Art History Textbooks ReviewsArt History Textbooks Reviews

An Important and Groundbreaking Book
Kobena Mercer has long been an important figure in the world of cultural theory and identity politics. He has more recently turned his attention to the fine art object itself. In this groundbreaking book Mercer and a range of other art historians and scholars examine the place of the black artist in the fine art arena. Contrary to art history artists of the African diaspora have played an ongoing and important role in advancing the high art paradigm of painting. Abstraction does not only mean Jackson Pollock! Here Mercer and his critical cohorts examine the role that black artists have played and continue to play in making painting and abstraction an engaging and meaningful conceptual practice.

An Insightful Look at One Artist's Enuring Contribution
Kobena Mercer has long been a strong presence in the ongoing debate and discourse around issues of race and representation in the practice of artists of color. Much of his work has focused on the postmodern moment. With this important book Mercer now brings his incisive intelligence to bear on one of the premier African American modernists, Romare Bearden. It is no surprise that Mercer has brought the same high level of intellectual acuity and observation to Bearden's work, casting him in a new and exciting light. Mercer is joined here by a host of other art historians and theorists, each taking a moment out from the continuing din of Postmodernism to reflect on how we might bring a seemingly moderninst artist into the current discussion. In doing so they rescue Bearden from the dustbin of history, and make him once again an artist worthy of continued--and renewed--attention.

This book is an important and valuable addition to the ongong discourse around the place of African American artists within both the modernist and postmodern canon. That this work was undertaken by Mercer--with his impeccable Postmodernist pedigree--makes it that much more impressive.