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Mythologies: Sarah Charlesworth’s Photography, 1977-1988

Ford, Ivey C.
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1242859054

Abstract Details

2009, MA, University of Cincinnati, Design, Architecture, Art and Planning : Art History.
This study focuses on the works of contemporary photographer Sarah Charlesworth (b.1947) from 1977 to 1988. The series I discuss include selected photographs from Modern History, Stills, Tabula Rasa and Object of Desire. Beginning in 1977, Charlesworth was making art that was informed by conceptual models as defined by first-generation conceptual artists such as Joseph Kosuth (b. 1945) and Douglas Huebler (1924-1997). However, soon after her first series Modern History, her work began to expand upon conceptual models explored and subsequently answered some questions posed by conceptualism, more generally. By the mid-1980s, Charlesworth had distinguished herself as a postmodern photographer, which has in retrospective, led her work to be in the “Pictures Generation.” Charlesworth's work shares a number of similarities with her fellow “Pictures” artists, such as Cindy Sherman (b. 1954), Barbara Kruger (b. 1945) and Laurie Simmons (b. 1949), but her work also greatly differs from them. This study clarifies how with each series in her career, Charlesworth's photography has consistently allowed for the possibility of a “third meaning” to emerge as defined by Roland Barthes (1915-1980) or a “third term” as theorized by Jacque Lacan (1901-1981), and has therefore fostered meanings. This study investigates Charlesworth's photographs from 1977 to 1988 in order to gain both a better understanding of the role of appropriation in her art and her work's move from fine art photography and shifting between conceptual and postmodern matrices of photography via psychoanalytic, Marxist and semiotic theories of signification.
Kim Paice, Dr. (Committee Chair)
Mikiko Hirayama, Dr. (Committee Member)
Teresa Pac, Dr. (Committee Member)
80 p.
Art History
Sarah Charlesworth; Pictures Generation; postmodern photography; third term; third meaning; Roland Barthes; Jacques Lacan; contemporary photography; contemporary art

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Ford, I. C. (2009). Mythologies: Sarah Charlesworth’s Photography, 1977-1988 [Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1242859054

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Ford, Ivey. Mythologies: Sarah Charlesworth’s Photography, 1977-1988. 2009. University of Cincinnati, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1242859054.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Ford, Ivey. "Mythologies: Sarah Charlesworth’s Photography, 1977-1988." Master's thesis, University of Cincinnati, 2009. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=ucin1242859054

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

ucin1242859054
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This open access ETD is published by University of Cincinnati and OhioLINK.