Synopses & Reviews
Over the years, Kobena Mercer has critically illuminated the visual innovations of African American and black British artists. In Travel and See he presents a diasporic model of criticism that gives close attention to aesthetic strategies while tracing the shifting political and cultural contexts in which black visual art circulates. In eighteen essays, which cover the period from 1992 to 2012 and discuss such leading artists as Isaac Julien, Renandeacute;e Green, Kerry James Marshall, and Yinka Shonibare, Mercer provides nothing less than a counter-narrative of global contemporary art that reveals how the andldquo;dialogical principleandrdquo; of cross-cultural interaction has not only transformed commonplace perceptions of blackness today but challenges us to rethink the entangled history of modernism as well.and#160;
Review
andquot;In Travel and See, his second eagerly awaited collection of writings, Kobena Mercer offers a probing and multi-faceted exploration of how the dialogics of black diaspora art at once instance and reframe the deep structures of modern and contemporary culture. Featuring thematic accounts as well as essays on individual artists and exhibitions from across the globe, this volume represents a vital contribution to aesthetic discourse from a compelling writer whose journeys and reflections over the last two decades have become models of critical engagement.andquot;
Synopsis
In this set of essays that cover the period from 1992 to 2012, Kobena Mercer uses a diasporic model of criticism to analyze the cross-cultural aesthetic practice of African American and black British artists and to show how their refiguring of visual representations of blackness transform perceptions of race.and#160;
About the Author
Kobena Mercer is Professor of History of Art and African American Studies at Yale University.