Unnamed figures : Black presence and absence in the early American north / edited by Emelie Gevalt, RL Watson, and Sadé Ayorinde ; foreword by Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw with contributions by Virginia Anderson, Kelli Racine Barnes, Michael J. Bramwell, Christy Clark-Pujara, Anne Strachan Cross, Jill Vaum Rothschild, Jonathan Michael Square, Lea C. Stephenson, Jennifer Van Horn, and Gordon Wilkins.
Publisher:
American Folk Art Museum,
Copyright Date:
2023
Description:
295 pages : illustrations (chiefly color), portraits ; 26 cm
Published on the occasion of an exhibition at the American Folk Art Museum (AFAM), New York, New York, November 15, 2023-March 24, 2024, and Historic Deerfield, May 1-August 4, 2024. Includes bibliographical references (pages 287-290).
Contents:
Naming Black Presence: Issues of Titling and Re-titling in the Museum / Jennifer Van Horn and Virginia Anderson. Foreword: Imaginary Ancestors and Blacked-Up Imposters / Gwendolyn DuBois Shaw -- Introduction / Emelie Gevalt -- A Word on Capitalization / RL Watson -- Remembering, Misremembering, and Forgetting. Hidden in Plain Sight: The Persistent and Dangerous Myth of Race-Based Slavery as a Southern Institution / Christy Clark-Pujara -- Unseen in New England: Re-envisioning Black Presence through Early American Art and Material Culture / Emelie Gevalt -- The "Benighted" in Print: Delineations of Blackness and African American Responses in the Early American North / RL Watson -- The Potter Overmantel: Black Presence and the Sense of "Touch" / Lea C. Stephenson -- "I Like She Should Be Dress'd Plain": Deference and Defiance in the Many Representations of Phillis Wheatley / Jonathan Michael Square -- Early Black Makers. The Black Printer's Devil: Peter Fleet and The Prodigal Daughter / RL Watson -- Joshua Johnson: Black Craftsmanship and Artistry in Early National Baltimore / Jill Vaum Rothschild -- Shadow and Act: Thomas W. Commeraw, a Descendant of Africa / Michael J. Bramwell -- The "Radical Imaginations and Everyday Anarchy" of Black Girl Needleworkers in Antebellum Connecticut / Kelli Racine Barnes -- Remembering, Misremembering, and Forgetting. Revisiting "Darkytown": A Case Study in the Development of the American Racial Imaginary / Sadé Ayorinde -- Questions of Recovery in Photographic History / Anne Strachan Cross -- Unmasking Ethan Allen Greenwood's Portrait of Charles Jones / Gordon Wilkins -- Naming Black Presence: Issues of Titling and Re-titling in the Museum / Jennifer Van Horn and Virginia Anderson.
Summary:
"As a corrective to histories that define slavery and anti-Black racism as a largely Southern issue, this exhibition offers a new window onto Black representation in a region that is often overlooked in narratives of early African American history"-- Provided by publisher.
This resource is supported by the Institute of Museum and Library Services under the provisions of the Library Services and Technology Act as administered by State Library of Iowa.