African American Art & Artists (Paper) - Softcover

Lewis, Samella

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0520085329 ISBN 13: 9780520085329

Publisher: University of California Press, 1994

Synopsis

Drawing from historical and private collections around the country, Samella Lewis has gathered an impressive representation of the work of African American artists, from the 18th century to the present. For this edition she has provided a new chapter on art of the last decade. Handsomely and generously illustrated, this book reveals a rich legacy of work by African American painters, sculptors, and graphic artists. "Art historical scholarship is greatly advanced by Samella Lewis' "African American Art and Artists" in that it foregrounds the work of artists who have been influencing the texture of art in the United States during the last two decades of the 20th century.Throughout "African American Art and Artists", Lewis interrogates the issue of identity by presenting the biographical sketch, which locates the individual artistic personality within a specific cultural background with its own peculiar dynamics, giving a face to two cities of Black American art. Without polemics Lewis presents women artists - Edmonia Lewis to Allison Saar - as principal players in constructing an African American visual arts legacy. Here Lewis sufficiently defines the visual arts in order that they may assume their rightful place alongside African American music, literature and folklore as cultural expressions that have helped to give American culture its distinct character." - from the foreword by Floyd Coleman, Harvard University.

About this title

About the Author

Samella Lewis is Emerita Professor of Art History, Scripps College, and author of The Art of Elizabeth Catlett (1984).

Edition details

• Publisher: University of California Press
• Publication date: 1994
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0520085329
• ISBN 13: 9780520085329
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 314