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ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Interior Decoration as Fine Art: Rachel Feinstein and The Sorbet Room, 2001.

Gaier, Samantha
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363604230

Abstract Details

2013, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Art/Art History.
Rachel Feinstein, wife of figure painter John Currin and mother of three also works as a fine artist. Primarily a sculptor and installation artist, Feinstein combines fairytales with reality. Often her contributions to the art world are overlooked due to her active social life and vast network of friends. Feinstein’s connection to Currin and her collaboration with fashion designers taints her reputation as a serious artist. Such an approach diminishes her identity as a female artist and silences her creative voice. She challenges the notion of contemporary feminine sculpture by creating personal yet relatable three dimensional objects rooted deep within the canon of art history. Through the lens of feminist theory coupled with formal analysis, this paper will study the site specific installation entitled The Sorbet Room, 2001, through which Feinstein empowers female artists. She does this by blurring the boundaries of many disciplines combining both male and female as well as historical and modern approaches to her art. A woman working successfully in the male dominated field of sculpture is rare. Feinstein embodies the role of mother, wife, artist and socialite encouraging and inviting changes for the New York art scene and the world at large. By her work and life she empowers female working artists by raising craft especially interior decoration to the status of high art. This paper finds that Feinstein brings her work to the understanding of the gallery viewer, by clearly explaining her intentions and drawing inspirations from current events. In this way, Feinstein is given a separate identity from her husband, in order to add important new scholarship on the work of female artists.
Andrew Hershberger, PhD (Advisor)
Katerina Ruedi Ray, PhD (Committee Member)
45 p.
Aesthetics; Architectural; Architecture; Art Criticism; Art History; Design; European History; Fine Arts; Interior Design; Womens Studies
Rachel Feinstein; Art History; Sorbet Room; Rococo, Baroque; sculpture; interior decoration; John Currin; installation; site specific; fashion; art; interior design; architecture; Germany; fairy tales; contemporary; feminist theory; gender; identity;

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Gaier, S. (2013). Interior Decoration as Fine Art: Rachel Feinstein and The Sorbet Room, 2001. [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363604230

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Gaier, Samantha. Interior Decoration as Fine Art: Rachel Feinstein and The Sorbet Room, 2001. . 2013. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363604230.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Gaier, Samantha. "Interior Decoration as Fine Art: Rachel Feinstein and The Sorbet Room, 2001. ." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2013. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1363604230

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

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© 2013, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.