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Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9443-9142

AccessType

Campus-Only Access for Five (5) Years

Document Type

dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Degree Program

History

Year Degree Awarded

2022

Month Degree Awarded

May

First Advisor

Jon Olsen

Second Advisor

Andrew Donson

Third Advisor

Jonathan Skolnik

Fourth Advisor

Jason Moralee

Fifth Advisor

Karen Kurczynski

Subject Categories

History

Abstract

My dissertation paints an intimate and nuanced portrait of a twentieth-century art network, which at the core included German émigrés Jane Sabersky, Curt Valentin, Mathilde (Quappi) Beckmann, and Max Beckmann as well as Americans Jane Wade and Perry Townsend Rathbone. While their relationships originally began on professional terms and were fueled by discussions of artwork, the crucial sustaining factor was much more complicated: a synergistic web of support that connected the individuals within this circle. My goal is to understand the story of this group in a way that describes the nature of connections, how they were sustained, and the layers of memory that exist as a result. This group inhabited a space where professional and personal relationships blurred. They shared more intimate, personal stories, while simultaneously curating public caricatures, both of which are nuanced and layered, functioning synergistically. The memory narratives that existed in the private bled into the public representations, and vice versa. Each person’s role and memory was nuanced, and my research looks at the ways interpersonal relationships contributed to these identities, which continue to be reworked. Through my dissertation, I highlight how certain stories become cemented as part of reiterated narratives, while others require conscious uncovering to emerge.

DOI

https://doi.org/10.7275/28615093

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 License.

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