African-American Art

by Patton, Sharon F.

• ISBN13: 9780192842138
• ISBN10: 0192842137
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-06-25
• Publisher: Oxford University Press

Summary

From its origins in early 18th century slave communities to the end of the 20th century, African-American art has made a vital contribution to the art of the United States. This book provides a major reassessment of the subject, setting the art in the context of the African-American experience. 70 color illustrations. 5 linecuts.

Author Biography

Sharon Patton is Director of the Center for Afroamerican and African Studies, and Associate Professor in History at the University of Michigan.

Table of Contents

Introduction	11	(8)
Chapter 1 Colonial America and the Young Republic 1700-1820	19	(32)
Introduction	19	(6)
The fight for independence 1775-83	21	(3)
Africa, North America and African-American culture	24	(1)
Plantations	25	(5)
Architecture and the plantation layout	28	(1)
Slave houses	28	(2)
The revival of African culture on the plantations	30	(2)
Life on the plantations	30	(2)
New European-American influences	32	(1)
A planter's house in Louisiana	32	(2)
Plantation slave artists and craftsmen	34	(6)
Textiles and patchwork quilts	36	(1)
Folk art	37	(1)
Pottery	38	(2)
Urban slave artists and craftsmen	40	(11)
Furniture	41	(1)
Silversmiths	41	(1)
Fine artists	42	(9)
Chapter 2 Nineteenth-Century America, the Civil War and Reconstruction	51	(54)
Introduction	51	(7)
The anti-slavery movement	55	(1)
Free black and slave artisans	55	(2)
Fine artists	57	(1)
Architecture, the decorative arts, and folk art	58	(13)
Urban and rural architecture	58	(2)
Furniture	60	(3)
Metalwork and woodcarving	63	(1)
Pottery	64	(3)
Quilts	67	(4)
Fine arts: Painting, sculpture, and graphic arts	71	(34)
Exhibitions and the viewing public	71	(3)
Abolitionist patronage	74	(3)
Graphic arts	77	(2)
Landscape painting	79	(10)
Neoclassical sculpture	89	(9)
Genre and biblical painting	98	(7)
Chapter 3 Twentieth-Century America and Modern Art 1900-60	105	(78)
Introduction	105	(5)
Civil rights and double-consciousness	105	(2)
The development of a modern American art	107	(3)
African-American culture, the New Negro and art in the 1920s	110	(15)
The Great Migration	110	(1)
The Jazz Age	111	(1)
Expatriates and Paris, the Negro Colony	112	(1)
The New Negro movement	113	(1)
Photography	114	(1)
The New Negro artist	114	(2)
Graphic art	116	(4)
Painting	120	(5)
The patronage of the New Negro artist	125	(1)
State funding and the rise of African-American art	126	(33)
The Federal Arts Project	126	(1)
The legacy of the New Negro movement	127	(1)
Negritude and figurative sculpture	128	(4)
Folk art	132	(3)
American Scene painting	135	(4)
African-American murals	139	(6)
WPA workshops and community art centres	145	(3)
Social realism	148	(2)
Abstract art and modernism in New York	150	(1)
Abstract figurative painting	150	(6)
Patronage and critical debate	156	(3)
American culture post World War II	159	(6)
Folk art	160	(1)
Painting: Expressionism and Surrealism	160	(5)
Abstract Expressionism and African-American art	165	(18)
Primitivism	165	(2)
Early Abstract Expressionism: Bearden, Woodruff, and Alston	167	(4)
Abstract Expressionism	171	(5)
Second generation of Abstract Expressionists 1955-61	176	(7)
Chapter 4 Twentieth-Century America: The Evolution of a Black Aesthetic	183	(91)
Introduction	183	(2)
Civil rights and black nationalism	183	(2)
Cultural crisis: Black artist or American artist?	185	(8)
Spiral artists' group 1963-6	185	(5)
Painting	190	(3)
The evolution of a modern black aesthetic	193	(17)
Defining black art	194	(1)
Painting	195	(5)
Sculpture	200	(10)
Art institutions and artists' groups	210	(7)
Mainstream art institutions	210	(2)
Black art aesthetics	212	(1)
Black art and black power	213	(1)
Black artists' groups	214	(3)
Towards a new abstraction	217	(15)
Are you black enough?	217	(3)
Painting	220	(10)
Sculpture	230	(2)
The postmodern condition 1980-93	232	(35)
Painting	236	(12)
Video art	248	(2)
Sculpture	250	(13)
Photography	263	(4)
Conclusion	267	(7)
Notes	274	(3)
List of Illustrations	277	(6)
Bibliographic Essay	283	(17)
Timeline	300	(10)
Index	310