American Art: A Cultural History - Hardcover

Discontinued 3PD

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0810942143 ISBN 13: 9780810942141

Publisher: Discontinued 3PD, 2000

Synopsis

In this provocative new survey of American painting, sculpture, photography, and architecture, David Bjelajac dismisses both the idea of an evolutionary development of styles and a uniquely American way of seeing. Instead, showing the interrelation of art, politics, and social change, he encourages readers to look at artworks from the point of view of contemporaneous audiences and within a larger historical context.

Explaining how shifting cultural values influence the way we interpret art, Bjelajac helps us to understand why people have reacted positively or negatively to various works at various times. Nearly 400 illustrations, 150 in full color, illustrate a vibrant, stimulating, and original work in which art is viewed not only in terms of its creation but also its reception.

DAVID BJELAJAC, professor of art and the human sciences at the George Washington University, lives in Washington, D.C.

400 illustrations, 150 in full color, 8 x 10"

About this title

From the Back Cover

Though broadly chronological, the book is structured around various themes, such as the animating power of religious imagery in the seventeenth century, the cultivation of republican virtue in the eighteenth century, and a split national identity in the Civil War era. The final chapters document the rise of a conflicted Avant-Garde, the populism and public art of the Depression years, the Abstract Expressionists, and the postmodern 1990s. Famous works by established names such as Charles Bulfinch, Benjamin West, James Abbott McNeill Whistler, Mathew Brady, Georgia O'Keeffe, and Jeff Koons are freshly interpreted next to vernacular imagery—a masonic apron, an earthenware mug, a satirical cartoon, or a labor union poster.

Dismissing the idea of art as a stately evolution of styles or "-isms," the author sees America's visual culture as an arena in which conflicting notions of class, gender, race, and regional allegiance are fought. Stepping outside traditional art-historical discourse, he launches boldly into the realms of politics, religion, science, literature, and popular culture in order to analyze individual art works within their specific historical contexts. Throughout, using generous quotations from primary sources, Bjelajac pays close attention to how contemporary artists, audiences, and beholders from different backgrounds have talked about specific works, the nature of art, and the artist's role in American society.

About the Author

David Bjelajac is professor of art and the human sciences at The George Washington University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Discontinued 3PD
• Publication date: 2000
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0810942143
• ISBN 13: 9780810942141
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 416