Black Out: Silhouettes Then and Now

Amazon.com Price: $30.11 (as of 03/12/2019 09:42 PST- Details)

Description

The first book highlighting the historical roots and latest implications of the silhouette as an American art form

Before the advent of photography in 1839, Americans were consumed by the fashion for silhouette portraits. Economical in each sense, the small, stark profiles cost far not up to oil paintings and may well be made in minutes. Black Out, the first major publication to concentrate on the development of silhouettes, gathers leading experts to shed light on the surprisingly complex historical, political, and social underpinnings of this ostensibly simple art form. In its examination of portraits by acclaimed silhouettists, such as Auguste Edouart and William Bache, this richly illustrated book explores likenesses of everyone from presidents and celebrities to on a regular basis citizens and enslaved people. In the end, the book reveals how silhouettes registered the paradoxes of the unstable young nation, roiling with tensions over slavery and political independence.

Primarily tracing the upward thrust of the silhouette in the decades leading up to the Civil War, Black Out also considers the ubiquity of the genre today, particularly in latest art. The usage of silhouettes to address such themes as race, identity, and the notion of the digital self, the four featured living artists–Kara Walker, Kristi Malakoff, Kumi Yamashita, and Camille Utterback―all take the silhouette to unique and fascinating new heights.

Presenting the distinctly American story at the back of silhouettes, Black Out vividly delves into the historical roots and latest interpretations of this evocative, ever popular form of portraiture.

Exhibition Schedule: National Portrait Gallery, Washington, D.C., May 11, 2018 – March 10, 2019

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