Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s (Interplay) First edition (stated)

by Petrine Archer-Straw (Author)

6 ratings

ISBN-13: 978-0500281352

ISBN-10: 0500281351

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In the years after the end of the First World War, large numbers of Africans and African Americans emigrated to the cities of Europe in search of work and improved social conditions. Their impact on white European society was immense. In Paris, where the artistic climate was particularly sensitive and experimental, avant-garde artists courted black personalities such as Josephine Baker, Henry Crowder, and Langston Hughes for their sense of style, vitality, and "otherness." Leger, Picasso, Brancusi, Man Ray, Giacometti, Sonia Delaunay, and others enthusiastically collected African sculptures and wore tribal jewelry and clothes. More importantly, they adopted black forms in their work, and their style soon influenced a larger audience anxious to be in vogue. A passion for black culture swept through Paris, and by the end of the 1920s, black forms that had provided the initial spark to the modernist vision had become the commercially successful Art Deco style. Negrophilia, from the French negrophilie--the contemporary term to describe the craze--examines this commingling of black and white cultures in jazz-age Paris. Painting, sculpture, photography, popular music, dance, theater, literature, journalism, furniture design, fashion, and advertising--all are scrutinized to show how black forms were appropriated, adapted, and popularized by white artists. The photographs, writings, and memorabilia of poet Guillaume Apollinaire, art collectors Paul Guillaume and Albert Barnes, shipping heiress and publisher Nancy Cunard, and Surrealists Michel Leiris and Georges Bataille help to recreate the contemporary atmosphere. The book raises questions about the avant-garde's motives, and suggests reasons and meaning for its interest. 115 b/w photographs and illustrations.

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Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

Black culture was very much in vogue in avant-garde Paris in the 1920s as white artists celebrated it as a means of escaping bourgeois values. At the same time, an emphasis on the "primitive" often reduced blacks to racist stereotypes. In this lively, highly accessible study, Archer-Shaw utilizes her background as an art historian and curator to discuss black life and its complex, often disturbing interaction with white European society. The focus on art (including painting, photography, fashion, and sculpture) distinguishes this book from other important works such as Michel Fabre's From Harlem to Paris (LJ 11/15/91), which concentrates on the literary scene, and Tyler Stovall's more general Paris Noir: African Americans in the City of Light (LJ 12/96). Archer-Straw's book also differs from these works by devoting considerable attention to whites as well as blacks, including shipping heiress Nancy Cunard, art collector Paul Guillaume, and photographer Man Ray. Recommended for all collections with an interest in black culture and/or art. (Notes and bibliography not seen.)DLouis J. Parascandola, Long Island Univ., Brooklyn, NY
Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review

A scholarly, zesty look at the racial thrills and tensions in a trend that affected dance, theater, music, sculpture, fashion. -- H. Scott Jolley, Travel & Leisure, March 2001

Publisher : Thames & Hudson; First edition (stated) (November 1, 2000)
Language : English
Paperback : 208 pages
ISBN-10 : 0500281351
ISBN-13 : 978-0500281352
Item Weight : 1.35 pounds
Dimensions : 6.14 x 9.21 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #1,869,736 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,617 in Art History (Books)
- #5,094 in French History (Books)
- #5,444 in European History (Books)

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ki-ki

Gorgeous book with great photos

Reviewed in the United States on November 28, 2010

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This book was assigned for a history class at UC Berkeley and have had a hard time keeping it in my flat because everyone borrows it. It has the most beautiful photos (Paul Colin, Archibald Motley, Gauguin, Picasso... there is a picture for every page), nice heavy paper with sheen, and great typeset. Don't let the title fool you, the book is not inflammatory, it is simply a great art book as well as an academically respected history book that is also fun for lay readers. I ended up purchasing a second copy because after the first chapter I regretted highlighting/underlining such a beautiful book. I wanted a nice pristine copy and and now I have extra copy to loan out. Le jazz hot fans, Josephine Baker aficionados, Art lovers of any race will adore this book.

16 people found this helpful

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David Radlauer

Boring

Reviewed in the United States on December 8, 2013

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This feels like an attempt to recycle an academic-sounding manuscript. Its got very few photos. Best thing about this book is its provocative cover. On of many very boring books about a topic that should not be.

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Gerald S.

Great

Reviewed in the United States on October 19, 2014

Honest seller. Product exactly as promised. Great eBayer

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Ali

Brilliant Book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on August 24, 2010

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Filled with information! it was a fascinating understanding of how African American (Black People) were such an influence on Music, Decor, Clothes at that time and still continue to do so.

wordparty

dry

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 7, 2010

Verified Purchase

i was disappointed by this book.
the illustrations are very interesting and revealing of those times, but the text has the aura of an academic essay and lacks energy.
the point, well made, that the embracing of "black" culture in the paris of the 1920s contained many elements of a patronising and implicitly racist european view, is laboured a little, and tends to overlay everything - it's a bit preachy and misses a lot out.
for example, while talking at some length about josephine baker there is hardly anything reflecting her views on what was happening. i would like to have read some of her own personal observations of the parisian world she burst into.

i wouldn't disagree with the central argument, but to me, the book felt dry and did not really reflect the spirit of those years, however flawed that spirit might have been.
it is quite short also.

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Negrophilia: Avant-Garde Paris and Black Culture in the 1920s (Interplay) First edition (stated)

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