Art, Observation, and an Anthropology of Illustration

Description:

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.

Brief description: Stephanie Pratt is former Associate Professor (Reader) of Art History at Plymouth University, UK, and currently an independent scholar and curator. Dr Pratt was the first Cultural Ambassador for her Tribal Council at the Crow Creek Dakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota, USA where she is an enrolled member. She currently works as an Indigenous Academic Fellow for the National Trust UK. She is a member of the Grandmothers' Society (Kunsi/Unci Society) founded at Fort Thompson, South Dakota in 2014 which promotes the understanding and preservation of Dakota and Lakota culture and language. Pratt's monograph, American Indians in British Art, 1700-1840 (2005) was the first study of its kind and she explores many of its central themes in her other scholarly publications over the last 30 years.

Review Quotes:

"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