The Rise of Black Artists (Part 2) (The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V) - Hardcover

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0674052692 ISBN 13: 9780674052697

Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press, 2014

Synopsis

In the 1960s, art patrons Dominique and Jean de Menil founded an image archive showing the ways that people of African descent have been represented in Western art from the ancient world to modern times. Highlights from the image archive, accompanied by essays written by major scholars, appeared in three large-format volumes, consisting of one or more books, that quickly became collector’s items. A half-century later, Harvard University Press and the Du Bois Institute are proud to have republished five of the original books and five completely new ones, extending the series into the twentieth century.

The Rise of Black Artists, the second of two books on the twentieth century and the final volume in The Image of the Black in Western Art, marks an essential shift in the series and focuses on representation of blacks by black artists in the West. This volume takes on important topics ranging from urban migration within the United States to globalization, to Négritude and cultural hybridity, to the modern black artist’s relationship with European aesthetic traditions and experimentation with new technologies and media. Concentrating on the United States, Europe, and the Caribbean, essays in this volume shed light on topics such as photography, jazz, the importance of political activism to the shaping of black identities, as well as the post-black art world.

About this title

About the Author:

David Bindman is Emeritus Professor of the History of Art at University College London.

Henry Louis Gates, Jr., is Alphonse Fletcher University Professor and the Director of the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research at Harvard University.

Kobena Mercer is Professor of History of Art and African American Studies at Yale University.

Review:

“With the publication of the fifth volume, concentrating on the 20th century, [this series] has become a necessary cultural resource documenting the visual construction of blackness over the past 5,000 years. This latest and perhaps last volume―subdivided into two parts, The Impact of Africa and The Rise of Black Artists―redirects the underlying colonialist, Eurocentric framing of the previous four volumes. The co-editors, David Bindman and Henry Louis Gates Jr., bring focus to black artists globally as makers of their own art and imagery, rather than solely the subjects of others’ fantasies and fascination... Laudatory in its scope, notable for the high quality of its essays and, in terms of reproduction quality, impressively illustrated, The Image of the Black in Western Art: Volume V should have wide popular and scholarly appeal.”―Claudia Rankine, New York Times

“The 10th volume in a 50-year effort to document images of Africans in Western art, Rise focuses on images of blacks by black artists. Though profusely illustrated, it is much more than a picture book, with essays on painting, photography, jazz, performance art and critical analysis of such cultural flash points as the advertising persona Aunt Jemima.”―Mary Abbe, Minneapolis Star-Tribune

“A fascinating story of the changing image of Africa's people in Western art. The images are simply extraordinary and the scholarship inspiring. Anyone who cares about Western art or about Africa and her diaspora ought to know these magnificent volumes.”―Kwame Anthony Appiah

“In addition to being an indispensable guide to the evolving meanings of racial difference, these dazzling volumes filled with extraordinary images and rich arguments contribute to an alternative history of the Western world. An invaluable gift for both specialists and general readers.”―Paul Gilroy, author of The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness

About this edition

• Publisher: Belknap Press: An Imprint of Harvard University Press
• Publication date: 2014
• ISBN 10: 0674052692
• ISBN 13: 9780674052697
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 368
• Editor: Bindman David, Gates Jr. Henry Louis