Committed to memory : the art of the slave ship icon / Cheryl Finley.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Finley, Cheryl, author.

Contributor:

Princeton University Press, publisher.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Abolitionists--Methodology.

Abolitionists.

Art and history.

Art, Modern--Themes, motives.

Art, Modern.

Black people in art.

Eighteenth century--In art.

Eighteenth century.

History in art.

Metaphor in art.

Slave trade in art.

Slavery in art.

Enslaved persons--In art.

Enslaved persons.

Brookes (Ship)--In art.

Brookes (Ship).

Brookes (Ship)--Pictorial works.

Genre:

Art criticism.

Art.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (xi, 306 pages) : 151 illustrations (some color), plans, portraits

Other Title:

Art of the slave ship icon

Place of Publication:

Princeton : Princeton University Press, [2018]

Summary:

"One of the most iconic images of slavery is a schematic wood engraving depicting the human cargo hold of a slave ship. First published by British abolitionists in 1788, it exposed this widespread commercial practice for what it really was-- shocking, immoral, barbaric, unimaginable. Printed as handbills and broadsides, the image Cheryl Finley has termed the 'slave ship icon' was easily reproduced, and by the end of the eighteenth century it was circulating by the tens of thousands around the Atlantic rim. Committed to Memory provides the first in-depth look at how this artifact of the fight against slavery became an enduring symbol of black resistance, identity, and remembrance. Finley traces how the slave ship icon became a powerful tool in the hands of British and American abolitionists, and how its radical potential was rediscovered in the twentieth century by black artists, activists, writers, filmmakers, and curators. Finley offers provocative new insights into the works of Amiri Baraka, Romare Bearden, Betye Saar, and many others. She demonstrates how the icon was transformed into poetry, literature, visual art, sculpture, performance, and film-and became a medium through which diasporic Africans have reasserted their common identity and memorialized their ancestors. Beautifully illustrated, Committed to Memory features works from around the world, taking readers from the United States and England to West Africa and the Caribbean. It shows how contemporary black artists and their allies have used this iconic eighteenth-century engraving to reflect on the trauma of slavery and come to terms with its legacy"--Publisher's description.

Contents:

Introduction : The practice of mnemonic aesthetics

Part I. Sources/roots (1788-1900)

Idea : image and text

Form : essential elements

Circulation : politics and publicity

Part II. Meanings/routes (1900-present)

Negroes : old and new

1969 : Activism, art, and performance in the United States

Art and activism in Britain : 1960s-1990s

Bodies : commoditization and branding

Part III. Rites/reinventions (1990s-present)

Pattern : behind the face of an iron

Spirits : from Changó to iconoclasm

Roots tourism and the slave ship icon

Museums, monuments, and memorials

Afterword : The shape of things: doesn't always appear as it seems.

Notes:

Description based on print record and online resource (A&AePortal, viewed on October 30, 2021).

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780300265712

0300265719

OCLC:

1281545417