Synopses & Reviews
A concise, engaging, and provocative history of African Americans since World War II,
Peace Be Still is also nothing less than an alternate history of the United States in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. Organizing this history around culture, politics, and resistance, Matthew C. Whitaker takes us from World War II as a galvanizing force for African American activism and the modern civil rights movement to the culmination of generations of struggle in the election of Barack Obama.
From the promise of the postand#8211;World War II era to the black power movement of the 1960s, the economic and political struggles of the 1970s, and the major ideological realignment of political culture during the 1980s, 1990s, and early 2000s, this book chronicles a people fighting oppression while fashioning a dynamic culture of artistic and religious expression along with a program of educational and professional advancement. A resurgence of rigid conservative right-wing policies, the politics of poverty, racial profiling, and police brutality are ongoing counterpoints to African Americans rising to political prominence and securing positions once denied them.
A history of African Americans for a new generation, Peace Be Still demonstrates how dramatically African American history illuminates the promise, conflicts, contradictions, hopes, and victories that all Americans share.
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Review
"Bradford is one of the most dynamic artists working in the contemporary art world."and#8212;D. A. Siedell, Choice
Review
"This history of African Americans for a new generation breaks new ground by offering a fresh, articulate, succinct, and comprehensive examination of recent black history."and#8212;W. T. Howard, CHOICE
Review
and#8220;An indispensable survey of modern African American history and its implications in the present. Expansive in its breadth, keen in its observations, and fluid in its prose, this is the best single volume on the period.and#8221;and#8212;William Jelani Cobb, associate professor of history and director of the Institute of African American Studies, University of Connecticut, and author of
The Substance of Hope: Barack Obama and the Paradox of ProgressReview
and#8220;A strong contribution to the field and historiography of African American history. Written in clear and concise language and filled with brilliant insights.and#8221;and#8212;Peniel Joseph, professor of history at Tufts University, and author of
Dark Days, Bright Nights: From Black Power to Barack ObamaReview
and#8220;Eloquent yet concise, Professor Whitakerand#8217;s thoughtful survey of contemporary African American History offers a rich narrative that expertly situates the victories and hardships of the last half century, within the context of a long Black Freedom struggle, the ebbs and flows of which continues to this day. Peace Be Still should be required reading for all serious students of U.S. and African American History.and#8221;and#8212;Yohuru Williams, professor and chair of the Department of History, Fairfield University, and author of Black Politics/White Power: Civil Rights Black Power and the Black Panthers in New Haven
Synopsis
Mark Bradford is best known for dazzling, large-scale abstract paintings that examine the class-, race-, and gender-based economies that structure urban society in the United States. Gathering carefully chosen found and salvaged materials from the area surrounding his studio in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Bradford engages in an intricate artistic process that involves both creation and destruction. His complex, fractured works address pressing political issues and the mediaand#8217;s influence on contemporary society while cataloguing cultural change and the artistand#8217;s personal responses to societal condition.
The first major book on this leading American artist, Mark Bradford features essays by distinguished authors who investigate how Bradford straddles the line between social critique and formal innovation, playing the two against one another to produce works of seduction and analysis. Topics include Bradfordand#8217;s debt to abstract expressionism, his relationship to the largely unknown history of twentieth-century abstraction by African American artists, his work as a public artist, and his interest in midcentury European collage and dand#233;collage practices.
Synopsis
A stunning mid-career retrospective
Mark Bradford is best known for dazzling, large-scale abstract paintings that examine the class-, race-, and gender-based economies that structure urban society in the United States. Gathering carefully chosen found and salvaged materials from the area surrounding his studio in the Leimert Park neighborhood of Los Angeles, Bradford engages in an intricate artistic process that involves both creation and destruction. His complex, fractured works address pressing political issues and the media's influence on contemporary society while cataloguing cultural change and the artist's personal responses to societal condition.
The first major book on this leading American artist, Mark Bradford features essays by distinguished authors who investigate how Bradford straddles the line between social critique and formal innovation, playing the two against one another to produce works of seduction and analysis. Topics include Bradford's debt to abstract expressionism, his relationship to the largely unknown history of twentieth-century abstraction by African American artists, his work as a public artist, and his interest in midcentury European collage and d collage practices.
Synopsis
Publication accompanies the exhibition, Mark Bradford, at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Ohio State University, May 8-August 15, 2010, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, November 19, 2010-March 13, 2011, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Summer 2011, Dallas Museum of Art, October 16, 2011-January 15, 2012, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, February 18, 2012-May 20, 2012.
About the Author
Christopher Bedford is curator at the Wexner Center for the Arts. Hilton Als isand#160;a staff writerand#160;for the New Yorker magazine. Carol S.and#160;Eliel is curatorand#160;of modern and contemporary art at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA). Richard Shiff is Effie Marie Cain Regents Chair in Art at The University of Texas at Austin, where he directs the Center for the Study of Modernism. Katy Siegel is professor of art history atand#160;Hunter College, City University of New York. Robert Storr is dean of the Yale University School of Art. Hamza Walker is director of education at The Renaissance Society, the University of Chicago.