody> for the 7th Dokuritsu Bijutsu Kyokai(独立美術協會, the Independent Fine Arts Association) in Tokyo in 1937. The work was painted 2 years after he had started his study in Japan in 1935. It was the first painting that applied Constructivism. <Rhapsody> played an important role for Constructivism to be a leading art in his abstraction. After this picture, Yoo was soon devoted to the principles of Constructivism-- Faktura(material), Tektonika (tectonics), Tekhnika(technique), space, construction-- in his painterly reliefs. This article examined why Yoo concentrated on Constructivism for <Rhapsody>, what the characteristics were, and what influences were on other works from 1935 to 1949. In addition, I investigated in which period <Rhapsody> was painted and how Constructivism was spread in 1930s and early 1940s in chapter 2. I scrutinized Rhapsody in chapter 3. When Yoo created <Rhapsody> Japan was under the Fifteen Years War(1931- 1945), and a major discourse was the Japanese Spirit at that time. It was connected with construction of an ideal nation which the Japanese ultra-national fascism pursued. This ideological pursuit was intended to unite the Japanese people for total war system and to restore a national dignity which had been fallen down due to Manchurian Incident(1931). Thus, on the hand, Kokusai Bunka Shinkokai(国際文化振興会, The Society for International Cultural Relations) and the Nippon Kosaku Bunka Renmei(日本工作文化連盟, Japanese Werkbund) were supported financially by the Japanese government. On the other hand, the government enacted regulations to opposing parties which would distract Japanese people's unification. As for the Japanese art world, the merge of art groups was carried out through remodeling of Teikoku Bijutsuin(帝国美術院, The Imperial Fine Arts Academy) in 1935. This brought out continuous dispute and disorder. Young artists who felt difficulty of entering an entry of Imperial Fine Arts Exhibition repeatedly grouped and disbanded for small art groups to build their standing, which they pursued Surrealism and Abstract art. Among them Constructivism was considered as the latest trend and was popular in craft, design, architecture as well as fine arts. In the year before he painted <Rhapsody>, Avant-garde theatres including Constructivism theatre were introduced in a feature article of September, 1936 in Atelier, which was dealing with mainly avant-garde arts. Books related with Constructivism were translated into Japanese, and Gestaltung Education had become active since the publication of A Compendium of Gestaltung Education( 構成敎育大系 (1934)), Salvador Dali(1904-1989) was also introduced, so Surrealism was drawn more attention by young artists. <Rhapsody> reflected popular trends. Yoo analyzed the Japanese avant-gardists' archaic taste in the Independent Art Association that he submitted his painting to. And then he entitled ‘Rhapsody’ which derives from Ancient Greek's epic poetry and deliberately set up images in a scene. In chapter 3, I examined a theme which was planned carefully by sorting favorite images from the Japanese Surrealism. <Rhapsody> was a result that Yoo Young-kuk observed objectively the phenomenon that young artists dreamt of Utopia or longed for Nostalgia passively and lethargically under wars. And then he otherized himself from that circumstance. First of all, for <Rhapsody> he used the typical icons of Japanese Surrealism such as the horizon, flowing clouds, and vast plain that were considered stereotypes of Arcadia. He, however distinguished himself form those Japanese Surrealists. He made his own vision about Utopia by referring Lyubov Popova(1889-1924)'s stage design. His objective point of view was expressed by positive and dynamic images of structure and human's actions. Constructivism which was attempted in <Rhapsody> had an effect on other early constructive works, and the principles of Constructivism were sought hard in reliefs, paintings, and photos.

In his non-hierarchical approach to art making, Robert Irwin questions how art is made. In the process, he seems to come down on both sides of the Modernism versus Postmodernism debate. Insofar as he wants to advance the avant‐garde tenets of modern art, he can be thought of as a modernist. But insofar as he denies Modernism’s claims for transcendental status, he can be thought of as a postmodernist. Irwin’s light and space environments, in particular, are conditioned by their basic attachments to their surroundings. They reveal the commonplace, but largely overlooked, richness of visual perception. By encouraging his viewers to open their eyes, Irwin wants them to engage in an act of looking, one that manipulates the basic syntax of seeing. This paper discusses Irwin’s contributions to the art of his time (basically the transitional period between Abstract Expressionism and Minimalism) using as an example a light and space environment he created as the backdrop for the “First National Symposium on Habitability.” This work was later reprised in 1980 as an independent installation. These works are examined to show how Irwin’s art displaces modernist notions of authoritative (and authoritarian) quality with postmodernist ideas of direct (and demotic) value.

As an art group, De Stijl (1917-1931) led a total art movement encompassing painting, sculpture, design, and architecture. Among these, architecture, as a model of the total art pursued by the group, was encapsulated by the term ‘plastic architecture.’ The term reflects architecture's shared features with plastic art, especially its pictorial characteristics. Firstly, De Stijl architecture shares geometric form with painting. Assembled in simple, clear and rational structures, the geometric forms signified universal forms, and extended the pictorial experimentation that Mondrian exercised through Neo-Plasticism to architecture. Constructed with colour fields made of concrete wall, De Stijl architecture is geometric abstract painting embodied in space. Together with such pictorial characteristics, large plate glass windows, narrow window frames, and cantilever structure minimize the building's visual weight. De Stijl architecture, which appears suspended in the air, is an architectural version of the abstract paintings of the era that revealed unknown spaces beyond perspective. De Stijl architecture is also an ‘open’ architecture, where the units placed as if radiating from the center form relations with each other flexibly and organically. The observer in such a space is encouraged to experience space within time, as his/her physical and visual mobility and extension are maximized. De Stijl architecture is an example of how the time-space continuum, represented within picture frame through Cubism, Futurism, and abstract art, can be realized in space. By transforming the ideal space of painting into real space in this way, ‘plastic architecture’ turned out to be an architectural manifestation of the utopianism of the era, aimed at building a society in ‘perfect harmony.’ However, such rationalism and universalism are not free from the violence of totalization that deletes various differences. This is evident in the history that followed as the geometric form of architecture and urban planning proliferated across the globe, engulfing the diverse natural landscapes and local cultures.

This paper examines Fernand Khnopff’s Symbolism, focusing on the I Lock My Door upon Myself as a manifesto of his artistic credo in style and theme. Its title was originally in English, originating from the poem “Who Shall Deliver Me?” by Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s sister Christina Rossetti. I use the term “Social Symbolism” which combines a nationalist perspective with traditional French Symbolism, in order to explain how the image of Bruges is represented in his oeuvre. Symbolism calls for psychological introspection evoking death, love, silence, and solitude and recluse from realty in pursuit of the Unknown and the Ideal. Although Khnopff shared this idea, he departed from symbolist tradition by incorporating a political milieu in his paintings. First, I discuss Khnopff’s early stage in the formation of his artistic concept, including his family background as well as his early opportunity to visit the Exposition Universelle in Paris where he formed his early interests in aesthetics, philosophy, literature, mythology and Egyptian art. His early works, La Painture, la Musique, la Poesie(1880-1881), Le Crise(1881), and En ecoutant Schuman(1883) reveal his favorite subjects which were quite prevalent in the symbolist traditions of both Belgium and France. By looking at Khnopff’s paintings, I endeavor to situate his Symbolism in the context of the development of Belgian modernity and cultural nationalism. Second, my analysis of Khnopff creates a new overview of Symbolism in Europe, especially in Belgium. In the absence of socio-political integration, the Symbolist painter adds nostalgic meaning to the landscape of Bruges. The scene of Bruges illuminates the social atmosphere in Belgium at that time. Since Belgium became an independent country, it tried to differentiate its own cultural and national identity from France. There was a powerful social movement for Belgium to claim its own identity, language, and culture. Bruges was, for Symbolists, the epitome of Belgium’s past glory. This encouraged the formation of Belgian nationalism centering on Brussels, as I demonstrate in Khnopff’s Bruges-la-Morte(1892). The relationship between Symbolist artist and writers is crucial for understanding this development. Khnopff, for instance, illustrated or provided frontispieces for many Symbolist writers such as Rodenbach, Peladan, Spencer and Le Roy. Khnopff did not objectify the exact meaning, but rather provided his own subjective interpretation. In this respect, I Lock My Door, inspired by Rossetti, started from the same motif, but Khnopff seeked escape into silence and death while Rossetti searched for Christian salvation. Finally my paper deals with the social context in which Khnopff worked. He was a founding member of Les XX in 1883 and later La Libre Esthethetique he also participated in the exhibition of le Salon de la Rose + Croix. Les XX was not a particular school of art and did not have a uniform manifesto, but its exhibitions focused on decorative arts by encompassing art for all people via common, everyday objects. The Periodical, L’art moderne was founded to support this ideal by Edmond Picard and Maux. Les XX declared art as independent art, detached from all official connections. Khnopff designed the 1890 catalogue cover of Les XX and the 1891 cover. These designs show decorative element of Art Nouveau in an early example of “modern poster.” Les XX pursued all art including graphic arts, prints, placard, posters and book illustrations and design. These forms of art were l’art social and this movement was formed by the social atmosphere in Belgium in terms of social reforms and strikes by working class. Khnopff designed the book cover for la Maison du Peuple. The artist, however, did not share the ideal egalitarianism of the working class to a certain degree, while he was working in his villa he designed under the ideal motto, “on n’a pas que,” he expressed the nihilistic emotions toward society by the theme of interiority such as solitude, silence, narcissism, introspection, and introversion. In the middle of his Symbolism, we find the “cultural nostalgia” or longing that the artist develops in the I Lock My Door upon Myself. Khnopff’s longing toward the lost city of “Bruges” form the crux of his “Social Symbolism.”

Alberti's De re aedificatoria is the earliest case in the history of Italian Renaissance architectural treatises dealing with recovery of antiquity through textual and archaeological pursuits. The key source of the Renaissance theoreticians was Vitruvius' De architectura. However, Alberti was keenly aware of inaccuracy and Hellenization of Latinity in this classical text, and tried to compensate them in his own treatise. Furthermore he claimed a reformed discipline of the architects as well as the patrons, and prescribed how future buildings and cities should be built, based on the proper authority of ancient architecture in proper and intelligible Latin. Such an adaptation of classical usage in order to reestablish a modern norm preceded in his earlier work Momus, a satire on the contemporary Italian society of his own by following the model of Lucian. Alberti's suggestion of proper government in Momus's phrase was expanded in De re aedificatoria, for he consider the buildings are subject to the rules of morality and public interests. He proclaimed that the nature of beauty is the reasoned harmony of every part within a body, and architectural beauty also lies on the harmonized arrangement of all the elements within an individual building and of all individual buildings and facilities within a city. For the architects to execute this task, he formulated the concept of lineanenta, the form derived from the mind in order to prescribe the proper place, numbers, scale, and orders for whole building structure. It is the future oriented city-plans and building designs to serve the public interest and the good of all the individual citizens who make up the City-State that Alberti pursued in his treatise.