Beholding Christ and Christianity in African American art
By: edited by James Romaine and Phoebe Wolfskill
Publisher: Pennsylvania State University Press
Published: 2017
Language: eng
Number of pages: 190
ISBN-13: 9780271077741
Subjects: African American art; History and criticism; African Americans in art; African American artists; Christian art and symbolism
Other titles: African American art
Description: "Many of the most celebrated African American artists have created works that visually manifest Christian motifs and themes, yet this component of the history of African American art is often subsumed by attention to racial identity. This volume constructs a vivid new history of African American art by exploring biblical and Christian subjects and themes in the work of such noted artists as Romare Bearden, Edmonia Lewis, Archibald Motley, Henry O. Tanner, and James VanDerZee. Focusing on the work of artists who came to maturity between the Civil War and the Civil Rights Era, the contributors show how engaging with religious themes has served to express an array of racial, political, and socio-economic concerns for African American artists. Through a close analysis of aesthetic techniques and choices, each author considers race but does not assume it as a predominant factor. Instead, the contributors assess artworks' formal, iconographic, and thematic participation in the history of Christianity and the visual arts. In doing so, this collection refuses to lay a single claim on black religiosity, culture, or art, but rather explores its diversity and celebrates the complexity of African American visual expression." -- Publisher's description
Notes: Includes bibliographical references and index.
Table of contents: title: Propaganda fide : Mary Edmonia Lewis and the Catholic Church  -- Kirsten Pai Buick; title: Reading Tanner/recognizing Jesus  -- James Romaine; title: The blare of God's trombones : modernizing biblical narratives in the work of Aaron Douglas  -- Caroline Goeser; title: The sight of black folks : Malvin Gray Johnson's spiritual paintings in interwar America  -- Jacqueline Francis; title: Christianity and class in the work of Archibald J. Motley Jr.  -- Phoebe Wolfskill; title: Toward an aesthetics of transcendence : William H. Johnson's Jesus and the three Marys  -- Amy K. Hamlin; title: Sculpting the spirit and the flesh : the religious works of James Richmond Barthé  -- James Smalls; title: Allan Rohan Crite's (re)visioning of the spirituals  -- Julie Levin Caro; title: Sister Gertrude Morgan and the materials of visionary art  -- Elaine Y. Yau; title: "A tried stone" : community, conversion, and Christ in the sculpture of William Edmondson  -- Edward M. Puchner; title: Biblical and spiritual motifs in the art of Horace Pippin  -- Richard J. Powell; title: Assimilation and aspiration : the urbanity of faith in James VanDerZee's representations of religion  -- Carla Williams; title: Deep waters : rebirth, transcendence, and abstraction in Romare Bearden's Passion of Christ  -- Kymberly N. Pinder; title: Creating history, establishing a canon : Jacob Lawrence's The first book of Moses, called Genesis -- Kristin Schwain.