Ashwani Vasishth <ashwani@csun.edu> [Last Update: March 24, 2006]
Post-Anti-Colonial Histories: Representing the Other in Imperial Britain
Elazar Barkan
The Journal of British Studies > Vol. 33, No. 2 (Apr., 1994), pp. 180-203
Abstract Expressionism and Third World Art: A Post-Colonial Approach to 'American' Art
David Craven
Oxford Art Journal > Vol. 14, No. 1 (1991), pp. 44-66
What Is a Nation and Who Belongs? National Narratives and the Ethnic Imagination in Twentieth-Century Japan
Kevin M. Doak
The American Historical Review > Vol. 102, No. 2 (Apr., 1997), pp. 283-309
Some Things That Have Happened to the Sun after September 1965: Politics and the Interpretation of an Indonesian Painting
Kenneth M. George
Comparative Studies in Society and History > Vol. 39, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 603-634
The Aesthetics of Colonialism: Janet Schaw in the West Indies, 1774-1775
Elizabeth A. Bohls
Eighteenth-Century Studies > Vol. 27, No. 3 (Spring, 1994), pp. 363-390
Art and the Artist in Communist China
Arnold L. Herstand
College Art Journal > Vol. 19, No. 1 (Autumn, 1959), pp. 23-29
Neurotic Imperatives: Contemporary Art from Puerto Rico
Marimar Benitez
Art Journal > Vol. 57, No. 4 (Winter, 1998), pp. 74-85
Rediscovering the 'Oriental' in the Orient and Europe: New Books on the East-West Cultural Interface: A Review Article
Vladimir I. Braginsky
Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London > Vol. 60, No. 3 (1997), pp. 511-532
Master Narratives/Minority Artists
Norman L. Kleeblatt
Art Journal > Vol. 57, No. 3 (Autumn, 1998), pp. 29-35
Art and Geography: Patterns in the Himalaya
Pradyumna P. Karan; Cotton Mather
Annals of the Association of American Geographers > Vol. 66, No. 4 (Dec., 1976), pp. 487-515
Embroidering the Past: Phulkari Textiles and Gendered Work as "Tradition" and "Heritage" in Colonial and Contemporary Punjab
Michelle Maskiell
The Journal of Asian Studies > Vol. 58, No. 2 (May, 1999), pp. 361-388
From Nationalism to Nationalizing: Cultural Imagination and State Formation in Postwar Taiwan
Allen Chun
The Australian Journal of Chinese Affairs > No. 31 (Jan., 1994), pp. 49-69
Blurring Boundaries: The Limits of "White Town" in Colonial Calcutta
Swati Chattopadhyay
The Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians > Vol. 59, No. 2 (Jun., 2000), pp. 154-179
Traditionalism and Colonialism: Changing Urban Roles in Asia
Rhoads Murphey
The Journal of Asian Studies > Vol. 29, No. 1 (Nov., 1969), pp. 67-84
Representing Nationality in China: Refiguring Majority/Minority Identities
Dru C. Gladney
The Journal of Asian Studies > Vol. 53, No. 1 (Feb., 1994), pp. 92-123
Education and Social Control in South Africa
Rebusoajoang
African Affairs > Vol. 78, No. 311 (Apr., 1979), pp. 228-239
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IN/VISIBLE Art Exhibition Inaugurates Arab American National Museum
Maymanah Farhat. The Washington Report on Middle East Affairs Washington:Aug 2005. Vol. 24, Iss. 6, p. 50-51 (2 pp.)
Farhat reviews IN/VISIBLE, an exhibition of the works of Mariam Ghani and Helen Zughaib at the Arab American National Museum.
Creating Their Own Image: A History of African-American Women Artists/African Queen
RenŽe Ater. African Arts Los Angeles:Summer 2005. Vol. 38, Iss. 2, p. 82-83,95 (3 pp.)
Ater reviews Creating Their Own Image: A History of African-American Women Artists, an exhibition at the Parsons School of Design's Aronson Galleries in New York City, and African Queen, an exhibition at the Studio Museum in Harlem in New York City.
Painting, Propaganda and Patriotism
David Welch. History Today London:Jul 2005. Vol. 55, Iss. 7, p. 42-50 (9 pp.)
The respective fortunes of France and Britain during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are symbolized by dominant military leaders such as Napoleon Bonaparte and Horatio Nelson. It is not surprising that Paris has its Gare d'Austerlitz while London has Trafalgar Square. Welch looks at the way that public art was used in both France and Britain to celebrate Bonaparte and Nelson as national heroes, during their lifetimes and after.
My Ethiopia/Ethiopian Passages
Peri M Klemm. African Arts Los Angeles:Autumn 2004. Vol. 37, Iss. 3, p. 8,11,86 (3 pp.)
Klemm reviews My Ethiopia: Recent Paintings by Wosene Worke Kosrof by Christa Clarke with selected bibliography compiled by Patricia L. DiRubbo, and Ethiopian Passages: Contemporary Art from the Diaspora by Elizabeth Harney.
Painting Ethiopia: The Life and Work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw
Raymond A Silverman. African Arts Los Angeles:Autumn 2004. Vol. 37, Iss. 3, p. 62-71,92 (11 pp.)
Silverman features Painting Ethiopia: The Life and Work of Qes Adamu Tesfaw, a project of the UCLA Fowler Museum of Cultural History, in collaboration with the Institute of Ethiopian Studies, Addis Ababa University. It celebrates the creativity of one of Ethiopia's outstanding living artists, bringing together 35 exceptional paintings from several collectors and museums. Furthermore, the subjects in the paintings present religious and historical narratives as well as scenes of everyday life.
The Allure of Empire: Art in the Service of French Imperialism 1798-1836/Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France
Mark Ledbury. The Art Bulletin New York:Sep 2004. Vol. 86, Iss. 3, p. 603-609 (7 pp.)
Ledbury reviews The Allure of Empire: Art in the Service of French Imperialism 1798-1836 by Todd Porterfield and Extremities: Painting Empire in Post-Revolutionary France by Darcy Grimaldo Grigsby.
Peerless Images: Persian Painting and Its Sources
May-lee Chai. Asian Affairs, an American Review Washington:Summer 2004. Vol. 31, Iss. 2, p. 125-126 (2 pp.)
Chai reviews Peerless Images: Persian Painting and Its Sources by Eleanor Sims with Boris I. Marshak and Ernst J. Grube.
Musulmanes, Musulmans au Caire, a TŽhŽran, Istanbul, Paris, Dakar/Urban Islam
Eileen Moyer. African Arts Los Angeles:Winter 2004. Vol. 37, Iss. 4, p. 82-85,96 (5 pp.)
Moyer reviews two art exhibitions: Musulmanes, Musulmans au Caire, a Teheran, Istanbul, Paris, Dakar in Paris, France and Urban Islam in Amsterdam Netherlands.
Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art
Luke Taylor. The Australian Journal of Anthropology Sydney:2004. Vol. 15, Iss. 1, p. 118-119 (2 pp.)
Taylor reviews Painting Culture: The Making of an Aboriginal High Art by Fred R. Myers.
Prefacing the Image: The Writing of Art History in Sixteenth-Century Iran
Kishwar Rizvi. The Art Bulletin New York:Dec 2003. Vol. 85, Iss. 4, p. 800-803
Rizvi reviews Prefacing the Image: The Writing of Art History in Sixteenth-Century Iran by David J. Roxburgh.
Image and Identity: Fifty Years of Painting and Sculpture in Pakistan
Simone Wille. The Journal of Asian Studies Ann Arbor:Nov 2003. Vol. 62, Iss. 4, p. 1286-1287 (2 pp.)
Wille reviews Image and Identity: Fifty Years of Painting and Sculpture in Pakistan by Akbar Naqvi.
Picasso,Africa, and the schemata of difference
Simon Gikandi. Modernism/Modernity Baltimore:Sep 2003. Vol. 10, Iss. 3, p. 455-480
Much has been written on Picasso and primitivism but little on his specific engagement with Africa. Gikandi explores Picasso's relationship to Africa and his investment in a certain idea of Africa, which is evident from his early career to his high cubist period.
A Ribbon Around a Bomb: Identity and the Body in the Diary of Frida Kahlo
McQuilten, Grace. Hecate's Australian Women's Book Review St. Lucia:Nov 30, 2002. Vol. 14, Iss. 2, p. N/A
Frida Kahlo always appears to us masked; her face is still, her body idle, her clothing arranged. She appears to us in expressions of blank pain, stoic endurance. The imagery around her, however, betrays this blank expression, betrays the masking of her elaborate dress. It betrays her and hints at violence. The imagery around her body, her hair, her eyebrows; whether in the form of a dead bird at her neck or a hand hanging from her ear, hint at an explosion? An explosive pain, a fragmented body, a disrupted sense of self: hidden, masked, bound by a metaphorical ribbon. When Andr Breton described Frida Kahlo's artwork as 'a ribbon around a bomb'1 he summarised the external perception of Frida Kahlo herself; the constructed-self of her artworks, the impact of her physical presence. Frida was violent, painful, passionate, expressive and dangerous, yet this danger was contained. The potential for her explosion was bound by symbolic ribbons: her costume and masking, her husband Diego Rivera, her self-portraiture. While she expressed violence and pain and female sexuality in her artworks, this violence was masked; controlled by the distancing of the viewer, the masking of her expressions and the beauty of the works. Breton did not describe her as 'a vein around a bomb.' Like her artworks, Frida was controlled, in a sense, by her beauty; her desire to conform to the ideals of her husband and her politics. While she was still subversive and her ideas were revolutionary, her revolution was an inherently personal and internal one; the true political force of her work lay in the quiet eruptions of her internal world into the external ribbon-self that she painted both physically and metaphorically. While she challenged society, particularly through works like 'A Few Small Nips'(1935) and 'The Suicide of Dorothy Hale' (1938-39), the force of this challenge relied on her first setting up an expectation of beauty, before slyly undermining it ('Self-Portrait with Cropped Hair,' 1940). This explosion of the internal also undermines social expectations; it freely engages in self questioning, in the search for identity. It allows for a fluid interpretation of self; one that incorporates unconscious sensation with conscious thought. It expresses honestly feelings about love and social expectations. It allows for the eruption of the feminine. This internal explosion in writing, allowing for a deep understanding of self is, I think, where the power of the diary, journal and autobiography lie. Frida doesn't need specifically to speak politically; she speaks for herself, and this self-expression resonates among women generally. As Nancy Mairs says in 'Remembering the bone house', 'I want my 'life,' in reporting the details of my own life, to recount, at the level beneath the details, the lives of others. No modesty is entailed here ? simply the desire to celebrate the private rather than the public world of human habitation.'9
Haitian art: Exploring cultural identity
Anne Marie Hayes, Michelle Robinson. Art Education Reston:Jan 2001. Vol. 54, Iss. 1, p. 25-32 (8 pp.)
A teacher's guide to lesson plans and activities to explore cultural identity through Haitian art is offered. Classroom discussions, activities and evaluation criteria are presented for students to learn about several Haitian visual artists, including Hector Hyppolite and Edouard Duval-Carrie.
The painted colonial image: Jesuit and Andean fabrication of history in Matrimonio de Garcia de Loyola con Nusta Beatriz
Marie Timberlake. Journal of Medieval and Early Modern Studies Durham:Fall 1999. Vol. 29, Iss. 3, p. 563-598 (36 pp.)
Timberlake discusses the late-seventeenth-century Peruvian painting "Matrimonio de Garcia de Loyola con Nusta Beatriz," exploring the way in which it is an expression of the political and social pretensions of individuals and institutions of its time and culture.
Exhibitions and empire: National parks and the performance of manifest destiny
Thomas Patin. Journal of American Culture Bowling Green:Spring 1999. Vol. 22, Iss. 1, p. 41-59 (19 pp.)
Patin examines the use of various techniques borrowed from painting and museums that are used in the presentation of nature in national parks. He suggests that parks are essentially museological institutions, not because they preserve and conserve, but because they employ many of the techniques of display, exhibition, and presentation that have been used by museums to organize and regulate the vision of visitors.
Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire
Elias K Bongmba. African Arts Los Angeles:Spring 1998. Vol. 31, Iss. 2, p. 13-16 (3 pp.)
Bongmba reviews "Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire" by Johannes Fabian with a narrative and paintings by Tshibumba Kanda Matulu.
Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996
Elizabeth Harney. African Arts Los Angeles:Spring 1998. Vol. 31, Iss. 2, p. 81-83 (3 pp.)
"Transforming the Crown: African, Asian and Caribbean Artists in Britain, 1966-1996," a multipart exhibition being held jointly at the Bronx Museum of Art, the Studio Museum in Harlem and the Franklin H. Williams Caribbean Cultural Center, all in New York City, is reviewed.
Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire
Gail M Gerhart. Foreign Affairs New York:Nov/Dec 1997. Vol. 76, Iss. 6, p. 177 (2 pp.)
Remembering the Present: Painting and Popular History in Zaire by Johannes Fabian is reviewed.
Women Artists in Puerto Rico
Yanis, Lynn. Off Our Backs Washington:Mar 31, 1984. Vol. 14, Iss. 3, p. 22
[Margarita Fern]‡ndez's road to her own work is a moving and primally female story. In a women's group several years ago she confronted many fears of being an artist, which had led her toward investigations of art and away from direct creative experience. "I needed a space," she decided, "I had to produce. I couldn't defeat myself before I began. And so I made this commitment." Almost simultaneously with committing herself to her drawing, she discovered she was pregnant, and searching inside herself decided she could not abort. She found a studio "like a uterus, with no windows and no sound," and began looking in her home for things that were truly hers, that she would take to her studio. "Nothing was mine -- only some pencils and brushes" she discovered. "It was like it wasn't my house...it was theirs, and there was nothing of me in it. I took some of the plants and the kids cried, "You're taking everything.!" Finally she found two albums of wedding photographs, and put the pictures on the wall of her studio, where she worked until hours before the birth of her baby. [Lorraine de Castro]'s work, and her presence in Mujeres Artistas, raised powerful questions about the relationships between women, art, and feminism. "There's a lot more to women than tits and ass" she asserts; but at the same time, her do–as, and the vedettes which preceded them (vedette describes a "showgirl"/stripper -- the female body-as-body) are nude, faceless female bodies: in short, tits and ass. As several members of the group have pointed out, de Castro's work -- the fact that it is seen as legitimate, that she is accepted as a woman artist exploring real questions through the use of the female nude, and even its commercial success -- owes a great debt to feminism. Yet de Castro herself is the main spokesperson against feminism in the group; she says she is "worried that the group might be identified with militant feminism," and feels that there is nothing that could be said about women artists that could not be correctly said about male artists as well. "I believe that if you're a good artist your work will be accepted. You have to prove yourself as an artist first; you can't, won't, and shouldn't be accepted as an artist just because you're a woman." Myrna B‡ez relates the very idea of a women's group to values of the upper classes. Although the child of an upper middle class family, she never participated in the debuts, civic groups and dancing lessons that are a hallmark of upper class Puerto Rican girls' lives. "Imagine if you didn't do that in my time," B‡ez said (she is in her early fifties). "Of course, you are a savage!...Now, for the first time, I belong to a group in that sense." She still has many reservations about the women artists' group, and an impatience born of the conviction that "You paint what you are. If you're an idiot, you come out an idiot...I'm not interested in what the better-known women artists are doing -- it's too ladylike. They are not in terrible circumstances,the majority are in the high middle class, but their expression is so conservative. I'm interested in the younger women."
Nicaraguan Mural Painters: Hilda Vogel & Julia Aguirre
Laduke, Betty. Off Our Backs Washington:Oct 31, 1983. Vol. 13, Iss. 9, p. 11
This park with newly planted trees is part of a recent reconstruction project located amidst the ruins of the earthquake. The three walls were painted by different artists in different styles with [Hilda Vogel]'s and [Julia Aguirre]'s mural painted on the smaller, end wall, approximately 36' long and 20' high. The theme of the mural is rural life. Julia Aguirre has painted a farm-landscape scene. And Hilda Vogel has painted two scenes: one depicting children playing a popular sport, baseball, and the other, a traditional bullfight event. In Julia's landscape, one of the street banners reads, "Alpha betizacion es Liberacion" or "Literacy is Liberation."