The Art of History: African American Women Artists Engage the Past [Paperback]

Lisa Gail Collins (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Booklist

Collins, an art historian at Vassar, is a bit academic in tone, but that won't deter readers. This is a perceptive study of the forthright work of contemporary African American women painters, sculptors, photographers, and installation artists. Collins begins by noting a paradoxical aspect of African American thought, a simultaneous "preoccupation with visual culture and a neglect of visual art and artists." Why, she asks, has black art remained marginalized while black music and literature thrive? Collins concludes that images, especially portraits, possess a uniquely volatile power, and that the disregard of black art is the result of the ways slavery, ongoing racism, and class conflict have politicized the depiction of African Americans, especially women. Many of today's black women artists, including Carrie Mae Weems, Lorna Simpson, Alison Saar, Beverly Buchanan, Clarissa Sligh, and Julie Dash, confront this predicament by trenchantly addressing the historic and current provocation of the black female body, and critiquing society's shying away from black art, efforts undertaken with the noble intention of breaking down old barriers and liberating art, artists, and viewers. Donna Seaman
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Library Binding edition.

From the Back Cover

In this lively and engaging book, Lisa Gail Collins examines the work of contemporary African American women artists. Her study comes at a time when an unprecedented number of these artists-photographers, filmmakers, painters, installation and mixed-media artists-have garnered the attention and imagination of the art-viewing public.

To better understand the significance of this particular historical moment in American visual arts, Collins focuses on four "problems" that recur when these artists confront their histories: the documentation of truth; the status of the black female body; the relationship between art and cultural contact and change; and the relationship between art and black girlhood. By examining the social and cultural histories which African American women artists engage, Collins illuminates a dialogue between past and present imagemakers.

The Art of History is a major contribution to the study of American visual culture. It will be of use to both scholars and students in art history, African American studies, American studies, and women's studies.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 224 pages
• Publisher: Rutgers University Press (April 2, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0813530229
• ISBN-13: 978-0813530222
• Product Dimensions: 10 x 7.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #348,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Truly an amazing read!, February 12, 2008

By 

simone (Baltimore, MD United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of History: African American Women Artists Engage the Past (Paperback)

I am in the middle of reading this fascinating book and it just occurred to me that, aside from Alison Saar, I had never heard of any of the artists mentioned in the book before. The solutions that these artists have found to answer many of the problems in image-making as it pertains to the black female body are intriguing and profound. Sadly, I am a black woman and I graduated from a BFA program a few years ago without being taught any of this. It should be on the course syllabus for any comprehensive survey of art history.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly accessible reading; fine and original scholarship., August 3, 2006

By 

Charlotte Hutson-Wrenn "charlotteartistwordpr... (Charleston, South Carolina USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Art of History: African American Women Artists Engage the Past (Paperback)

I read this book in two sittings. Lisa Gail Collins does a beautiful job of opening up a world I did not yet fully understand. I am a southern, white, visual artist and photographer, with complicated ties to a black culture that has contributed very much to the way I think, and work, and live. Certainly my art history courses in college taught me none of this. This book illuminates the work of Renee Stout, Carrie Mae Weems, and more, and lays out the background of negative image making in the history of women of color, particularly, which, she argues is reason for the avoidance of the visual in black studies in the United States. She illuminates the value of the visual arts of black women and I came away, after reading this, with a stronger common bond to women's experience in general, and with a deeper desire to illuminate the truth in my own art.