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"This book chronicles a rare event. Sixty-three artists show up for a meet-and-greet; their names are unfamiliar, and they do not know one another. Each gets fifteen minutes to tell a life story and show their art. The conversation is heady and the company unforgettable. No one wants the party—nor the book—to end."—Wanda M. Corn, Robert and Ruth Halperin Professor Emerita in Art History, Stanford University
"A bold reimagining of what constitutes artistic genius in the history of American art. Artists whose practices and biographies were previously in the shadows are brilliantly spotlighted, one after another, in what emerges as an astonishingly vast and kaleidoscopic landscape. Mapping a radically new approach, this anthology challenges us all to search more diligently for other artists and histories hiding in plain sight."—Asma Naeem, Eddie C. and C. Sylvia Brown Chief Curator, Baltimore Museum of Art
List of contents
Contents
Preface: Attention Must Be Paid!
Charles C. Eldredge
Introduction: Unk., Untitled, n.d., lost
Kirsten Pai Buick
MAKING FACES, AND MORE: PORTRAITS AND FIGURES, 18TH–19TH CENTURIES
REDISCOVERING THE MODERN FIGURE
LIMNING THE LAND: TOPOGRAPHY AND TEMPERAMENT
SPEAKING OF STILL LIFES—AND LISTENING TO THEM, TOO
ENRICHING ABSTRACTION
DESIGNING BEYOND THE EASEL
Acknowledgments
List of Contributors
List of Illustrations
Index
About the author
Charles C. Eldredge has served as Director of the Spencer Museum of Art and the Smithsonian's American Art Museum. He is a Smithsonian Research Associate and Hall Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Kansas, where he taught and published in the field of American art and culture.
Summary
Eminent art historian Charles C. Eldredge brings together top scholars to celebrate forgotten artists and create a more inclusive history of American art.
Why do some artists become canonical, while others, equally respected in their time, fall into obscurity? This question is central to The Unforgettables, a vibrant collection of essays by leading experts on American art. Each contributor presents a brief for an artist deserving of new or renewed attention, including artists from the colonial era to recent years working in a wide variety of mediums.
Histories of American art have traditionally highlighted the work of a familiar roster of artists, largely white and male. The achievements of their peers, notably women and artists of color, have gone uncelebrated. The essays in this volume provide a new and richer understanding of American art, expanding the canon to include many worthy talents. A number of these artists were acclaimed in their day; others, having missed that acclaim, may achieve it now. With contributions from major scholars and museum professionals, The Unforgettables rescues and revises reputations as it enhances and enriches the history of American art.
