Black Bodies, White Gold - Art, Cotton, and Commerce in the Atlantic World (Hardcover)

In Black Bodies, White Gold Anna Arabindan-Kesson uses cotton, a commodity central to the slave trade and colonialism, as a focus for new interpretations of the way art, commerce, and colonialism were intertwined in the nineteenth-century Atlantic world. In doing so, Arabindan-Kesson models an art historical approach that makes the histories of the Black diaspora central to nineteenth-century cultural production. She traces the emergence of a speculative vision that informs perceptions of Blackness in which artistic renderings of cotton-as both commodity and material-became inexorably tied to the monetary value of Black bodies. From the production and representation of "negro cloth"-the textile worn by enslaved plantation workers-to depictions of Black sharecroppers in photographs and paintings, Arabindan-Kesson demonstrates that visuality was the mechanism through which Blackness and cotton became equated as resources for extraction. In addition to interrogating the work of nineteenth-century artists, she engages with contemporary artists such as Hank Willis Thomas, Lubaina Himid, and Yinka Shonibare CBE RA, who contend with the commercial and imperial processes shaping constructions of Blackness and meanings of labor.

General

Imprint:	Duke University Press
Country of origin:	United States
Release date:	May 2021
First published:	2021
Authors:	Anna Arabindan Kesson
Dimensions:	254 x 178 x 31mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Hardcover - Cloth over boards
Pages:	320
ISBN-13:	978-1-4780-1192-7
Categories:	Books > Arts & Architecture > History of art / art & design styles > 1800 to 1900 > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Ethnic studies > Black studies
LSN:	1-4780-1192-0
Barcode:	9781478011927

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