Painting Us Empire - by Maggie M Cao (Hardcover)

About the Book

"This book is the first to offer a synthetic account of art and US imperialism in the nineteenth century. Maggie M. Cao offers revisionist readings of history paintings of the colonial past, landscapes of polar expeditions and tropical tourism, still lifes of imported goods, and ethnographic portraiture. Revealing how the US empire was "hidden in plain sight" in the art of this period, Cao examines artists who both championed and expressed ambivalence toward the colonial project, and she connects these historical examples to current questions around representation, colonialism, and indigeneity, examining contemporary works by Maria Thereza Alves, Tavares Strachan, Nicholas Galanin, Yuki Kihara, and Carlos Martiel. Connecting historic American paintings to the flows of commodities and peoples through colonial systems in the decades leading up to 1898, Cao tackles the legacy of American imperialism, examining Euro-American painters of the past and racially diverse global artists of the present. Foregrounding an overlooked topic in the study of nineteenth-century American art, she shows that these works allow us to better understand the ongoing ecological and economic effects of US empire"--

Book Synopsis

A fresh look at the global dimensions of US painting from the 1850s to 1898.

Painting US Empire is the first book to offer a synthetic account of art and US imperialism around the globe in the nineteenth century. In this work, art historian Maggie M. Cao crafts a nuanced portrait of nineteenth-century US painters' complicity with and resistance to ascendant US imperialism, offering eye-opening readings of canonical works, landscapes of polar expeditions and tropical tourism, still lifes of imported goods, genre paintings, and ethnographic portraiture. Revealing how the US empire was "hidden in plain sight" in the art of this period, Cao examines artists including Frederic Edwin Church and Winslow Homer who championed and expressed ambivalence toward the colonial project. She also tackles the legacy of US imperialism, examining Euro-American painters of the past alongside global artists of the present. Pairing each chapter with reflections on works by contemporary anticolonial artists including Tavares Strachan, Nicholas Galanin, and Yuki Kihara, Cao addresses important contemporary questions around representation, colonialism, and indigeneity. This book foregrounds an underacknowledged topic in the study of nineteenth-century US art and illuminates the ongoing ecological and economic effects of the US empire.

Review Quotes

"In a transhistorical and global kaleidoscope of tropical plants and taxidermy, blocks of ice and sea-laden watercolors, Cao offers a compelling and ethically grounded rethinking of US art through imperialism. With deft art historical analysis, she demonstrates that nineteenth-century US art was shaped by imperial dreams of conquest, the legacies of which continue to shape the nation and the field of art history. Painting US Empire offers a pathway forward that will inspire others to write new tellings of 'American art' that deploy historic artworks as vital tools to begin to redress racism and colonialism."-- "Jennifer Van Horn, University of Delaware"

"The material Cao discusses in Painting US Empire and the arguments she formulates about this material are truly compelling. She draws equally, and impressively, on the form of her objects of study and on archival and historical records, which she mines with great rigor and acuity. This is an important and original work of scholarship."-- "Rachael Z. DeLue, Princeton University"