Seeing High and Low : Representing Social Conflict in American Visual Culture / Patricia Johnston; ed. by Melissa Debakis, David Steinberg, Patricia Johnston, Sarah Burns.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Johnston, Patricia, Author.

Contributor:

Burns, Sarah, Editor.

Debakis, Melissa, Editor.

Johnston, Patricia, Editor.

Steinberg, David, Editor.

Language:

English

Physical Description:

1 online resource (317 p.) : 120 b/w photographs

Place of Publication:

Berkeley, CA : University of California Press, [2006]

Language Note:

In English.

Summary:

This cutting-edge volume presents a sweeping view of the evolution of visual culture in the United States through fifteen absorbing case studies by top scholars of American art that explore visual culture's engagement with social controversy. Written especially for this work in lively and accessible language, the essays illuminate what visual forms-including traditional crafts, sculpture, painting and graphic arts, even domestic and museum interiors-can tell us about social conditions, how visual culture has contributed to social values, and how concepts of high and low art have developed. The only work on visual culture to span American history from the early republic to the present and to delve into issues from ethnicity to geography, Seeing High and Low allows readers to follow the evolution of concepts of "high" and "low" art as well as to gain new insight into American history. Arranged roughly chronologically, these generously illustrated essays explore topics including the formative role of visual images in the process of class stratification in the Early Republic; the contribution of media images and paintings to debates on environmental crises, race relations, and urbanization in the late nineteenth century; and the difficulties of engaging with social issues while employing a modernist vocabulary.

Contents:

Frontmatter

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

INTRODUCTION

1 EDUCATING FOR DISTINCTION?

2 SAMUEL F. B. MORSES GALLERY OF THE LOUVRE

3 CARTOONS IN COLOR

4 AINT I A WOMAN?

5 CULTURAL RACISM

6 CUSTERS LAST STAND

7 REENVISIONING THIS WELL-WOODED LAND

8 AT HOME WITH MONA LISA

9 GUSTAV STICKLEYS DESIGNS FOR THE HOME

10 HANDICRAFT, NATIVE AMERICAN ART, AND MODERN INDIAN IDENTITY

11 ALONE ON THE SIDEWALKS OF NEW YORK

12 THE COLORS OF MODERNISM

13 THE INVISIBILITY OF RACE IN MODERNIST REPRESENTATION

14 CARICATURING THE GRINGO TOURIST

15 THE NORMAN ROCKWELL MUSEUM AND THE REPRESENTATION OF SOCIAL CONFLICT

CONTRIBUTORS

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

INDEX

Notes:

Description based on online resource; title from PDF title page (publisher's Web site, viewed 01. Nov 2023)

ISBN:

0-520-93796-1

OCLC:

1408681624