Abstract

This thesis explores Gregory Abbott's Remlack Too, particularly in its fusion of surrealism and postmodernism. It addresses the ways in which Remlack Too highlights the artist's experience with sleep apnea, but acknowledges that this is only one level of understanding the painting. Other layers are realized through a study of surrealism and postmodernism. This research analyzes the ways in which surrealism and postmodernism work together, including through their lack of style, fluidity in definition, incorporation of semiotics, distrust in science, reliance on psychoanalysis, and especially through postmodernism's appropriating of earlier artistic movements. This thesis reviews the previously overlooked elements of postmodernism in Abbott's oeuvre. By exploring some of the binary pairs found in Remlack Too, such as life and death, sleep and wake, and logic and irrational, Abbott reveals his hopes for a more open-minded and accepting society.

Degree

College and Department

Humanities; Comparative Arts and Letters