Framing First Contact
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A01=Kate Elliott
Age Group_Uncategorized
Age Group_Uncategorized
Albert Bierstadt
American art
Author_Kate Elliott
automatic-update
C. M. Russell
Category1=Non-Fiction
Category=ACV
Category=AGA
Category=HBJK
Category=HBLL
Category=NHK
Catlin
Charles M. Russell
conquest
COP=United States
Delivery_Delivery within 10-20 working days
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_history
eq_isMigrated=0
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
George Catlin
imperialism
Language_English
national myths
Native American art
nineteenth century art
nineteenth century artists
PA=Available
Price_€20 to €50
PS=Active
Representations
Robert W. Weir
Russell
softlaunch
Thomas Moran
western american art
Product details
- ISBN 9780806167114
- Weight: 630g
- Dimensions: 197 x 241mm
- Publication Date: 29 Oct 2020
- Publisher: University of Oklahoma Press
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
- Language: English
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Representations of first contact - the first meetings of European explorers and Native Americans - have always had a central place in our nation's historical and visual record. They have also had a key role in shaping and interpreting that record. In Framing First Contact author Kate Elliott looks at paintings by artists from George Catlin to Charles M. Russell and explores what first contact images tell us about the process of constructing national myths - and how those myths acquired different meanings at different points in our nation's history.
First contact images, with their focus on beginnings rather than conclusive action or determined outcomes, might depict historical events in a variety of ways. Elliott argues that nineteenth century artists, responding to the ambiguity and indeterminacy of the subject, used the visualized space between cultures meeting for the first time to address critical contemporary questions and anxieties. Taking works from the 1840s through the 1910s as case studies - paintings by Robert W. Weir, Thomas Moran, and Albert Bierstadt, along with Catlin and Russell - Elliott shows how many first contact representations, especially those commissioned and conceived as official history, speak blatantly of conquest, racial superiority, and imperialism. And yet, others communicate more nuanced messages that might surprise contemporary viewers.
Elliott suggests it was the very openness of the subject of first contact that allowed artists, consciously or not, to speak of contemporary issues beyond imperialism and conquest. Uncovering those issues, Framing First Contact forces us to think about why we tell the stories we do, and why those stories matter.
First contact images, with their focus on beginnings rather than conclusive action or determined outcomes, might depict historical events in a variety of ways. Elliott argues that nineteenth century artists, responding to the ambiguity and indeterminacy of the subject, used the visualized space between cultures meeting for the first time to address critical contemporary questions and anxieties. Taking works from the 1840s through the 1910s as case studies - paintings by Robert W. Weir, Thomas Moran, and Albert Bierstadt, along with Catlin and Russell - Elliott shows how many first contact representations, especially those commissioned and conceived as official history, speak blatantly of conquest, racial superiority, and imperialism. And yet, others communicate more nuanced messages that might surprise contemporary viewers.
Elliott suggests it was the very openness of the subject of first contact that allowed artists, consciously or not, to speak of contemporary issues beyond imperialism and conquest. Uncovering those issues, Framing First Contact forces us to think about why we tell the stories we do, and why those stories matter.
Kate Elliott is Associate Professor of Art History at Luther College in Decorah, Iowa, and the recipient of a Wyeth Foundation Predoctoral Fellowship, sponsored by the Smithsonian American Art Museum, and a United States Capitol Historical Society Fellowship.
