Skip to Main Content
 

Global Search Box

 
 
 
 

Files

File List


Kari_Boroff_MA_Thesis.pdf (7.2 MB)

ETD Abstract Container

Abstract Header

Was the Matter Settled? Else Alfelt, Lotti van der Gaag, and Defining CoBrA

Boroff, Kari
http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1586786734877754

Abstract Details

2020, Master of Arts (MA), Bowling Green State University, Art/Art History.
The CoBrA art movement (1948-1951) stands prominently among the few European avant-garde groups formed in the aftermath of World War II. Emphasizing international collaboration, rejecting the past, and embracing spontaneity and intuition, CoBrA artists created artworks expressing fundamental human creativity. Although the group was dominated by men, a small number of women were associated with CoBrA, two of whom continue to be the subject of debate within CoBrA scholarship to this day: the Danish painter Else Alfelt (1910-1974) and the Dutch sculptor Lotti van der Gaag (1923-1999), known as "Lotti." In contributing to this debate, I address the work and CoBrA membership status of Alfelt and Lotti by comparing their artworks to CoBrA's two main manifestoes, texts that together provide the clearest definition of the group's overall ideas and theories. Alfelt, while recognized as a full CoBrA member, created structured, geometric paintings, influenced by German Expressionism and traditional Japanese art; I thus argue that her work does not fit the group's formal aesthetic or philosophy. Conversely Lotti, who was never asked to join CoBrA, and was rejected from exhibiting with the group, produced sculptures with rough, intuitive, and childlike forms that clearly do fit CoBrA's ideas as presented in its two manifestoes. Examining Alfelt's and Lotti's individual roles within CoBrA through the feminist art theories of Linda Nochlin and Laura Mulvey, writings by scholars and art historians, and exhibitions and collections, I focus on individual and institutional influences, and patriarchal contexts that shaped these two artists' status in relation to CoBrA membership. In doing so, I also pose questions about who belongs in any art movement, and who gets to decide who belongs, and how all of this is defined complexly over time.
Katerina Ruedi Ray, Dr. (Advisor)
Mille Guldbeck, MFA (Committee Member)
Andrew Hershberger, Dr. (Committee Member)
74 p.
Art Criticism; Art History; European History; Gender Studies; Museums; Womens Studies
CoBrA; Cobra; COBRA; Else Alfelt; Lotti van der Gaag; Art Movements; European History; Art History; Patriarchy; Art Museums; Art Collections; Avant-Garde

Recommended Citations

Citations

  • Boroff, K. (2020). Was the Matter Settled? Else Alfelt, Lotti van der Gaag, and Defining CoBrA [Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University]. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1586786734877754

    APA Style (7th edition)

  • Boroff, Kari. Was the Matter Settled? Else Alfelt, Lotti van der Gaag, and Defining CoBrA. 2020. Bowling Green State University, Master's thesis. OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center, http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1586786734877754.

    MLA Style (8th edition)

  • Boroff, Kari. "Was the Matter Settled? Else Alfelt, Lotti van der Gaag, and Defining CoBrA." Master's thesis, Bowling Green State University, 2020. http://rave.ohiolink.edu/etdc/view?acc_num=bgsu1586786734877754

    Chicago Manual of Style (17th edition)

bgsu1586786734877754
657
© 2020, all rights reserved.
This open access ETD is published by Bowling Green State University and OhioLINK.