A people's art history of the United States 250 years of activist art and artists working in social justice movements

Nicolas Lampert, 1969-

Book - 2013

"Most people outside of the art world view art as something that is foreign to their experiences and everyday lives. A People's Art History of the United States places art history squarely in the rough-and-tumble of politics, social struggles, and the fight for justice from the colonial era through the present day. Author and radical artist Nicolas Lampert combines historical sweep with detailed examinations of individual artists and works in a politically charged narrative that spans the conquest of the Americas, the American Revolution, slavery and abolition, western expansion, the suffragette movement and feminism, civil rights movements, environmental movements, LGBT movements, antiglobalization movements, contemporary antiwar... movements, and beyond. A People's Art History of the United States introduces us to key works of American radical art alongside dramatic retellings of the histories that inspired them. Stylishly illustrated with over two hundred images, this book is nothing less than an alternative education for anyone interested in the powerful role that art plays in our society."--

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Subjects
Published
New York, NY : The New Press 2013.
©2013
Language
English
Main Author
Nicolas Lampert, 1969- (author)
Physical Description
xv, 366 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm
Bibliography
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN
9781595583246
  • Series Preface
  • Preface
  • Acknowledgments
  • 1. Parallel Paths on the Same River
  • 2. Visualizing a Partial Revolution
  • 3. Liberation Graphics
  • 4. Abolitionism as Autonomy, Activism, and Entertainment
  • 5. The Battleground over Public Memory
  • 6. Photographing the Past During the Present
  • 7. Jacob A. Riis's Image Problem
  • 8. Haymarket: An Embattled History of Static Monuments and Public Interventions
  • 9. Blurring the Boundaries Between Art and Life
  • 10. The Masses on Trial
  • 11. Banners Designed to Break a President
  • 12. The Lynching Crisis
  • 13. Become the Media, Circa 1930
  • 14. Government-Funded Art: The Boom and Bust Years for Public Art
  • 15. Artists Organize
  • 16. Artists Against War and Fascism
  • 17. Resistance or Loyalty: The Visual Politics of Miné Okubo
  • 18. Come Let Us Build a New World Together
  • 19. Party Artist: Emory Douglas and the Black Panther Party
  • 20. Protesting the Museum Industrial Complex
  • 21. "The Living, Breathing Embodiment of a Culture Transformed"
  • 22. Public Rituals, Media Performances, and Citywide Interventions
  • 23. No Apologies: Asco, Performance Art, and the Chicano Civil Rights Movement
  • 24. Art Is Not Enough
  • 25. Antinuclear Street Art
  • 26. Living Water: Sustainability Through Collaboration
  • 27. Art Defends Art
  • 28. Bringing the War Home
  • 29. Impersonating Utopia and Dystopia
  • Notes
  • Index
Review by Choice Review

Lampert (Univ. of Wisconsin, Milwaukee) offers a welcome treatment of activist art and artists in American culture over two and a half centuries. It is modeled after Howard Zinn's well-known A People's History of the United States (1980; rev. and updated ed., 1995), which is part of a larger "People's History" series initiated by Zinn. In exploring the history of American art from an alternative perspective, Lampert considers a wide range of movements, events, and artists that often have been ignored or marginalized in more canonical treatments of the subject. While much recent American art history has endeavored to integrate elements of the political narratives that are explored in this book (Jacob Riis's often-ironic engagement with the plight of urban immigrants, for example), this study provides an impressive additional layer of critical inquiry that is vital to a socially enriched understanding of American art. Written in an insightful, accessible style and well illustrated (albeit without color images), this study makes an invaluable contribution to the social history of American art. It will be of great use to researchers and students of American art history and American studies, as well as a general audience. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Lower-level undergraduates and above; general readers. M. R. Freeman Western Oregon University

Copyright American Library Association, used with permission.
Review by Booklist Review

Following the trail blazed by historian Howard Zinn, author of the paradigm-shifting A People's History of the United States (1980), artist and writer Lampert addresses the essential yet underappreciated role activist art has played in diverse social reform movements. In a sweeping journey across America and through past eras, Lampert casts light on the stories behind such propagandistic images as Paul Revere's engraving The Bloody Massacre and the liberation graphics in abolitionist materials. The work of progressive photographers is prominent here, from Jacob A. Riis' famous tenement images to Danny Lyon's courageous civil rights movement documentation and army photographer Ronald L. Haeberle's exposure of the My Lai massacre. Covering vast amounts of information in a free-rolling, thoroughly engaging manner, Lampert analyzes the posters, flyers, placards, banners, publications, and street theater associated with everything from the labor, antiwar, and nuclear disarmament movements to feminist, Chicano, and AIDS civil rights organizations. Lampert's eye-opening, history-enriching, and superbly well-illustrated exposition of the union of art and activism reminds us of how creative dissent can be and how necessary it is to our democracy.--Seaman, Donna Copyright 2010 Booklist

From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review

This latest addition to the New Press's People's History series, with a preface by Howard Zinn (A People's History of the United States), is both readable and instructive. Rather than writing a comprehensive history of social-justice-movement art, Lampert, an activist artist himself, focuses on "examples that were complicated, where the decisions made by artists were controversial and confounding," his premise being that "analyzing histories that are deeply complicated helps us learn." His examples range from an examination of the changing uses of wampum belts between Native Americans and Europeans to the contemporary Yes Men's audacious hoaxes that expose corporate and capitalist culture. Encouraging readers to consider how art can instigate-or dilute-activism and social change, and emphasizing lessons that can be learned and techniques that can be borrowed from earlier activists, the book is a useful and thought-provoking text for history and art students. It may also inspire activists, artist or otherwise, to maximize their effectiveness. 236 b&w illus. (Nov.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.

(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved