The Image of the Black in Western Art

The Volumes

Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume I: From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire

November 2010

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume I

From the Pharaohs to the Fall of the Roman Empire

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume II: From the Early Christian Era to the ‘Age of Discovery’, Part 1: From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood

November 2010

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume II

From the Early Christian Era to the “Age of Discovery”

Part 1: From the Demonic Threat to the Incarnation of Sainthood

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume II: From the Early Christian Era to the ‘Age of Discovery’, Part 2: Africans in the Christian Ordinance of the World

November 2010

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume II

From the Early Christian Era to the “Age of Discovery”

Part 2: Africans in the Christian Ordinance of the World

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III: From the ‘Age of Discovery’ to the Age of Abolition, Part 1: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque

November 2010

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III

From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition

Part 1: Artists of the Renaissance and Baroque

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III: From the ‘Age of Discovery’ to the Age of Abolition, Part 2: Europe and the World Beyond

November 2011

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III

From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition

Part 2: Europe and the World Beyond

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III: From the ‘Age of Discovery’ to the Age of Abolition, Part 3: The Eighteenth Century

November 2011

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume III

From the “Age of Discovery” to the Age of Abolition

Part 3: The Eighteenth Century

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume IV: From the American Revolution to World War I, Part 1: Slaves and Liberators

May 2012

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume IV

From the American Revolution to World War I

Part 1: Slaves and Liberators

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume IV: From the American Revolution to World War I, Part 2: Black Models and White Myths

May 2012

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume IV

From the American Revolution to World War I

Part 2: Black Models and White Myths

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V: The Twentieth Century, Part 1: The Impact of Africa

February 2014

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V

The Twentieth Century

Part 1: The Impact of Africa

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V: The Twentieth Century, Part 2: The Rise of Black Artists

October 2014

The Image of the Black in Western Art, Volume V

The Twentieth Century

Part 2: The Rise of Black Artists

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Book jacket: The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art, edited by David Bindman, Suzanne Preston Blier, and Henry Louis Gates, Jr., with Associate Editor Karen C. C. Dalton, from Harvard University Press

February 2017

The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art

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The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art asks how the black figure was depicted by artists from the non-Western world. Beginning with ancient Egypt—positioned properly as part of African history—this volume focuses on the figure of the black as rendered by artists from Africa, East Asia, and the Indian subcontinent. The aesthetic traditions illustrated here are as diverse as the political and social histories of these regions. From Igbo Mbari sculptures to modern photography from Mali, from Indian miniatures to Japanese prints, African and Asian artists portrayed the black body in ways distinct from the European tradition, even as they engaged with Western art through the colonial encounter and the forces of globalization.

The Image of the Black in African and Asian Art reinvigorates the de Menil family’s original mission and reorients the study of the black body with a new focus on Africa and Asia.

About the Books

In the 1960s, as a response to segregation in the United States, the influential art patron Dominique de Menil began a research project and photo archive called The Image of the Black in Western Art. Now, fifty years later, as the first American president of African American descent serves his historic term in office, her mission has been re-invigorated through the collaboration of Harvard University Press and the W. E. B. Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research to present new editions of the coveted five original books, as well as an additional five volumes.

Eli and the Octopus: The CEO Who Tried to Reform One of the World’s Most Notorious Corporations, by Matt Garcia, from Harvard University Press

From Our Blog

The Burnout Challenge

On Burnout Today with Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter

In The Burnout Challenge, leading researchers of burnout Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter focus on what occurs when the conditions and requirements set by a workplace are out of sync with the needs of people who work there. These “mismatches,” ranging from work overload to value conflicts, cause both workers and workplaces to suffer