The Making of High Art. Two Basel Exhibitions and the Rise of Abstract Expressionism and Aboriginal Art

Soutenance de thèse de Madame Nora Fiechter, candidate au doctorat ès lettres.

Mardi 4 juin 2019, 17h-20h, Anthropole 2064.

Directrice de thèse:

  • Madame Kornelia Imesch Oechslin, Professeur, Faculté des lettres, UNIL

Membres du jury:

  • Monsieur Franz Müller, Dr. Phil., spécialiste d’art suisse
  • Madame Sibylle Omlin, Spécialiste d’art suisse et d’art américain
  • Monsieur Howard Morphy, Emeritus Professor of Anthropology, Australian National University, College of Arts and Social Sciences, Australie

?La séance est publique et se déroulera en anglais

Notice bio-bibliographique

The Master’s studies in Art History and the History of Photography at the University of Lausanne which follow, are rounded off with a Master’s thesis on the exhibition Die neue amerikanische Malerei, organised by the Museum of Modern Art in New York and shown at the Kunsthalle Basel in 1958. Particularly Kunsthalle curator Arnold Rüdlinger’s contribution to the exhibition stands in the centre of this thesis, which is not published, because Nora Fiechter decides to pursue the topic in a doctoral thesis.

Up until the beginning of her doctoral thesis, Nora FIECHTER accompanies her studies by working with a number of artists and cultural institutions for which she elaborates concepts, curates exhibitions, writes catalogue essays, gives public tours and speeches. The collaboration with Lausanne artist Catherine Bolle for example is close and long lasting, and activities as a board member of the Journées Photographiques de Bienne are particularly diverse, including conceptional modifications, guided tours and catalogue essays. International rowing on World Championship level equally accompanies the university years.

During a year in Australia in 2012/13, Nora Fiechter familiarises herself with Aboriginal Art and concretises the subject of her PhD thesis. The comparison of the exhibitions Die neue amerikanische Malerei and «rarrk» John Mawurndjul and their contributions to the recognition of Abstract Expressionism and Aboriginal Art aims to contribute to the field of exhibition studies. In 2016 Nora Fiechter wins the Swiss National Science Foundation’s Mobility Grant to further her thesis at the Australian National University until 2019. On two extensive research journeys of several months to remote communities in the Central Australian desert and in Arnhem Land, amongst others to John Mawurndjul’s community Maningrida in Arnhem Land, Nora Fiechter speaks to Aboriginal artists and art managers to deepen her understanding of Aboriginal Art’s production and distribution. Expert interviews, visits to museum collections and archives and extensive readings complete her research in Australia.

Before long, the subject of Nora FIECHTER’s doctoral thesis will be elaborated in a congress, which she organises with Prof. Kornelia Imesch Oechslin at the University of Lausanne, and presented at a symposium at the Kunsthalle Basel