Tropical Aesthetics of Black Modernism (The Visual Arts of Africa and its Diasporas)

In Tropical Aesthetics of Black Modernism , Samantha A. Noël investigates how Black Caribbean and American artists of the early twentieth century responded to and challenged colonial and other white-dominant regimes through tropicalist representation. With depictions of tropical scenery and landscapes situated throughout the African diaspora, performances staged in tropical settings, and bodily expressions of tropicality during Carnival, artists such as Aaron Douglas, Wifredo Lam, Josephine Baker, and Maya Angelou developed what Noël calls “tropical aesthetics”—using art to name and reclaim spaces of Black sovereignty. As a unifying element in the Caribbean modern art movement and the Harlem Renaissance, tropical aesthetics became a way for visual artists and performers to express their sense of belonging to and rootedness in a place. Tropical aesthetics, Noël contends, became central to these artists’ identities and creative processes while enabling them to craft alternative Black diasporic histories. In outlining the centrality of tropical aesthetics in the artistic and cultural practices of Black modernist art, Noël recasts understandings of African diasporic art. In Tropical Aesthetics of Black Modernism, Samantha A. Noel investigates how Black Caribbean and American artists of the early twentieth century responded to and challenged colonial and other white-dominant regimes through tropicalist representation. With depictions of tropical scenery and landscapes situated throughout the African diaspora, performances staged in tropical settings, and bodily expressions of tropicality during Carnival, artists such as Aaron Douglas, Wifredo Lam, Josephine Baker, and Maya Angelou developed what Noel calls "tropical aesthetics"-using art to name and reclaim spaces of Black sovereignty. As a unifying element in the Caribbean modern art movement and the Harlem Renaissance, tropical aesthetics became a way for visual artists and performers to express their sense of belonging to and rootedness in a place. Tropical aesthetics, Noel contends, became central to these artists' identities and creative processes while enabling them to craft alternative Black diasporic histories. In outlining the centrality of tropical aesthetics in the artistic and cultural practices of Black modernist art, Noel recasts understandings of African diasporic art "Tropical Aesthetics of Black Modernism considers how Caribbean and American artists of the early twentieth century are responding to the colonial and hegemonic regimes through visual and performative tropicalist representation. By proposing an alternative understanding of the tropics, this book demonstrates how Aaron Douglas, Wifredo Lam, Josephine Baker, Maya Angelou, and some masqueraders and designers of Trinidad Carnival effectively contributed to the development of Black modernity, and even Black sonic modernity. Tropical Aesthetics of Black Modernism aspires to broaden the epistemological reaches of the discipline of art history by acknowledging the interdisciplinarity inherent in the study of creative production of any kind"-- Cover Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgments Color Plates Introduction • Tropicality, Modernity, and the African Diaspora Chapter 1 • American Tropical Modernism: The African Diasporic Reaches of Aaron Douglas’s Landscapes Chapter 2 • Brazenly Avant-Garde: Wifredo Lam’s Transformation of Cuba’s Tropical Terrain Chapter 3 • Early Twentieth-Century Trinidad Carnival: Tropicality and Strategies of Space-Making Chapter 4 • Pan-African Geographies in Motion: The Tropical Performances of Maya Angelou and Josephine Baker Conclusion • The Black Body, Tropicality, and the Black Speculative Notes Bibliography Index A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W Y Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- INTRODUCTION Tropicality, Modernity, and the African Diaspora -- CHAPTER 1 American Tropical Modernism: The African Diasporic Reaches of Aaron Douglas's Landscapes -- CHAPTER 2 Brazenly Avant-Garde: Wifredo Lam's Transformation of Cuba's Tropical Terrain -- CHAPTER 3 Early Twentieth-Century Trinidad Carnival: Tropicality and Strategies of Space-Making -- CHAPTER 4 Pan-African Geographies in Motion: The Tropical Performances of Maya Angelou and Josephine Baker -- CONCLUSION The Black Body, Tropicality, and the Black Speculative -- NOTES -- BIBLIOGRAPHY -- INDEX "Samantha A. Noël investigates how Black Caribbean and American artists of the early twentieth century responded to and challenged colonial and other hegemonic regimes through tropicalist representation."-- Provided by publisher