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[1]Dissertation
Images and Messages in the Embellishment of Metropolitan Railway
Stations (1850 – 1950)
By the end of the
nineteenth century, metropolitan railway stations epitomized the
spirit of the new age of technology: the buildings were functional,
but sported nevertheless a rich program of statues, frescoes, stained
glass windows and bas-reliefs that mirrored the belief in technology
and industrial progress.
The dissertation project
focuses on the pictorial embellishment of West European and North
American railway stations dating from the nineteenth and early
twentieth century, the heyday of the railway age. It concentrates on
three goals:
First, it aims to establish the topics
which were seen fit for the decoration of a train station and to sort
them into iconographical clusters. Embellishments depict the beginning
of mass tourism, the changed perception of time and space, the new
infrastructure or the technological and economic progress fostered by
the railway. But stations also reflected the national mythologies used
for political reasons, for instance in the era of nation building or
fascist propaganda. Stations were also frequently seen fit as lieu de
memoire as can be seen by their many monuments and memorials.
Second, these theme clusters are set into their
artistic, historic, and cultural context. The challenge consists in
balancing the general inclination to depict certain topics with the
locally determined idiosyncrasy of the specific example.
The reciprocal relationship of the place “Railway
Station” and its embellishment will be a leitmotif in this research:
on the one hand, the railway and its technology, workers, tools and
vehicles becomes itself a subject of depiction. On the other hand, the
place determines an object’s iconological meaning.
Third, the found messages shall be examined for their communicative
value– were they understandable for their audiences? Do they reflect
general trends in the academic commissioned art? To what degree is
pictorial embellishment influenced by insights won from the applied
arts and industrial design schools?
The dissertation
is rooted in the field of art history, but draws from insights of
disciplines as diverse as transport history, anthropology, psychology
or marketing communication theory.
Curriculum Vitae
September - December 2006
Visiting
scholar at Columbia University, New York
Since
January 2005
DFG-Fellow at theTransatlantic Graduate Research
Program Berlin – New York; Thesis: „Images and Messages in the
Embellishment of Metropolitan Railway Stations (1850 – 1950)“
April 2003 –December 2004
Diverse teaching
positions at the University of Tübingen: Department of Art History
(Intro to academic writing and research), Department of Economics
(Rhetorics) and International Language Programs (German as a Foreign
Language)
September 2002 – March 2003
Continued study of Japanese language at the Doshisha University
Kyoto. Teaching position for German as a Foreign Language at the
Goethe-Institut Inter Nationes Kansai in Kyoto
October 2001 – July 2002
One year post-graduate program
„Japanese Language and Culture in Tübingen and Kyoto“ University
of Tübingen/Doshisha University Kyoto
July 2001
Double Master’s degree in Art History and General Rhetoric,
University of Tübingen.
Master’s thesis advised by
Prof. Peter K. Klein titled „Quel spectacle hideux! mais quel beau
tableau!“ - Die Ästhetik des Erhabenen in Géricaults „Floß der
Medusa“ (The sublime in Géricault’s „Raft of the Meduse“)
October 1996 – July 2001
University of Tübingen:
General Rhetoric, Art History and Philosophy
Publications, Lectures etc.
"Hafen, Hochsitz, Kernkraftwerk, Klärwerk,
Kohlekraftwerk, Kraftwerk, Lotsenhaus, Schlachthof, Schrein,
Solarkraftwerk, Stauwehr, Talsperre, Wasserkraftwerk, Werft,
Windkraftwerk." In: Lexikon der Bautypen: Funktionen und Formen
der Architektur, ed. Ernst Seidl. Stuttgart: Reclam, 2006.
"„Quel spectacle hideux! mais quel beau tableau!“: Die
Ästhetik des Erhabenen in Géricaults Floß der Medusa."
Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte 69 (Juli 2006): 342–57.
"In the image of the Grand Tour: Railway station embellishment
and the origins of mass tourism." The Journal of Transport
History 28, no. 2 (September) (2007): 252–71.
"La
perception panoramique : concepts de tourisme urbain et notion
d’urbanité dans une peinture murale à la gare de Paris-Lyon."
Revue d'histoire des chemins de fer 38, no. printemps (2008):
45–58.
"A German View of American History?: Winold
Reiss’s mosaics at Cincinnati Union Terminal, 1931 – 33." In:
American Artists in Munich: Artistic Migration and Cultural Exchange
Processes, ed. Christian Fuhrmeister, Hubertus Kohle, and Veerle
Thielemans. München: Deutscher Kunstverlag, voraussichtlich August
2009.
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