Wendy S. Walters

James Smalls

Iris Moon

Elyse Nelson

Caitlin Meehye Beach

Adrienne L. Childs

Rachel Hunter Himes

Sarah E. Lawrence

A critical reexamination of Jean-Baptiste Carpeaux's bust Why Born Enslaved!, this book unpacks the sculpture's engagement with—and defiance of—an antislavery discourse. In this clear-eyed look at the Black figure in nineteenth-century sculpture, noted art historians and writers discuss how emerging categories of racial difference propagated by the scientific field of ethnography grew in popularity alongside a crescendo in cultural production in France during the Second Empire. By comparing Carpeaux's bust Why Born Enslaved! to works by his contemporaries on both sides of the Atlantic, as well as to objects by twenty‑first‑century artists Kara Walker and Kehinde Wiley, the authors touch on such key themes as the portrayal of Black enslavement and emancipation; the commodification of images of Black figures; the role of sculpture in generating the sympathies of its audiences; and the relevance of Carpeaux's sculpture to legacies of empire in the postcolonial present. The book also provides a chronology of events central to the histories of transatlantic slavery, abolition, colonialism, and empire.</p>

Fictions of Emancipation: Carpeaux's Why Born Enslaved! Reconsidered

Clare Davies

Perrin Stein

Karen Van Godtsenhoven

Sheena Wagstaff

Jeff L. Rosenheim

Wolfram Koeppe

Elizabeth Mankin Kornhauser

Mia Fineman

Jessica Regan

Alisa LaGamma

John T. Carpenter

Donald J. La Rocca

Iria Candela

Maryam Ekhtiar

Stuart W. Pyhrr

Monika Bincsik

Stephanie D'Alessandro

Henry Colburn

Deniz Beyazit

Jayson Kerr Dobney

Ian Alteveer

Sylvia Yount

Kelly Baum

Medill Higgins Harvey

John Byck

Yaëlle Biro

Maia Nuku

Femke Speelberg

Brinda Kumar

Kim Benzel

Ashley Dunn

Douglas S. Eklund

Alyce Perry Englund

Jennifer Farrell

Amanda B. Garfinkel

Alison Hokanson

Mellissa J. Huber

Shanay Jhaveri

Ronda Kasl

Constance McPhee

Asher E. Miller

Stephen C. Pinson

Adrienne Spinozzi

Courtney A. Stewart

E. Bradley Strauchen-Scherer

The second volume in a special two-part edition of Recent Acquisitions, this Bulletin celebrates works acquired by the Museum in 2019 and 2020, many of which were gifts bestowed in honor of the Museum’s 150th anniversary year. Highlights of this volume include Jean-Baptise Carpeaux’s astonishing portrayal of an African woman in the marble sculpture Why Born Enslaved!, a monumental storage jar by African American potter and poet David Drake, an exquisite lacquer mirror case depicting an 1838 meeting between the crown prince of Iran and the tsar of Russia, and Carmen Herrera’s abstract work dating to 1949, Iberic. This publication also honors the many generous contributions from donors that make possible the continued growth of The Met's collection.

Recent Acquisitions: A Selection: 2018–20: Part II: Late Eighteenth Century to Contemporary

Elyse Nelson

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