Essential Caretaking for Artists with Disabilities: Exploring the Overlooked Histories of Hazel Knapp and Grandma Moses

<p>This thesis explores the intersection of disability studies and art history, addressing the underrepresentation of disability in scholarship, especially concerning medical sociology and caretaking. Focusing on two early-twentieth-century self-taught American artists, Hazel Knapp (1908–95), who fell into obscurity, and Anna Mary Robertson Moses (1860–1961), best known as Grandma Moses, this is a comparative analysis of how disability influenced their artistic practices and shaped their divergent career outcomes. Knapp was born with Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease, a neurodegenerative disorder, and fell into obscurity due to a lack of support for her condition, but experienced a promising start to her career that included patronage by Gertrude Stein and inclusion in an exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. By contrast, Grandma Moses, whose rheumatoid arthritis inspired her pivot to painting, became one of the most widely successful painters in the history of the United States in her late seventies; however, the her disability and the aid she received from family and friends benefited her art career, has not been considered in the vast amount of writing on the artist. Although their lives were quite different, both were impacted by an external ableism in various ways, and this study shows how these examples of external ableism can shape art history and have a deleterious effect on what stories are and aren’t told.</p>

Name thesis:degree_name

Master of Arts (M.A.)

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Art History

Year dc:date.available

2025

Author dc:creator

• Martin, Bryan P

Contributors dc:contributor

• Craig Houser
• Lise Kjaer

• disability
• caretaking
• art history
• american art
• medical sociology
• grandma moses
• American Art and Architecture
• American Studies
• Analytical, Diagnostic and Therapeutic Techniques and Equipment
• Art and Design
• Arts and Humanities
• Art Therapy
• Bioethics and Medical Ethics
• Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies
• Fine Arts
• History of Art, Architecture, and Archaeology
• Medical Humanities
• Medicine and Health Sciences
• Mental and Social Health
• Modern Art and Architecture
• Painting
• Women's Studies

Repository record dc:identifier

https://academicworks.cuny.edu/cc_etds_theses/1210

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:academicworks.cuny.edu:cc_etds_theses-2365