Portland Public Library

Dance, American art, 1830-1960, edited by Jane Dini ; with essays by Thomas F. DeFrantz, Lynn Garafola, Dakin Hart, Constance Valis Hill, Analisa Leppanen-Guerra, Valerie J. Mercer, Jacqueline Shea Murphy, Kenneth John Myers, Bruce Robertson, and Sharyn R. Udall

eng

Includes bibliographical references (page 299) and index

illustrations

index present

non fiction

Dance

bibliographycatalogs

913572949

edited by Jane Dini ; with essays by Thomas F. DeFrantz, Lynn Garafola, Dakin Hart, Constance Valis Hill, Analisa Leppanen-Guerra, Valerie J. Mercer, Jacqueline Shea Murphy, Kenneth John Myers, Bruce Robertson, and Sharyn R. Udall

American art, 1830-1960

As an enduring wellspring of creativity for many artists throughout history, dance has provided a visual language to express such themes as the bonds of community, the allure of the exotic, and the pleasures of the body. This book is the first major investigation of the visual arts related to American dance, offering an unprecedented, interdisciplinary overview of dance-inspired works from 1830 to 1960. Fourteen essays by renowned historians of art and dance analyze the ways dance influenced many of America’s most prominent artists, including George Caleb Bingham, William Sidney Mount, Winslow Homer, John Singer Sargent, Cecilia Beaux, Isamu Noguchi, Aaron Douglas, Malvina Hoffman, Edward Steichen, Arthur Davies, William Johnson, and Joseph Cornell. The artists did not merely represent dance, they were inspired to think about how Americans move, present themselves to one another, and experience time. Their artwork, in turn, affords insights into the cultural, social, and political moments in which it was created. For some artists, dance informed even the way they applied paint to canvas, carved a sculpture, or framed a photograph. Richly illustrated, the book includes depictions of Irish-American jigs, African-American cakewalkers, and Spanish-American fandangos, among others, and demonstrates how dance offers a means for communicating through an aesthetic, static form. -- Provided by publisher

Invitation to the dance / Jane Dini -- In the eye of the beholder: the black presence in the art of American dance / Constance Valis Hill -- Dance and the performance of self in America: 1810 to 1850 / Kenneth John Meyers -- The art of Native American dance / Jacqueline Shea Murphy -- The art of dancing out-of-doors / Jane Dini -- American modernism and dance: Arthur B. Davies's Dances, 1915 / Bruce Robertson -- Anna Pavlova in America: performance, popular culture, and the commodification of desire / Sharyn R. Udall -- The dancer as muse / Jane Dini -- Visualizing dance of the Harlem Renaissance / Thomas F. Defrantz -- The vicissitudes of African American artists' depictions of dance between 1800 and 1960 / Valerie J. Mercer -- H.P.: a lost dance of the Americas / Lynn Garafola -- Modern shenanigans at a filling station designed by Paul Cadmus / Jane Dini -- Immortal dancers: Joseph Cornell's pacifism during the Second World War / Analisa Leppanen-Guerra -- Isamu Noguchi and Ruth Page in an expanding universe / Dakin Hart