The Henry Stern Prize in Art History

In a tradition going back to 1972, the Art History faculty each year awards the Henry Stern Prize to the undergraduate who has written the best paper on an art historical topic. The highlight is the winner’s presentation of the paper to the university community at the end of the academic year. Previous winners and their topics are listed here.

HENRY STERN PRIZE
FOR THE BEST UNDERGRADUATE PAPER IN ART HISTORY
Newcomb Art Department

YEAR RECIPIENT

TITLE OF PAPER

2020 Rachel Cline 'She Lives in Vice’: Depreciation of Aztec Cultural Practices Through Images of the Auiani and Noblewomen in the Florentine Codex
2019 Michael Russo 'Europeanized and Precious:' Cy Twombly and History in the Post-war Era
2018 Alyxandra Bailey David Wojnarowicz: A Fire in My Belly
2017 Taylor Hochstin Against the Inferiority of Interiority: Carolee Schneemann's 1975 Performance of 'Interior Scroll'
2016 Dana Lynch Jasper Johns' Racing Thoughts
2015 James Newton Germanus, Alemanus, Noricus: The Imagined Geographies of Albrecht Dürer 1500-1511
2014 Gabrielle Stewart William de Kooning Decoded: Contextualizing the Late Style
2013 Rachael Weiss The Stained Glass of Lincoln Cathedral: Conceptions of the Jews in a Medieval Pilgrimage Church
2012 Anna Blum Joan Mitchell and Feminine Subjectivity
2011 (two recipients)
Sopan Mohnot
Sean Knapp
 
2010 Rachel M. Granberry Yoko Ono (exact title unavailable)
2009 Jena Bourgeois  
2008 Margaret Floryan  
2007 Mina Saadat  
2006 (Not Awarded)  
2005 Laura Cornell Re-Reading Eve: The Dual Construction of the First Woman in the Art and Literature of the Middle Ages
2004 Brad E. Steinecke The Deadly Prostitute in Manet's Olympia and Picasso's Les Demoiselles d'Avignon
2003 (Two recipients)  
  Ms. Ariane Buglioni The Relationship Between Aztec Base Reliefs and the Three-Dimensional Stone Sculptures They Adorn
  Mr. James Merriman Richard Prince
2002 Not Awarded  
2001 Ms. Merissa Courtright The Role of Fashion in Art in the Late 19th Century
2000 Ms. Lindsey P. Schneider Antique Sources in Michelangelo's Battle of Cascina
1999 Ms. Cary K. Robertson Edouard Manet: A Modern Storyteller
1998 Ms. Christ T. Stefanski La Femme of Manet and Degas
1997 Ms. Mukti Kuhn Lorna Simpson and the Scopophilic Gaze
1996 Ms. Melissa McDowell Women as Spectacle: Issues of Gender in Renoir and Degas
1995 Ms. Andrea Kate Sheerin Formalist Reading of a Most Informel Artist: Clement Greenberg on Jean Dubuffet, Jean Dubuffet on Post-War Paris
1994 Mr. Marty R. Gould Impressionism and Modernity in Degas and Manet
1993 Ms. Andrea Mazur Tarsila Do Amaral: A Modern Brazilian Painter and Her Country
1992 Ms. Michelle V. Packer Monet and Morisot at the Seaside
1991 Ms. Cary Trochesset A Comparison Between Manet and Goya
1990 Mr. Bryan Bruno Aristocratic Idyll and Feminine Display: Renoir's The Loge and At The Concert
1989 Mr. Joshua R. Fishbein Mood Captured in Painting and in Literature
1988 Mr. Bret Gustafson On the Survival of Indigenous Elements in 16th Century Mexican Atrium Crosses
1987 Ms. Pamela Ann Geller Miro's Portrait of a Young Girl vs. Magritte's Rape: A Study of Form and Content in Terms of Freudian Implications
1986 Ms. Cheryl Ann Watkins  
  Ms. Jo Sod (runner up) A Comparison Between Benjamin West's Romeo and Juliet, c. 1778, and his Romance with Elizabeth Shewell
1985 Ms. Lisa Happy Fisher English Glass: Aspects of Trade Between England and America in the 18th and 19th Centuries
19884 Ms. Ketti Lynn Neil Escapism: Cultural 'Myths' in France During the Late 18th and 19th Centuries
1983 Ms. Madeleine M. Grynsztejn  
1982 Mr. David Lee Carlson  
  Ms. Suzy Smith (honorable mention) Topic-The Ceiling of the Sistine Chapel (exact title unavailable)
1981 Mr. William Scoggin Klimt and Schiele: Transition in Vienna
1980 Ms. Katherine "Kit" Sharp Jean Arp and Naum Garbo: A Question of Order
1979 Ms. Sarah Shields The Use of Words in Magritte's Work
  Ms. Jane Cheeseman (runner up) Louis Sullivan: Architect
1978 Ms. Kim Gernsbacher Stained Glass Windows of New Orleans
  Ms. Ellen Lee Rodgers The Relationship of Religion and Art in Mesoamerica
1977 Ms. Kathleen Ann Curran Pietro da Cortona's Pamphili Palace Frescoes
  Ms. Debra Lyn Ciaravella Topic- The Influence of Egypt in Furniture making, Particularly Following the Carter Discovery of King Tut's Tomb (exact title unavailable)
1976 Ms. Ann W. Bowdler and Ms. Lucille M. Leonowens (jointly awarded) Catalogue for the Exhibition: Traditional Indian Costume of Guatemala
1975 Dale Ann Spizer Aronson The Sculptures of Max Ernst
  Ms. Mary Elizabeth Holley Topic- Henri Rousseau: Primitive Folk Artist or Precursor of Modern Art (exact title unavailable)
1974 Ms. Elizabeth J. Lindsay Ukiyo-E:: Le Porte Chinoise Revisited or the Influence of Japanese Art on Impressionism
1973 (Two recipients)  
  Ms. Patricia Crosby Caeretan Vases
  Ms. Barbara Sontheimer Channel Imagery: Domestic Streetscapes
1972 Ms. Jean Farnsworth The 5th Century Interior Mosaics of Santa Maria Maggiore in Rome