The Art of Interruption: a Comparison of Works by Daniel Libeskind, Gerhard Richter, Ilya Kabakov
THE ART OF INTERRUPTION: A COMPARISON OF WORKS BY DANIEL LIBESKIND, GERHARD RICHTER, ILYA KABAKOV DISSERTATION Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University By Wendy K. Koenig, M.F.A. * * * * * The Ohio State University 2004 Dissertation committee: Approved by Professor Stephen Melville, Adviser Professor Myroslava M. Mudrak __________________________________ Professor Lisa Florman Adviser Department of History of Art Professor Helen Fehervary ABSTRACT This dissertation examines the Jewish Museum Berlin by Polish-American architect Daniel Libeskind, the painting cycle October 18, 1977 by German painter Gerhard Richter and three installations–Incident at the Museum, or Water Music; Healing with Paintings; and the Communal Kitchen–by Russian artist Ilya Kabakov within the context of Rezeptionsästhetik (aesthetics of reception), associated with Hans Robert Jauss and Wolfgang Iser, and the aesthetic theories of Theodor W. Adorno, Walter Benjamin, Bertolt Brecht, Martin Heidegger and Victor Shklovsky in order to illustrate the commonalities between the works of art in terms of thematic content, the use of “interruptive” techniques and their capacity to create the conditions for the possibility of a valid aesthetic experience in the late 20th and early 21st centuries. Each of the above works of art addresses issues of memory, loss, mourning or exile, and does so in a manner that, I argue, acknowledges and successfully contributes to the development of its respective medium (whether architecture, painting or installation). Such innovations are revealed to a greater degree, I believe, when the works are considered in conjunction with one another rather than separately.
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