Art Research Guide

A vase is never merely a container. As Georges Braque once said, "the vase gives form to emptiness": ever since the earliest human civilizations, this object has had a purpose that is greater than its function and it perennially seeks experimentation in shape and expression. The 1,000 vases presented in this book are an eloquent demonstration of this.

This volume analyzes representations of disability in art from antiquity to the twenty-first century, incorporating disability studies scholarship and art historical research and methodology. This book brings these two strands together to provide a comprehensive overview of the intersections between these two disciplines. Divided into four parts: Ancient History through the 17th Century: Gods, Dwarfs, and Warriors 17th-Century Spain to the American Civil War: Misfits, Wounded Bodies, and Medical Specimens Modernism, Metaphor and Corporeality Contemporary Art: Crips, Care, and Portraiture and comprised of 16 chapters focusing on Greek sculpture, ancient Chinese art, Early Italian Renaissance art, the Spanish Golden Age, nineteenth century art in France (Manet, Toulouse-Lautrec) and the US, and contemporary works, it contextualizes understandings of disability historically, as well as in terms of medicine, literature, and visual culture.

"Women have long been the creative force behind Native American art, yet their individual contributions have been largely unrecognized, instead treated as anonymous representations of entire cultures. 'Hearts of Our People: Native Women Artists' explores the artistic achievements of Native women and establishes their rightful place in the art world. This lavishly illustrated book, a companion to the landmark exhibition, includes works of art from antiquity to the present, made in a variety of media from textiles and beadwork to video and digital arts. It showcases more than 115 artists from the United States and Canada, spanning over one thousand years, to reveal the ingenuity and innovation fthat have always been foundational to the art of Native women."--Page 4 of cover.

Lastgaspism: Art and Survival in the Age of Pandemic is a collection of interviews, critical essays, and artwork that consider matters of life and death having to do with breath, both allegorical and literal. Bringing into mutual proximity the ecological, public health, political, and spiritual crises that came to the fore in 2020, this book considers these compounding events and how they impact one another and asks with critical optimism what can happen in this moment of transition.

Reclaiming the narrative: a major new examination of contemporary Indigenous photography across the US This groundbreaking project summarizes how contemporary Indigenous photographers have taken over the conversation about how their cultures and lives are depicted through their dynamic embrace of three interwoven themes: Survivance, Nation and Indigenous Visuality. These photographers enact a key shift away from privileging settler-colonialism, foregrounding instead an Indigenous sense of community and visuality. Speaking with Light reveals and examines these Indigenous artists' explorations of themes such as identity, the contribution of customary practice to contemporary life, belonging and the assistance that Indigenous worldviews can provide to building healthier relationships with each other and the earth. The book comprises four sections bridged by transitions and ending with a globalization of the discussion. Texts by key Indigenous scholars are followed by a series of plates illustrating many of the exhibition works. Speaking with Light is a summary statement about the preoccupations and dynamism of Indigenous photography today.

This study analyzes late medieval paintings of personified death in Bohemia, arguing that Bohemian iconography was distinct from the body of macabre painting found in other Central European regions during the same period. The author focuses on a variety of images from late medieval Bohemia, examining how they express the imagination, devotion, and anxieties surrounding death in the Middle Ages.