Art, Observation, and an Anthropology of Illustration

Dr Max Carocci, Dr Stephanie Pratt (Independent Scholar, UK)

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English

Bloomsbury Visual Arts
30 June 2022

Theory of art; History of Art & Design Styles; Art of indigenous peoples; Folk art; Social & cultural anthropology

Art, Observation, and an Anthropology of Illustration examines the role of sketches, drawings and other artworks in our understanding of human cultures of the past.

Bringing together art historians and anthropologists, it presents a selection of detailed case studies of various bodies of work produced by non-Western and Western artists from different world regions and from different time periods (from Native North America, Cameroon, and Nepal, to Italy, Solomon Islands, and Mexico) to explore the contemporary relevance and challenges implicit in artistic renditions of past peoples and places.

In an age when identities are partially constructed on the basis of existing visual records, the book asks important questions about the nature of observation and the inclusion of culturally-relevant information in artistic representations. How reliable are watercolours, paintings, or sketches for the understanding of past ways of life? How do old images of bygone peoples relate to art historical and anthropological canons?

How have these images and technologies of representation been used to describe, illustrate, or explain unknown realities?

The book is an essential tool for art historians, anthropologists, and anyone who wants to understand how the observation of different realities has impacted upon the production of art and visual cultures.

Incorporating current methodological and theoretical tools, the 10 chapters collected here expand the area of connection between the disciplines of art history and anthropology, bringing into sharp focus the multiple intersections of objectivity, evidence, and artistic licence.

Edited by: Dr Max Carocci, Dr Stephanie Pratt (Independent Scholar, UK)
Imprint: Bloomsbury Visual Arts
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Dimensions: Height: 234mm, Width: 156mm,
ISBN: 9781350248434
ISBN 10: 1350248436
Pages: 256
Publication Date: 30 June 2022
Audience: College/higher education , Primary
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

List of Illustrations List of Contributors Introduction Part I: Drawing as Method 1: The question of expression when using art as a research method in anthropology: notes for the anthropologist-artist Paola Tiné 2: Pictorial Ethnographies of the Solomon Islands Ben Burt 3: “You have to be a draughtsman to be an ethnographer!”. The Legacy of Giuseppe “Bèpo” Šebesta in Ethnographic Museography Giovanni Kezich and Antonella Mott Part II: The Production of Indigenous Visual Knowledge 4: Pictorialization as resource in the Cameroon Grassfield: Ibrahim Njoya’s illustrations for the History and Customs of the Bamum (1927-1930) Simon Dell 5: Owning the Image: Indigenous children claim visual sovereignty far from home Jacqueline Fear-Segal 6: Graphically speaking: the stories told by Northwest Coast prints India Young Part III: Political Economies of Art 7: Ethnographic study of 19th century Kathmandu through artworks Sanyukta Shrestha 8: Like a porcupine: holy wounds in Spanish America Peter Mason 9: Art and the limits of representation: Portraits and portrayals of Mid-western Indigenous peoples in the early United States republic Stephanie Pratt 10: Interpreting art and ethnography in George Catlin’s Selection of Indian Pipes Annika Johnson Index

Max Carocci is Adjunct Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the Richmond American University in London. Stephanie Pratt is formerly Associate Professor of Art History at the University of Plymouth, UK.

Reviews for Art, Observation, and an Anthropology of Illustration

This lively, diverse, and highly original volume explores – from interdisciplinary, intercultural, and transhistorical perspectives, and with respect to both aesthetics and epistemology – the role of graphic illustration in mediating colonial and postcolonial encounter and knowledge production for settlers and Indigenous peoples, anthropologists and artists alike. * Aaron Glass, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Bard Graduate Center, USA * This volume brilliantly brings into focus ways that artists and ethnographers produce and give meaning to visual representations of observed cultural and material practices. The compelling range of case studies provides useful methodological considerations to connect the interpretive vocabularies of anthropology and art history. The issues raised here are of significance to anyone who employs historical or documentary images as part of their analytical framework. * Adriana Greci Green, Curator of Indigenous Arts, The Fralin Museum of Art, USA *